Many disciples of Jesus through history (including more than a few canonized saints!) have written about periods of spiritual dryness–where prayer seems unusually tough, God seems distant, or in some hard-to-express way, things just aren’t right in one’s life. For…
God With Us is Just the Beginning
Now What? Decisions of Evangelizers
As evangelizers, we are a sent people. Catholic Mass in our western Latin Rite concludes with one of these four exhortations: Go forth, the Mass is ended. [In Latin, literally, “go, it is missa [sent]”–same origin as mission] Go and…
Someone’s Gotta Be Sent
Today’s First Reading for the Feast of the Apostle Andrew captures the passion of St. Paul and glorious victory we have in Jesus Christ’s salvation won for us! Writing to believers in Rome, Paul breaks into fantastic rhetorical emphasis, exclaiming:…
Does the Bible Inspire Your Pastoral Work?
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has dubbed this week “National Bible Week” in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum. I’m generally skeptical as to what positive outcomes…
The Free Gift of Justification By Faith
In the midst of this past weekend’s Halloween trick-or-treating, end of Daylight Savings Time, and All Saints Day Mass and festivities you may have missed another notable observance–Reformation Day. Reformation Day (Oct 31st) marks the anniversary of the day a Catholic…
Fear and Oprah: A Pre-Evangelization Primer
Over the past weekend, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, of Ann Arbor, Michigan appeared on an OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) “where are they now” show–a follow up to their appearances on the Oprah show in 2010….
The Fastest Way to Grow is to Share
I’ve been listening to a new series called “Next Steps” from Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. (You can listen to “Next Steps 01” here). Within this first homily in the series, Fr. Michael White asserted, “the fastest way…
Satisfy the Hunger for Real Experience
Memoir as literary genre has become strikingly popular over the past few decades in our culture. What does this teach us about evangelization and especially pre-evangelization? In a September 15, 2015 interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” Catholic writer Mary Karr…
Pre-Evangelization and the Desire for God
How can we share our faith with others when the people around us just aren’t interested in “religious” things? You know–the situations where the mere mention of “Church” or “Jesus” would bring the conversation to a standstill. It’s called pre-evangelization….
Find and Tell
Evangelization is simple, yet mysterious. Today’s Gospel (John 1:45-51) for the Feast of Saint Bartholomew (aka Nathanael) captures this dynamic in a nutshell. Often we can overthink evangelization. Don’t understand the word. Worry about “doing it wrong” or perceptions about…