What is Wildfire?
A way of life that brings Catholics together to live the universal call to holiness, and through it renew the local Church
In every age the Church cries out for renewal. It is her saints who answer that call.
The crisis our Church currently faces is grave. No plan or program or strategy is enough—the only solution is radical, personal holiness.
- The center is a personal encounter with the Lord in prayer. In discipleship we discover our identity, hear His call, and respond with generosity.
- Then, in living the Paschal Mystery we experience a deep, real, and lasting transformation.
- Our particular path to holiness can be summed up in living and sharing the interior life. The Holy Spirit sends us out on mission: Make the outside like the inside. It is only in this way that we fulfill our mission of renewal, where individuals fully live as Church in our family, parish, and the secular world.
Wildfire is a concrete means to live our faith and proposes nothing more than the Gospel. At its heart is the teaching of Vatican II: each of us has the same call to be a saint.
The Raging Wildfire
The urgency and seriousness of this moment demands that, to the absolute best of our ability, we fan the flames of personal holiness into the renewal our Church so desperately needs.
Men and women saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances in the Church’s history.
Today we have the greatest need of saints whom we must beg God to raise up. – St. John Paul II
Wildfire Members
Wildfire events, are open to anyone, and members commit to:
1. live Wildfire principles in their own life,
2. regularly participate in a local team,
3. fostering Catholic fellowship in our local community
4. contribute to an active apostolate to live and share the interior life in order to renew the local Church
Wildfire Groups – In The Upper Room
Wildfire Groups are a return to the Upper Room where the Lord rekindles a fire in our hearts and radically transforms our lives. They are a community passionately striving for holiness to renew the Church.
Dry Kindling – The Wildfire Approach
Wildfire is already happening. In small group fellowship this flame is passed from one person to another and our parishes can experience a radical renewal through a community centered around transformation in Christ.
Spark – Beginnings of Renewal
Our Church is in profound crisis. She desperately needs a radical renewal, and the only solution is a raging wildfire of holiness.
Recent Reflections
fan the flames of personal holiness
Big and Little Discernment – Part 1
The goal of discernment is to be able to distinguish God’s will from our own desires or temptations. We do this in order to make choices and live in union with God’s will.
Catholic Culture
The personal conversion of individuals deeply influenced Western civilization’s moral and spiritual fabric. It is this transformation that comes through a personal encounter with Jesus Chris which we need to rediscover in today’s secular world.
The Gospel and a Theology of Kitsch
Few people have been presented with the fullness of the Gospel. All they know is a tame, domesticated version. The Jesus they know is not demanding or incompatible with their already established hierarchy of values.
The Grinch, Communists, and Baby Jesus
Every year I turn into the Grinch. “I must stop Christmas from coming…” till the 25th anyway. Advent has been entirely pushed out by holiday celebrations that start even before Thanksgiving leftovers can be put away.
Wandering & Intentional Holiness
Taking responsibility for our life and living intentionally is a tremendous challenge, but it’s the only thing that makes life worth living and embracing that responsibility is the necessary first step to holiness.
Finally Home – Parish Renewal
St. John Paul II describes the parish as “the family of God, a … welcoming home.” Do these words have any meaning today? Is the average parish an experience of home? And what does it mean to be a “home” at all?
Radical Holiness – Personal Renewal
It’s easy to interpret “radical holiness” as something strange and extreme, but nothing is further from the truth. Holiness is “radical” because it touches the deepest parts of who we are.
Hidden Treasures – Seeing Like Christ
Lessons from a priest who restores brass items from churches around town. “People look and only see the tarnished, but I see what they can be. To me, they are beautiful already.”