Prepare to Share the New Evangelization

"New Evangelization can succeed when it comes from a humble place." stated C. Colt Anderson while speaking at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle as part of the Fall Lecture Series on Thursday, October 6. His lecture titled What Is The New Evangelization? was presented on Thursday, October 6. This lecture was conversational in tone, integrated questions from the audience, and included a digital slide presentation.

Many Catholics do not like the word evangelical because some Protestant denominations have taken the word and applied it to their ministries which often are biased against Catholicism.

C. Colt Anderson speaks at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle.

"To be Catholic means you have to be evangelical," stated C. Colt Anderson. "All we have to do is repent and call people to convert. The Council of Trent encourages us to keep trying, encourages us to remain in some mode of conversion."

Evangelization can help remind people about the deeper meanings of their faith. Evangelization can reinforce the necessity of penance, the necessity to repent, the necessity of prayer, the necessity of doing works of charity. There is also the message that we are all going to be judged by God for all of our actions some day. We are all going to be held accountable for our actions, for our ability to love, for our ability to forgive.

"The Church has lost the sense of urgency. The urgency that we're talking about is forgiveness and how important that is." said Mr. Anderson. "God is willing to forgive us."

Many people have drifted away from thinking about God's justice. There appears to be a belief that by attending Mass each Sunday, doing works of charity insures entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. Those activities help but they do not guarantee it. Many people today do not have a sense of being judged or a sense of accountability for their sins and wrongdoing.

Catholics believe in redemption. Catholics believe in salvation. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ allows us to be redeemed, to be saved. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ presents each Christian with an opportunity for salvation.

C. Colt Anderson listens to questions about New Evangelization.

Mr. Anderson said, "God brings good out of the evil we do and the evil we suffer. God brings some meaning into the narrative of our lives."

There was a brief discussion of rhetoric. An overview of apologetics, polemics, catechesis was presented. Effective evangelization begins with knowing, understanding, and respecting your audience explained Mr. Anderson. "Be plausible, be brief, be clear." 

The main goal of New Evangelization is to get lapsed Catholics to reconnect with the Church. "Lay people are asked to share their faith. Lay people are asked to teach about their personal experience as a Catholic. Lay people are asked to share their delight in their faith. Lay people are asked to  persuade people to return to the Church."

The call to conversion remains the responsibility of all Christians. "We have to witness for our faith." stated Mr. Anderson. "Being Catholic is the best and safest way to salvation."

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Enjoy this devotion. Respect this veneration of Mary.

Remember church history, church theology connected to the Rosary. Make time and say the Rosary today. Make time and give thanks to God today. Do not be afraid, do not be resistant. Remember that the path to Christ is through Mary. Saying the rosary is both a notable and popular feature of Catholic spirituality. The rosary is the epicenter of Catholic Christian spirituality. This is one of the most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation, Christian meditation.

Saying the rosary properly, devoutly involves discipline, focus, respect, purity of intention, reverence. The rosary can be used to start a conversation, to establish communication between the soul and Christ.

Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds him. Padre Pio.

May the Rosary help each of us to find and serve the Lord.

And Now News for the Day Thursday, October 6

Steve Jobs, the founder and former CEO of Apple Inc. died yesterday. He had been battling with a rare form of pancreatic cancer for several years.

In the lives of each person there are sick people, dying people. Please offer your prayers for all the sick, all the dying. Please remember their friends, their families. Please say a prayer for Steve Jobs and his family.

Here are today’s News briefs from around the world. Here is some information to read, to reflect upon. Each of these events and issues require our prayers. Remember that God has a plan for each believer, each faithful follower. Always direct love and generosity toward God. Strive to be good tenants of the vineyard. Do not betray God. Fidelity with God is essential for our spiritual health, spiritual well-being.


Garry Conille, an expert in development for the United Nations, will be Haiti’s new prime minister. Conille was the third candidate proposed by Haitian President Michel Martelly since he took office in May. Haiti is still trying to recover from the January 2010 earthquake.


Responding to rumors that Madonna might perform during the Super Bowl halftime, Catholic League President Bill Donohue stated that Madonna is unacceptable because of offensive lyrics, lewd behavior, and misuse of sacred symbols.


Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, one of the bravest, most dynamic leaders of the civil rights movement who survived bombings, beatings, and dozens of arrests while working to end segregation in Birmingham, Ala. died on Wednesday. He was 89.



The Catholic Bishops of the United States are pleased to re-propose to our people Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, our teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics. This statement, overwhelmingly adopted by the body of bishops in 2007, represents the continuing teaching of our Bishops’ Conference and our guidance for Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our democracy. We urge our Catholic pastors and people to continue to use this important statement to help them form their consciences, to contribute to civil and respectful public dialogue, and to shape their choices in the coming election in the light of Catholic
teaching.



Palestinians have burned a few US flags and pictures of President Obama. Stones and shoes have been tossed at American diplomats. The Palestinians are frustrated because of the US threatened veto against granting membership to the Palestinians.





The U.N. says the death toll has gone over 100 after a suicide car bombing that targeted a government compound in Somalia's war-ravaged capital.


Prayers are needed all over the country, all over the world.


Steve Jobs, the Co-Founder of Apple Inc, is dead at 56. Please offer prayers of condolence, prayers of hope to his family, to his friends.

And Now News for the Day Tuesday, October 4

Here are today’s News briefs from around the world. Here is some information to read, to reflect upon. Each of these events and issues require our prayers. Remember that God has a plan for each believer, each faithful follower. Today is the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Catholics are being asked to renew their support for Christians in the Holy Land by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien who the Vatican has asked to become the Grand Master of The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem which it is responsible for promoting and defending Christianity in the Holy Land.

75 percent of the annual income for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem which cares for the Church in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus comes from the order. It also funds 40 schools in the region as well as hospitals and institutes of higher education such as the University of Bethlehem.

The pro-family group Fathers for Good, an initiative of the Knights of Columbus, announced the launch of online resources for Catholics as the U.S. Church gears up to celebrate Respect Life Month in October.

Different pro-life resources will be posted Fathers for Good each week on its site, www.fathersforgood.org, beginning with a current statement from Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

In Malawi at the meeting of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Lilongwe the government sent agents to gather information about what is discussed. This was the third annual plenary meeting reviewing the country conditions and discussing the Church’s education policy. All of the Malawi bishops and the Vatican Chargé d’Affaires for Malawi, Very Reverend Monsignor Hubertus Van Megen attended the meeting.

Tension between President Bingu wa Mutharika and the Catholic Church increased in August this year when Bishop Joseph Mkasa Zuza of Mzuzu in northern Malawi, gave a public speech in front of the president.

The National Religious Broadcasters released a report on new media platforms. Here is an excerpt:

The policies and practices of several major Internet-interactive “new media” communications platforms and service providers were examined and evaluated in order to determine the risk of those entities committing anti-Christian viewpoint censorship. The companies reviewed were: Apple and its iTunes App Store; Facebook; MySpace; Google;Twitter; and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon. Our conclusion is that Christian ideas and other religious content face a clear and present danger of censorship on web-based communication platforms.

The al Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab detonated a truck bomb Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, killing at least 70 people, wounding dozens and shattering a relative calm that had prevailed in the Somali capital for weeks. Ali Hussein, a police officer in Mogadishu, said the vehicle blew up after pulling up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the ministry offices.

On this date in 2010 the Congress on the Catholic Press sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications began in Rome. Over 200 people from 85 countries attended the meeting.

On this date October 4 1957 “”Leave It to Beaver” premiered on CBS.

On this date in 1822 Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio.

Because of their 17-10 victory over the St. Louis Rams, the Washington Redskins are in first place in their division with a 3-1 record.

Am I Willing to Obey God

I sometimes feel, sometimes believe that the American dream is now the search for fabricated, perfected memory. Truth avoids this memory. Hope avoids this memory. Painstaking resurrected fear and animosity and anxiety and angst wait to seep into conversations, to leak into moments of quiet, moments of reflection.

Vengeance and violence are acceptable, are encouraged. Human sexuality is no longer private respected. It is part of consumerism’s ever expanding landscape. This is the world we live in filled with half unclad women and young girls gyrating and moving suggestively and everybody accepting it, looking at it, nobody cries foul, cries stop.

