Providence

It’s more than just a city in Rhode Island; it’s God’s intervention in all things – even your evangelization. But it requires something from you.

How often do we think to ourselves, “Evangelization is not my responsibility; that’s for the clergy and religious. Certainly not me; I have no training or skill, I’m not persuasive. I’m too young (too old, too busy). No way! Evangelization must be someone else’s job.”

Today’s Gospel gives a good example of how Divine Providence makes a way where there is “no way.” The disciples said, “Dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food.” But Jesus had another way and Divine Providence fed the five thousand.

Christian teaching on providence in the high Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. One of the foremost modern Thomists, Dominican father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, wrote a study of providence entitled "Providence: God's loving care for man and the need for confidence in Almighty God." In it, he presents and solves, according to Church doctrine, the most difficult issues as related to providence.

The key words in Fr. Reginald’s study’s title are “confidence in Almighty God.” From simple beginnings, our own evangelization of ourselves, our friends and families, our communities and the whole world must start. And from simple, single, first steps made with confidence in Almighty God, we may build our own path of evangelization.

 

1. Read the Bible every day. Listen to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you through what you have read.

2. Make your faith eternally visible by wearing a crucifix or simple cross, a shirt bearing a slogan or sign of faith, a ring or other small piece of jewelry showing your belief in Jesus.

3. When eating out or in the school or workplace lunch room, say grace silently, or at least quietly; bless yourself with the Sign of the Cross.

4. Make a habit of saying, “God bless,” or “Bless you,” to friends, family, colleagues and associates, when it is appropriate.

5. Pray each day for Providence to grace you with confidence, strength and joy enough to answer any question from anyone about God, your faith, or anything else.

What Does the Bible Say?

“But your providence, O Father! guides [a voyage], for you have furnished even in the sea a road, and through the waves a steady path showing that you can save from any danger so that even one without skill may embark.” (Wisdom 14:3-4)

Favorite Websites

Learning more about our faith, connecting with other Catholics around the world and listening to Catholic voices in new Expressions, with new Ardor through new Methods.

 The Catholic Thing is very scholarly but highly readable and updated daily, some of today’s leading Catholic writers are contributors to this blog – Anthony Esolen, Christine Niles, Hadley Arkes, Kristina Johannes, Daniel McInerney and David Warren. You will also find some classic essays by Archbishop Sheen, Fr. John Neuhaus and Cardinal John Henry Newman.

 

Founded in 2008, the Pious Sodality of Church Ladies is unlike any other Catholic blog I’ve encountered. Catholic ladies, to be sure, and pious I will believe that, too. But imagine your favorite Catholic female writers on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest serving up tips and advice on everything on God’s green earth – all with a healthy dose of humor and fun. The PSCL has a close relationship (perhaps overlapping ownership) with…

 Although very much a commercial, online magazine for women, Verily is also very much a website of which “the Church Ladies heartily approve!” That is, an online publication focusing on style, relationships, culture and lifestyle, all aimed at young women and all pleasing to read from a Catholic point of view.

Iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, honest and faith-filled, this Louisiana-based blogger has been at it since 2007. His observations and essays on current events in and affecting the Church are informed, unique and fully grounded in one man’s deep understanding of the Catechism and Church publications. The Opinionated Catholic - he’s the guy you would want to sit next to at a dinner party.

Whether you’re young or old, this should be in your favorites. FOCUS is a Catholic college outreach with a staff of over 350 and a presence on 83 campuses across the United States

Six Signs to Look For

This week, we begin a series on Being A Disciple: How to Evangelize. A writer for the “Catholics Come Home” organization brings us a way to start. You might know someone who was raised Catholic and is “homesick” for the Church. As an intentional disciple, be aware of these six signs someone is thinking about coming back to the Church.

1. Questions

The most common sign is when someone begins to ask questions about God, good and evil, or the meaning of life. A lot of people in our society have lost that sense of meaning. They begin to ask, “What is my life about? Why do I do what I do? Is there any purpose in all of this?” As a parent, spouse, sibling or friend, your role is not to restore that meaning, but to help the person find meaning for him or herself. You can do that by active listening. Non-threatening comments such as, “It sounds like you’re really searching...” will encourage the person to talk in a more open manner. You don’t have to offer solutions or answers. Offer your opinion only when asked.

