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Coffee Interviews: Jon Weiss and Family Missions Company

[youtube=http://youtu.be/A0BU5TUCMZw] Coffee Interviews is a series of video interviews of interesting people I would love to have coffee with and pick their brains.

Today I got to speak with Jon Weiss from Family Missions Company, a ministry where entire families move to third world countries for extended periods to minister to the local community. This is a powerful ministry of men, women, and children radically living out the call to "Go, make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:18

Topics Covered

What is Family Missions Company? How do large families do mission work in third world countries? Spiritual poverty in the West How can families be more missionary focused?

Various Schtuff Mentioned

fmcmissions.com

"The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task." Catechism #2205

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Being Catholic Isn't An Excuse for Crap Writing: Lessons from a Journalist

writting If you've read my post about evangelization and cheese, you might not be surprised when I say that evangelistic efforts can't lack quality. Regardless of how true the Catholic faith is, if you can't communicate it effectively the truth will fall on deaf ears.

I'm not the greatest writer (shocker I know) and wanted some help in this area so I asked good friend Arleen Spencely to share some of her knowledge and experience as a writer, blogger, and journalist. Listen up!

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Five Blogging Tips from a Journalist - Arleen Spenceley

Lots of what I know about blogging is what I learned in a newsroom – what I learned at the first desk on the left side of a Tampa Bay Times bureau, where on July 23, 2007, I marveled at the privilege of my new reality: “I can’t believe I work here.”

That day – my first as a Times staff writer – I was a college kid, now with Pulitzer Prize-winning colleagues, a press badge and a dream come true. That semester, the summer before I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in journalism, I discovered what I never expected I would:

You learn a lot more in newsrooms than in classrooms.

I wrote in Times newsrooms until December 2012, when, after five years on staff, I resigned to finish my master’s degree. I look back with gratitude, for great memories and a skill set I still use. What I learned in newsrooms, I’ve discovered, transfers seamlessly to blogs. Here are the four lessons I use most:

If you’re gonna write, you’ve got to read. And you’ve got to read good writing. At the paper, I’d spend 20 minutes browsing Times archives for stories by better writers than I before beginning to write my own. I’d read stories by Pulitzer winners and nominees, riveted by the result of their talent and experience. Then, I’d emulate it (or try). This also works when you blog (but don’t just read blogs! Read books, good newspapers, and/or magazines.)

Talk to strangers. We are surrounded by the people who surround us for a reason. We are also surrounded by good stories. One morning, I parked outside a Tampa bureau of the Times and crossed paths with a handful of young cyclists, circling the lot on bikes. My gut said “talk to them.” So, I did. As it turns out, the cyclists were siblings (among them, the drummer from rock band Anberlin) preparing to train for a 5k with their grandfather – the last one he intended to run, because knee pain pushed him to retire from running. It became one of the favorite stories I wrote – and I only wrote it because I talked to strangers.

Your senses are your friends. Whether what you write reads well might depend on whether you use them. Without senses, the 9/11 first responder you write about couldn't see through smoke. With senses, “Pulverized debris settled like dust on the city. (He) breathed it in. His mouth tasted like metal, but he worked.” Facts are fabulous, but details – which we find by using our senses, or borrowing the senses of the people about whom we write – are better. If you aren’t there to see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it, ask your story’s subject what they saw, smelled, heard, tasted, or felt.

Writer’s block doesn't exist. One afternoon in a newsroom, I buried my face with my hands and shook my head in front of a blank screen. A seasoned colleague noticed. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Writer’s block,” I said. “But writer’s block doesn't exist,” he said. If you’re a writer, you can write. When you feel like you can’t, it isn't because you can’t. It’s because you need more information. Gather it. Browse the web for blog fodder. Conduct a follow-up interview. Talk to strangers again. The ability you thought you lost will come back when you do.

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Arleen2

Arleen Spenceley is a Roman Catholic writer who primarily writes about love, chastity, and sex, and wrote for the Tampa Bay Times for five years. She blogs at arleenspenceley.com, tweets @ArleenSpenceley, and Facebooks (is that a word?) here. Click here to read the feature story about a 9/11 first responder she quoted above and wrote in 2011.

