Good news! The Lord is risen! Nothing will ever be the same. This month’s issue of Impact focuses on the joy and hope of the resurrection, the infinite mercy of God, and the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ponder together the hope of Jesus’ victory over fear, death, and darkness and reflect on the call to share the good news through our words and deeds and good stewards of the mysteries of God.
March 2024
This month in Impact, we explore darkness and light, and the life that is found in following Jesus’ call to sacrificial love. With this light in our hearts and minds, we stand at the foot of the cross, ready to give ourselves away in imitation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we continue to journey through this Lenten season, we pray for you and all in your faith community. May you be filled with the grace of God who created us in love, for love.
Note: While Easter Sunday is March 31, we will focus on the resurrection in the April issue of Impact.
February 2024
This month, we prepare for and enter into Lent. The Sunday readings lead us to consider what it means to put our trust in God, and to rely on God’s goodness and mercy, healing and forgiveness. This month’s issue of Impact invites all of us to walk in faith, even when (especially when) life is hard. I pray that you and all you lead and serve will have a most blessed Lenten season in which to repent, change, and grow in faith.
PDF. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders Please note: The Gray PDF file is too large to link here. Email me for the gray file if needed.
January 2024
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Blessings in this new year of our Lord, 2024. This month’s issue of Impact invites people to resolve to surrender their hearts and lives to the Lord in the coming year, and to do so by looking, listening, and responding to the light of God’s love. Our opening article this month was written by Amberly and brings a fresh perspective to the process of making new year’s resolutions. Page 2 reminds people that we continue to celebrate the Christmas season, and to move into Ordinary Time by hearing the stories of people who saw God’s glory, heard the Lord’s voice, and responded with their lives. We pray your Christmas and the start of this new year will be filled with grace, light and peace for you and your people.
December 2023
We begin the new liturgical year with the season of Advent, and also recognize that many people’s lives will be filled with shopping, social gatherings, and preparation for family time at Christmas. We also recognize that as people look back at 2023, many will do so through the experience and recognition of natural disasters, terror and violence, and tension in civic discourse at the local and national levels. With this in mind, the focus of Impact this month invites readers to reflect on God’s enduring love, the hope we have in Christ, and the call to watch, wait, and prepare the way of the Lord. We pray your Advent will be filled with light, peace, and hope.
November 2023
As in every liturgical year, November marks a turning point. We think more intentionally about the end of our lives and the end of time, and focus on what really matters — meaning, purpose, and eternity. Our civic celebration of Thanksgiving is a pivotal moment as well, as we focus on all for which we have to be grateful. This month’s Impact follows the rhythm of this pivotal time, as we prepare to close the liturgical year at the end of this month. I pray that you and all in your community will find God’s abundant grace and blessing throughout this month.
October 2023
This month, we get back to basics: love of God and of neighbor; the call to bear good fruit as followers of our Lord; the invitation to allow God’s love and peace to fill our minds and hearts, and to shape the way we live, strengthened in the love of Christ. And while we hear these readings in the Lectionary cycle of readings every three years, we will no doubt hear them anew in each cycle. I pray you continue to take consolation through the Love of God poured out for us in Jesus Christ and that your community will be filled with God’s peace, which surpasses all understanding.
September 2023
September 2023 In these weeks of early autumn, our focus turns to the real ways being a disciple of Jesus Christ is to impact our lives, from the ways in which we must embrace our crosses to the call to separate our wants from our needs in order to live for God and others. I pray that this month of September is filled with every grace and goodness for you and all in your diocese and parish.
August 2023
In the Sunday readings this month, we are presented with accounts of the presence of God and are invited to ponder our place in God’s sight. In this month’s issue of Impact, we ask readers to consider themselves as the beloved of God, called to be attentive to God’s grace and to respond to it in their daily living. I pray this attentiveness to who we are and who we are called to be will inspire your community to grow as disciples and good stewards. - Leisa
July 2023
July 2023 The readings this month urge us to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the love of God and call of Christ to put God first in our lives. Doing so will change us when the seeds of faith take deep root and we grow in readiness to live as faithful people in our world. In this month in Ordinary Time, when many will break away for vacation, let us remember that faith is never ordinary, nor should we ever take vacation from our commitment to Christ as disciples and live good and faithful stewards.
June 2023
In this month of June, we focus on the mystery of the Trinity, reflect deeply on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, and return to Ordinary Time. This month, the Church in the United States begins a Eucharistic revival, a time in which to appreciate more deeply the gift and call of the Eucharist. I hold you and your people in prayer in this time. May we all be nourished and strengthened as Christ’s Eucharistic people.
