Wake up! Shape up! There’s a tent revival going on!

By Tom Maguire
Associate editor

Credit the little editor in the family.

The Faticas came up with their family mission statement: “To be great, to love Jesus first and others no matter what.”

Their son, 3 at the time and now 17, improved it: “To be grateful.”

“And I just started tearing up, because I was like, what’s better, to be great, or be grateful,” said his father, author and touring speaker Justin Fatica (justinfatica.org).

“Your mission statement can evolve and change,” he said Aug. 27 at St. Rose of Lima Church in North Syracuse. “Don’t be nervous about getting it perfect the first time, because my son at 3 changed it. And I’ve met a lot of great people that weren’t grateful, and I didn’t want to spend one minute with them. But anybody who’s grateful, whether anybody thinks they’re great or not, I always want to be around them so I’d rather our family be grateful than great.”

The church’s pastor, Father Christopher Celentano, was grateful for Justin and Mary Fatica’s presentation at an event called “Awakening,” which featured a Mass under a tent and several workshops based on the faith.   

‘A little retreat’

“Taking Mass outside under the tent gave it more of a revival feel,” Father Celentano said, a “little retreat” for families. “And the fruit that we’re hoping to see is more engaged parishioners, growing in their spiritual life, going out there, proclaiming the Gospel, helping to bring people into the Church, serving the poor, doing all the good stuff that Catholics are called to do. But most importantly, we talked about today, the journey to heaven. So, God wants us to be saints, and we’re just trying to help one another, disposing ourselves to God’s grace, and responding as he desires.”

The couple had said early on that they wanted to make sure they get their kids to heaven, said Mary Fatica, who grew up on Onondaga Hill. And a family has to have a prayer life first before it can have a family mission statement, according to Justin.       

The family, including five children, prays the rosary daily. “Some days we’re just throwing on a video saying God help us,” Justin said. Some days he is the only one praying, some days Mary’s the only one praying. Sometimes it’s just a decade “because that’s how the day went,” Mary said.

The Faticas’ handout gives these tips for writing a family mission statement.

1. Gather for a family brainstorming session beginning with prayer.

2. Create a list of positive characteristics of your family, such as empathetic, courageous, diligent, generous, adventurous, spirited.

3. Create a list of verbs showing how your family interacts with others; examples: encouraging, mentoring, caring.

4. Consider your family’s view of a perfect world, such as “Everyone knows they are loved” or “All people have what they need to be cared for.”

5. Your effort may yield something like this: “Our mission is to be empathetic to others and lead them by being an example of love in this world.”

Justin asked the audience, “Will you give up everything for Jesus Christ?” The Faticas had consecrated the family to Jesus through Mary when their third child was in the womb, Mary said, a “pivotal” move “because we can see how Our Lady has given protection to our family and helped us to grow in holiness.”

Got a spiritual name?

Also, the Faticas came up with spiritual names for the people in their house, such as the “Shining Light” and the “Gentle Warrior.” These monikers can be a pathway to the kids’ holiness, Mary said, and they “have shown themselves to reflect the kids over time.”

Attendee Joe Henneberry, a Holy Cross (DeWitt) parishioner and the facilities manager at Joseph’s House, a safe home for moms and babies, said he thought the key point made by the Faticas was “encouraging people to pray together as a family.”

He said his family doesn’t have a mission statement, “but both of my children are grown, so I guess we need to maybe consider as grandparents what our mission should be.”

Another believer in Mary’s intercession is author Chris Padgett (chrisandlindapadgett.com), who has an M.A. in theology and does ministry around the country. He enlivened “Awakening” with comments such as these:

• “God wants to do something in your life. He wants to wake you up. For many of you he wants to breathe new life, put you on fire, get you on fire because he knows, if people see you on fire it will be a miracle. ’Cause you’ve been dead a long time. … Some of you, you’ve been on autopilot for years. … God is asking you to wake up.

• “If you think you’re done because you’re old and you’re in retirement mode, that’s not how God works. When it comes to the faith, there’s no retirement option. Yes? That means if you’re breathing, you’re called to be an evangelist! Yes? You’re breathing, that means you’re alive! Amen? Look at the person next to you and say ‘Shape up!’ … Some of you, you look so depressed to come to church. Father does not have the worst homilies! … His are good. Come on, yes?”

Teasing people is Padgett’s style, but he feels that going around with a bullhorn and telling people to repent or they will go to hell is offensive, invasive and a turnoff. “I don’t feel like I’m a person that anybody cares about when they’re using the bullhorn on me,” he said. “I think that I’m a notch in the belt; it’s impersonal. … Most people need a personal encounter with someone that loves them, sees them, cares for them.”

‘The real aspects of life’

Father Celentano viewed the Padgetts as “speaking to the real aspects of life.” Chris’ wife, Linda Padgett, who is in her last year of studying to be a mental-health counselor, recommended this non-invasive real-world way of addressing someone: “Hey, can I pray for you?” She believes in being present to the person next to you, even if that person cut you off in the grocery line. In lieu of swinging a loaf of bread at the person, she favors letting the “body of Christ that’s in you shine out to them.”

Another one who is wont to smile is speaker and author Anne Costa, whose topic was “Unbound! Your Journey of Healing, Wholeness and Peace.”

Costa is the founder and director of REVIVE Hope and Healing Ministries Inc. (revivehopeandhealing.com).    

Summarizing her talk, she said, “God is in the restoration business.” She explained that God is interested in healing us from “all of the things that keep us burdened and overwhelmed in our lives …, to the best extent that we allow him and his grace to touch us.”

REVIVE has strategies on how to do that. The Unbound Healing and Deliverance Ministry, she said, is a “prayer ministry that helps individuals to break through some of the patterns and thoughts and behaviors that continue to keep them stuck in their spiritual bondage so, God is good, and he helps us all the time.”

Father Celentano noted that the REVIVE presentation dealt with healing in the spiritual and emotional life. “People were really excited about that,” he said.

St. Rose is the home parish of another popular presenter, Jeremy Bobak, who was also the day’s singer and guitar player. He writes his own songs. “Who doesn’t love Jeremy?” said St. Rose parishioner Karen Dodge. She added that he “loves the Lord, is very talented, plays great music and sings about the Lord.”

From music man to Ironman

His singing voice is smooth and seemingly effortless. But about a year ago, Bobak said, he decided to do something hard. “I decided to sign up for an Ironman,” which is a triathlon involving swimming, bicycling and running. He finished in just under 16 hours, emerging with just one blister, and he felt great the next day. “I trained well,” he said, “but also I ran my own race, which I think is something that we can miss sometimes.”

Bobak said the triathlon taught him these lessons: No truly great thing is ever done alone, and “Through the grace of God we’re able to do difficult things.”

The day ended with Eucharistic Adoration inside St. Rose Church, where Father Celentano petitioned the Lord: “Awaken in our hearts a desire for you.”