The “New Evangelization” is all around us. Catholics Come Home continues its prime time television campaign to eventually reach viewers in every U.S. diocese. The acclaimed Catholicism documentary series produced by Fr. Robert Barron and Word on Fire ministries has aired on many television networks. Many dioceses have launched tailored websites, social media outlets, mobile device “apps,” and institutes for evangelization and the Year of Faith.
I can’t avoid hearing all the talk about the New Evangelization.
And it’s exciting! I want to see new faces in the pews, to meet others undergoing conversion and knowing Jesus Christ more and more. We’re blessed to live in a time when new media can be an important part of evangelization.
However, at the same time, we shouldn’t lose sight of the low-tech and immediate, the personal and relational—our spirituality of invitation, our ability to extend our parish communities by reaching out with warmth and openness towards all those around us. Inviting others into relationship and community in the face of a society quickly becoming less and less interconnected.
At first glance, the idea of inviting others into the life of the Church, the life of our particular parish seems rather simple. How hard is it to invite someone to an event? Practice, however, tells us that it isn’t so easy. If it were uncomplicated, I’d be doing it all the time.
Inviting someone—a friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor, or acquaintance—is a leap of faith that calls us into deeper relationship with God and with others. It cultivates our trust in divine providence, for we know that in bringing a neighbor to a parish mini-retreat, service project, or even “Coffee and Donuts” after Mass, our guest could enter into conversation with someone we admire and think is a fine representation of our parish life, or our guest could fall into an extended conversation with someone who might offend them, someone we might think uncharitably of.
Engaging in a spirituality of invitation reminds us that we are all part of the Body of Christ, and that conversion is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit. We invite and then trust in our living God for the circumstances to be made right—for the music to be pleasing, for the sermon to connect with their lived experiences, for the people to be friendly—we invite and trust.
Invitation also calls me into a deeper, riskier prayer life. Asking the Lord for wisdom and counsel to discern the right opportunities for invitation. Making myself open and available to be filled with God’s love for the people in my life, so that I might soften our hearts and ardently hope that all, even that pesky neighbor or annoying family member, might become part of parish life. In praying for the wisdom to invite others, the Holy Spirit transforms me and reveals my weaknesses.
Maybe this is why invitation is so difficult, because it takes such faith and trust. We each must seek to cultivate the trust in God, faithful prayer, and love of others to support our efforts—a spirituality of invitation. As with most difficult things in the spiritual life, intentionality helps.
Think about the last time you invited someone to a parish or ministry event. How long ago was it? I challenge you to begin to prayerfully discern who to invite next and what event would be most appropriate.
In today’s impersonal society, community and relationships are not to be taken for granted. When we invite others to come and see what our parishes are like, we are following the example of Jesus Christ, who personally invited the rich and poor, woman and man, to fellowship. Your invitation could bring the love of Christ to someone with a spiritual need in his or her life. Sometimes, the act of bringing a visitor to our parish can even renew our own faith in unexpected ways as we see the hospitality of our fellow parishioners or beauty of the liturgy in a new light.
And speaking of invitation, why stop with those who are outside the parish? Invitation can be an essential part of someone discerning a particular call or stewardship decision. Is there someone you know who has the spiritual gifts to be a lector, member of a commission, or prayer group leader? Your invitation could be an encouragement. Looking through the history of our Church in the United States, we see both St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Katharine Drexel as women who found their particular calling through an invitation to serve in a specific ministry.
Yes, the New Evangelization includes television and internet, Synods and diocesan offices, but it also includes the timeless practice of personal invitation, of extending relationship in an immediate sense to those around us. As we embrace new technology and new media, let us also cultivate a newfound sense of faith and hope in our joyous privilege of inviting others into our parish families and ministries.
Copyright © 2013, Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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