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Humility, Love, and 'Eucharistic Anticipation'

2/27/2015

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Ministry Tip of the Week

by Seth Evangelho
Last week's tip was about the inner transition from "evangelization to immanuelization," our personal becoming of God's presence in the world. The reality of baptism is that our lives have been taken up into God's mission, and this is experienced by those around us when God's love is encountered through the authenticity of our own love, through our being truly present in such a way that those around us know they are loved.

This week we must ask the question, How? How do I become God's presence? To answer this most critical of questions, I turn once again to Frank Mercadante's new book:

Engaging a New Generation: A Vision for Reaching Catholic Teens

Obviously we don't just "become God's presence." This is a work of supernatural grace and a total gift on God's part that we should be so fully a part of his mission in this world. But it's a gift he wants to give us... and humility is the secret. Mercadante puts it this way:

"The immanuelizer wins hearts by selflessness, rather than spiritual or ecclesial stardom. Evangelistic credibility is the result of respecting others, rather than demanding respect because of positions or titles. Like Jesus, the immanuelizer's authority and power comes via humility and powerlessness" (p. 112-113).

What is the humility of love? I define it as living with 'eucharistic' anticipation. In my day to day interactions with people, opportunities arise constantly in which I can give myself as a gift. It's often in small ways, even in ways that go unnoticed, but through these little 'acts of love' my heart is opening to the life of Christ, and I'm becoming his presence.

Living with 'eucharistic' anticipation is a habit, and developing it is twofold. Lest we be tempted to love by our own strength and fail, it begins first in our reception of Holy Communion. As Catholics we can so easily get into the habit of receiving Jesus with an almost indifferent attitude towards what is happening. Are we really letting him love us? Are we receiving him as openly as we can? And are we truly giving ourselves back in communion? Each time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we're forming a habit, good or bad. It's either a conscious cultivation of openness to his love, to his power in our life, or a (more unconscious) habit of hardness and indifference to his love.

The more we cultivate this openness in our reception of the Eucharist, the more Jesus begins to live through us when we leave the church building. That's the first movement of 'eucharistic' anticipation. We anticipate his love for us as we approach the altar. The second movement, now that we're filled, is outward. We now have the divine strength necessary to "let love be genuine and hate what is evil," to "hold fast to what is good and to love one another with brotherly affection," to "anticipate one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10).

The humility of love begins with the humility of God. That he would want to dwell in me shatters the darkness of my hardened heart and opens it to receive him. Having received him, I can now become him in small ways throughout the day. Because "it is no longer I who live but Christ in me" (Galatians 2:20),  I really can give myself in the humility of Eucharistic love.
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Cory's Top 3

2/26/2015

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The Weekly Francis

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Rabbits & Selfishness: Why Pope Francis is Being Perfectly Consistent
Prone to being taken out of context in our age of "tweet-sized" catechesis by the mainstream media, Pope Francis has shown time and again he is actually consistent and 100% in line with the magisterium of the Church. That is, of course, if you take time to read his comments in full. 
Read the full article here


Lenten Link

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Beyond My Comfort (Food) Zone


Denying ourselves and seeing beyond the lenten season to the things God calls us to detach from, and rejoicing in giving it all willingly as sacrifice to God out of Love.  If you have a dairy or gluten allergy (or worse both, like my wife) this will be particularly relevant

Read the full article here


Another Thought Provoking Article

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Catholic, and Killing for a Living

“You shall not kill.” As a Catholic altar boy and student at St. Jude’s School near Boston, Jack Coughlin learned the Fifth Commandment early in life. As a Marine Corps sniper and devout pro-life Catholic, Coughlin killed for a living.

Read the full article here

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The First Week of Lent

2/23/2015

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“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Mk 1:15
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The season of Lent has begun. Having been reminded of the need to repent of our sins, and marked with ashes on our foreheads, we enter into six weeks of penitence and prayer; preparing for the celebration of our redemption at Easter. As the snow seems to keep piling up endlessly, the bitter cold sets in (as I write this the temperature in Laconia seems to be plummeting by the minute), the joyful notes of "Gloria in excelsis Deo" and "Alleliuas" no longer resound in our churches, the flowers have been taken away, and violet seems to cover everything, it is easy to become gloomy and depressed. But Lent is not a time of gloom and doom; it is a time of JOYFUL anticipation. While we now walk with our Lord in his passion and crucifixion, we look forward to his resurrection in glory at Easter.

