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."

Thought for the Day - October 7

Keep your life simple. Seek to make your life pure.

Simplicity remains a very complicated ideal for many people. Simplicity requires focus, discipline. Simplicity asks for only the necessary, only the essential. Pray to create a life of simplicity in thought, speech, action. May your every action be directed toward God, directed toward salvation. May each thought, each action begin with charity, humility, and obedience to God. Simplicity asks us to decide who we love, to make God the center of our lives, to establish and promote God and the loving of God, and the serving of God, our using our individual free will to do God’s will as the most important and precious singular activity of our lives. The Christian life when the true focus is God becomes a life of true love, pure hope. The Christian life focuses on love, encourages love, nurtures love. The Christian life is one of giving, sharing. Simplicity asks us to simply love, to believe and accept that God loves us. Do not look for thanks, praise, or love to be shared automatically. Do not desire love in reciprocation for actions. Simplicity asks us to share love unconditionally, to share love universally. Simplicity involves letting go, trusting in goodness, holiness, kindness. Simplicity asks us, then reminds us to trust God, to love God, to have faith in God.

Simplicity leads us on a journey of focus on Jesus Christ and God, respect for the power and authority of God, reverence for the teachings of Jesus Christ, purity of intention creates a powerful connection between our souls and God when our prayers are true and honorable.

From Becoming A Devout Disciple

Thoughts on Stewardship

You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God  1 Peter 1:23

Stewardship is a privilege, an honor for those who are faithful followers, for those who are true believers of Jesus Christ. Within stewardship rests a call for charity, humility, obedience. Within stewardship rests a formula for being a good Catholic, a good Christian, a good human. Within stewardship rests a call to be merciful with your neighbors and yourself. Stewardship asks each one of to be gracious and merciful. Stewardship asks each one of us to be humble. Stewardship asks each one of us to share our love of God in our own unique way.

There are no time limits, there are no restrictions. There are no rules. There is only a request that you share goodness, kindness, and holiness. 

Avoid feeling pressured to do something, to say something.

The best examples of stewardship are often spontaneous, unplanned, natural. How you greet a stranger, how you answer your spouse can all be signs of stewardship in your life. I am often walking somewhere, often in a hurry to get somewhere and at those times someone will ask a question like "How do I get to Union Station from here?" or "Is the Zoo close? Am I going the right direction?" or "What's the best way to get to Georgetown from here driving?" I have any number of choices starting with ignoring the person, suggesting that they buy a map, suggesting they ask either a policeman or bus driver, or I can take the time and try to explain how to reach their destination.

Human interaction, face to face communication is becoming more and more rare as technology keeps creating new ways for us to communicate that can also keep people apart. As Christians we are asked to be vigilant, to be aware. We are asked to be active participants of our faith, active participants within our faith community. We can be observers. We can be doers. We can wait to be asked. We can ask others to help.

Being Catholic starts with an interaction between God and the individual. Being Catholic is not a membership. Being Catholic involves answering the call to love and serve the Lord. Stewardship provides an avenue to love and serve the Lord in our day to day existence. 

Although the Church wants some of your stewardship activities directed toward strengthening, nurturing of the Church community, stewardship is an act is best when done out of love, compassion, and mercy. All acts of stewardship are welcome. All acts that show the power and glory of God are necessary and good. We should do as many good deeds as possible both inside and outside of our Church community. Our deeds and words can spread our belief in God, can share our love for God.

Stewardship is a way for us to share the Good News with others, to proclaim our love for God.

Sin Happens Again

Sometimes language is misused. Sometimes people are simply misunderstood. Social media is a product of the secular world. Social media is a platform for sharing ideas, sharing information, buying and selling products.

The prurience of the secular world is neither for improvement of the community, nor for the improvement of the individual. This prurience seeks only that which titillates, that which scandalizes, that which sensationalizes. This secular world encourages prurient behavior, sinful behavior. Being decadent, being rude, being selfish, being careless are virtues within the permissive world of the individual within the neon colored glossy secular world of endless good times and no personal responsibility.