We are being exploited and we do not seem to notice or care. We pretend that some of this is entertainment. We pretend that all of it is harmless, that our brains are not damaged, our psyches tormented by all the rampant graphic sex and violence playing before our eyes.

I am glad to be Christian, glad to have an awareness of the trash and dangers lurking in pop culture. It is hard being a witness for God in a world that downgrades sin, upgrades wealth, privilege, greed.

Humility, charity, obedience to God are lost, are discarded practices, often untried, often untrusted. Many people talk about Jesus. Many people talk about Jesus on the Cross. Many either do not understand the story and the glory of Jesus’ life. Many do not understand that being Christian means applying the teachings of Jesus Christ to their daily existence. Many do not understand the simple idea of forgiveness. Many refuse to love their neighbors.

I am learning how to be a better Catholic, a better Christian, a more obedient, loving, loyal servant of the Lord. There are days when I feel as if I am with Jesus moving toward Jerusalem. There are days when I feel like the unwelcoming Samaritan village. I have learned the beauty of silence and prayer.

Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week

Today is Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time.

The first reading is from Zechariah.

The Gospel reading is from Luke.

The Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle celebrated the Feast of Saint Matthew on Wednesday, September 21 at all the Masses.

The First Reading was from Ephesians.

The Gospel Reading was from Matthew.

He Saw A Man Named Matthew

Change the sinners to the righteous

How crazy is the modern world! The commandments are not followed. No one wants to be labeled a sinner. Everything is either justified, rationalized, or somehow explained away. The truth, the reality of the human condition is often cloaked behind a veil of New Age mumbo jumbo or a wall of psychobabble posing as scientific thought.

The simple fact remains the same. People sin everyday. There is no way to whitewash this fact. Sin can not be concealed or hidden. Sin exists whether we like it or not. We often sin accidentally, I believe this to be true especially in conversation.

I try various things to avoid sin. I pray. I try not to talk too much. I am part of a long line of talkers with a little too much curiosity and and a little too much obliquity. I sometimes pray for a little more common sense to help keep my tongue still.

I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I try to avoid sin, I try to avoid temptation. I am human. I have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I feel bad after I sin. Sometimes not, especially if it occurred during a great conversation filled with lots of laughter and jokes and anecdotes. Sin is a natural part of life for each and every human being. We have to accept this inevitability, this reality. We are asked to learn how to avoid sin.

As Catholics the sacraments help to put things into perspective. Every time we attend Mass we are encouraged to examine our lives, our decisions.

The meaning of our lives as Christians begins and ends with love and forgiveness. We are imperfect creatures striving for a perfect relationship with God.

I am a sinner trying to learn how to be righteous with prayer, reflection, silence, good deeds.

I am a sinner filling my life with goodness, kindness, holiness.

I am a sinner seeking righteousness, seeking God’s forgiveness.

Sin remains an equal opportunity distraction, diversion, temptation for all men, for all religions.

I pray for each and everyone of us to develop the strength to avoid sin, to live a life of fairness, a life of love, a life of social justice, a life of compassion, a life of mercy. I pray that we each find the strength of character to be like Jesus Christ in our daily lives.

Reflection - Attending Mass - September 20

Attending Mass is important for the spiritual development of each Catholic. How we participate in the Mass is very important. Going to Mass involves more than simply going to Mass. Listening to the Word of God involves more than simply listening to the Word of God. We are asked to participate in the Mass. We are asked to capture and share the Word of God with others. Attending Mass is a community activity. Remember we are all brothers and sisters. We are all seeking spiritual development, seeking signs from God, seeking salvation.

We are encouraged to share our Christian experience. We are reminded to seek the invisible, the unseen. Appearances are sometimes simply appearances.

Attending Mass, hearing the Gospels each week prepares each one of us for public displays of evangelization. The world, our world, our friends, our families need to be reminded of God’s affection for us.

Mass introduces us to many collaborators for God. Remember that each time you attend Mass, you are being radical, you are making a statement about love, forgiveness, mercy, and love. The celebration of the Mass remains a thousand year old communal existence of hope, love, and sacrifice that mirrors the mystical state of faith. Not all questions have to be spoken, not all questions have to be answered. We can pray. We have prayer.