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How to Proclaim and Defend the Entire Catholic Faith

Catechism 5 Ways

"...this book can be transformed from a silent instrument, like a valuable violin resting on a velvet cloth, into an instrument that sounds and rouses hearts." Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa 1st Advent Sermon to the Papal Household

So maybe you're one of those Catholics hipsters - hip young adult devoutly committed to Orthodoxy, sworn ally to the Pope, defender of Mother Church, reader of Chesterton and Percy, drinker of beer and wielder of apologetics.

Maybe you're not.

Either way, if you want to help spread the love of Christ, and fulfill Christ's not-so-optional Great Commission for all disciples (yes you too) then you have to spread the faith.

What faith?

          What parts of the faith?

                    THE ENTIRE CATHOLIC FAITH.

Yes that's right. And I mean Catholic as in the deposit of faith as guarded and upheld by the Catholic Church in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.Right now there is a vast misunderstanding in our society, and even among some well-intentioned or self-professed Catholics, about what the Church actually teaches.

"Someone, somewhere in the Church founded by Christ must be in a position to tell the faithful, "this is true, and that is false;" or "this is morally good, and that is morally bad." Otherwise, the very existence of Christianity is in danger and the survival of the Catholic Church in any given country or locality is in jeopardy.

In many dioceses of America, attendance at Sunday Mass is down to some twenty-five percent of the professed Catholics in a diocese. Some Church officials are scrambling for a solution and recommending the most bizarre solutions. It never seems to dawn on these "experts" that the heart of the problem is the massive uncertainty in millions of Catholic minds about what is unchangeable doctrine in faith and moral principles." Fr. John Hardon

If you are striving to be a Catholic and defend the faith, then you must speak from the heart of the Church. You must be in a confident ability to charitably inform, or even sometimes correct, misunderstandings about the Catholic faith.

I mean the entire faith because the Catholic faith is not one long dainty necklace with doctrines and dogmas and pretty beliefs hanging separately and disjointed from one another.No, the faith is always entire and whole because the faith is unified and organic.

Our faith is more like a wheel. The center of the wheel being Christ, and the doctrines and beliefs being the spokes all in relation and connected to Christ - "the love that never ends".

The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love. Catechism Paragraph 25

Hold the whining. Its not as hard as you would imagine.

"We now have a one-volume reservoir of Catholic truth and practice for everyone who wants to bring others to Christ, if they are not yet Christians; to solidify the faith of those who have been baptized; to defend Roman Catholicism in a world in which the Church has been abandoned by so many once-believing Catholics and is being betrayed even by some of her ecclesiastical leaders." Fr. John Hardon

That's right my beloved Papists, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism is our one-stop shop for evangelization.

The Catechism might sound like a less-than-spectacular remedy for the slings and arrows of our time, but that's because of our preconceived notions, not because the Catechism is anything less than a powerhouse for evangelization.

"This Catechism is of historic importance. Depending on how seriously we take it, the future of the Catholic Church will be shaped accordingly." says Fr. Hardon. He explains that the course of the Catholic Church will depend on whether or not we see the Catechism as an act of God. "He is providing us with the opportunity of helping to make the twenty-first century the most glorious since the coming of Christ, but on one condition: that we capitalize on the gift He is giving us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Fr. John Hardon, in his article "Understanding the Catechism of the Catholic Church", proposed five ways to use the catechism to help Christ evangelize the masses and spread the liberating and life giving faith who is Jesus Christ.

Here are Fr. John Hardon's five suggestions for using the Catechism:

KNOW TRUST ADAPT LIVE SHARE

Below each are explained in Fr. John Hardon's own words...

Know the Catechism.

Our most fundamental duty is to know the Catechism. How do you come to know anything? By reading, by discussing, by hearing it explained by competent persons.

Speed reading of the Catechism would be self-defeating. If anything, the Catechism should be not only read but prayerfully meditated. Spend some time set aside for reflecting, in God's presence, what the Catechism teaches through more than 500 pages of print.

How much time people waste in reading fiction, or worse. Is it too much for Christ to expect us to spend a few hours a week in reading, alone or with others, what promises to be the food that feeds the soul on revealed truth?

Trust the Catechism.

Already, critics have appeared who discredit the Catechism on both sides of the spectrum.

• Some criticize it for being outmoded and out of touch with the times.

• Others criticize it for giving in to Modernism and therefore discredit what the Vicar of Christ is offering the believing faithful for their spiritual sustenance in a world that is dying out of hunger for the truth.