Morality is a dirty word. That there are consequences for bad decisions is easily forgotten. There are explanations, justifications. There is sorrow. There is regret. But they happy later, the next morning, the next day. Now the party must continue. The fun must be captured, preserved.

Each generation is attracted to sin and temptation and wants to make them attractive and accessible for others to follow without too much effort. Sin is never original. Sin is never new. Each sin has been done before. Technology may change the distribution, the sharing of the sin but the acts remain the same.

We live in a time when no conversation is off limits, we live in a time when sex and being sexy dominates the media.

Our faith asks us to be merciful, to be compassionate. We are not asked to judge our neighbors. We are asked to control ourselves and to use our lives, our choices to lead others to Jesus Christ, to encourage others to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

As Christians we are asked to be aware, to be vigilant for the return of the Lord. As Christians we are encouraged to keep our gaze on goodness, holiness, kindness.

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.

Seek The Lord

When Christianity is discussed many people accept and expect the fire and brimstone verbal lashings of some Fundamentalist Christians who are determined to present faith as sin and punishment or as sin and hypocrisy. Fundamentalist Christians appear ready to judge everyone as a guilty sinner, ready to chart the course to hell. That Jesus Christ was born and taught love and forgiveness barely registers, religion is not a love story, nor a hope story. There is something unhappy, something sad, something misleading in some fundamentalist teaching.

God offers love, hope, salvation. Believers offer God prayers, respect, loyalty, obedience, love.

The intensity of the religious experience, of the conversion experience is a story of diligence, hope, discernment. The importance of discovering and sharing the beginning of an awareness of God is good both for each individual and the faith community.

What is the predecessor to the moment of awareness? A Laurel and Hardy film? Star Wars? A Charlie Chaplin film? An Aretha Franklin song? A Gospel choir? For each person something connects the dots, creates an alignment of God, love, faith, belief, acceptance. Something allows, even encourages our Gminds to linger in moments of enlightenment, moments of reverie. We seek something which we sense is all around, very near and yet very far away, just beyond our physical touch.

We seek an emotional connection, a spiritual connection, a mystical revelation. We seek answers to unasked questions, unanswered prayers. We seek truth, love, hope.

Those who seek God need both confidence and courage. Those who seek God use their souls, minds, hearts. Seeking God requires, demands active participation. Seeking God turns into something more. Seeking God asks us to try love, to try forgiveness, to try fairness. Being Christian involves developing a philosophy based upon simplicity, based upon justice, based upon charity. Being Christian involves a daily exploration of personal humility, of personal humanity. Being Christian is an invitation to love everyone unconditionally. Being Christian is also about rethinking who you are, what is your purpose in life.

Christianity is a search for identity, a search for self-definition, a search for the desire for obedience to God. Christianity is a story of falling in love with God, with serving God, with helping our neighbors. Christianity offers a quiet, understated resonance of goodness, holiness, kindness as each believer, each follower finds their personal path and begins to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

Those who hear and obey God’s voice accept and believe that God is always with them.

The Christian experience often is a very romantic experience of determination and humility.

To Serve God

We pass through each days observing yet not always seeing, loving yet not always touching. Each Christian contains prayers not prayed, questions not asked. We have opinions, dreams, desires, daydreams. Life engulfs us, splashes against us, taunts us, haunts us. We seek salvation, entrance to the Kingdom of heaven. Our actions often make us pause, our actions make us wonder if we are truly worthy.

 

We often create all types of signs, find all types of reasons to stop, to not seek that which God wants us to seek. If the purpose of all Christian lives is to serve God, then the decision is already made for us and all we have to do is allow ourselves to serve God with charity, humility, and obedience.


As Christians we are encouraged to behave as God's children, as God's flock of sheep. I often wondered why we are not ever encouraged to act like a flock of pigeons. Birds are not docile creatures. Birds are not always easily controlled. Birds have a winged individualism much like the human rugged individualism. Birds can be part of a group yet be concerned only for themselves.

Birds are very interesting to observe as they go about their lives searching for food and flying. Depending upon the moment birds are great metaphorical or great allegorical creatures.