The Mass is a celebration of the Eucharist.

The Mass is a prayer.

Attending Mass presents the sacramental essence of the experience of being Catholic Christian each time we enter a church. The decision to participate, to reach out for God, reach for the garment of Jesus Christ remains a personal, individual choice.

Rebuild and Renew

Christian existence contains a sense of being incomplete, being unfinished. Christian existence contains an explicit charge to renew your faith and love in God, to rebuild your strength, to avoid temptation and sin, to rebuild and renew your love for your neighbor.

Prayer renews us when we allow ourselves time for patience and reflection.

Prayer rebuilds us by finding and developing the potential for goodness, holiness, kindness within us. We each possess the ability for love universal, love unconditional. We simply are asked to answer God’s call and to release our love, release our hope, release our mercy with no desire for reciprocation.

Prayer reminds us of how small we are but how big true charity, true humility, true obedience are when they are used for the glory and praise of God. Prayer builds both our individual and community spiritual life. We are encouraged to share our prayers, to share our hopes. Remember our prayers are all answered, not as we may want them to be answered but in a way that is suitable to God, suitable to the nurturing and nourishing of our hearts, minds, and souls. Prayer prepares us to be loving, loyal, honest servants of the Lord.

My existence as a Christian begins with prayer. Some days, when I remember and think of to do it, I offer all of my activities as a living prayer of hope and love.

My belief in God helps me believe in myself, believe that there is good inside of me, helps me believe and seek the good in others. For me being Christian, being Catholic involves living a creative life of beauty, goodness, and truth. My decisions, my thoughts often reflect a desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

I often recommend silence, prayer, reflection to my friends when they are having a crisis, being annoyed by someone, or just a little rattled. The most important recommendation I can make is asking someone to return to God, asking someone to seek the Lord.

God can help us getaway from sin. Prayer can be our getaway car. We simply have to believe. We simply have to pray.

Prayer can help rebuild our damaged souls, minds, hearts, and lives. Prayer can renew our faith, hope, love.

Evangelization begins with prayer, with a decision subtle or overt, with a decision important to live your life for God, to create a life which reflects the goodness, the glory, the mercy, the compassion, and the love that is God.

We are all pulp. We all have potential to serve and honor God. We simply need prayer to guide us in both our individual and community development as believers of God, believers of Jesus Christ, as followers of Jesus Christ.

God waits for our decisions. God listens to our prayers.

Simply take time to pray.

Remember to pray.

Create time for prayer each day.

According to the Command of God

How we view ourselves, how we view our lives, how we view God is always important as we navigate each day avoiding sin and temptation while trying to serve the Lord.

There are days when my life feels like a goofy sixties sex farce, a hyper-earnest free-will morality tale, a gentle feel good family picture complete with a tail wagging dog, apple pie baking grandmother, tree climbing children, and a bloody high tech espionage thriller. Reality shifts each day, my perception changes, my perspective and point of view constantly realigns itself. An eagerness directs me, moves me forward toward God each day. I try to keep busy doing little things in God’s name. I try to keep busy serving God. My ambition is to be a loving, loyal, obedient servant of the God. I seek humility, charity, obedience, compassion, mercy each day. I stretch to obtain goodness, holiness, kindness in both my thoughts and my actions. Living involves action, motion. Living involves prayer, reflection. Living involves God. This I believe. This is how I live. This is my humanity. This is my philosophy. This guides me each day. Subjects for each day’s prayers appear in my mind. I feel that God helps pilot me around certain obstacles, certain temptations when I have the courage, the virtue to listen.

Christian life involves opportunities to share. Christian life provides love to give and receive. Christian life presents messages to be proclaimed. We are all asked to evangelize, to use our lives, our talents to spread the Good News, to encourage and inspire others to believe and to serve the Lord.

Before my conversion I came to church just to feel the presence of God, just to see the presence of God in the faces of strangers.

Being Catholic allows a subtle growth in the Holy Spirit, a subtle nurturing by the Holy Spirit. My humanity is shaped by Catholic Christian teachings of social justice, fairness, the Beatitudes and the Gospels reading. I struggle with loving my neighbor on some days. I struggle with how to help those less fortunate than I am. I am nervous sometime when I am approached for money by beggars on the street. Sometimes I buy food, sometimes I simply speak in gentle tones and offer quiet silent prayers for assistance for the person, for salvation for the person.

