Readings for November 17, 2013: Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Whenever I lead a trip to the Holy Land, the question inevitably comes, “Will we visit Armageddon?’ This refers, of course, to the battlefield surrounding the ancient city of Megiddo…
Apocalypse Now!
Thank You, God!
“Now thank we all our God, with hearts, and hands, and voices.” As a child I sang these words with a full heart. But things change. I don’t recall at which moment I forgot to thank God, but I’ll bet…
The Importance of the Family Table
In my experience, one of the most important tools in the parenting toolbox is the dining room table. The table is the place in our busy, modern lives where we can gather together for a meal, conversation, and maybe, once…
Managing Your Classroom: A Book for Catechists of All Levels
Liguori Publications has recently published Classroom Management for Catechists by my fellow South Carolina catechist and New Evangelizers blog contributor Jennifer Fitz. I received a review copy which I have now thoroughly marked up. I’ve been catechizing since 1998, so…
Wait Loss for Evangelizers
Timid evangelizers, unite! It’s time to for us to lose wait. Wait is what an evangelizer chooses to do when he really ought to be sharing the Gospel. He will wait to discuss a Scripture passage with a fundamentalist until…
Darwin’s Dead End
I was speaking with a former student recently. Like most people in their first year of college, he has become enamored of new subjects, new ways of thinking. We had a very in-depth discussion on the meaning of life, the…
Time to Fill the Deafening Silence with Our Personal Testimonies
When and where do you hear personal testimony from Catholics? People recounting their experiences of meeting or encountering Jesus Christ, their witness to the power of joining in heavenly worship in the Eucharistic liturgy, a story of a life transformed through Christ…
The Challenge of Humility
Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography, In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases,…
Small Things; Great Love
Just as each person’s faith is lived out in a way that is uniquely theirs, so to our evangelization efforts. Since I work in a parish as a full-time employee I have many opportunities to spread the Word; indeed, that…
Will There Be Marriage in the Afterlife?
Readings for November 10, 2013: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Given their history, it seems rather strange. After all, for hundreds of years the Jews lived alongside a race that was totally preoccupied with life after death. The Egyptians built…