 

Sooner or later we all make a mistake. Life is filled with grammatical and typographical errors. How we deal with our mistakes, with our sins is important. Is "repent" part of our vocabulary? Is "penance" an action, a chore, or simply avoided? Do we accept our mistakes or simply walk away hoping to forget, hoping others will forget.

We forget so many things. We misplace so many things. So many bits and pieces of our actions wait to be discovered by others, wait to be uncovered by others. Secrets only exist within our minds. In reality things are often lost, often left behind like keys on a park bench.

 

We are members of different communities. We are asked to become team players, to do things for the good of the team. This is not always easy. This can create stress, anxiety, bad Hollywood movies.

As Christians being a team player is an interesting proposition. We are asked to believe and to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We are asked to join others both living and dead in serving the Lord. God wants us to be loyal, loving servants who have freely chosen to do his work, to sacrifice our lives. It is using our free will, using our minds to make choices, hopefully the good choices which will help ourselves and others become closer to God.

Being part of a team makes serving God a little easier, makes seeking goodness, holiness, and kindness a little easier.




It is always good to remember how God sees us, how we are encouraged to treat each other. God sees us as children, as his adopted children. That is very important, very instructive. Although we are created in the image of God we are not created as equals of God. We spend our entire lives learning about ourselves, about God.

Prayer is an essential element in developing a loving relationship with God.

As Christians we are asked to put our faith in God's hands, in the hands of other Christians, and in our hands. Depending on the moment, we are taking big steps or small toddler steps.

Hopefully as Christians our legs carry us toward God, toward salvation. Hopefully help and prayers are there when we need them.




Sometimes a picture of a squirrel on a fence is just a squirrel on a fence other times it is a metaphor for how we relate to our world, to God, to each other. Assigning meaning, making choices, accepting consequences these are things which we do every day. As Christians a purpose for our lives has been given to us. It is our responsibility to accept it.

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.

The Measure of Christ's Gift

How was your day? How is your life going? What are you doing with your life? Are you going in the correct direction? Are you moving?

These simple questions can amuse or annoy us. These simple words can urge us to look beyond our current state. We need to look beyond our present surroundings. Simplicity sometimes leads us toward a certain manner of living. We can discuss the obliquity of faith.

Each time we attend Mass we are asked to remember the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ invites us to love each other, invites us to have faith in each other.

Beauty, goodness, and truth wait to be discovered, wait to be uncovered.

The measure of Christ’s gift remains constant, remains direct. Jesus Christ explicitly commanded each one us to love God, to love each other. This love is a gift. This love is a blessing.

Jesus Christ taught us how to forgive and suggested that we should forgive an infinite amount of times. Forgiveness is important in the lives of all Christians. Forgiveness keeps our lives moving.

We have motion, we have prayer, we have the knowledge of Jesus Christ’s life and death.

We have numerous signs leading us to salvation, numerous paths leading us to redemption.

We received the best gift, the gift of the holy spirit when we were baptized, when we were confirmed.

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.

Aim of Each Christian

Let the aim of each Christian be easy to hear, easy to accept. Let each Christian accept the challenge to use his or her life to magnify the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let each Christian have the virtue, the confidence, the courage to live and walk the path of fairness, love, obedience, mercy, and social justice that Jesus Christ did.

Let our goodness, holiness, kindness turn heads, touch hearts. Let our deeds be of loving service to others.

As Christians we can choose to live a life that encourages others to seek God, encourages others to filled their lives with humility, charity, compassion, obedience, mercy. Warm summer mornings, warm summer twilights are wonderful times to seek God, to remember the Beatitudes.

It is my aim to live my life quietly, to behave appropriately, to live according to and with reverence for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope that this is your goal too.

Pick a Parable

Being faithful followers, loyal believers requires a preternatural confidence and courage. Saying that I am Christian is easier than being a Christian. This is the age of short cuts, the time of leisure. We search for things and people who display an air of ease. Each day we make short journeys, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. We have conversations. We share this and that. We speak in metaphors, we make allusions, use metaphors. To make our points we use anthropomorphism, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, simile and other rhetorical devices. We use verbal language to communicate.

Jesus Christ did the same thing. As we use metaphors he used parables. He could provide something for his audience to hear and to think about. He could provide something to capture his audience’s attention and to educate them.

