Heavenly Father,
Pour forth your Holy Spirit to inspire me with these words from Holy Scripture.
Stir in my soul the desire to renew my faith and deepen my relationship with your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ so that I might truly believe in and live the Good News.
Open my heart to hear the Gospel and grant me the confidence to proclaim the Good News to others.
Pour out your Spirit, so that I might be strengthened to go forth and witness to the Gospel in my everyday life through my words and actions.
In moments of hesitation, remind me:
If not me, then who will proclaim the Gospel?
If not now, then when will the Gospel be proclaimed?
If not the truth of the Gospel, then what shall I proclaim?
God, our Father, I pray that through the Holy Spirit I might hear the call of the New Evangelization to deepen my faith, grow in confidence to proclaim the Gospel and boldly witness to the saving grace of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
We have completely lost our understanding of sin. We look at the Ten Commandments and justify our behavior to meet our own made-up criteria for Heaven. When I half-jokingly make references to the Sacrament of Confession to family and friends, the responses I hear are "Hey, I haven't killed anybody" or "I think I'm fine."
Over the past year during the Year of Faith, priests in the churches I have attended have had numerous occasions to more completely define sin in our modern culture. I was rooting them on. Many times they would get close - I was ready to stand and applaud! But, alas, they would back off, and I found myself shrinking in the pew. I'm hungry to hear it. I'm anxious for all of us to hear it.
Read carefully the Prayer of New Evangelization from the USCCB's web site above. There are plenty of theological truths that are worthy praying for. But there's no mention of a better understanding of sin. This is a huge, huge oversight. In fact, it strongly demonstrates how progressive relativism has cannonball-ed into parishes and most unfortunately chanceries.
Sex before marriage (fornication), co-habitation, adultery (looking lustfully at another is committing adultery in the heart; see Matt 5:28), contraception, abortion, drunkenness, poor church attendance, taking Jesus Christ's name in vain (blasphemy), lying, cheating, and stealing (we all do it usually in very small ways) - do we ever, ever hear a priest remind us of these sins, with practical examples?
We are all lying, cheating, blaspheming, fornicating, drunken adulterers. We are raising our children this way. We are catechizing this way. We have to vigilantly present, be presented with, and be reminded of the realities of death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. And not our own made up definitions but the truths from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Amen!
Pour forth your Holy Spirit to inspire me with these words from Holy Scripture.
Stir in my soul the desire to renew my faith and deepen my relationship with your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ so that I might truly believe in and live the Good News.
Open my heart to hear the Gospel and grant me the confidence to proclaim the Good News to others.
Pour out your Spirit, so that I might be strengthened to go forth and witness to the Gospel in my everyday life through my words and actions.
In moments of hesitation, remind me:
If not me, then who will proclaim the Gospel?
If not now, then when will the Gospel be proclaimed?
If not the truth of the Gospel, then what shall I proclaim?
God, our Father, I pray that through the Holy Spirit I might hear the call of the New Evangelization to deepen my faith, grow in confidence to proclaim the Gospel and boldly witness to the saving grace of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Prayer of New Evangelization, http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers/new-evangelization-prayer.cfm
We have completely lost our understanding of sin. We look at the Ten Commandments and justify our behavior to meet our own made-up criteria for Heaven. When I half-jokingly make references to the Sacrament of Confession to family and friends, the responses I hear are "Hey, I haven't killed anybody" or "I think I'm fine."
Over the past year during the Year of Faith, priests in the churches I have attended have had numerous occasions to more completely define sin in our modern culture. I was rooting them on. Many times they would get close - I was ready to stand and applaud! But, alas, they would back off, and I found myself shrinking in the pew. I'm hungry to hear it. I'm anxious for all of us to hear it.
Read carefully the Prayer of New Evangelization from the USCCB's web site above. There are plenty of theological truths that are worthy praying for. But there's no mention of a better understanding of sin. This is a huge, huge oversight. In fact, it strongly demonstrates how progressive relativism has cannonball-ed into parishes and most unfortunately chanceries.
Sex before marriage (fornication), co-habitation, adultery (looking lustfully at another is committing adultery in the heart; see Matt 5:28), contraception, abortion, drunkenness, poor church attendance, taking Jesus Christ's name in vain (blasphemy), lying, cheating, and stealing (we all do it usually in very small ways) - do we ever, ever hear a priest remind us of these sins, with practical examples?
We are all lying, cheating, blaspheming, fornicating, drunken adulterers. We are raising our children this way. We are catechizing this way. We have to vigilantly present, be presented with, and be reminded of the realities of death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. And not our own made up definitions but the truths from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Amen!
