Armed with love of their faith and the desire to invite others back into the fold, volunteers from participating parishes in the Diocese have been distributing faith-based door hangers since the start of the Lenten season to the community at-large. The project reaps benefits for both active parishioners and those who have fallen away from the Church, said Josue Arriola, director of the diocesan Department of Evangelization and Family Life, which sponsored the project.

“When I talk to people doing this, they say there is something special when they go out there [door to door],” Arriola said. “Our goal is to encourage people to use any opportunity to come back to the Church, to stir their hearts.”

The project invites parishes to order a quantity of glossy, waterproof die-cut door hangers, 4.25 inches by 11 inches in size, designed to inform and inspire. Each features one of seven pictures of the crucified Christ and contains a Lenten message such as, “In your darkest hour, you are never alone,” “It is finished, you are free, it is Lent” and “The One who loves you the most is missing you. It’s time to come home.” The name and address of the participating parish is printed below; on the reverse is the parish’s schedule of events for Lent and Holy Week.

Noting the evangelization process is “powerful and joyful,” Arriola recalled the words of Father Oscar Sumanga, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church, Hightstown, as he introduced the project at Mass. “‘We are all missionaries,’ Father told us,” Arriola said.

Those who have undertaken the project this Lent agree.

“Facilitating our parishioners to act as missionary disciples of Christ is a privilege and a joy to behold,” said Jane Latini, co-chair of the evangelization team in St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square.

Latini and her husband, Joe, were among the evangelizers last year and learned some best practices to assure the initiative continued to be a success. Roughly 50 people, divided into pairs and trios, covered 20 routes to distribute 1,000 hangers this past Feb. 22.

“It was so beautiful,” Latini remembered. “We met at 11:30 a.m. for lunch, then Father [Michael] McClane [pastor] gave a blessing to all the people and the hangers. Co-chair Susan Commini mapped out the routes, and I reviewed all the protocols, telling them if they ran into people who didn’t want them, just do like in the Scriptures: Shake the dust from their feet and move on.”

Reactions from residents were mostly positive, Latini said – even from a police officer who slowly trailed two of the volunteers in his squad car.

“Two of our men were out walking, and a policeman was following them, wondering what they were doing,” she reported. “They explained about the door hangers, and the policeman smiled and said, “St. Greg’s? That’s where I was confirmed. Continue with your project.”

Latini shared comments from two of the door hanger project workers who had filled out the survey cards she included with each map, route, bottle of water and contact information.

MaryEllen Parrotta wrote that the best part of the project was “bringing announcements to others about our faith and sharing this project with fellow parishioners,” while Marilyn LeCerff maintained “praying for the people on [her] route and socializing with others” most nourished her faith. “Beautiful, respectful invitations are wonderful,” LeCerff asserted. “People need to know that they are welcome [at church].”

“This worked really well,” echoed Kathy McBurnie, pastoral associate in St. Catharine Parish, Holmdel, which participated in the project for the first time. Due to the parish boundaries’ widespread and rural geography, the faith community put their own spin on their project’s suggested door-to-door model.

“We distributed 3,000 of the door hangers in all,” McBurnie reported, “two to each religious education students, each child in the parish preschool and each congregant at Ash Wednesday Masses, until they were all gone.” Ministers instructed the recipients to keep one hanger and share the other with someone they knew who had fallen away from the faith.

She continued, “People were really talking about [the project]. Those they approached were really receptive. One parishioner, who had struck up a casual friendship with a neighbor while walking her dog, approached him with a door hanger and invited him to attend parish events.

“These [door hangers] weren’t just words,” McBurnie observed. “We need to do something to invite people back to Church. We will see what happens from this, what will bear fruit.”

Additional diocesan parishes still may participate in the ongoing project, since orders are available in five to seven business days. Details on the different hangers offered, pricing and personalization can be found online at dioceseoftrenton.org/Lenten-campaign.

“It grows your own faith,” Arriola said. “It is a simple way to bring the Good News and show the image of Catholic faith in a beautiful way.”

He continued, “People go out and come back differently. With all the bad news out there, we need to bring the Good News. We are evangelizers; we sow the seed. Sometimes we don’t see what happens. With this we can see the fruit."