A parable suggests more than literal meanings of the words. A parable is a mystery, a riddle, a private language to be decoded.

Each parable provides clues for interpretation. Meaning always accompany parables. Interpretation of parables often requires reflection or reading notes in modern Bibles, listening attentively to homilies during Mass. The message within Jesus’s parables remain applicable, remain instructive for our modern lives.

As Christians we are always challenged, always asked to be alert, always asked to be prepared.

Jesus Christ used parables to teach his followers, to prepare their hearts, minds, and souls for the difficult choices, for the responsibilities of being faithful, truthful, and loving followers of God.

To Evangelize

As Christians we are commissioned to evangelize, to spread the Good News, to encourage love, charity, and mercy. As Christians we are commissioned to live as Jesus Christ lived, to lead others to God with truth, beauty, fairness, and the truth. Our words, our actions are to be just. Our words, our actions are to agree with the Beatitudes and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Our piety is to be honest, innocent, and true and freely offer our loyalty, our fidelity to God.

How beautiful evangelization appears from a distance. How wonderful it is to be asked, to be commissioned to evangelize! How difficult it is for many of us to do! Evangelization asks for a certain language to be used. Evangelization asks for the simple, unadorned truth to be told, to be shared. Evangelization asks for agreement with the teachings of Christ. Evangelization is not conceited. Evangelization begins and ends with love, mercy, compassion.

The teachings of Jesus Christ present the idea that humanity needs to love God, love each other, and love ourselves. There is an urgency in the plea, in the request for this love unconditional, love universal. This love goes against the warlike, vengeful behavior human beings present when filled with loss, sorrow, greed, envy.

Forgiveness and love are the cornerstones of the teachings of Jesus Christ, are the cornerstone and foundation of evangelization. So important are they.

When we apply the Gospel teachings to our lives, we can find a type of happiness, sense of contentment that leads to God, leads to eternal life. The great questions of our existence can be discovered only when we love and serve the Lord freely, when we allow ourselves time to pray, time to reflect.

Humanity without righteous is lost, foolish, easily corrupted, easily lead into temptation.

Christians are shown the path to righteousness. Christians are encouraged to walk on the path to righteousness. We are asked to seek patience, wisdom, compassion, mercy, gentleness, faith, love, righteousness. We are asked to fill our lives with devotion to God. We are asked to seek and nurture humility, charity, and obedience to God in our lives.

We are asked to always seek eternal life, to always seek and nurture our faith.

How easy it is to type this. There were a few typographical errors which were quickly caught but the beauty of evangelization rests in the truth, in the knowledge that the greater our belief and love for God the easier it is for us to spread the Good News.

For some it might appear like this is an impossible task.

Begin with prayer. Start small. Start with small deeds, small acts of goodness, small deeds of kindness. Nurture and grow your goodness, your kindness, your holiness. Remember to always offer them to the Lord. Offer your happiness and your sorrows to the Lord. The more you pray, the more you offer, the better your relationship with God can become. The more you believe the more others will see of your goodness, kindness, holiness. The more you love the Lord and serve him freely the more others will see your humility, charity, obedience, and compassion.

We are all asked to evangelize. Our individual evangelization is a form of love that we can share. Always remember and believe that as you serve the Lord, as you share the Good News.

Find The Splendor

And shall the heart of a man be lost

Or shall the heart be given a map

and a glimpse of the truth?

Say, shall the heart of man be filled

with love, prayers, and beauty

leading beyond, leading to heaven

“History,” it has been declared, “is the search for the best anecdote. The historians search for trivia to exaggerate.”

“Politics,” it has been argued, “is the quest for personal power while pretending to desire equality and liberty for all. Politicians repeat one another.”