There is a comic element to my life, to how I try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I am often a loner, sometimes visibly nervous. Religion contains nuances of solemn moments, nuances of situational humor. Being Christian remains a serious, solemn practice in an increasing flippant, irreverent, crazy world.

Belong to God

I believe that God presents little tasks for each Christian to complete, little orders for each Christian to fulfill. The word of the Lord lives, the word of the Lord speaks to each one us every day of our lives. The word of the Lord lives within us every day of our lives. We become too busy, too preoccupied, too sophisticated to hear it, to feel it. We can all be prophets for God like Jeremiah when we allow ourselves to love the Lord, to serve the Lord, to sacrifice ourselves, our pride, our ambition for the Lord. As Christians silence, reverence, patience can lead to a deeper understanding, deeper connection with God.

The Lord inspires each Christian to have a life of goodness, kindness, holiness. God inspires each Christian to create and nurture lives filled with humility, charity, obedience, compassion, and mercy. The Lord presents each Christian with beauty, goodness, truth as guides to salvation. Christians are encouraged to aspire to be godlike in tenderness, gentleness, mercy, compassion, and love. The spiritual life of each Christian becomes a process of finding and sharing the Kingdom of God within us. Spirituality leads us to help build God’s community. Our spiritual life inspires us to thoughts of greatness, hope.

As a Catholic I believe that a very personal charge from God exists. God wants us to be open to love, to be open to forgiveness. Our responsibilities as Christians start with universal and unconditional love, start with universal and unconditional forgiveness. Our daily existence becomes a chance for us to share love, to share forgiveness each and every day. For goodness, holiness, kindness to survive no grudges, no ill feelings can be allowed to flourish within our hearts.

We belong to God, we belong to a community of believers and followers of Jesus Christ. God dwells in the hearts, in the minds, in the souls of each Christian.

Our lives as Christians present the opportunity for evangelization, the opportunity for inspiring others to return to the faith. We can simply inspire others to love God, to love their neighbors by our choices, by how we present our faith, our love, our commitment to God.

The most valuable free will offering that God wants remains our unconditional love for him, for our neighbors, for ourselves.

Fistful of Holiness

At some point in our lives, we all want to be the hero, we all want to save the day. From start to finish this is a very ordinary wish. How easy it is to create an unnamed villain just a little more powerful, a little more dangerous. Man does not live on facts. Faith is needed.

As Christians are lives are different, as God’s adopted children, we are part of a distinguished group of faithful believers and followers. We often seek compassion, seek company.

Being the hero is great for movies when there is a script and stereophonic sound.

Sometimes the most important thing is overlooked, temporarily forgotten.

The life of a Catholic often involves the continued search for the God. We want to hear God’s voice, we want to see God if only for a moment. There exists the tendency to approach God, to follow Jesus Christ with a sterile, unsmiling, unidentified coolness, a stiff distance. Remember that God exudes love, God exudes tenderness, God exudes mercy. In order to meet God, in order to hear God we are asked to be like God. We are asked to be ready to share a fistful of kindness, goodness, and holiness. We are asked to be recognizable as loving followers of Jesus Christ. Humility, charity, obedience lead us to God. We, God’s loving, loyal servants share God’s grace, God’s love, God mercy. Compassion, patience becomes our guide. Remember always and believe that we are God’s adopted children. God wants each one of to be his protagonist, he wants us to go out into the world and share his love.

Freewill presents both a challenge and an opportunity for each Catholic Christian as we live each day. We decide what we are going to do. We decide to follow or not follow Jesus Christ. We decide to believe or not believe in God. We decide to sin or not sin. Our decisions, our actions have consequences. We decide to love or not love.

God is consistent, God always loves us. To be consistent in our love for our neighbors, in our love for God, in our love for ourselves can help us achieve salvation, can help us enter the Kingdom of God.

Memorial Saint Cornelius and Saint Cyprian

Today is the Memorial of Saint Cornelius, pope and martyr and  Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr.