Lest we be tempted to gloom and depression the Church in her wisdom has given us the Gospel for Ash Wednesday to remind us of how we are to give alms, to pray, and to fast. 

MT 6:1-6, 16-18 reads:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
Having now celebrated the First Sunday of Lent our penitential Lenten observance is in full swing. Normally I would post the audio of my homily, but alas technology has failed me, as for some reason my iPhone stopped recording after about 7 seconds into reading the Gospel. So instead of the audio of my homily, I present to you the text of my homily. Maybe this is a little more penitential—it is for me since I had to actually type it up today, as I don't normally preach from a full text. 

Homily: The First Sunday of Lent

Two years ago, while I was still in the Seminary, I was assigned to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. One of my responsibilities as a seminarian was to serve Mass at the Cathedral. On Ash Wednesday of that year I had decided that I was going to fast from all food (and drink only water), on Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent. I was hardcore, so I thought, "I am all that is man. Who needs food anyways?" That evening at 7:00 I went to the Cathedral to serve Mass for Archbishop Lori. Whenever the Archbishop of Baltimore celebrates Mass at the Cathedral a special processional cross is used—a HUGE, 35+ pound, 10 foot-tall, gold, enamel, and jewel encrusted monster of a cross. Since I was the only server over the age of twelve, and thus capable of carrying the thing, I, of course, was given the task. We started processing down the incredibly long aisle of the church, and at first I was doing fine. As I neared the sanctuary however, I began to feel a little woozy and weak in the knees. So I sped up. Finally I made it up the countless steps into the sanctuary and back to the sacristy without passing out—thank God! Fortunately Thad, the sacristan, had some Fig Newtons in his desk, so I ate a few and was fine. 

The moral of this story: 1) Don't be too ambitious in your Lenten penance; be realistic. And 2) Don't be a semi-pelagian.
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"Don't mind me, I got this."
What is Pelagianism?
Pelagianism is a late 4th Century heresy that was propagated by the Celtic monk, Pelagius who lived in North Africa. He taught that God’s grace was NOT necessary for salvation since human nature was not TRULY corrupted by sin. Thus human weakness was due to the environment in which one lived, or to bad example. This meant that God’s favor was to be obtained by moral rigorism and extreme ascetic practice alone—outside of God’s grace. This was in direct opposition to St. Augustine, his contemporary, who taught of the supremacy of God’s grace over free-will.

Pelagianism has often reared its ugly head since being condemned at the Councils of Carthage in 418 AD, and Ephesus in 431 AD, but usually in its less obvious form, semi-pelagianism. Semi-pelagianism basically teaches that God meets us half-way. I take a step toward him, and he takes a step toward me. While that seems harmless enough, and kind of appealing (as heresies often are), it is still wrong. St. Paul says, “It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) The desire for holiness--to draw close to God--is already a result of God’s work in our life
Sometimes Lent turns us into semi-pelagians (take my attempt at fasting as an example). We become ambitious, prideful, gung-ho and self-reliant. We can get a self-help, can-do kind of attitude, strive too hard, and forget that we must depend on God's grace. The other extreme is indifferentism. This is a “whatever” kind of attitude. We might think, "why bother" or "its not worth it." The common expression today—one that really bugs me—is "meh." Unfortunately this is most of the world. 
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“The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.”
Lent is all about repentance; acknowledging our sins (something we all must do), turning away from them, and being faithful to the Gospel. Its not just about “giving up something” like chocolate, dessert, alcohol etc... Yes, penance implies: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, all of which are essential to living a Christian life. But we don't do these things for their own sake. We don't fast to lose weight; we don't pray to change God's mind; and we don't give alms to curry favor with God (to buy our way to heaven). We do these things to empty ourselves of our JUNK so that we can be filled with God.

