Called – The Path of Mission

Submitted by the Initiating Team of CALLED – The Path of Mission©2025 – Gillian Ruben, Sheila Maria Tagallie, and Gary Tagallie.

As our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church celebrates the Jubilee Year 2025 under the theme Pilgrims of Hope, dioceses around the world are being called to renewal.

Jubilee is not simply a calendar milestone, but a kairos—a holy time when the Church pauses to remember God’s faithfulness and unending mercy; reawakening baptismal joy, reconciling all things, and beginning again in Spirit and Truth.

In this sacred context, the Archdiocesan Catechetical Office, with the Office of Pastoral Planning and Development, is introducing Called – The Path of Mission, a pathway initiative designed especially for catechists. It is a pilgrimage of discipleship, a way of listening, reflecting, and walking together in the companionship of Christ.

Catechists: Companions of Hope

Catechists are more than teachers of doctrine. They are companions of faith, walking with children, families, and parish communities. Their ministry is vital yet often hidden and unrecognised, and like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, catechists sometimes walk with fatigue, disillusion, or uncertainty.

Called – The Path of Mission seeks to meet them on the road—to listen, to accompany, and to rekindle joy. It unfolds in two simple yet profound movements:

1. A Reflection Enquiry: a prayerful invitation for catechists to pause and share their lived experience of ministry. This is not a survey, it is a sacred dialogue where each voice is honoured, and every catechist’s sacred story is welcomed and honoured.
2. A Called Retreat: a communal gathering shaped by the Emmaus story, where catechists walk, listen, break bread, and rediscover the joy of their baptismal calling.

Together, these movements embody the Jubilee spirit of release, renewal, and reconciliation, helping catechists live their mission as pilgrims of hope.

The Emmaus Imagery

This pathway finds its grounding in the Emmaus story and its imagery (Lk 24:13–35), offered not as illustration but as a contemplative icon—a mirror into presence, accompaniment, and divine revealing.

At the centre walks Christ—silent, steady, eyes lowered. His posture is not boastful nor triumphal, but tender—presence without demanding attention, walking unrecognised yet wholly there.

Beside Christ, two disciples embody stillness and movement: their faces downcast, their eyes about to be opened. Each bears a flame, not imposed but received. These flames are not ordinary fire, but burning hearts, soon to say, “Were not our hearts burning as He talked with us on the road?” (Lk 24:32)

This imagery reveals Emmaus as more than a past event. It is a vocation story; disciples walking in grief and disillusion yet led into recognising ‘God with us’. Mission is not chosen; it is revealed, step by step, in companionship with Christ, in sorrow and in joy.

This contemplative imagery speaks in layers:

• Kenosis – Christ’s humility in walking unrecognised, self-emptying and entering our lived experience
• Sacramentality – presence made visible in Word, gesture, and bread
• Synodality – walking together, listening, sharing revelation, living communion
• Mission –the laity carrying the flame of Christ, even while the path is hidden
• Koinonia – intimacy with Christ, participation in community, fellowship, and communion with God
• Kairos – holy time where presence leads to revelation, time fulfilling into eternity

Before a word of Scripture is read, the imagery itself invites us to lean inward and see with the eyes of the soul, the story already unfolding beneath our feet.

Pilgrims of Hope in the Jubilee Year

In this Jubilee Year, the whole Church is invited to walk together as Pilgrims of Hope. For catechists, this means rediscovering hope not as optimism but as trust in the presence of Christ who walks beside us, even when unrecognised.

Called – The Path of Mission offers a way to live this hope. It builds a community of support and accompaniment across parishes, strengthening catechists in their vocation and renewing their joy in mission. In fellowship with the Synod Final Document (October 2024) and the Pathways for the Implementation Phase (June 2025), it embodies communion, participation, and mission.

Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, may our hearts burn again within us. May our eyes be opened in the breaking of bread. And may we, as catechists and pilgrims of hope, walk the path revealed by Christ; a path not chosen, but gifted; not imposed, but received; not endured, but lived in joy.

CALLED – The Path of Mission.  We are companions on the path of mission in the communion of Christ. Walking together in baptismal dignity, vocational joy, missionary discipleship.

Celebrating the joy of our Calling – “Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us on the road?”