Please remember them in your prayers.

Attend Mass

Attending Mass provides focus for my day, gives me a sense of accomplishment. Each time I attend Mass I am happy to pray to God, I remember some of the people I have promised to pray for. Thinking about how to call God and actually calling God can be a beautiful experience. Looking within our soul, within our minds, within our hearts can be daunting, frightening. Many secrets are hidden within us. As Christians we are constantly making room for God, making room in our internal and external worlds. I pray that God will enter my soul, my mind, my heart. I give thanks because I believe that God made heaven and earth. I give thanks for each prayer I say on earth, for myself, for others. Indeed I am happiest when spontaneous prayers for strangers, forgotten intended prayers enter my mind. I do not want to imagine an existence with God. I seek an audience with God. I seek to learn about heaven, I seek to avoid hell. All this finds my mind, leads me to prayer, leads me to hope.

Each time I attend Mass there is a moment of bliss, a moment of extreme sorrow. Pain, suffering, darkness wait nearby, wait for me, wait for strangers, wait for people whom I care about and for whom I pray. In the faces are many emotions, in the faces are many needs. In the faces are many reasons for thanks, many reasons for praise, many reasons prayer.

Heaven and earth, heaven and hell, earth and hell these are topics, these are combinations which are familiar to Christians.

Attending Mass is an opportunity to remember goodness, holiness, kindness; an opportunity to reach for them; and an opportunity to seek perfection for God’s pleasure, to seek perfection in loving and serving God.

Finding Your Road Map

It sometimes is useful to use our imaginations in relation to God. How we imagine God, how we imagine heaven, how we imagine our journey to eternal life is very important in our development as Christians. There are countless artistic representations of God, heaven, Jesus Christ. 

How we view the journey to God provides insights into our strengths, weaknesses, our needs, our desires.

Does the journey begin with loud noises, explosions. Are there grand declarations and cinematic arguments? Christian conversion is an ongoing process. Parts remain within the inner world of the mind and soul. Parts enter the outer world of friends, families, and strangers. The journey includes monologues, dialogues, miscommunication, communication. This journey becomes the biggest event in many lives, the most important event in many lives. This journey often includes access to God’s hotline. This journey rocks the foundation of many lives with basic questions about goodness, holiness, kindness. This journey creates bands of humility, charity, obedience, compassion. This journey begins with each individual making a private, interior offer to God. Human beings seek solace from the daily torment and torture of popular culture induced angst and anxiety. Popular culture creates cliched fantasies of mayhem, sex,  chaos, death, and destruction. There is a cartoon brilliance, a cartoon exaggerated color pallet inviting and yet --this angst, this anxiety leads away from truth, away from honor, away from God.

Popular culture distills agony, legitimizes it, encourages temporary escapes, blames this agony on other people. Popular culture profits from this agony. How many young people are encouraged to be  self-loathing, to vacillate between lethargy and urgency senselessly? How many people slip into desolation without even realizing it until it is too late? How popular it is to announce that “I am damaged!” Popular culture is quick to discover and hype the cruelty and hypocrisy faced by all living people. Popular culture finds each annoyance, finds each irritation, plays with it for a moment and then turns it gaze to something else.

Believing in God creates a path for each of us to make sense of our lives in relation to others, in relation to God. Our relationship with God can help us fine a place in the world.

Angst and anxiety are never original. They borrow, they imitate, they mock. 

Being Christian remains the ultimate rebellion, remains radical. Being Christian encourages a clever worldview of peace and love. Being Christian remains a constant learning and sharing the grace and glory of God, the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the love of God. The fusion of humility, charity, obedience, patience, compassion, wisdom creates a path to God, encourages love for neighbor, love for self, love for God. The love for God, over time, can produce coherent lyrics that can reach the alienated, the disaffected, the marginalized and invite them to come home, to return to the Lord.

It all begins with a journey, with a call. With both a call and response. With a call from God and a response from someone’s heart. Someone saying yes to the journey, yes to God.

Thoughts for a Rainy Week

This city is often filled with tourists behaving like tourists with cameras and maps and questions for hurried, harried residents slightly amused, slightly frightened by these strangers with accents. The summer is filled with all colors and fabrics and voices talking, laughing, asking for directions to the Zoo, to MacDonalds, to the Cathedral.



