Missionary Families for the Third Millennium

Missionary Families for the Third Millennium is an international apostolate formed by families seeking to answer the call of the New Evangelization.

Missionary Families for the Third Millennium began in Mexico as an offshoot of the hugely successful Juventud Misionera (Youth for the Third Millennium) when 36 families decided to spend their Holy Week on missions together. Since then, the annual number of Holy Week missionary families worldwide has grown from 36 to over 2,000 each year. A total of over 14,000 families worldwide have participated since its foundation.

In the United States and Canada, this apostolate began in 2004 during the Holy Week missions in Atlanta and Sacramento with a total of 115 families. It immediately grew: in 2005, a total of 150 families participated, and Chicago was added on as a new family mission site. In 2006, Houston was added to the list, and the total reached 205 families. In 2007, Phoenix and New York City opened new mission sites in addition to the other cities, and a total of 239 families participated across the country.

Since the family missions take place during Holy Week, there is a set routine that the families follow each year. Families are organized into teams of 8-10 families. Mornings are dedicated to formation workshops; the children participate in Catholic Kids Net activities, while the parents and older siblings learn essential elements of Catholic doctrine in catechetics, apologetics, Church history, and bible basics. In the afternoons, the entire family hits the streets together, going door to door to invite parishioners to participate in the parish liturgies for Holy Week. They also collect prayer intentions along the way, and are actively present in the same liturgies that they invite the parishioners to join. Since the missions take place during Holy Week, each day is dedicated to a specific theme: when going door to door, the families put special emphasis on talking about the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the cross and the sacrament of confession on Good Friday, and Our Lady and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.

Some families have had the initiative of adopting specific inner city communities that they return to on a regular basis. The families usually bring a priest with them to offer the sacraments while they continue catechizing and evangelizing in the community.

The families who have participated on Holy Week missions together have found that their united witness of going door to door as a family is uniquely effective. Each member of the family has a special role and a particular way of reaching people, from the littlest who rings the doorbell to the mother and father who reach out to other parents in a spirit of charity. At the same time, the experience of evangelizing has a powerful impact on the family: going door to door together is a catechetics lesson that will not easily be forgotten. In addition, the missionaries develop strong friendships and a sense of solidarity with the other families who are part of their team.

In addition to Missionary Families for the Third Millennium, there are two other affiliated family missions organizations work to rebuild churches and provide catechesis in Mexico and in the Philippines.

Catholic Family Mission was founded by Jon and Cindy Morris in order to bring Catholic families to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico to rebuild churches and to catechize the native Mayan people—while experiencing the spiritual renewal that comes from serving and giving the faith to others. The families stay in the town of Nuevo Durango, and their five or six day mission trips are a mixture of work, evangelization, and relationship-building with the townspeople. The goal for each mission trip is to raise $10,000 to rebuild the local church, and $5,000 to fund a full-time evangelizer who will go and catechize the townspeople throughout the year. For more information about their mission, click here. Jon and Cindy can be contacted at jonmorris@catholicfamilymission.com.

Another unique missionary couple is Michael and Amy Jensen, who have spent the past few years fundraising and working to rebuild churches and catechetical centers in the Philippines. Their first project was to rebuild the San Roque parish on the island of Biliran, Philippines. After this project was completed, they set out with the bishop’s blessing to rebuild the St. Mary’s Catechetical Center as a base of operations for improved catechesis and evangelization across the islands. For more information about their mission, click here. Michael and Amy can be contacted at michaelandamy7762@sbcglobal.net.