We Need to Become Witnesses

It's been a very busy week and I haven't found the time to post between presenting missal workshops, teaching, my normal workload and redecorating the house (which now includes tearing down half a wall) and I find my free time is better used just vegging out in front of the TV or taking a nap.  I do feel compelled to write on one interesting presentation I attended on Friday at our diocesan seminary in Huntington, NY.  It was at our annual Catechetical Leader formation day and the guest speaker was Brooklyn's Auxiliary Bishop Frank Caggiano.  His presentation was on the New Evangelization and "facing the headwinds."  

While he didn't offer any concrete solutions to the problems that we in catechetical ministry face today, he did get us thinking.  The first thing he said was that formation must come before evangelization, and the ones that need to be formed in the faith are those who will be evangelizing. It is so clear that so many Catholics today do not know their faith and that hampers any attempts at evangelizing others. People can't share what they do not know.

He also spoke of the difference between personal faith and private faith.  In this world of rampant individualism, many people have a personal faith but they keep that faith private.  It is not something they talk about. It is not something that involves others.  Bishop Caggiano said that our Catholic faith is deeply personal, but it can never be private.  As Catholics we are part of a community of believers and for faith to blossom and grow it must be shared.  He explained that in order to know how to evangelize we need only look back at the ancient Church, back to the beginnings.  People became followers of Christ because they had a personal encounter with Him or with those who knew Him.  As Christianity spread more and more people came to know Christ through the witness of others.  "We need", the bishop said, "to become witnesses."  This is done not only through our words, but through the witness of what we do and integrity of our lives. We see this in today's gospel.  Jesus tells his followers to listen to what the Pharisees say but not what they do.  In other words, "actions speak louder than words."

In a room full of DREs, youth ministers, priests, deacons, Pastoral Associates and other Faith Formation leaders, we were all aware of the troubling statistics regarding the state of the Catholic Church here in the states, and more so elsewhere in the world.  How do we overcome these troubling times where 88% of Catholics, according to a recent poll, believe themselves to be good Catholics even though they don't follow Church teaching and only 33% attend Mass on a regular basis?  We need to do as the ancient Christians did, we need to help people discover the Truth in the person of Jesus Christ. But first we ourselves must know the Truth.  We must be well formed in our faith in order to introduce it to others. 

I really did like Bishop Caggiano's presentation and I made a connection with him in that we were both baptized at St. Simon and Jude Church in Brooklyn, and his family lived just down the road from my Dad's office where I worked for so many years.  He is also young, dynamic and energetic, and I am sure he will go far.  He inspired all of us who gathered on Friday to renew our commitment not only know and pass on the truths of our faith but to truly know the Truth in the Person of Jesus Christ who is "the Way, the Truth and the Life."

New Beginnings

Today was our annual Mass and luncheon to kick off the new school and parish ministry year. Here on Long Island Catholic schools begin classes tomorrow, and parish ministries which have been on hiatius for the summer will begin to meet again.  Our parish is one of two unique parishes on Long Island as we have both an elementary and a high school as well as over 60 active parish ministries. Over 130 members of our parish staff, faculty, and maintainance department gathered to ask God's blessing on this new year.

Even though my own kids are well beyond school age, I still get a bit of a thrill seeing kids in nice new clothes and backpacks standing on the corners with their parents waiting for the big yellow busses to scoop them up and carry them off to school. Today our kindergartners, in their neatly pressed new blue and white plaid uniforms, came in a day early to meet the teachers and explore their new classroom.  I get excited too about the new ministry year. I have several projects in the works, a few new ministries that are waiting to begin, and of course preparing the parish for the revised texts of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. Then there are meetings and meetings and more meetings.  I think my impending surgery in two weeks will save me from only a few of them.

Yes, there is something exciting about new beginnings. In parish work it is time to get back into a routine, set priorities, meet new people and spread the Good News. It seems that the quietness of the parish suddenly ends come Labor Day and that interest in things with regard to our faith increases in September. We get calls for RCIA, interest in volunteering, and inquiries about courses.  There are last minute registrations for Religious Ed and more parish registrations. I think we all live in that "school year" mentality, but for God there are no seasons, no vacation time and every day is a new beginning.  God in His gracious Love for us gives us the opportunity each and every day to begin again, to let go of all that keeps us from His Love, and to start again.  Taking time each night to reflect on our day, to do an examen of consciousness, to see how we have failed living our Christian faith, where we have done well, and resolving to live our lives in Christ the following day.  It is a wonderful way to end the night.

So as the busses arrive in our parking lot tomorrow morning with kids from three to seventeen eager and ready to begin a new school year, I offer a prayer for their success and that they are open to their academic study and to learning about our wonderful faith.  I pray for the teachers happily greet their new students, that they will treat each student as Christ would. I pray for the parents, especially those whose children are just beginning their school career. and I pray for all in our parish and in parishes all over as they begin the new ministry year that our evangelization efforts, through the Grace of God, will bring new people into the faith, awaken the faith of those who are Catholic in name only, and create in our regular parishioners a deeper desire to know Christ and to live the Gospel.

Celebrate who we are.

Deacon Greg over at The Deacon's Bench posted this video yesterday. Isn't it great to see young people celebrating our Cathoic faith!  This is what the New Evangelization is about...getting the word out to our young people (and us older folks too).