The San Jose Evangelization Team had its beginnings in February 2001 when the first Kerygmatic Evangelization Retreat was offered by Father Ernesto Elizondo who is now currently pastoring St. Joseph Catholic Church in Manor, Texas.  This came about as a request from some San Jose Parishioners who at the time recognized a need for an uplifting spiritual experience.  Father Elizondo drawing from his past missionary experience, introduced the SINE program to the San Jose parish.  Father Elizondo, prior to entering into his vocation as a Priest had spent 11 years as a missionary in Mexico under the direct supervision of Father Alfonso Navarro MSpSC. Father Alfonso Navarro had devoted his life to researching, developing and implementing a most comprehensive systematic method of evangelism before his passing in June 2004.  Father Navarro was the founder of the Sistema Integral de Evangelizacion (SINE) Program which is widely utilized in Mexico, Central and South America as a means of evangelizing Catholics.  The SINE program outlines at the very onset a global vision for the Church, in a manner of involving all, giving them all, and going to all, in carrying out its missionary task and service.  It provides for a very specific pastoral plan for each parish to assure its evangelism mission and service is accomplished in unity and communion with God and His people.
 
Responding to Pope John Paul XX111, Paul VI, John Paul 11, and here more recently, Benedict XV1’s, call to a “New Evangelization” for the Church, the SINE program first offers God’s people the opportunity to experience, and respond to the “Kerygma,” the “First Announcement,” or what we have come to know as the “Good News,” during an intensive two and a half day Evangelization Retreat.  The Retreat consists of a First and Second Block by which the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation are renewed when the Announcement and Invitation is made for God’s people to convert, repent and receive God’s Holy Spirit. The Retreat is not complete until the Third Block is lived.  The Third Block of the Retreat consists of weekly gatherings of approximately six weeks where the need to continue to preserver in the Spirit is explained, encouraged, formalized and maintained.  Those responding to God’s call to perseverance and obedience begin to understand that Evangelization is much more than just sharing the “Good News” with others, but it is also a way of life. 
 
As Evangelization members, we try to model our faith and loving enthusiasm for God after the first Christian communities as outlined in Acts 2:42-47. We continue with our spiritual journey after the Third Block of the Retreat in faith and perseverance and build our own small faith communities that are very much a part of our parish life.  We try to live out our love and commitment to God by loving and serving each other in our small faith communities, in our parish community, and in the community in which we live.  Our contribution to our neighbors and our parish is exemplified by the yearly Evangelization Outreach Mission we host and the home, hospital and nursing home visitations we collectively conduct throughout the year. We bring prayer, God’s word, peace and loving kindness to all.  In addition to supporting Evangelization’s pastoral activities and events, we individually support and are involved in an array of Church ministries as well. To become a communion of communities within the Parish structure is to become a true family of God in unity.  This new way of life exhorts us to adore and worship the Almighty, encourages us study His Word and Church Doctrines, supports us in our spiritual growth and service to each other, our parish, and community. It brings us to faith and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and promotes the continued and constant evangelizing of others and re-evangelizing of ourselves, which ultimately assists us in our transformation into the likeness of Christ. 
         
We invite you to experience these wonderful “God-given” opportunities.  Look for the next upcoming San Jose’s Kerigmatic Evangelization Retreat and discover the great things God has in store for you!  God bless us all!