What junk do we need to clear out?
There’s a lot, certainly in my life, but here are two things that I think we need to turn away from this Lent: 1) neo-pelagianism and 2) indifferentism.
Pelagiansim, semi-pelagianism, neo-pelagianism?—thats a mouthful. Neo-pelagianism is just a modern form of the same old heresy. Its basically the belief that I am justified by own actions. We see it in the very common pop-religious belief that niceness ("I'm a nice guy"), or being "a good person" somehow can guarantee admission to heaven. This erroneous belief leads to a culture of minimalism. I'll just punch the card, check the box, do the bare minimum I need to do in order to slide in. The result of this attitude is an inability to know the sheer audacity of God’s mercy. A person who believes this can’t grasp fully the "Good News" of salvation, and thus can’t know or communicate the JOY of the Christian life. The proclamation of the "Good News", the Gospel, has to be part of EVERYTHING we do. Proclamation is not just about teaching WHAT Jesus did, or about him, but WHO Jesus is, and actually introducing people to him. Jesus is a person, not an idea.

There is a great word in Greek for this kind of proclamation; Kerygma. Kerygma is used nine times in the New Testament. Pope St. John Paul II defined it as “the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith.” (Catechesi Tradendae) In other words, kerygma is preaching an encounter with Jesus Christ. Pope St. John Paul II also said in “Mission of the Redeemer” that, “a renewed kerygmatic proclamation of Jesus Christ crucified and risen has a power and a special anointing which comes from the Holy Spirit and which cannot be minimized or overlooked in the missionary enterprise.”
We are all called to be missionary disciples. Let us then turn away from a dead, lifeless, joyless faith, and JOYFULLY preach the Gospel. In his interview with America magazine, Pope Francis was asked the question, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” His answer was simply, “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” This is his fundamental identity, and ours as well. We are all sinners, but the Lord has looked upon us, and has shown us mercy—he has made us his children. Let us then repent of neo-pelagianism.
Indifferentism—the "meh" attitude--also leads us to withdraw into ourselves. It is a selfishness that leads me to focus on myself and not on others. However, indifferentism isn't limited to just the individual. The Church, parishes, communities can all become self-referential and inwardly focused. This can be well intentioned, but we must be careful. It is good and important to minister to one another in our community, but we can't leave it at that. We have to go out beyond ourselves, our parish, our community, as missionaries. Lenten penance is about personal holiness, but it is also about being a better disciple, a better missionary. In his Lenten Message for 2015, Pope Francis reminds us that in order to receive what God gives us and for it to bear abundant fruit, we have to press beyond ourselves, and even beyond the visible Church—to the peripheries, “by uniting ourselves in prayer with the Church in heaven." 
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"Meh."
"The prayers of the Church on earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their fulfillment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all over indifference, hardness of heart and hatred.” (Lenten Message, Pope Francis, 2015)

He also tells us:
"Every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.”

The Ark of Noah served as a refuge for the peace and order of creation, preserved so that the light contained within could re-enter the world after the flood. This prefigures the Church, which bears the light of Christ. After the storm had subsided and the flood was over Noah opened the windows and doors of the Ark in order to let that light out into the world. Do we not do the same each time we come together for Mass? The priest says, "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life," or something similar. In Latin its, "Ite missa est"—"Go you are sent." The light of Christ in the Church is meant to flood the world and transform it. Let us then repent of self-referential indifferentism, and be the missionary disciples we are called to be.
Pope Francis is calling on us to engage in a formation of the heart this Lent. Turning away from the self-sufficiency of neo-pelagianism and the sin of indifferentism means we have to have strong yet merciful hearts—closed to the evil one, yet open to God. I think it is appropriate to end with Pope Francis' very own conclusion of his lenten message:

"During this Lent, then, brothers and sisters, let us all ask the Lord: “Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum”: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference."

Have a blessed and fruitful Lent!
- Fr. Jeff

p.s. If you have some questions about Lent, what to do for penance, etc... pop over to our Lenten resource page. 
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From Evangelization to Immanuelization

2/20/2015

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Ministry Tip of the Week

by Seth Evangelho
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I read an awesome book recently! (and it was short, which made it even more awesome :) It has given me some incredible insights into the ever-changing trends of modern culture, and a clear solution to boot. The solution, in a nutshell, is authentic community, but that's not the topic of this post. Somewhere in the middle of the book, it talks about a much needed move "from evangelization to immanuelization," and that's what I'd like to focus on here.