July contains an emotional shift of opportunity, playfulness as weekend trips away dominate many conversations. There are always sights, sounds, sales. Pedestrians often have pouting defiant lips. Everyone wears flip-flops. Everyone has bare ankles. Everyone yells into their cell phone from time to time. There is a subtle anxiousness, a nervous stammer. For everyone looks at the faux leather skirts, faux leather purses, everyone notices something which will not be mentioned now but will be shared with friends during dinner and happy hour. There are thigh high black leather go-go boots. There are kittens in well ventilated black mesh bags. There are people pointing, people waiting to cross the street.



I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle each day aware of the waves of hope, waves of hopelessness. There is anxiety. There are questions about the tidal basin. There is motion, lots of movement. There are faces, there are helmets. Moving through the city is a highwire act requiring balance, confidence, looking forward, looking upward. There is noise, groans, grunts, gasps, laughter, accents. There is motion. At times I feel as if I am on a bridge not walking by a crowded coffee shop.





And I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, hearing conversations in Spanish, Japanese, Greek, Russian; seeing people smile, laugh, pout, gesture. Sometimes I forget the city streets. Sometimes I imagine the outdoors, trees, the countryside. How great solitude and silence looks from the distance! How grand it would be to rest in the shade of a tree or wander around a pasture. 


Living in this city creates many bucolic diversions while trying to decide whether to have broccoli and goat cheese added to my salad. Living in this city presents many opportunities for goodness, kindness, holiness. Living in this city presents many opportunities for prayer.


There are trees and parks. There is despair. There is silence, hidden suffering. Prayer for everything is needed. 





And I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew hundreds of tourists with cameras and cell phones and plastic bottles and cardboard cups pass by me. There is anticipation, anxiety. The faces are enjoying this moment. Enjoying the humidity. Enjoying the restlessness. Speed is important. Pedestrians race and dodge around each other. Some people bump and nudge on their separate journeys. But, it is important to remember that all those who believe in Christ are never alone, God is always with us.





There is much to see in the city. Each day there are lessons in goodness, lessons in kindness. The city is filled with all types of signs. Summer presents temptations and diversions. Summer reminds us to take time to be pray, to take time to praise and give thanks to God. There are so many signs in the city. Which do we read, which do we obey, which do we remember?





There are so many signposts directing us to God. Which do we read? Which do we obey? Which do we remember?





The Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle is often filled with tourists behaving like tourists with cameras and maps and questions and pointing fingers and waving hands and posing bodies. The Cathedral welcomes all, encourages all to enjoy the silence, to take a moment to offer thanks and praise to God. Here is a place to pray.

I Search for A Praying Ace

Life is animated. Each day we seek signs of divine influence, of divine affluence in spirit and behavior, of divine grace. We seek to find it in the clergy, in other parishioners, in the parish community as a whole. We hope that others see it in us, in our choices, in our words, in our deeds, in our prayers.

Remember and believe that God continues to communicate to us each day. Remember and believe that God has done this will all preceding generations and that he will do it with all those which will follow this one. As Christians we are asked to remember and believe the life and death of Jesus Christ. As Christians we are asked to build a life with a foundation of pure, honest spirituality filled with unconditional love for God, for neighbor, for ourselves. The life of a Christian is a difficult life of choice, of sacrifice, of prayer. The life of a Christian requires fidelity to God, fidelity to the Gospels, fidelity to the Church, fidelity to God’s community. Each Christian’s spiritual life contains individual instructions, individual directions for a loving relationship with God. Remember and believe that being Christian is being radical, is being a rebel. The core principles require developing a keen sense of selflessness, a sense of giving, a spirit of diligence. There is much work to be done. There are many prayers to be said. There is much sin and temptation to avoid. There will be days of doubt, days when different parts of Church teachings and dogma may cause problems, may be difficult accept because of the influence of the secular world. These are times when we are asked to remember God, remember the church, remember the community of all believers. These are the times when it is necessary to affirm our belief and love in God in direct and simple terms. These are the times when it is necessary to believe in the beauty and power of prayer. Life presents difficulties for us. The secular world presents difficulties for us. How we react to the difficulties is very important. These are times to be faithful, to strive to grow in our faith, in our love. We must accept our vulnerability, our imperfections as we attempt to improve ourselves, as we search for a spiritual perfection which will lead to our eternal life.

