Catholic Speakers offer faith-building topics

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Suggested Themes for Good News
Retreats and Parish Missions

Mrs. Terry Modica (author, podcaster, founder and director of Good News Ministries since 1995) and her husband Ralph are Catholic speakers who can build faith and energize your people.

View a sampler from one of Terry’s seminars:

Book a retreat or parish mission with a Catholic speaker who can inspire:

personal, deeper conversion and faith growth
healing amidst divisions and heart-aches
loyalty to the local parish
a spirit of activism in ministry, social justice, and outreach

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Terry Modica is a dynamic and passionate Catholic speaker. Her motto is “Keep your eyes on Jesus, and when you have to look at others, see them through His eyes.” Her thought-provoking presentations, shared through her personal experiences, bring healing to the heart and soul, empowering her audiences to come fully alive as followers of Christ and as apostles going out to change the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. She keeps her audiences engaged and wanting more.

“Terry speaks with sincerity and much practical wisdom from the heart. Her talks sound like they would make sense to hurting and searching hearts as well as to those who have been in long, loving relationship with the Lord for years and just want to go deeper in trust with the Holy Spirit.” (Beth Solis, Deacon’s Wife)

Terry has been active in evangelization since her supernatural conversion to the True Presence of Jesus in 1977. She earned a degree in Theology, and two certifications in Pastoral Ministry. She has served in parish and diocesan roles of Evangelization Coordinator, Adult Faith Formation, RCIA Director, and Small Christian Community Developer. Her speaking ministry has taken her as far as New Zealand and to Malawi, where she taught two courses on Church documents to seminarians and their professors. (Full bio …)

Choose from these topics or customize an event that fits your budget.

The topics listed here from past events can be adapted for your parish or conference. Click the title to see more information.

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Parish Missions & Retreats

Radical Love: The Vocation of Marriage and Family Life

This retreat is for couples who are dating or married, inside and outside the Church, to evangelize and inspire conversion to or renewal in the Sacrament of Marriage. Afterward, small groups can meet weekly using our Reflections for Couples. We will also train marriage mentors and retreat facilitators to keep the program going year after year.
Mystical Union with Christ in Daily Life
A weekend retreat using the Mysteries of the Rosary to connect our lives to Christ’s.
- Friday: Jesus Takes Your Tears and Your Yearnings. Hear a sample.
- Saturday: Experience the Joy of Christ even during times of stress (the Joyful Mysteries), Growing in the mission of Christ (Luminous Mysteries), Communion with Jesus means becoming Eucharist (Sorrowful Mysteries).
- Sunday: Arise in the Empowered Life (Glorious Mysteries).
Becoming an Easter People

A parish mission in three or four evenings for Lent or any time of year. Enliven and activate your parishioners to become more involved in parish life, to embrace full participatory stewardship, and to continue their faith formation in order to grow in their Catholic knowledge and spirituality. With the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith, a parish can identify and draw upon its strengths and vision to build parish unity, excellence in mission, and increased volunteerism, in a spirit of collaboration, healing, and giftedness.
The Joyful Life

This one-hour seminar helps people see Jesus as not just as a Suffering Savior but a Joyful Friend. Terry Modica shares from personal experience to help listeners discover the difference between happiness and joy, how to tap into interior joy during hardships, and why Mass is a celebration.
Four Levels of Mystical Prayer

4-part retreat or parish mission based on the Mysteries of the Rosary. This program starts with personal renewal (the Joyful Mysteries) to send participants forth in greater giving of time, talent and treasures (the Luminous Mysteries) using the difficulties of life as impetus for compassion and outreach (the Sorrowful Mysteries) to become evangelizers in everyday life (the Glorious Mysteries).
How to Find God In the Midst of Suffering

This one-hour seminar can also become a weekend retreat or a 3-night parish retreat. Its inspirational message gives participants new strength and courage. Terry Modica speaks from personal experiences, with a sense of humor, to explain that suffering becomes bearable and valuable when we keep our eyes on Jesus, learn its lessons of holiness, and turn it into ministry that helps others.

Healing Your Image of God's Fatherhood

How close are you to Father God? Anyone who has had an imperfect relationship with their human dad (and other important authority figures) needs this seminar! Using Matt. 22:37-39 and other scriptures, Terry Modica explains how we project onto God the flaws and failings of the humans we’ve known, which results in feeling that God has abandoned us or doesn’t care about our prayers. Healing takes place in this seminar – bring tissues!
Prayer Enrichment Course
Give your parishioners a more effective prayer life. This weekend retreat is held in parish facilities on Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, then ends with your parish’s Vigil Mass.
- Reflection 1: Why Prayers Don’t Get Answered
- Reflection 2: “Our Father,” the Most Powerful Prayer on Earth
- Reflection 3: Intercessory Prayer: You Can Make a Difference!
- Reflection 4: Turn Your Whole Life into a Prayer

Scripture

Good News Reflections

Bring Terry Modica’s popular email ministry of the Good News Reflections to life! Her applications for daily holiness using the readings from Mass can become retreat experiences any time of year. What she sends out by email can be expanded into one-hour sessions. To optimize attendance, prior to the event encourage everyone to subscribed to the Good News Reflections free email subscription service.
The Sermon on the Mount
A Catholic Bible Course on The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7) in the format of a parish mission or retreat: Using stories from personal experience and the lives of Saints, Terry Modica will explain how to live the Gospel message in normal, everyday circumstances.