Basically, the point is that our culture no longer engages truth as it once did. People today aren't looking for arguments for faith, they're looking for witnesses to faith. 

As Frank Mercadante puts it, "the medium is the message."
What does this mean? It means that if we want people to encounter Christ, if we want to evangelize effectively, it's going to have to be through us; through our words and, maybe most importantly, through our actions.

"Immanuelization" means becoming God's presence in the world. It means evangelizing the world through God's presence in us. If we're going to convict someone of the power of the Gospel, we must do so not through rational argument but through a living witness, through the way we carry ourselves, and through the way we give ourselves. Rational argument is still very important, of course, but it's no longer the normal gateway to accepting the truth of Jesus Christ. Modern culture is saturated with neatly marketed products (and lifestyle choices), and the Gospel is being filed away as one option among many.

Immanuelization shatters this paradigm because it's "God with us" and acting - noticeably - in us. We are the Gospel! And, insofar as the people in our lives actually come to recognize the unequivocal truth of Christ through us (according to my new favorite book), this will come about in two key ways.

First, it comes through our ability to accompany people on their personal journeys of life. I've mentioned Pope Francis' call for this in earlier posts on The Art of Accompaniment and The Art of Listening, but we can never be reminded enough about this basic virtue of human relationship.

Jesus is truly and fully present to us. He became one of us. Christian charity is first about letting Jesus become flesh in us, and then it's about using that divine strength, now alive in us, to imitate Christ's love and allow our lives to become incarnate in the lives of others.

Basically, it means cultivating our ability to be truly present. Jesus is truly present to me. Am I truly and fully present to the people around me, to the person right in front of me? If I am, I do so only with Christ's help, and that means it's not just me they encounter but Christ in me.

St. Paul really brings this home for me: "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Then there's this quote from St. John: "We love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In other words, Christ loves us where we are, in our brokenness, in our sin, and in our rebellion even! That's the real victory of evangelization on our part.

If our goal is numbers in the Church, we have failed to answer the call. The goal, for us, should not be the conversion of sinners. We're not actually in charge of that (that's the Holy Spirit's job). Our goal is our love, experienced. When someone knows he is loved by me, right where he is in his sinfulness (and in his separation from the Church), I am victorious in my efforts. That's what our world needs to experience from the Church: our love, right here and now, regardless of whether or not they decide to "accept Jesus as Lord and Savior." There's no ulterior motive; we actually love them for who they are.

When we come to love others "while they are yet sinners," and they experience our love as such, they are encountering God in their midst. This opens the door to deeper encounters with the Lord and, God-willing, conversion, repentance, baptism, and all the rest.

This book, Engaging a New Generation, has truly been an eye-opener for me. It's written as a solution to frustrated youth ministry programs, but it's really for anyone and everyone interested in renewing the life of their parish, beginning in their own family. Echoing the wisdom of the Church, it's calling us to authentic human relationship. 

Here's a link if you want to order it on Amazon:
Engaging a New Generation: A Vision for Reaching Catholic Teens
We'll talk about the second secret to "immanuelization" next week...
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Cory's Top 3 ~ Ash Wednesday Edition

2/18/2015

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The very best from this week in Catholic news, blogging and more
By:Cory Johnson

The Weekly Francis

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Pope - "We are our brother's keeper"

Pope Francis gave excellent catechesis on the family, and particularly bothers and sisters.  He speaks about Christian Brotherhood in Christ and what it means, how it looks, and the impact this has on service to the other (Just in time for Lent).   

Read the full article here


Lenten Link

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Why Catholics Practice Fast and Abstinence

In these modern times, we don’t seem to hear much about fasting and abstinence anymore.  That’s a shame because the doctrine of self-denial is crucial to our becoming fully satisfied.

Read the full article here

Another one I enjoyed

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The Real History of the Crusades


History professor, and medieval history expert, Thomas Madden gives an honest and concise depiction of these events so often misunderstood by centuries of mystery, folklore, & rhetoric. 

Read the full article here

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Homily: The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2/16/2015

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“If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him,  “I do will it. Be made clean.”