Pay no attention to these critics. To distrust the Catechism is to play into the hand of the devil, who fears nothing more than security of doctrine among the followers of Christ.

Adapt the Catechism.

The Catechism is not simple reading. But neither is it sophisticated and out-of-touch with the vocabulary of the people. In any case, the Catechism contains all the essentials for Catholic faith, morality, and divine worship.

In using the Catechism to teach others, adjust the language to the mentality of those you are teaching. Adapt the ideas, without watering them down. Accommodate what the Catechism says, to the mental and spiritual level of those with whom you are sharing God's truth.

Live the Catechism.

This is no pious platitude. Teaching the true faith is unlike any other form of pedagogy.

The purpose of teaching the Catholic faith is to enable those you are teaching to practice the virtues which Christ expects of His followers. Very well, but how do you enable those you teach to practice what they have learned? You don't! Only Christ can give them the grace they need to practice what they believe. So how do they get the grace they need? From Christ, of course. But through you, their teachers.

What are we saying? We are saying that God uses holy people as channels of His grace to others. In the measure of our own union with Him, He will communicate to those we teach the light and strength they need to live the Christian faith. God uses humble people to give others the gift of humility. He uses chaste people as conduits of His grace of chastity; patient people to inspire patience; prayerful people to make others prayerful.

In a word, if we live the Catechism, we become instruments of divine faith to everyone whose life we touch. This, we may say, is the law of spiritual generation. Sanctity is reproductive; holiness is procreative.

Share the Catechism.

One final point should be made: On the last day we shall be judged on our practice of charity. How we hope that when Christ appears, He will say to us, "Come, blessed of my Father, and possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; thirsty and you gave me to drink; naked and you clothed me, sick and in prison and you visited me."

What does this have to do with the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Everything! This masterpiece of sacred wisdom provides us with all the resources we need to meet the spiritual needs of America. But we must be convinced that these needs are desperate, and that we have at hand the means of saving the soul of our society.

PRAYER

"Lord Jesus, you have given us the Catechism of the Catholic Church to bring light to those who are walking in darkness and supernatural life to those who are sitting in the shadow of death. "Enlighten our minds with your revealed truth and inspire our hearts with your divine love — so that by our courageous witness to your Name here on earth we may bring countless souls with us to that heavenly Kingdom for which we were made. Amen."

**This is an exerpt from Fr. John Hardon's excellent article "Understanding the Catechism of the Catholic Church"

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Who are You Evangelizing?

whoevangelize.jpg

The Church's deepest identity and reason for existence is to evangelize.  (See Evangelii Nuntiandi par. 14)  And Jesus commanded and commisioned all of us to "Go and make disciples of all nations". (Matt 28:19) But who are we called to evangelize?  In the Church document "Mission of the Redeemer" (or Redemptoris Missio for you Latin lovers), Pope John Paul II points out three contexts in which the Church is called to evangelize.

According to Pope John Paul II, there are really only three types of people in the world:

1) Those who have never heard Christ or the Gospel.  These people don't know about the Gospel, and therefore through no fault of their own they don't care about the Gospel. The missionary activity, or mission ad gentes of the Church is focused here.

2) Those who have heard the Gospel and are committed to Christian living and striving for holiness.  These people know the Gospel and Christ and care about the Gospel and Christ.  The pastoral activity of the Church is focused here.

3)  Those who have heard about Christ and the Gospel to some extent, but have "lost a living sense of faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel."  The third context, as a kind of middle position between the previous two ends of the spectrum, consists of people who know the Gospel, or at least have come in contact with it to some extent.  And, for some reason or another, they don't care about the Gospel they have been presented.  They are the third generation Catholics in a postChristianity Europe and America whose parents only went to Mass on Christmas and Easter, and who become atheists or casual agnostics by the end of college.  Or they are the children of ex-Catholics who are told that Catholics worship Mary and the Pope and don't believe the Bible.

What is required in this third case?  "In this case what is needed is a 'new evangelization' or a 're-evangelization'".  In this third case, a jarring from previously conceived notions is required.  For this third case Christianity (or Catholicism) has been tried and found wanting, or so they think.

