New Evangelization

November 24^th, 2013 marks the end of the Year of Faith as declared by Pope Benedict XVI. This Year of Faith was themed, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”, a year to “usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith.” The process of reflection and rediscovery is not a process that ought to come to a dead halt on November 24^th. The movement of the “New Evangelization” that was started by the hierarchy of the Church around the time of the Second Vatican Council is one that is vital for all of the lay people to consider in their faith lives.

                Many Catholics are hesitant about the idea of Evangelization. The idea of going out and preaching the Good News and attempting to persuade others of your faith which you know to be Truth is difficult. In some ways, evangelization seems to be a part of the history of the Church. We are familiar with the stories of the apostles and their journeys to various parts of the world to spread the good news like St. Paul and his many letters, Luke the evangelist who traveled with St. Paul, and John who traveled all around Asia Minor.   There is a distinct association of evangelization with the persecution of the early church up through the Middle Ages, which is perhaps why in this modern age we are reluctant to heed the Pope's call.

                Evangelization in modern America, however, very rarely results in death. Today, living out your faith results in a new kind of persecution. Catholic culture is by no means mainstream. In fact, living a Catholic life is very counter-cultural. In a recent homily on the beatitudes, a Holy Cross Father remarked on how living life according to Catholic teaching should not be easy. We live in a culture where we are pulled in an opposite direction. Hollywood teaches us that casual sex is the norm, that modesty is irrelevant and that we should be allowed to express ourselves in whatever means necessary. It is extremely difficult to live a life fully steeped in our Catholic faith where we evangelize through our actions rather than words.

In a recent study performed by the Pew Research Center, only 41% of Catholics report attending worship serves on a weekly basis, 41% report attending monthly or a few times a year and 17% never or seldom attend. We’ve all been in mass on Christmas or Easter in extremely over packed church’s wondering why it is we never see some parishioners at regular Sunday masses. The New Evangelization encourages us to seek out these Catholics. Catholics who have been swayed by the mass media, Catholics who need a helping hand in returning to the faith. This New Evangelization calls us to always be witnesses to our faith and to be vocal about it, to explain why we are Catholic and what that means to us and engage in dialogue with those around us.

       
          Living out our Catholic faith in light of the New Evangelization we are called to means much more than daily prayer or weekly mass. It means first being a witness in the fights we are waging – it means being willing and open to adoption as pro-lifers, it means defending the stance of traditional marriage through both word and action, it means serving and befriending the poor. Being an evangelizing Catholic means encouraging our family and friends to do the same. It means preaching the Good News everywhere we go and not being afraid to talk to others we know to be of different faiths about our own beliefs.

Discernment: What's it All About!?

Discernment: It’s one of those words you are probably very familiar with if you grew up in the Catholic faith and one you’ve probably never heard of if you didn’t. In recent years, I’ve grown very wary of this word. People throw around the word like they should be discerning every life choice. “I’m not sure if I should apply to the program, I have to discern. I’m discerning if this is the right college for me. We are discerning a relationship.” These casual references to discernment, however, detract from the real meaning. Even more than that, I’ve found myself truly frustrated with those people who use ‘discerning’ as a way to push off a commitment or a decision. Several times I’ve heard that discernment is a Catholic’s way to make procrastination seem okay. At the same time, however, discernment is a process that is taught and endorsed by the Catholic Church, so shouldn’t we support it? Well, that depends on the definition and context of discernment.

Discernment can be defined in so many different ways. We can consider spiritual discernment, vocational discernment, career discernment or everyday discernment just to name a few. Digging deeper, we can even consider different approaches to discernment, most notably Ignatius discernment. With all the different types of discernment, however, the most important aspect remains the same, and that is to be acting in accordance with God’s will. Sounds easy, right?

In a conversation with Ed Mack who works with students at ND seeking guidance in discernment, and quite an expert on the subject, he noted that the two most vital things in a discernment process are honesty and prayer: honesty, especially with yourself, and prayer, taking time out of your day and in your decision process to spend time with God. It seems like nearly everyone has a different opinion on how to go about the discernment process, with all of their suggestions including finding peace in your decision. Again, this doesn’t sound super simple, so let’s break it down.

What does it mean to be honest with yourself? Well, this should be the easy part -- if we just eliminate all the influences constantly surrounding us. Unfortunately, that’s generally impossible to achieve. So what do we do? Maybe we give up. Or maybe we first try to be honest with ourselves; are we simply using this discernment period to delay a decision or are we truly struggling with what is the right decision? And then we find those people in our lives who we can always talk to. Those people who will allow us to talk through our decisions and offer advice that we value. Our family and friends often know us best and if they’re true friends, they’ll support us in decisions we think are best for us and will push us to do better when we go down a wrong path. So talk to a friend, a spiritual director, a priest, or Ed Mack! (His office is in CoMo right by the ball floating in water and he is quite open to students dropping by whenever.)