Oh we may worry about our life’s vocation, or a summer vacation, or the time restraints of an avocation. There will always be things for each us to worry about. There will always be things for each us to pray about.

Remember and believe that being Christian is not a simple act. It requires courage, hard work, thought, reflection. Being Christian requires activity, involvement with God, with our neighbors, with ourselves. Active participation leads us to God, allows us to hear his voice as he speaks to us each day, as he whispers to us each day.

Within each of us in a hunger for goodness, kindness, holiness. Our theology provides examples and encourages us to develop lives based upon these three ideas. Our theology is a guidance system for moral thought, moral insight. The secular world encourages emotional reaction, instant gratification. We are asked to have patience, to allow time for reflection before making decisions.

God will animate our thoughts when we allow him to do so, when we allow ourselves to be quiet, to be reverent in the stillness and grace of his love.

One Word, One Request

How wonderful life is. How great God is! How easy it is to serve the Lord! As Catholics we only have to remember one simple word, one small word with a large punch. No matter how bad life might be, we only have to think of finding a way to simplify our lives and doing one thing. Prayer can center us, lead us to do this one thing if we let it. We are asked all the time. The request is made week after week, in various prayers, in various readings. The Catholic Mass is both a memorial and a sacrifice; the Catholic Mass is the supreme example of this word. Humility, charity, obedience, compassion, mercy are the foundation of this word in my life. How wonderful is it to think of God, to listen for God’s voice, to believe that God will call! How wonderful it is to go to Mass each, to volunteer to help with the different parish ministries! How wonderful it is to think of stewardship! How wonderful it is to think of others!

For now we approach a glass window, and now we can look into a world brightly. We view the world with faith and hope, we view the world with goodness, kindness, and holiness. Our simple desire is to give evil a bad report, a true report. Our simple desire is to remind our neighbors of God and the search for salvation.

Life can be beautiful, life can be fulfilling, life can lead away from death. Life can lead to the kingdom of God. As Christians we simply have to believe.

We are encouraged to remember to love our neighbors as we love ourselves! All things are possible for us when we remember to love each other, when we remember to love God.

Be A Guardian

Each Christian has the responsibility to be a guardian for the Lord, to be a steward for the Lord. Being involved, spreading the Good News, integrating the teachings of the Gospels into daily living are the hallmark of stewardship. Christianity provides God’s voice for both believers and non-believers, followers and non-followers. Christians share the truth about God’s grace and mercy; Christians warn others about the consequences of not believing, of being wicked. Christians are invited to speak out for God, to speak for goodness, holiness, kindness. Christians are invited to encourage others to believe in God, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Each Christian is invited to share humility, to nurture obedience, to create charity. Each Catholic is asked to love his neighbor as he loves himself, and to love God with all his heart. God is to be preeminent in the lives of all Christians. The life of each Christian is to be away from sin, away from being bad. The world is filled with wickedness, all types of violence, all types of violence, all types of activities which can lead a man away from God. We are responsible for being sincere, for being truthful and loving when dealing with others, when leading others to God. We are all asked to invite others to turn away from a sinful and sorrowful life, to turn God and eternal life.

The life of each Christian is a prayer for the souls of all human beings, a prayer to save ourselves, our communities, our neighbors.

We are asked to be concerned about each other, about the environment, about fairness, about social justice.

The character of faith and being Christian is a riddle for many nonbelievers. Christ presents a solution for good living, a path to salvation. Christ presents each one of us the opportunity to be confident. God asks for uncontrolled, unconditional communication from each one of us. We are asked to discover the language of hope, the language of passion. Life is filled with choices, with difficulty. There is an endless search for definitions and descriptions and explanations and instructions. Life provides endless things to love and hate. As Christians we are encouraged to be Christ-like, to be selfless, to be moral, ethical.

Our Christian gaze begins with charity, includes concern for the community, for all those visible and invisible. Our Christian life can lead us to serve God, can lead us to stewardship.