These activities of the Church's evangelization are related.  "Each of them influences, stimulates and assists the others." (Redemptoris missio par. 34)  But each context does require a different approach.  Each type of person brings with them a different lens through which they see the Church and the Gospel and Christ.  Some see Christ for the first time, others know Christ and need to better understand Him.  Still others have rejected what they thought was Christ, or have intentionally rejected Christ whom they really did know.  Each requires different sensitivities, approaches, and methods.

Whether we are Catholic writers or speakers or missionaries or Priests or Mothers or lawyers or businessmen, the question we should all be asking ourselves when we attempt to participate in the Church's call to evangelize is:

Who are we evangelizing?


Redemptoris missio Paragraph #33

The fact that there is a diversity of activities in the Church's one mission is not intrinsic to that mission, but arises from the variety of circumstances in which that mission is carried out. Looking at today's world from the viewppoint of evangelization, we can distinguish three situations.

First, there is the situation which the Church's missionary activity addresses: peoples, groups, and socio-cultural contexts in which Christ and his Gospel are not known, or which lack Christian communities sufficiently mature to be able to incarnate the faith in their own environment and proclaim it to other groups. This is mission ad gentes in the proper sense of the term.

Secondly, there are Christian communities with adequate and solid ecclesial structures. They are fervent in their faith and in Christian living. They bear witness to the Gospel in their surroundings and have a sense of commitment to the universal mission. In these communities the Church carries out her activity and pastoral care.

Thirdly, there is an intermediate situation, particularly in countries with ancient Christian roots, and occasionally in the younger Churches as well, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a "new evangelization" or a "re-evangelization."

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U.S. Postal Service and Relevant Evangelization

In 2009 the United States Postal Service was struggling financially, as it still is today.  After noticing stamps of Elvis Presley sold better than stamps of Millard Fillmore (who?), the USPS decided to add more contemporary characters to their 2009 lineup of sea kelp and the state of Alaska (yay sea kelp!).

At the suggestion of a citizens panel, the USPS printed 1 billion (1,000,000,000) commemorative stamps with portraits of Simpsons characters: Homer, Marge, Maggie, and Baby Lisa.

It seems like a great idea and no brainer: millions of Americans watch The Simpsons, and the merchandise for the cartoon show is a hundred million dollar industry.  If Elvis sells better than Millard Fillmore, than Homer should sell better than Elvis.  Homer is more relevant to more people.

Between 2009 and 2010 the USPS sold only 318 million Simpsons stamps of the one billion they printed.  That leaves 682 million unbought and costing the USPS $1.2 million during a period of already deep debt. What happened?

The appearance of a culture is not the values (of the people) of a culture, even though they are related.

This needs explaining, because it is a subtle concept and the difference is nuanced.

Millions of Americans watch the Simpsons.  And the USPS was tempted to believe that if they translated the appearance of that culture into the snail mail world, the audience would follow and buy Simpsons stamps.

But the type of people who watch the Simpsons are not people who value sending letters in the mail, or who even receive letters in the mail.  The people who are part of a culture that watches the Simpsons place little to no value on physical mail.  They are a younger generation brought up on email and texting.  The visual trappings of the culture are not most important, the values of the people of the culture are most important.

MAILLLL

The word relevant, according to Merriam Webster, is defined:

Relevant: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand

All the trappings of any culture - hipster, indie, goth, rock and roll - are the outward expressions of inwardly held values and convictions. They are outward expressions of a perspective on the matters at hand - the matters that are most important to that particular culture.

Roots and Veneer

The Church wisely instructs us in a document specifically about evangelization:

"...what matters is to evangelize man's culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots),... always taking the person as one's starting-point and always coming back to the relationships of people among themselves and with God." Evangelii Nuntiandi #20

If the pastor of a Church decides to start dressing like this:

hipster

for the sake of being "relevant" to hipsters, but never has any significant bearing on the matters most important to hipsters - nonconformity, radical independence, and shameless self-expression - then he is just applying a thin veneer to the Gospel.  The pastor who does this is not taking the person as the starting point, but the clothes and appearance as the starting point of evangelization.

The appearance of a culture originates in the values the people of that culture are most strongly rooted in.  Sure there are phoneys and fakes, but the core of any culture is born in a value held by a person.  Any attempt at evangelization must take into consideration the deeply rooted values of the people being evangelized.

How to Be Relevant

As a twenty-four year old baby-faced youth minister who wears jeans, I get tired of people over the age of 30 telling me again and again "It's so good you are a youth minister, because you are young and relevant to the kids."  I know plenty of people my age who would NOT be relevant to high school teens, and I know plenty of people over 50 who are extremely relevant to high school teens.