Praying also seems like an easy task. We’ve all been taught how to pray at some point in our lives. However, when we think about finding peace with our decision through prayer, we immediately come up against the question of, how do we know if we’ve found peace? What does that mean? The problem with starting discernment in this way is that if we’ve never known or felt peace, how will we recognize if we are at peace with our decision? As a result, in addition to Ed Mack’s two criteria, I would add a third: if we have never felt peace in our lives, most importantly in our prayer lives, we must learn what it means for us to be at peace. This perhaps is the hardest piece of the puzzle – knowing that we have come to the right decision.

 

In his most recent interview with America magazine, Pope Francis offered some wisdom on the process of discernment. He said, “Sometimes discernment instead urges us to do precisely what you had at first thought you would do later…I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time. The wisdom of discernment redeems the necessary ambiguity of life and helps us find the most appropriate means, which do not always coincide with what looks great and strong.”

The process of discernment takes time and generally relates to big decisions in our lives. We need to be patient in these decisions, but also ready to take the first step.   God works with each one of us in a unique way, all we have to do is listen and follow.

One-on-One Time with God

Adoration, or Eucharistic Exposition, is often one of the most overlooked forms of prayer. Adoration is a time of silent worship and contemplation before the exposed Eucharist – the Body of our Lord. While not a sacrament itself, it is a form of prayer from which we receive great graces. When we consider what Adoration truly is, it seems that it is exactly what we are striving for in heaven – to be fully in the presence of God. Why is it, then, that we are not constantly running to Adoration? Why is it not a place we visit daily?

Adoration is a form of prayer that uniquely places an emphasis on you and your relationship with God. We are not caught up in the recitation of prayers or worrying that we remember the exact phrasing of the new mass translations, we are silent and we are solely in the focus of God. This is not to say that the rosary or the Mass are lesser forms of prayer, the mass is the greatest; rather it is to emphasize the different qualities of Adoration and to suggest that perhaps we need to start incorporating this form of prayer into our faith lives as well.

In some ways we can think of our relationship with God as a child in a large family. Being in a large family is fantastic – I can attest to this fact being from a family of seven children! There are many perks to being in a large family, there is always someone around to help you out or to go along with your stupid ideas. However, just like coming from a small family, that one-on-one relationship with your parents is so important and helps you grow like no other relationship can. In our faith lives, we need to make sure that we make time for that one on one relationship, time to seek God in the quiet and still and to focus just on you and Him.

Attending a half hour or hour of Adoration can oftentimes be difficult for us. We are so used to constantly being entertained-- texting, calling, FB updates, tweets and music! We have been trained to hate the silence and to never purposely “go off the grid” and not check our phones for an entire hour! In the beginning of this semester I realized that I did not start classes on Tuesday and Thursday until 12:30pm. While it sounds like every college student’s dream, I knew I’d have a hard time being productive before class if I didn’t have an extra motivating factor. Having heard about adoration sign-ups last year I decided to give it a try this year and sign up for a Thursday morning slot to at least get my day started a little earlier. In the beginning, I had a very hard time concentrating. Not sure what to do for an entire thirty minutes, I tried to completely rid my mind – it did not work very well, I tend to overanalyze just about everything. I cannot tell you exactly what it is that has kept me coming back, except that I knew I had an obligation to be there since I had signed up. I can, however, attest to the fact that I’ve always left feeling better and I’ve come to look forward to that silent time, a time of reflection and listening. As I continually try to unravel my thoughts into a cohesive prayer, I’ve come to realize that the beauty of Adoration is that we don’t have to come before God as something that we are not. We should bring all our worries, our troubles, and our exciting news, and we should lay it before the Lord. This is not to say that we should not try to focus on the Eucharist but that we should approach this time with God as a time to stop, tell God what is on our mind, and listen to what He has to say – just as we would with a parent.

Mother Teresa was perhaps one of the biggest advocates of Adoration. She once said, “Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there.  If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration.The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth.  Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring about everlasting peace on earth.”

Together, we should challenge ourselves and our friends to spend this time with Jesus – to take time out of our hectic schedules so that we too can better understand His love and His path for our lives.

Adoration is available on campus Monday – Thursday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. (Coleman-Morse Chapel) and
Friday: 12 – 5 p.m. (Basilica, Lady Chapel)