Baldemar Cardenas has joyfully served as a Eucharistic Minister since he was 24 years old. Today, at 51, he continues his involvement with the Church through various volunteer activities, including a concept called Small Church Communities, which encourages small groups of parishioners to grow and share their faith with others in the Catholic community.

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Corpus Christi, the idea to form small church communities arose from ACTS retreat participants who wanted to meet after the retreat, while learning more about the Catholic faith, the Bible and sharing life’s experiences. 

“I belong to a Spanish-speaking group called San Gabriel, which was formed last year. We read Scripture, get together at different group member’s houses and share life’s struggles,” Cardenas said. “We are a group of 12 men. These small church communities are designed to remain small. Since we each share our personal thoughts, keeping the group smaller allows each person time to share. If we were any bigger, we couldn’t keep our meetings down to an hour and a half.”

“People were coming back from an ACTS retreat and feeling disappointed there wasn’t much of a follow up afterwards, so we decided to set up small church communities to fill that void,” said Father Frank Martinez, pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. “You don’t have to be part of an ACTS retreat to participate in a small church community. Communities can be made up of readers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, or parishioners who don’t even volunteer. Anyone is welcomed to join.”

Father Martinez said he feels the benefits of having small church communities at his parish have been remarkable.

“Our parishioners seem more connected with the Church, more engaged,” he said.  “They are more in tune with what’s going on in the community and more willing to volunteer out in the general community, as well.”

Currently, the OLPH community has 18 small church communities, including 13 in English and five in Spanish. Each group decides how many times a month to meet and twice a year there are meetings where all small church communities get together.

Marisella Munoz, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, said she became involved in small church communities because she feels each community plays an intricate role in doing God’s work.

“We’re doing His work, His will, on His time. The level of intimacy within our small church community allows each member to learn about each other‘s difficulties, as well as each other‘s blessings. We share the love of Christ among each other, like a family,” she said.

Munoz, community outreach ministry coordinator at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, said belonging to a small church community is not a replacement for attending church.

“We are working together in building God‘s kingdom. Becoming a small church community is simply an extension of that. We pray for each other, comfort each other and help each community member out in time of need,” she said.

For Cardenas, one of the most rewarding benefits of belonging to a small church community is the opportunity to serve God in unexpected ways.

“We’ve fed the homeless downtown, helped build a fence for one of our group member’s family, among many other community projects. We are here to serve each other as group members, as well as serve our local community as a whole,” he said.

But one of the most beautiful fruits of his involvement in small community groups has been seeing how it has inspired his wife Maggie to form her own group.

“She had her last meeting a few weeks ago,” he said proudly. “I think it is truly the Holy Spirit at work.”