May 2023
In this month of May during which we are immersed in the Easter season, we hear the story of the spread of Christianity through the Acts of the Apostles, and we are reminded in the Gospels that Christ is present with us. In the first letter of Peter, from which we hear throughout this month, that Christ is the living stone, and that, like living stones, we are to let ourselves be built into a spiritual house. It is this call to be living stones, to contribute to the building of God’s kingdom on earth, upon which we focus in Impact this month.
April 2023
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is truly good news! This month’s issue of Impact is devoted to bringing this key tenet of our faith to life. As we journey through this month, from Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, through Triduum and into the Easter season, let us give witness to the impact of life, faith, and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray you and your people have a most blessed Triduum and Easter and that the coming season is filled with grace and new life.
March 2023
March 2023 Lent is always a season in which to invite people to be more intentional in their life of faith, discipleship, and stewardship. This month’s issue of Impact encourages people to open their eyes, ears, and hearts to the voice and call of the Lord, to grow in trust of God and truthfulness in prayer, and to more fully appreciate the mystery of God’s love which is poured out in Jesus Christ and given to us in the Eucharist. I pray Lent is a fruitful season for you and your people. - Leisa Anslinger
A pastoral note about Impact this March and April: since Easter falls in the middle of April, the March issue focuses on Lent, while the April issue will focus on Triduum and Easter joy.
February 2023
In this period of Ordinary Time and the beginning of Lent, our focus for Impact is the challenge and freedom of discipleship. Jesus tells us we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We must encourage one another to bear the light of Christ, to bring the light to all forms of darkness, in our own lives, and the lives of others.
PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
Link to Web Edition: https://www.gratefuldisciples.net/february-2023
January 2023
Blessings in this new year of our Lord, 2023! As we begin this year, the Sunday readings invite us to walk in the light of the Lord and to share the light with others. Jesus pitched his tent among us to cast out every darkness and all that separates us from God. We reflect on this great gift and our call to share Christ’s light in this month’s issue of Impact. I hold you in prayer as you journey into the new year with your people.
This January issue is the final complementary issue of Impact, which has been offered free of charge for the past year. The 2023 issues will include brief clips to share on social media and the full articles via a web page that can be shared on websites or via email blasts as well as the PDF and Jpeg files and leaders guide. I hope you will consider subscribing for 2023 here or contact me here for an invoice.
English: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
December 2022
In the month of December, we will celebrate the entirety of the Advent season, Christmas eve and day, and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. December is always busy for pastors, parish leaders, and their people. Since this month includes two seasons, this issue of Impact features reflections on Advent and Christmas with the hope that this resource may provide encouragement for your people to celebrate “the reason for the season.” I will hold you in prayer as you help your people celebrate God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ. May you be filled with great joy!
English: PDF PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
November 2022
November 2022 The month of November is often filled with activity in the parish as well as in the other aspects of our lives. “Black Friday” and “the Christmas season” advertisements will be plentiful, as will reminders of the days, count them, days, to Christmas. Maintaining attention on the presence of God and the call of Christ can be challenging this month. Still, November holds promise, as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls days, gather for Sunday Mass, and join with family and friends for Thanksgiving. This month’s issue of Impact invites people to become more readily aware of the many blessings in their lives, to make Christ’s presence known through their stewardship of their life, gifts, and resources, and to spread Christ’s kingdom of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love, and peace. May your November be blessed with every good gift.
English: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1 Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
October 2022
October 2022 As is the case in all three liturgical cycles during the autumn, the Sunday readings this month invite us to take the call of discipleship to heart. For many who are with us during the celebration of the Sunday liturgies, the demands of discipleship sound harsh. Yet Jesus’ teaching must be heard with the great love of the Master in our hearts and minds. I will pray for you and your people this month, that you may hear the voice of the Lord speak to you in love as you embrace the call to become more Christ-like and share God’s love with the world.
English: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impacto Leaders
September 2022
For many, September is the return of the regular routines of life, school and work, parish, and family. Our Sunday readings this month remind us that the life of discipleship calls us to responsible stewardship rooted in humble trust of God’s infinite and outlandish love for us. I pray that you and your people will find hope and challenge in the gospel this month. May our regular routines may be filled with the extraordinary love of God, shared among us and beyond us. — Leisa Anslinger
English: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