Mark 1:40-41
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Jesus heals the leper.
In Sunday's gospel, Jesus heals a leper. This story from the Gospel of Mark is one of the many accounts of Jesus' healing ministry. What makes this particular story stand out is how Jesus encountered the Leper. As the first reading from the book of Leviticus indicates, lepers were outcasts in ancient society. 
"When someone has on the skin a mark, lesion, or blotch which appears to develop into a scaly infection, the person shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his sons. If the priest, upon examination of the skin’s infection, finds that the hair on the infection has turned white and the infection itself appears to be deeper than the skin, it is indeed a scaly infection; the priest, on seeing this, shall declare the person unclean." - Leviticus 13:2-3
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Declared unclean a leper had to remove himself from public life, including worship in the temple. For a leper to approach a person on the street was an incredible act of bravery, and of faith. Jesus does not hesitate to heal the leper and send him on his way. 

This story is very much applicable to the spiritual life. When we approach Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance we come to him as sinners, unclean because of our sins. We approach him for healing and reconciliation with God. Jesus makes us clean again, able to worthily participate in the sacrifice of the Mass, and to receive the grace we need to be holy and zealous disciples. 

If you are feeling unworthy of God's love, unclean because of your sinfulness, Jesus has given you the opportunity to be made whole again. Whenever Jesus heals in the Gospels he doesn't just heal physical ailments, he heals the soul. There is NOTHING that we can do to make God love us, and nothing we can do to make him NOT love us; but by sinning we cut ourselves off from receiving that love. We chose to put up barriers that make us unable to receive the love of God freely given/ If you are in need of forgiveness, no matter how sinful you have been, no matter how long it has been, God's love is waiting for you, you need only break down those barriers by admitting your fault and going to confession. God wills it!

GET THEE TO A CONFESSIONAL!


- Fr. Jeff
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Doctrine is for Prayer

2/13/2015

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Ministry Tip of the Week

by Seth Evangelho
I'm a big fan of the catechism, and I've been reading it religiously (pun intended) for many years now, but something struck me recently, something I had never realized before. Have you ever noticed how it ends? The final section of the catechism is a line by line explanation of what we're really saying when we pray the Lord's Prayer (CCC 2759-2865). I knew this, but I experienced a kind of epiphany not to long ago. The entire body of Catholic doctrine, I realized, leads us to call God "Our Father." That's what all the teachings are for! Every doctrine is meant to draw us into this final event of faith where we unite fully with Jesus and call God "Father." 
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I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that, ultimately, the whole point of every teaching of the Church is to help us enter more perfectly into this father-daughter/son relationship with God. In fact, I think that's precisely what the Church is teaching us by arranging the tenants of faith in this way. It's all about cultivating "a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God" (CCC 2558). If we don't come to know him as Father, with the intimacy and affection of true sons and daughters, we've missed the point of everything Jesus came to reveal. His words and deeds, both during his earthly life and now through the life and teachings of his Church, are falling on deaf ears if we aren't coming to know the Father's love better through them. 

"In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). "In giving us his Son, his only Word, he spoke everything to us at once...and he has no more to say" (St. John of the Cross, CCC 65). 
"He who has seen me has seen the father" (John 14:9). 

Doctrine is for prayer. If we don't see the catechism as a school of prayer, if each teaching doesn't in some way help us to grow in our relationship with God through the mystery of communion with Jesus Christ, we're misunderstanding our faith. And if we teach anything without directing our children, grand children, and students to a deeper relationship with the heavenly Father through it, we're misunderstanding catechesis.  

The God of love has come to give us life. Prayer is a surge of the heart (CCC2558) that opens us to receive this gift, the life of heaven that grows as we come to know more deeply the One whom Jesus reveals, the One he has taught us to call our father. Life is a prayer, a living acknowledgement of a God who loves beyond all measure, a trustful surrender into the tender embrace of our heavenly Father in and through every moment. The content of faith (i.e. doctrine) should foster an experiential knowledge of this reality. 
In hindsight, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Catechism begins with this end in mind: "FATHER,...this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3, CCC 1).
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Cory's Top 3

2/12/2015

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The best from this week in Catholic News, Blogging and more
By: Cory Johnson

The Weekly Francis

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"If you care about God's handiwork you'll protect nature"

In anticipation of his encyclical letter on the environment (due out in March), Pope Francis used the daily reading from Genesis to talk about man's relationship to the created world and called for a True Ecology that doesn't overlook Human Ecology.