“Religion, it has been declared ”is the search for things within, things beyond. Religion repeats prayers, hymns, homilies.“

The current period grapples with history, politics, religion. Too much psycho babble exists. Strangely enough I can talk and listen to discussions about history, politics, and religion with the delicious insouciance of a six year old. Life fascinates me, arguments irritate me. Herculean daydreams fill life. Modern life labors between repeating and retreating. The great difficulty in life requires understanding the pain, the suffering which waits for us. Will we be distracted, surprised, prepared? Currently I am searching for a labor of love. Currently I am speaking fondly about the bygone days. The mysteries of life begins with silence, with the majesty, grandeur of nature and all that which is natural. The mysteries of humanity begins with the majesty, pageantry of goodness, holiness, kindness leading to love, leading to God. How splendid life is when it is framed by white roses, white carnations, white lilies. The tableaux of being Christian, of being Catholic includes countless prayers, countless moments of silence, countless reflections and insights shared during the Liturgy of the Word, countless moments of hope, love, and sacrifice remembered and shared during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The tableaux of our faith begins with the Eucharist, begins with the acceptance and belief in the Holy Trinity, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The splendor of being Catholic begins whenever two or more gather in God’s name, whenever a Mass is celebrated; whenever a prayer is remembered and recited. The splendor of being Catholic begins with a glimpse of shared compassion, mercy, love. The splendor of being Catholic includes the moment of silence, includes ”Let us pray.“

“History,” it has been declared, “is the search for the best anecdote. The historians search for trivia to exaggerate.”

“Politics,” it has been argued, “is the quest for personal power while pretending to desire equality and liberty for all. Politicians repeat one another.”

“Religion, it has been declared ”is the search for things within, things beyond. Religion repeats prayers, hymns, homilies.“

”A well rounded Christian life,“ it is declared, ”combines all three moderately with a dollop of beauty, a dollop of goodness, a dollop of truth. A Christian life is the search for love universal, unconditional to offer to God, to offer to our neighbors. A Christian life is the struggle and prayers for social justice, equity, equality, and liberty for all men. Prayers will be repeated again and again.“

Seeking Wisdom

Wisdom begins with reverence for the Lord. Pray that your actions are always faithful and fair. Ground your actions in the teachings of the Gospel. Pray that your actions lead both yourself and others to a deeper awareness, deeper connection with God. Pray that you be a reliable witness forever and ever. Pray that others whom you know a members of the body of Christ, as members of the Church remain reliable witnesses for God forever and ever. May truth, equity, liberty, equality, goodness, and beauty draw you closer to Jesus Christ.

The greatness of the Lord begins with patience.

Seek holiness. Live holiness. Breathe holiness. Remember we are all here to help one another, to save one another. All are equal in the eyes of God. Live to deliver your neighbor and yourself to the kingdom of heaven.

The life of a devout Christian begins with love for God, love for neighbor, love for self. The life of a devout Christian is selfless. Many difficulties surround and attack each Christian life. Do not surrender. Do not compromise. Remain prudent. Remain steadfast in your faith, in your love. Keep praying, keep loving God, keep your focus on salvation.

Our prayers, our praise, our thanks offered to God do endure, do strengthen us, do please God.

Remember love endures; God’s love for each one of us endures, lasts forever. May our lives be filled with praise and thanks that endures forever.

Wisdom begins with reverence for God, seeks that which is prudent, faithful, and fair.

Hope, Forgiveness honor God: ‘Being Christian . . . has not changed’

Each September arrives with fall to do lists, summer’s lingering list of undone, forgotten, or postponed events. September releases angst in past tense, in present tense, in future tense. This month mumbles “never mind.” Summer newlyweds wait for their photographers to provide proofs and wedding albums. Students wait for instructors to provide course syllabi. Theater subscribers wait for the new season to begin. Strangers talk about autumn trips to London, Rome, Amsterdam. Strangers talk about the beauty of England’s West Country. Strangers talk about alternative evening activities in some cities. Strangers talk of the Catholic Church as the alternative experience. Many things are mentioned in conversations across the world in September. Each passing day becomes shorter and shorter. People go from interview to interview, city to city in search of work. People go from homily to homily in search of hope, in search of God, in search of love. God and Jesus Christ and the Apostle remain staples of Western popular culture, buttressed by Christmas and Easter. The lightness of God remains under attack. Darkness passes into the hearts, minds, and souls of many people creating dark times. This darkness fuels violence, drug addictions, racism, sexism. The light of truth, the light of God remains constant, remains a resource, a guide, a call to return to goodness, holiness, kindness. The light of God intrigues many, encourages many to become believers, encourages others to remain followers.

