WHEREAS, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has declared that the next 12 months shall be a Year of Faith;
And WHEREAS, our Supreme Pastor has encouraged the use of social media to promote the teaching and preaching of the Gospel worldwide;
And WHEREAS, Yours Truly is one of the many Catholics who make use of social media to spread the Good News;
HERE is a question: what specifically can HancAquam do for you in this Year of Faith?
UPDATE: Let me be a little more specific: what sorts of posts can I write to help you better understand, live out, and spread the Gospel?
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Father,
ReplyDeleteI'm on staff at a relatively small parish in the Pacific Northwest. One of the issues that comes up a lot is how to engage family members (specifically spouses) who are not Catholic. A number of parishioners find it difficult to practice their faith - and teach their children - with antagonistic family members.
On a related note, I read an article recently which said that the most "unChristianized" city in America is Portland, Oregon (near where I live). So, we are definitely in mission territory up here.
Thank you so much for your blog, Father. God bless you!
Debbie, many thanks for the idea. . .had never really thought of this before. My own family is Baptist but they don't have a problem with me being Catholic. I will think/pray on your suggestion and see what comes up.
DeleteI second Debbie's idea, especially when the antagonism is not overt. As adults, I think we can find some ways to deal with it, but when there are children involved and the subersive opposition becomes noticeable to the kids, or starts to affect them - that's when things get dicey. It's one thing to not practice the faith - it's something entirely different to encourage (subconsciously, perhaps) a young child to NOT go to Mass with mom/dad just because you yourself don't want to go.
DeleteAnd what's up with the PNW? Must be something in the water up here :-). I don't think Seattle is too far behind Portland on the "un-Christianized" list.
I gave your question some more thought and prayer and I think I would appreciate some ponderings or teachings on certain aspects of the Catechism, and maybe some parts of the Vatican II documents...I don't know which, because I haven't read them (gasp!), but one of the goals I have for this year is to finish reading the Catechism and study some parts of Vat II. In this vein, in my usual morning perusal of websites and blogs, lo and behold there it was: Fr. Lawrence Lew's homily for today ... this is just what I was thinking of: he applied some lessons from the Catechism/Vat II docs to today's readings. And there is also an excellent, thought-provoking piece regarding the Liturgy from Msgr Pope over on his blog -- so certainly also directing us toward what others are writing or saying, especially regarding the Catechism, Vat II, Liturgy, etc.... That way you don't have to do ALL the work :-).
ReplyDeleteWell, you're a member of the Order of Preachers and as such you preach homilies often and (nealy always) well. Most of your readers aren't preachers in that same sense and, even if they were, wouldn't gain audience by sermonizing on streetcorners. How's about ways to evangelize by example and by less formal - even conversational - means?
ReplyDelete