Read the full article here



Seasonal Selection

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Don't Waste Your Lent (It's less than a week away)

7 practical ways to have a great lent and prepare your heart for Easter.   Ash Wednesday is next Wednesday so prepare to prepare your heart, mind, and body. 

Read the full article here

Another one to look at

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Call No Man Your "Father," Especially on Facebook

Facebook has recently started enforcing it's ban on Professional titles by targeting Priests 

Read the full article here

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The Christian Life is Service

2/6/2015

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Ministry Tip of the Week

by Seth Evangelho
Love is active, and the experience of love in action is an encounter with Jesus. Oftentimes, we come to know this encounter most fully not in the charity we see in others but in the charity we ourselves give. Our "good works" are gifts of grace - the charity of Christ living in us (CCC 2011) - and these works are the sign of the gift of faith alive in our hearts. That extra little effort you gave, that warm feeling of affection you extended, that sincere concern that led you to give a little extra in the collection basket, that heartfelt prayer for a suffering friend, that was him - at work in you!
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Lest we forget the real point, however, it's important to emphasize the true reason for our service, or "Christian charity." We serve our brothers and sisters to edify their faith and ours, to make the love of God known and to experience it through our own actions. 

Service can never be an end in itself. The men and women we're called to evangelize certainly are (ends in themselves), but the service itself is a means to an end: the salvation of souls - first our own, and then the souls of those we serve. What we're really after isn't the immediate necessities of life we might be able to provide. That's a noble humanitarian effort and, God-willing, we can provide these. The true goal, however, is an encounter with the living God, both for the one being served and for the one serving. 

Sadly, when Catholics encounter the world it's all-too-often the world that does the "evangelizing." More and more Christians today are being swept up in the cultural soufflé of fads and worldly concern, and we're compromising essential components of the Way Jesus calls us to walk. We've all but lost our power (i.e. influence) to spread the Good News. 

If you've ever encountered someone who professes faith in Christ, yet lives in blatant opposition to the Gospel as he goes about his daily routine, ignoring the needs of his fellow brothers and sisters, you've experienced Christianity stripped of its realism. How often I myself am guilty of this very thing! Instead of a living, transformative encounter, my presence is too often dry, standoffish, and empty of a contagious love so needed today; rather than faith, this sort of "witness" sows only doubt and suspicion. 
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On the other hand, when we do encounter a lived faith, powerful things happen. The presence of God reveals itself. Service - love of neighbor - is a genuine sign of Christ's presence among us. If you've ever met someone with an apostolic heart and a genuine love for the poor, or even experienced this welling up in your own heart, you know the power of this means to evangelize. 

An authentic (and consistent) life of charity is a sure sign of God's love at work in a soul. A flourishing vertical relationship with Jesus Christ  explodes into the horizontal encounters with our brothers and sisters. When his love lives through us, our actions don't just resemble his, they become his. And that's evangelization.
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Cory's Top 3

2/4/2015

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This weeks most thought provoking articles in Catholic news, blogging and more
By: Cory Johnson

The Weekly Francis

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Pope to Religious: Follow Jesus with Joy



Pope Francis warned consecrated men and women against reducing their religious lives to a “caricature,” calling them to instead embrace a life of obedience, which in turn leads to wisdom.

Read the full article here

Ordinary Stuff for Ordinary Time

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Bringing Up Purgatory at a Funeral?

Funeral Masses today can sometimes be mistaken for canonization services. So what is the point of praying for the dead if we already know they are in heaven? Indeed the Funeral Mass itself then becomes nothing other than a farewell service to help only those still left on earth grieving their loss.

Read the full article here

Another one that I enjoyed...

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Why the Devil Hates the Blessed Virgin So Much (And Why You Should Love Her)


A great syntheis of Catholic Teaching on Mary and her role in the Redemption of Christ

Read the full article here
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