Just for one small example: hundreds of thousands of youth flocked to World Youth Days, wherever they were held, to see a 70+ year old Pope who captured the hearts of an entire generation of young Catholics.  I would consider Pope John Paul II pretty relevant.

What is the secret to coming across as relevant when speaking to teens, hipsters, the shuffleboard club, or democrats?  Having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matters at hand, that is, the deep rooted values these people hold.  

If I talk to high school teens about the intricacies of mutual funds using their lingo and wearing their clothes and referencing their culture, that is not relevant.  If I am 60 years old and talk about how much it sucks to breakup with your boyfriend, THAT is relevant.

And when you address the deep rooted values and concerns of people, you open up an opportunity to present them with a truth they are hungering for, a truth that transcends cultures and is not only rooted in Jesus Christ, but IS Jesus Christ.

This is how we make Jesus relevant.

"...man always exists in a particular culture, but it must also be admitted that man is not exhaustively defined by that same culture. Moreover, the very progress of cultures demonstrates that there is something in man which transcends those cultures. This "something" is precisely human nature: this nature is itself the measure of culture and the condition ensuring that man does not become the prisoner of any of his cultures, but asserts his personal dignity by living in accordance with the profound truth of his being" Veritatis Splendor #53

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New Evangelization Must Be Cheese

The New Evangelization has been called many things, but cheesy is not one of them, and this is a shame.  If the New Evangelization is to accomplish the task of re-evangelizing the cultures and communities of today, then the New Evangelization should be more like good cheese.

“In each inn the cheese was good; and in each inn it was different.” 

G.K. Chesterton wrote some interesting things about cheese after a trip giving lectures around England.  During his travels he lunched in several roadside inns across England that offered nothing but bread and cheese.  He found in these cheeses a quality he describes as “the very soul of song.”

Chesterton saw in the cheeses two things:

1)  Each cheese was local and therefore diverse, taking on the flavor of the surrounding culture.

The “noble” cheese of Wensleydale was a different happy expression of cheese than that of the cheese of Cheshire, or the cheese in Yorkshire, or the cheese in any of the inns.  Chesterton believes that universal truths are best expressed through customs and civilizations when they are living, varying, and diverse.  The cheese becomes exquisite because it communicates truth and beauty in a way that is in touch with reality and its local surroundings.  The divine and universal idea of cheese takes on the human nature of the town and the people that labored to lovingly produce the cheese.

“Bad customs are universal and rigid, like modern militarism. Good customs are universal and varied, like native chivalry and self-defence… But a good civilization spreads over us freely like a tree, varying and yielding because it is alive. A bad civilization stands up and sticks out above us like an umbrella - artificial, mathematical in shape; not merely universal, but uniform.”

2)  Each cheese was the object of a loving art, and therefore was very high quality.

"Now, it is just here that true poetic civilization differs from that paltry and mechanical civilization that holds us all in bondage."  Chesterton noticed that industrial cheese found in a large city, much like soap that is mass produced and sent all around the world, did not have the same eclectic and local flavors of the cheese he encountered at the inns and was not very good either.

Not only did the cheeses of the city lack an exquisite taste, but the people that served the city cheese took no pride nor showed any reverence toward their cheese. Chesterton laments about a waiter that served him cheese on what was basically a cracker.  After dining on the magnificent cheese of the inns served with what most likely was hearty breads, Chesterton was more than a little upset to get a bland cheese on a lifeless cracker.

“I addressed the waiter in warm and moving terms… I asked him if, when he said his prayers, he was so supercilious as to pray for his daily biscuits. He gave me generally to understand that he was only obeying a custom of Modern Society. I have therefore resolved to raise my voice, not against the waiter, but against Modern Society, for this huge and unparalleled modern wrong.”

Industrialized Ministry

For too long we have been searching for an answer to the task of evangelization that is more like a microwave dinner than well made cheese.  We want to take it out of the box, plug it into the parish, let it run, and reap the rewards of a vibrant ministry.  We want a one-size-fits-all answer to evangelization that requires little thinking, no volunteers, and little effort.

There is a place for these resources, and they are a gift to the Church, but they should not be used as crutches or be the primary thrust of a parish's evangelization efforts.