It was there that I first heard a voice deep inside of me whisper “Find and Share Your Christian Spirit", and naturally I was a little shaken up. Naturally I did nothing until I heard the voice again and again. It was both frightening and exhilarating. I was defiant and lethargic against an immortal chorus, immortal call of hope, call of forgiveness.

I subsequently discovered that this call is not unique to me. Each day all over the world, in every nation in every time zone in many hearts in many different cultures in many different individuals develop a vein of inchoate hope, a desire for goodness, kindness, holiness grows, a prayer for peace and health of all mankind travels through hearts, minds, souls kindling thoughts of universal and unconditional love, kindling thoughts of eternal life, kindling thoughts of salvation. This call maybe be pristine and delicate or heavy-duty rumbling loud. This call is personal, privately territorial speaking to the individual needs first in authentic tones, primal tones. I was reminded of my desire for salvation, my desire for spiritual cleanliness in God’s eyes. Mainstream yet underground my conversion continues each and every day as I learn more and more about God, as I wonder about what more I can do. I have youthful eyes, youthful ears, and a youthful soul as I include service to God more and more in my thoughts and daily activities. There are successful days, and less successful days. Days of hope, days of love follow me, protect me, guide me toward God, guide me toward the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

My journey is not unique; this provides hope as I seek my way toward God. Others have gone before me. Others have sinned. Others have asked for pardon and forgiveness. Asking for pardon and forgiveness from God is not always easy. But it can be done with prayer, reflection.

My rebellion leads me to God, leads me to compassion for my neighbors.

Living the Lessons of Jesus Christ

We live in a restless time. Fear finds many heads, rules them. Ignorance of God displays itself in self-help book titles and many newspaper opinion pages. Hope, Love, Charity remain hidden from the view until a disaster occurs. We live in a dangerous time. The nation’s economic life rests on a perilous precipice, tilting toward recession.


Christians aren’t born from comfort. They’re born from conflicts, tensions, loss, injustice. I’m beginning to believe that the need for renewed evangelization is actually growing in this country. The basic knowledge and understanding of the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ needs to be told again and again. That Jesus Christ is a victim of humankind’s brutality, jealousy, violence can not be forgotten or whitewashed. His death achieved eternal life for all true believers. We are asked to use our lives as witness to the Gospels, as witness to the grace and goodness and power of God. We live in an age easily coddled and pacified by sin, temptation, technology. Long-term planning is over shadowed by short term returns. Charity, humility, obedience, compassion each become an individual casualty of self indulgence, selfishness. Living a Christian life can be a life of discipline, hard scrabbling, hard decisions. Living a Christian life requires prayer, reflection. Our relationship with God deserves loving reverence, loyal service, continual protection. As Catholics we are asked to be creative and resourceful in our faith as we find new ways to share the Good News. Becoming great, becoming perfect Christians in God’s eyes are very important.

It’s amazing to see how much the world needs our prayer, needs our assistance. Our experience as Catholics provides a living, breathing, hoping face of the church and an image of God. The journey to salvation begins with a desire, a thought. The journey may not always been what you want, what you expect.

Being Christian requests more effort than simply attending Mass on Sunday. Each Christian needs to learn how to defend the face with compassion and love.

The lessons that Jesus Christ taught remain applicable today. Saying that you are Christian remains easy, sharing your faith, offering your life to God is difficult. Being Catholic is an opportunity to imagine the greatness and majesty of God. Being Christian provides each believer with an opportunity to invent ourselves, and our lives as Christians, as Catholics.

In everyday life, many Christians might find the route to goodness, holiness, kindness harder as our society includes scientific thought, allows and encourages permissiveness and sin.

There’s nothing wrong with being Catholic and reminding the world to love God, to love our neighbors . The importance of love in Christian life remains undeniable. Love and forgiveness are important components of Christian life; new evangelization asks each believer, each true believer to be concerned with the totality of his or her life, to make choices based upon the Gospel teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each one of us is asked to be a witness for Jesus Christ, to live our faith boldly, lovingly, obediently.