Catholic Evangelization to our neighbors

I have an idea. It's not a earth shaking idea, or new one; but more of a personal revelation. How can I better serve the church as a lay person?

This has been stewing in me for about a year, and I think I about have it figured out. Last year I attended the "Called and Gifted" workshop at the National Shrine of the Infant of Prague. The workshop was conducted by the Catherine of Siena Institute, and it helped to point out my strengths of my faith. The three gifts I scored highest on were Knowledge, Evangelization, and Discernment of the Spirits. So after months of pondering on how best to use these I've up with an idea.

I feel I have a gift to teach and defend the faith; however I also realize that I lack some vital skills required to evangelize to the public. I'm not an extroverted person by nature, I have difficulty empathizing with others, and I'm not the most patient person. But what if I can find those who are outgoing, those who relate well with others, and those who are patient and kind. I could help them with knowledge, and they could help me with being more "warm" hearted.

What if we could assemble a group of individuals, those with various gifts and talents and together we learn more about the faith. What if as we bond together and work on apologetics as a large group, and then we could further form smaller teams. Teams of individuals who possess knowledge, relational skills, and most of all kindness. These teams could work with the youth in apologetics, they could work with adults in helping to keep their faith strong, and they could also work by going neighbor to neighbor to evangelize the Word.

Now it's still just a thought in its infancy, but if I could find others in my parish and locally we could have a postive impact on the faith our neighbors. This would help bring our neighbors to the Kingdom of God.

Return to Orthodoxy

Thank you to Pope Benedict XVI for lifting the excommunication of the SSPX bishops. This was both a symbol of Christian Unity and a great attempt to renew our Orthodoxy.

The pendulum is finally swinging back to center, watch out hippies!!!

I love the movement in the action now. Finally we here about renewing Adoration at our parish, you hear murmurs of starting the Low Mass again, and now this. Perhaps 2009 will be a great year for renewal.

Next on his plate is hopefully dealing with the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). I hope they to can come home to Rome this year.

Now I must do my part and work on my virtue of diligence, to nudge the process of shifting the pendulum to the center locally.

YMCA

OK, the "parrothead" in me had to get this one out there. It makes you want to laugh, and cringe at the same time.

Good kids see Santa, Bad kids see this...

Taken from CreativeMinorityReport.com

Help the poor

I was having a discussion with someone whom I admire greatly. We were talking about helping others, when he said, "Even Christ said the poor will always be with us. Why use your resources on those who won't learn and will always be amongst us?" The scripture he was referring to was from Matthew 26:11, "The poor you will always have with you.."

Now I hear what my friend is saying, but still I can't compute it against everything else Christ has said about caring for the poor. This launched me into an inquiry of this passage. First I had to look at the passage as a whole. What was happening, who was this being said to, are their any other passages referring to this event.

This passage takes place when a woman anoints Jesus with costly perfume. Some among them asked why is he letting this happen? We could have sold this for money to give to the poor. Christ knew he was being anointed for his burial, and said to them leave this woman alone. Now, who do you think he was really directing this towards?

I feel the direction of all of this objection to the perfume, and concern of the money came from the money handler, Judas. It was just after this that Judas betrayed him. Was Judas concerned that he would be missing his cut of the 300 days wages this perfume would have brought? After all he always had his hand in the till.

A parallel passage is found in Mark 14:7, "The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me." Now this passage examined as a singular verse sheds seems more inline with the rest of the gospel. Do good to them.

So the point of Matthew 26:11, isn't to say the poor will always be with you no matter what you do. It is saying, although you will have times to do good for the poor who will always be around; I am physically with you now.

We should always serve the poor, we should always seek to to good. Christ commands it. We would all be better off for serving Christ, and not finding "scriptural excuses" to not help the least amongst us. The story of Christ should not be taken as a collection of verses that fit how you see the world.

Let not your philosophy drive how you see Christ, let Christ drive how you see your philosophy.

God hears us, he answers, do we respond?

Last night, I was instructing the Jr. High group, a collection of 35+ kids, the story of Abraham. I had only a few expectations. Namely that I wanted them to know that it is not just enough to believe and love God, we must answer his call. God will send us challenges and tests, and we have the opportunity to show God that we will respond appropriately to his call.

Easy topic to talk about, difficult to practice. As Yogi Beara once said, "In theory there is no difference in theory and practice. In practice there is."

This morning I was wondering about how to proceed on an issue at hand. I heard the answer in the daily readings. Now the real question is, do I respond to God's call? If yes, then to what extent. Do I go all the way as Abraham would, or do I follow along as Judas did until the betrayal?

Diligence, a heavenly virture.

If there is one trait that makes or breaks my success, it would be diligence. A definition would be, "Diligence is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work. Decisive work ethic. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Putting forth full concentration in one's work."

We can all get excited about doing something for a short time. How many projects have we started? What percent of those have we completed? It's easy to get zealous, but diligence carries on well after the initial excitement is gone. To me, diligence is the on going driving movement that makes plans successful.

Be diligent in your work, faith, and family.