Discover:
- What is Jesus telling you personally about being his disciple?
- How to more fully experience the unconditional love of Jesus in everyday life.
- How to improve even the most difficult relationships.
Scriptural Visit with Mary
A Retreat with the Blessed Mother using Scripture and Pope John Paul II’s document “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”. Mary is our role model in grace, trust, faith, holiness and service.

Discover:
- How to increase their trust in the Lord’s redemptive plans
- How to give birth to Jesus (evangelize) in the world
- How to grow in holiness
Reflection 1 – GRACE: Her Immaculate Conception and what it might have been like to grow up as a child full of grace

Reflection 2 – TRUST: The experience of the Annunciation
Reflection 3 – FAITH: The Wedding at Cana

Reflection 4 – HOLINESS: The piercing of her heart when Jesus suffered

Reflection 5 – SERVICE: Her role as a disciple and apostle of Christ

Church Documents

Rosarium Virginis Mariae

John Paul II’s Letter on the Rosary: Terry Modica presents her personal testimony about conversion from a Protestant upbringing and the calling to Catholic ministry that came in part through Mary, as she unpacks Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae for deeper insight in everyone’s life. Alternatively, it can be expanded into a full one- or two-day retreat. You will be affirmed in your calling to be Christ’s light for the world while gaining a fuller understanding of the role of Mary and of prayer in your life and in the Church’s mission.
The Apostolate of Laity or The Purpose-Driven Catholic
Be who you were meant to be, fulfilling your role in the Body of Christ. God calls us to serve him with our fullest potential so we can make the world a better place. This parish mission is a mini-course on the Bible and the Church’s teaching on the Apostolate of Lay People using the Vatican Council II document The Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People.

Discover:
- What the Bible and the Church’s teachings say about the Apostolate of Lay People.
- The great importance YOU have!
- Feel empowered to make a significant difference.
The key to successful Christian living is know the answer to: “How important am I, and why? What’s my purpose?” What are your dreams? What are God’s dreams for you? To figure that out, consider: What impassions you? What energizes you? You have been chosen by Christ to be empowered by the Spirit! But — for what?
Salvifici Doloris, The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering
The sacrifices we make bring us and others closer to God as it increases our holiness. This seminar is based on 1 Peter 2:21 and the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. This makes a great Lenten retreat about Jesus’ perfect love and may include an examination of conscience using the 10 Commandments for becoming more like Jesus. Be healed by the love that redeems bad into good.

Discover:
- The Christian perspective of human suffering.
- How to make our own suffering meaningful by uniting it co-redemptively to the Cross of Christ.
- How to discern when your suffering should end.
Evangelii Nuntiandi

Discover and grow in your special calling to continue the Mission of Christ. This workshop helps parishioners learn how to be effective in ministry identifying and using their gifts, talents and resources. Based on Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation On Evangelization in the Modern World, it includes personal assessment surveys.

Workshops for Parish Staff and Ministry Coordinators

Motivating Your Team: Recruiting, Training & Retaining Volunteers

How to use the psychological techniques that successful businesses use to motivate their employees and increase productivity, morale, and job satisfaction, with the Christian perspective of stewardship.

Do all of your volunteers understand that whatever they do for the parish they are doing because God has chosen them for service in his Kingdom? And are they actually doing the work that God has especially gifted them for? Do they know how to identify what God has gifted them for? Do you, as the coordinator of their service?

By using the techniques you learn at this workshop and the tools that it will give you, you’ll be able to attract and retain volunteers and promote greater involvement in parish life. The workshop will include the Four Types of Volunteers, simple tools for empowering them to achieve a higher level of helpfulness, easy methods for raising their level of enthusiasm, and what to do when volunteers fall short of your expectations and needs.
Our Parish Mission Statement: How Are We Doing?

How is each ministry fulfilling the goals of the parish? This workshop for staff and ministry leaders brings everyone together to brainstorm and/or revisit the Parish Mission Statement. It empowers them to assess what they are doing as it relates to the other ministries of the parish and to the mission of the Church.
Serving God by Serving Others, As Jesus Served

Leaders are head servants, guiding others with the same humility as Jesus exampled. Reward your staff and ministry coordinators with an Appreciation Dinner followed by a retreat-like workshop that challenges them to re-examine what leadership truly means.

In-Home Gatherings

Home-based Restoration Weekend

This retreat can be sponsored by anyone who gathers 10 or more friends, family, neighbors, and fellow parishioners for a Friday night through Sunday experience of God’s healing love, tailored to the needs of the participants. Hold it at a retreat house for an optimal experience, but this is optional. End it with Sunday Mass together at your local parish.