Alpha Is Coming to Our Parish: Around the Table, New Questions, New Friendships, and New Beginnings in Faith

This fall, our parish community in Mississauga will begin a new pastoral program: Alpha. It will not be just another item on the parish calendar. It will be an invitation: come, sit down, listen, ask, share, meet someone new — and perhaps rediscover the faith you thought you already knew.

So much of parish life happens quietly.

Someone comes faithfully to Holy Mass, sits in the same pew, gathers their thoughts in prayer, receives Holy Communion, and then returns to the ordinary duties of daily life. Someone else has sung in the choir for years. Someone cleans the church when no one is watching. Someone brings baked goods for fellowship. Someone helps prepare children for the sacraments. Someone serves in the kitchen, decorates the hall, visits the sick, or prays for the parish from home, from a hospital bed, or from a retirement residence.

All of this is parish life.

A parish is not only a church building, a Mass schedule, a parish office, and a few familiar faces who “always do everything.” A parish is a living body of people who, each in their own way, have been touched by God and are called to live the faith together.

And yet, let us be honest: it is easy to begin thinking of the parish simply as a place where we come to “receive something.” We come for Mass, for a sacrament, for a certificate, for a baptism, a wedding, a funeral, a blessing, or a document from the office. All of these things have their place, and all of them belong to the life of the Church. But a parish is not a spiritual service desk. The Church is not a religious counter where we simply request what we need and leave.

A parish is a family.

And in a family, no one can calmly say, “Let someone else do everything.”

That is one of the reasons why, this fall, we would like to begin Alpha in our parish.

Alpha is a simple, warm, and welcoming series of gatherings for adults and young adults who want to speak honestly about faith, life, meaning, God, prayer, Jesus Christ, the Church, and all those questions we often carry inside but rarely say out loud. It is not a lecture series for “perfect Catholics.” It is not a catechism exam. It is not a place where everyone must already have the right answer ready.

Above all, Alpha is a place of encounter.

It usually begins in a very simple way: people sit around a table. There is something to eat or drink. Then there is a short talk or video on an important question of faith, followed by conversation in a small group. And very often, it is in that conversation that something important begins to happen.

People begin to speak honestly.

Someone may say that for years they were afraid to ask why God seems distant. Someone may admit that they pray, but they are not sure anyone is listening. Someone may say they grew up in a Catholic family, but never personally encountered Jesus as the living Lord. Someone else may not say much at first, but simply listen — and perhaps, for the first time in a long time, feel that there is room for them in the Church.

Maybe that is exactly what many people are missing today: not another program, but a place where someone truly listens.

We live in Mississauga, a city that is always moving. People work different shifts, commute to work, raise children between school, sports, and family responsibilities, care for aging parents, pay bills, plan for the future, and try to find a little peace. Many of our parishioners also carry the special experience of immigration: a Croatian home, Canadian daily life, family memories, language, customs, and the faith we received from our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

That is a great treasure.

But it is also a great challenge.

Faith cannot live only on beautiful memories. It must speak again today: in our homes, in our marriages, in our children, in our loneliness, in our questions, in our worries, and in our hopes.

Alpha can be just such a new beginning.

Someone may say, “But I already go to Mass. Why would I need Alpha?” That is a good question. Alpha is not a replacement for Holy Mass, nor is it something outside Catholic life. Rather, it is a way to help us understand more deeply and live more personally what we celebrate every Sunday. Many Catholics have heard about God their whole lives, but have rarely had the chance to say, in a peaceful setting: “This is what I really think. This is where I struggle. This is what I do not understand. This is what I long for.”

Alpha opens that kind of space.

Someone else may say, “Isn’t Alpha for people who have drifted away from the Church?” Yes, it is for them too. But not only for them. Alpha is also for those who come to Mass regularly but want to renew their faith. It is for parents of First Communion and Confirmation candidates. It is for young people wondering whether the Church has anything meaningful to say to their lives. It is for married couples who want to grow spiritually together. It is for grandparents who want to understand the questions their children and grandchildren are asking. It is for those who feel strong in faith and for those who are not even sure whether they believe.

Alpha is, quite simply, for people.

But Alpha will not succeed if it becomes only “Father’s project.” That needs to be said clearly from the beginning. In every parish, it is easy to fall into the habit of thinking that the pastor, the religious sisters, the parish council, or the same familiar volunteers will somehow take care of everything. But Jesus does not build the Church by asking one person to carry everything alone. He calls disciples, and then he sends them.

There are no spectators in the Church.

By our baptism, each of us has received both a gift and a mission.

That is why, for Alpha, we will need more than leaders. We will need people who can make coffee. People who can welcome guests with a smile. People who can set up chairs. People who can bring dessert. People who can pray for the gatherings. People who can help with technology. People who can invite a neighbour, a friend, an adult child, a co-worker, or someone who has not been to church in a long time. We will need people who know how to listen without judging.

Not everyone has to do everything.

But everyone can do something.

Perhaps someone cannot lead a group, but can bring food once. Perhaps someone does not like speaking in front of others, but can be part of the prayer support. Perhaps someone does not have much time, but can personally invite one person. And perhaps that one invitation will change someone’s life.

Our parish picnic is also just ahead of us, and it is a beautiful introduction to this whole story. A picnic is not just food in the park. It is an image of the Church we want to become: people around the same table, families getting to know one another, children running and laughing, older parishioners sharing stories, and new parishioners feeling for the first time that they are not strangers.

Where people meet, community is born.

And where community is born, the Gospel can more easily reach the heart.

This fall, then, we want to open the doors to Alpha. Not because we need one more activity on the parish calendar, but because we want to create space in our community for questions, hospitality, conversation, and a renewed encounter with Christ.

Maybe you know someone who has drifted away from the Church. Maybe someone in your own family no longer comes to Mass. Maybe you have a friend who says they believe “in their own way.” Maybe you yourself are tired of a faith that has become more habit than joy.

Alpha is an invitation for all of us: come and see.

You do not have to promise everything. You do not have to know everything. You do not have to be perfect.

It is enough to come to the table.

And perhaps around that table, something will happen that the Church has known from the very beginning: someone will be heard, someone will be encouraged, someone will return to prayer, someone will open their heart to God again.

Alpha will begin this fall in our parish in Mississauga. Even now, we are praying for this new beginning, and we invite all parishioners to ask themselves: Whom can I invite? How can I help? What small gift can I place at the service of our parish community?

Because a parish does not grow only when the church is full.

A parish grows when people stop being spectators and become brothers and sisters.