Searching Souls Ministry Offers Wonderful Ways to Grow and Share Your Faith

Charlotte Johnson attended Catholic school and was raised in the Catholic Church — but as an adult, she realized that she had so many questions about her faith.

“A coworker had told me about Relevant Radio, and I started listening and learning more and also had more questions,” Charlotte says. “I had questions about things like the tradition of fasting throughout the entire year on Fridays and the value in praying the Rosary every day.”

The Searching Souls Ministry offers Catholics a space to come together and inquire into the faith.

“It is just what the name suggests — a ministry for souls searching foranswers,” Charlotte says. “It’s an opportunity to grow and share your Catholic faith with other searching souls and get together with other men and women looking for answers.”

Before this ministry, Charlotte served as a small-group leader for Alpha.

“During one of the Alpha meetings, I found out that the ministry was more for people who don’t know God or who don’t believe in God,” Charlotte says. “So I asked Fr. Greg, ‘Why doesn’t something like this exist for Catholics?’ He said, ‘Why don’t you start something?’”

The co-founders of the Searching Souls Ministry — (from left) Kristi Whitcomb from Our Lady of the Angels, Charlotte Johnson from St. Paul’s, and Christina Rousslang from St. Alexius

With a few other women, Charlotte sat down and began listing topics. They came up with quite a list. In January, Charlotte saw on her Facebook newsfeed the No Great Love Bible study, and a group started forming with five or seven people, and then it became a group of 20 or more.

“The No Greater Love group was already meeting on Monday nights and just flowed into discussing the DVD Divine Mercy 101,” Charlotte says. “I would say that was the official start of Searching Souls as we watched that DVD in preparationfor Divine Mercy Sunday.”

Since then, the group hasn’t missed a Monday yet. They meet weekly in the Our Lady of the Angels church basement at 6:30 p.m. Some of the other topics they’ve covered include First Fridays and First Saturdays, St. Anthony, the Our Father, and adoration.

“With adoration, for example, someone said that she goes to adoration, but she’s not exactly sure what she should be doing,” Charlotte says. “With some of our topics, we’ve been inviting different ministry leaders to come and talk, too.”

Everyone is welcome to suggest topics related to aspects of the faith they’d like to learn more about. Sometimes, the topics align with the liturgical calendar such as Divine Mercy Sunday. Topics can be found on Facebook, the bulletin, and the newsletter.

Searching Souls Ministry attendees gathering for the conversation about adoration

The importance of this new ministry for the faith community is evident in how community members have responded to the topics and come together to inquire into the faith.

“I’m growing deeper in my faith and am learning more and more,” Charlotte says. “In researching the topics before the meetings, I learn so much, and then when we have discussions, we learn from everyone else.”