Good Old New Evangelization Cheese

1.) Evangelization should be local and therefore diverse, taking on the flavor of the surrounding culture.

Christ was one man, and yet he finds infinitely varied and true expressions in the lives of the Saints. From the poor St. Francis to the richer St. Thomas Moore.  From the silent and anonymous Benedictines hidden from the world in monasteries, to the preaching Domincans.

People want to encounter a living and active faith, not one that is recorded on dvd's and mass produced somewhere in Spain and shipped all over the world.  These resources are great to supplement a parish, but they should not be the sole expression of a living and evangelizing culture of a parish.

We need to make each of our Churches a Saint.  Our parish community should become a unique expression of Jesus Christ lived out in a life-giving and profoundly beautiful way.  Our individual parishes need to engage and transform the surrounding culture into something sacred, something worth attracting the attention of modern man who is so jaded by industrialized, commercialized, and mass produced ideas.

Where have all the local celebrations and popular devotions gone?  Most parishes are named after a Saint, but that is as far as the Saint's influence goes.  Where is the loving expression of unique devotion?  We have lost our culture, we have begun to mass produce our cheese. Where is the St. Francis Parish making fools for Christ?  Where is St. Joseph's Parish devoted to producing holy fathers?  Where is St. Stephen's Parish celebrating martyrs all year long and lighting a fire of zeal in its parishoners who would rather be stoned than betray their Lord?

What happened to Corpus Christi processions at Corpus Christi parishes?  Why doesn't the Church in the country become the greenhouse of holy farmers?  Why doesn't the Church in the city produce another Mother Teresa?  Do you have a lot of doctors and nurses in the area? Why not start traditions and devotions to St. Gianna?

How often do we address the unique needs and capacities of our community members before trying to figure out how to minister to them?  Do we send out surveys asking what they desire to learn more about, or what questions or problems the parish as a whole are facing?

2.) Evangelization should be the object of a loving art, and therefore high quality.

If we have the boldness to believe that we are involved in the sacred and holy task of transmitting Christ to others, we need to really reevaluate how we are accomplishing this.  Do not make bad cheese, and do not serve Christ up on a cracker.

We need to have a more profound and deep reverence for what it is we are doing when we attempt to evangelize.  Jesus Christ deserves much more than a clip art presentation thrown together at the back of the social hall.

We need authentic and beautiful culture.  Why not encourage local art at our parish? Why not devote time and energy into fostering local spirituality: a spirituality of the fields, of the hills, of the city, of the farmer, of the rich, of the poor, of the community in your specific area that is more than just a thrown together prayer service, but is the work of a loving art?

The methods and modes we use to evangelize should be crafted and perfected - the object of a loving art.  The way we speak, write, and advertise should all be approached with a awed humility.  We are announcing the Most High, we should remember that we share this task with angels.

Prudence and Zeal

I won’t shy away from saying these things, even though some will read this and think “Yes, we need banjos in Mass and a kid with a streamer to dance during Father’s homily, and clowns, lots of clowns!”  I am not advocating for the type of unique expression that is a mutilation of the truths of the faith.  Zeal for authenticity and vibrancy must not mean the sacrifice of orthodoxy and universality.

I will leave you with the cheesy words of the Church:

From the Conclusion of the recent Synod on the New Evangelization

No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where one has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service, mission.

In this perspective, the role of the parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can require of it either to be made up of small Christian communities or to forge bonds of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts. We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional pastoral care of God's people. These must also permeate the various important expressions of popular piety.

From Evangelii Nuntiandi

40. The obvious importance of the content of evangelization must not overshadow the importance of the ways and means. This question of "how to evangelize" is permanently relevant, because the methods of evangelizing vary according to the different circumstances of time, place and culture, and because they thereby present a certain challenge to our capacity for discovery and adaptation.

63. The question is undoubtedly a delicate one. Evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addresses, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life. But on the other hand, evangelization risks losing its power and disappearing altogether if one empties or adulterates its content under the pretext of translating it

+JMJ

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His Fingers Chewed, Cut, and Burned Off

Feast of St. Isaac Jogues and Companions

October 19th is the Feast day of St. Isaac Jogues and his companions.  St. Isaac was a French Jesuit missionary to the Huron Indians in Canada who died a martyr in 1646 and helped thousands of Indians to convert to the faith in his lifetime.

