Everyday Apostles June 2018 | Page 33

The Center, while not a young adult organization, is an organization that is open and welcoming to young adults. We provide accompaniment and mentorship and show how that can be done not only with peers, but with all in Church leadership. We welcome and utilize the creativity of young adults and provide leadership opportunities. All of this is also done in collaboration with many Church entities such as the USCCB, various national Catholic organizations, including all the sponsoring groups of this conference, dioceses, movements, and associations as well long-serving professionals in ministry.

We use collaborative and technological means to accomplish our mission to provide formative evangelization resources for active Catholics to help them become apostles or missionary disciples sent to assist others in encountering Jesus Christ and the Church. We develop greater collaboration and co-responsibility among Catholic leaders. We do this through living our vision that comes to us from St. Vincent Pallotti – reviving faith, rekindling charity, and forming apostles. Our hope is that our model of a Catholic organization, ever open to the initiative of the Holy Spirit, can assist others in moving beyond “We have always done it this way” (Evangelii Gaudium, 33), while at the same time keeping continuity with the tradition and teachings of the Church.

Again, many thanks to the National Association for Lay Ministry for this recognition. We promise to deepen our efforts to assist the Church in its “duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel” (Gaudium et Spes, 4).

May the Charity of Christ urge us on!