2. Memories

Reminiscing about Catholic school, nuns, priests, or parish activities is another sign someone may be thinking about returning to the faith. Sometimes people will recall childhood devotions to Our Lady or the saints. Memories of music, incense, or some special liturgy will surface. Don’t be afraid to share your own memories. You might want to suggest revisiting a childhood parish together or seeking out a priest or religious who had a profound impact on the person. If remembering takes a negative turn, you don’t have to be defensive. The person may be justified in his or her anger. Sometimes, talking about a bad experience can help put it in a fresh perspective. If possible encourage the person to separate anger toward a person from anger at the Church and the Sacraments. It wasn’t the Church that caused the pain. It was a person connected to the Church. If a person is open to praying with you, ask the Holy Spirit to heal the pain of the memories.

3. Reading

Many Catholics who have been away from the regular practice of their faith read their way back to the Church. It’s a good idea to keep Catholic books, magazines, newspapers and even your parish bulletin in places where family members and friends can pick them up. If there’s something particular that you think might be of interest, recommend it to family members and friends. One woman sent books on Dorothy Day and Edith Stein to her sister who was struggling with how she perceived that the Church treats women.

4. Current Events

Catholic news events can trigger interest in some people. Make sure you’re up to date on Papal visits, Marian apparitions, Vatican announcements and local news about Catholic people and events. Even the reporting of sexual abuse by clergy and other Church ministers can be an opportunity to explain to people why you are still a Catholic. When people respond in a very strong way to the actions of some in the Church it is always important to listen carefully to what they are saying before responding. While we may think we know the reason for their reaction, it would be good to let the other person state it. Sometimes the strong reaction is because the person has been affected personally by what is being reported. When discussing any aspect of Catholic news it’s a good idea to emphasize the universality of the Church. Unlike other Christian denominations that tend to attract people with similar interests and backgrounds, the Catholic Church numbers one billion people with greatly different cultural, intellectual, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Someone once remarked that the Catholic Church means, “Here comes everybody!”

5. Major Life Events

Illness, death, divorce, the birth of a baby, a job loss or transfer, kids growing into their teenage years, moving to a new home are all life events that cause great change in people’s lives. Such change can make people feel adrift; they want to be able to pull into a safe harbor, to be anchored. Such changes can trigger a desire to return to the Church. Sometimes people are afraid the Church will reject them if they have been gone for a long time. Some think they are excommunicated. You might find yourself in a position of helping someone get accurate information about where they stand with God and the Church. We affirm that the immeasurable mercy of God is for all and that nothing is insurmountable to re-connecting to the Church.

6. God’s Presence

The real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is often a factor in bringing people back. People express a longing for the closeness and the strength that the Eucharist had brought to them. It’s hard for people to go to church by themselves. Be an inviter. Don’t send someone to Church. Bring them. Invite people to come with you for family funerals, weddings, baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, Ash Wednesday and Mass on Christmas and Easter. Having everyone gathering at the Table of the Lord for the “family meal” is certainly a wonderful thing to work towards. If they find it difficult to make that step or don’t want to go to Mass, you can invite them to parish social, cultural or educational events. But, some people need a “half-way house.” Keep the lines of communication open. Radiate God’s love to everyone you meet. Let the Holy Spirit work through you. Before long, you’ll begin to see that people will be attracted to the Church because they desire the faith, the love and the peace that you have come to know because of your relationship with God and with the Church.

– David Thorp, Catholics Come Home, Braintree MA

The First Evangelizers

Sometimes, the most easily understood analogies to modern sensibilities are business or organizational analogies. The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus' death. His name is first on every list of apostles. Peter, you might say, was the first CAO (Chief Apostolic Officer) of the Church.

St. Peter, chief among Christ's twelve disciples, spent his life spreading the word of Jesus. And to Peter only did Jesus say, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:17b-19).

But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus. He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-centeredness, "What are we going to get for all this?" (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ's anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do" (Matthew 16:23). He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus's ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).

For all the suffering brought to Judea by oppressive Roman rule, it also brought the latest advances of technology. St. Paul used the very latest technology of his day to spread the Good News – the paved roads of the Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, in light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul's name has surfaced (among others) as a possible patron of the Internet. But it is amazing to grasp the truly radical nature of St. Paul’s evangelization. If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul's life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Paul's central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.

Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God's chosen people, the children of the promise.

Thanks to Wikipedia.org, American Catholic.org, Catholic News Agency, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and USCCB.net.

What Does the Church Say?

“It is always useful to teach the faithful to realize the importance and significance of the feasts of those Saints who have had a particular mission in the history of Salvation, or a singular relationship with Christ such as … Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June)”

—Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

What Do the Saints Say?

“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”

—St. Augustine of Hippo, 395

A Civilization of Love

Part of an interview with Archbishop William E. Lori

The 3^rd Annual Fortnight for Freedom began this weekend and runs through July 4. The Archbishop of Baltimore discusses it and some of the HHS cases. In a wide-ranging interview, Archbishop Lori touched on the likely outcome of Hobby Lobby’s legal challenge to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate and legislative efforts at the state level to secure religious freedom.

“A major issue is challenges to religious freedom at the state level. During recent legislative seasons, attempts to secure legislation modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) have run into difficulties. We saw that in Kansas, Arizona and other states. Even attempts to make modest improvements to laws already on the books have been vigorously opposed by people who want to limit religious freedom… new challenges to religious freedom raised by the advent of same-sex "marriage" at the state level. As of yet, no one is insisting that same-sex "marriages" be solemnized in church. Nonetheless, [changes in state marriage laws] affect a range of issues, like hiring and faculty contracts in Catholic schools.”

Are we entering a new phase in the campaign to challenge misconceptions about religious freedom?

“There [has been] a shift in thinking: Religious freedom is still constitutionally guaranteed, but it should be counterbalanced by other rights, such as those pertaining to ‘reproductive freedom’ and the freedom to marry.

Now, in the most recent stage in thinking about religious freedom, it is considered to be a bad thing. It represents an attempt to forbid people from doing things they have a right to do and to impose irrational opinions on the culture at large, through public advocacy, the delivery of services by religious institutions and their hiring practices.

The majority of people may not see it that way, but we have reached the point that a very hostile view of religious freedom has moved into broad daylight.

All intermediate institutions are, to some extent, under attack, especially the family. The family is the prime institution that mediates between the power of the state and the individual conscience. Certainly, religious faith can play that role, but the current trend is to privatize religion: As long as churches are just a club where people come to pray, there is complete freedom. But when the Church speaks or acts to serve the common good or when [religious institutions and individuals] enter the workplace — when they hire or fire — that’s another story.

At the moment, there is no movement from the administration or from Congress [regarding legislative or legal challenges to the HHS mandate].”

Do you see any change in public opinion among Catholics and others of goodwill on the emerging threats to religious freedom?

“If we were practicing our faith at historic levels, I don’t think these challenges to religious freedom would have gained the traction they have gained. But fewer people go to

church and practice their religion, and so these challenges are more politically feasible. There is a clear link between evangelization and the defense of religious liberty. The more Catholics know, understand, practice and love their faith, the more ready they will be as citizens to defend their own faith and defend the right of their fellow citizens to live out their faith.

That said, I believe there is more support among Catholics, evangelicals, the Orthodox Jewish community and other groups of faith believers and minority religions to defend religious liberty than the popular media would lead us to believe.

It is hard to say how the court will decide the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases, but we hope for a robust defense of the right of people of faith who have founded companies to live their faith in the very enterprise they run.

I would be surprised if the court ruled more broadly, in a way that could affect legal challenges brought by religious nonprofits.

We selected the theme ‘Freedom to Serve’ [as the theme for Fortnight for Freedom] because what is under attack is not our right to worship, but our right to go beyond our places of worship and serve the poor and the young.

Once again, the opening Mass will be on June 21 at the Baltimore basilica, and the closing Mass on July 4 will be at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

During the fortnight, we invite people to engage in acts of Christian service or become directly involved in the Church’s outreach to the poor and the needy. Let’s understand that challenges to religious freedom are parallel to challenges to life and family. What is called for is not just a short-term effort, but a movement that brings together life, marriage, service to the needy and religious freedom.

We have to take the long view, as the pro-life movement did in 1973, and ask for God’s grace to keep going. We are talking about the creation of a true civilization of love that is pre-eminently a work of faith.”

Read the entire interview at: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/archbishop-lori-encourages-service-to-church-and-country/