He ministered to the Huron Indians from 1636 to 1642, when he was captured by the Iroquois Indians.  St. Isaac and other Frenchman were imprisoned and tortured, St. Isaac had several of his fingers bitten off, burned, or severed.  Even though he was severely mistreated, he urged the others held captive with him to forgive their captors and to offer their sufferings up to God for them.

St. Isaac was rescued and returned to France in 1643, where he was given a special dispensation to celebrate Mass with so few fingers.  The following year he willingly went back to minister to the very Indians who tortured him.

After two years ministering to his persecutors, he was captured by the Mohawk Indians who killed him with a tomahawk.

St. Isaac and his companions, "The North American Martyrs," are honored as Saints, missionaries, and examples of total loving sacrifice, even for your enemies.

Letter from a Willing Martyr

Here is a heart wrenching excerpt of one of St. Isaac Jogues' letters to a Priest friend before St. Isaac made his last journey where he was captured and martyred.

. . . <The Iroquois have come to make some presents to our governor>, ransom some prisoners he held, and treat of peace with him in the name of the whole country. It has been concluded, to the great joy of France. It will last as long as pleases the Almighty.

To maintain, and see what can be done for the instruction of these tribes, it is here deemed expedient to send them some father. I have reason to think I shall be sent, since I have some knowledge of the language and country. You see what need I have of the powerful aid of prayers while amidst these savages. I will have to remain among them, almost without liberty to pray, without Mass, without Sacraments, and be responsible for every accident among the Iroquois, French, Algonquins, and others. But what shall I say? My hope is in God, who needs not us to accomplish his designs. We must endeavor to be faithful to Him and not spoil His work by our shortcomings....

My heart tells me that if I have the happiness of being employed in this mission, <Ibo et non redibo> (I shall go and shall not return); but I shall be happy if our Lord will complete the sacrifice where He has begun it, and make the little blood I have shed in that land the earnest of what I would give from every vein of my body and my heart.

In a word, this people is "a bloody spouse" to me (Exodus iv, 25). May our good Master, who has purchased them in His blood, open to them the door of His Gospel, as well as to the four allied nations near them.

Adieu, dear Father. Pray Him to unite me inseparably to Him.

Isaac Jogues, S.J.

 

Jesus, our Brother, you won the heart of St. Isaac Jogues and helped him grow as a caring, courageous person. He dedicated his life to sharing his love for you by carrying the Good News about your love for all people to others.

Remembering the spirit of St. Isaac Jogues, may we all grow in caring and courage. Help each of us, Jesus, to be strong and gentle messengers of your love. Amen.

St. Isaac Jogues and Companions, Pray for us!

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becoming a saint, catechetics, evangelization Edmund Mitchell becoming a saint, catechetics, evangelization Edmund Mitchell

Faith and Reason: An Initiative of FUS

Franciscan University recently launched "Faith and Reason", an online Catholic resource with the mission of engaging the wider culture with the message of Christ.  Its name is inspired by Blessed John Paul II's Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio(Faith and Reason), and  Franciscan University hopes the website will help bring people to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and equip Catholics with a deeper understanding of how relevant and reasonable the Catholic faith is even in our post-modern culture.  From the site:

"From emerging issues in business and bioethics to questions of politics, art, music, and more, Faith & Reason will deepen your understanding of the world in which you live and give you the tools you need to engage the culture with truth and love."

The Channels section of the site features videos in all sorts of interesting categories: from Christ in the Marketplace, Media and You, Apologetics 101, Witnesses for the New Evangelizationand more. Be sure to check it out and pass it on to your friends.  It is important now more than ever for us to be equipped as Catholics with the reasons for our faith, because our Catholic faith is the MOST reasonable of them all and the most fulfilling! (Dare I say fun too?) As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said:

"There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church."

+JMJ

"Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." 1 Peter 3:15

*****If you want to help spread the New Evangelization and the Catholic Faith, post the link to the Faith and Reason website on your friend, relative, distant relations, and long time nemesis' facebook, twitter, and email.

Then comment below how many people you sent it to!

Here's the Link: http://www.faithandreason.com/ Or to send them to this article which points them to the website: http://catholicyouthminister.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/faith-and-reason-fus/ 

I challenge you to really branch out to people you might not normally send stuff like this to. Be an Evangelist!

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