Welcome to the Office of Adult Faith Formation. We’re glad you’re here!

The office assists parishes by suggesting avenues for meaningful lifelong formation and by forming lay leaders in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The office provides  online faith formation resources, small faith-sharing group studies, workshops, in-services and more!

Please take time to review the listed online materials and always feel free to contact us with your ideas, questions, and suggestions at [email_arch]dbqcaf[/email_arch].

Adult Catechetical Plan: Discovering, Embracing, and Living God’s Plan

The goal of adult faith formation is to form “missionary disciples,” who are empowered and equipped to take God’s saving love into the world. When we form adults who discover, embrace and live God’s plan, we partake in Christ’s missionary call, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matt 28: 19, 20).

Discovering, Embracing, and Living God’s Plan, rooted in our Baptismal call, aims to bring men and women into “an intimate union with God.” As men and women grow in their faith, their commitment to Christ as missionary disciples propels them to take Christ’s saving love into the world. The plan includes the various dimensions of faith development needed to form disciples: “knowledge of the faith, liturgical life, moral formation, prayer, belonging to community, missionary spirit” National Directory of Catechesis (NDC, 190).

This plan is in conformity with the goals of the National Directory of Catechesis:

Goal #1: invites and enables adults “to acquire an attitude of conversion to the Lord” (Discovering).

Goal #2: helps adults to make “a conscious and firm decision to live the gift and choice of faith through members in the Christian community” (Embracing).

Goal #3: helps adults to become “more willing and able to be a Christian disciple in the world” (Living).

This plan is also in conformity with the goals of Catholic Evangelization:

Goal #1: to bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others;

Goal #2: to invite all people in the Untied States, whatever their social or cultural background, to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ so that they may come to join us in the fullness of the Catholic Faith;

Goal #3: to foster Gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, the importance of the family and the common good of our society, so that our nation may continue to be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Discovering, Embracing, and Living represents movements of faith development, which overlap and intermingle. Discovering lays out a plan for the person who is a seeker: someone open and curious about faith and the meaning of life—perhaps someone who has never heard the gospel message. Yet, many aspects of this stage may be appropriate for the person in the pew who may never have experienced a personal relationship with Christ. Embracing offers a plan for the person who is ready to embrace a relationship with Jesus, within the context of the Church: someone who has decided to follow Jesus and desires more knowledge and experience of the faith. Living offers a plan for living as a missionary disciple: someone who follows Jesus and is ready to take Christ’s light into the world through word and deed.