Wonder and Awe

Who am I?

I am blessed! I am a retired Director of Faith Formation with over 20 years of experience in parish faith formation. My experiences in ministry were grace-filled and led to my own conversion on almost a daily basis. However, to quote Pope Francis, “I am a sinner”, experiencing the mercy of God, and my name is Vicki Hawkins.

My role as a director of faith formation included administration of processes and programs of formation for youth and adults. In the last 10 years of my ministry I focused on the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, and the adaption of the rites for Youth. The names of individuals and families I met over the years are still written on my heart. Many have gone on to be leaders in parish ministries. Some have moved away and continue their Catholic Christian journey in other parishes and parts of the country, and world (we had many military families). Many of the names are Spanish, and I was blessed to work with a great co-director of Spanish language RICA. There are names who are already written in our Book of the Dead which we display throughout the month of November in the sanctuary of our church. And some names are a memory of days passed when I once saw them regularly attending Sunday Mass.

Why do this?

• In the hopes that what I offer to you, dear reader, will assist you in your ministry in the ‘vineyard’, personally and professionally.
• I continue to be involved in the ministry of RCIA, writing weekly reflection questions for Sunday Dismissals, so this media offers me a way to continue to help those who are active in the ministry of initiation.

So you can come back to this site on a weekly basis and I will have uploaded brief insights into the Sunday readings, and questions that may be used to spur discussion of the readings and homily for most weekends. My resources that I use include the Wookbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers and Proclaimers of the Word by Liturgical Training Publications; and the Foundations of Faith Catechist Manual by Resources for Christian Living. The latter is no longer an active publisher, having been bought out by a larger Catholic publishing company. You can still find their products on line through Amazon.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions.

Peace and Joy in ministry,

Vicki Hawkins