The New Evangelization of Hearts and Minds (part 1)

Transcription

1 We all are the Priestly People of God. Together, we are leaders in responding to the emotional and spiritual needs of Priests and Brothers. Nov Vol. 28 No. 8 During this Year of Faith (October 11, 2012 November 24, 2013) Priestly People will be bringing you many articles, homilies and reports that are available through a variety of permissions and re-prints. The Year of Faith was called to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II but also to revitalize the Catholic Church through New Evangelization. The New Evangelization of Hearts and Minds (part 1) We have to find ways of touching people s hearts, as well as engaging their minds. These are the words of Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, UK, Synod father for the XIII Ordinary General Assembly for the New Evangelization, which is currently in its third and final week here in Rome. Archbishop Longley spoke with ZENIT about the prayerful sense of community which this Synod affords those who are participating, and about the work of the Holy Spirit in the mission of the New Evangelization. ZENIT: We are now into the third and final week of the Synod. What have been your impressions up to this point? The logo is composed of a square, bordered field on which a boat, symbolizing the Church, is represented as sailing on a graphically minimal representation of waves. The main mast of the boat is a cross from which sails are displayed in the form of dynamic signs which compose the trigram of Christ (IHS). The background to the sails is a sun which, associated with the trigram, refers also to the Eucharist. Archbishop Longley: At the moment I have a range of contrasting impressions. First of all, regarding the first week of the Synod, it was a period of really intense listening, and the quality of our time together at prayer, reflection, and listening to one another was very beneficial. Especially for bishops: so often when we are at occasions in our own dioceses, people look to us to pass on a message, or some insight in our preaching, in our teaching and in what we say. But in these days, we have been called together in the presence of the Holy Father to listen to one another, and that requires an intense kind of listening, to be deeply obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through the Synod fathers, and through the Holy Father. I think it models some of the things we re looking for in the new evangelization. The way that we have been listening to one another encourages us when we return to our dioceses, and in the future, to listen intently to what the Holy Spirit is saying within the communities we are seeking to serve, as well in those places where there is goodness and truth, as the Second Vatican Council reminded us: amongst our brothers and sisters who are baptized in other Churches, among people of good will of other faiths, and among people who are seeking truth in their own lives. My first impression, then, was one of gratitude for the opportunity to listen quietly and prayerfully to one another.

2 The second week, moving into the circoli minori [language groups] with the production of the propositions, has been very creative, and I ve been uplifted by the insights of some of the experts, as well as some of my brother bishops and Synod Fathers: in particular, with regard to those things that concern young people, that concern the poor, and being able to see people not just as the objects of the new evangelization, but actually as the agents of the New Evangelization. The way in which the propositions have emerged has also been very impressive because these propositions have their roots in those first few days of listening, and a prayerful listening to one another. I think it has brought about a remarkable consensus. I was involved as a relator in the process of gathering together propositions, first of all in my own language of English, and then in the different languages. It was astonishing to see how there was a consensus beginning to emerge about the sorts of areas that we wanted to focus on in propositions. That process now will continue as we enter the third and final phase of the Synod where there will be modifications and amendments to the proposals over the next few days. ZENIT: What do you hope to take from this Synod to bring to the people back home, especially the laity? Archbishop Longley: Above all, I want to bring back that sense of being at one with the Holy Father and with the bishops of the Church gathered in this Synod. I know there is an awareness of that in my own archdiocese in Birmingham in the UK, where the celebrations for the Year of Faith have already begun remarkably well. I was very uplifted, and I think my own contribution to this Synod has been sustained by the prayers of the parishioners and the priests, deacons and religious in my own diocese at home. On the Sunday following the Holy Father s Mass opening the Year of Faith, I heard about the numbers being greater than our cathedral could hold at home, and having to be relayed to people in rooms outside the cathedral. There is that sense of enthusiasm amongst our own people to be the New Evangelizers, and I want to reinforce that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit Who is guiding this Synod of Bishops with the Holy Father, the same Spirit Who is drawing these good things up from the people within our parishes at home. ZENIT: You delivered one of the interventions at this Synod, and recently you also presented at one of the group discussions. Could you outline some of the main points of these addresses? Archbishop Longley: One of the central things, in my own intervention, was the way in which the Holy Spirit works through the mind and through the heart together. I gave the example of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, and how he himself was intellectually convinced of the claims of the Catholic Church, he knew that this is where the Lord was leading him, and yet for himself he needed his heart to be touched. His beautiful motto, cor ad cor loquitur, [ heart speaks unto the heart ] is a very fitting motto for the process for the work for the New Evangelization. We have to find ways of touching people s hearts, as well as engaging their minds. The two must go together; we cannot neglect either. But the thing that touches people s hearts is the example of Christian life within families, within marriages, reaching out to the poor and those who are in particular need in local societies, and a desire to actually love in the sense of being willing to give of ourselves, to spend our own energy for the good of others, whatever the return seems to be for ourselves, in the desire that this will show our faith. The example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which has come back from time to time to our own Synod here in images and in the interventions of the Synod fathers from India especially reminds us of the simplicity of a life of faith lived well, with concern for those who are in need, evangelizes so effectively. And it moves people, then, to want to explore the content of our faith.

3 The New Evangelization of Hearts and Minds (part 2) The universal call to holiness is also a call to evangelize in the world. These are the words of Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, UK, speaking about the important role of lay people in the mission of evangelization. Archbishop Longley is one of the synod fathers for the XIII Ordinary General Assembly for the New Evangelization, which is currently in its third and final week here in Rome. He spoke with ZENIT about the New Evangelization, and the example which Blessed Dominic Barbari and Blessed John Henry Newman bring to the faithful in the Church. ZENIT: Throughout the Synod we have been hearing a great deal about the role of the laity in the New Evangelization. However, what is being said about the importance of promoting religious vocations, especially among young people? Archbishop Longley: There is a very strong emphasis on upon the value of consecrated life within the Church and for the New Evangelization, and a recognition that the appreciation for the consecrated life and the life of the religious, as well as for the vocation to ordained ministry, it has its roots in the family. The appreciation within the family for those gifts of ministry, especially in terms of ordained ministry, the sharing in our Lord s own priesthood, springs from an appreciation for the priesthood of Christ as experienced in the lives of priests and deacons within the Church. The role of the laity in itself is a theme that is emphasized also, because working in collaboration with those in ordained ministry, lay faithful are in the places where they can preach through the example of their lives, their own witness to the faith as journalists, as politicians, as people in public life, as those in healthcare in all spheres of activity. This reminds people of the vision of the Second Vatican Council: this universal call to holiness is also a call to evangelize in the world. Lay Catholics, in their professional and public life, and within their family life and among their neighbors as well, have an opportunity to reach where, very often as pastors, it is very difficult for us to reach. ZENIT: The patron of for the Archdiocese of Birmingham for this Year of Faith is Blessed Dominic Barbari. Could you speak about why he was chosen as the patron? Archbishop Longley: The relationship between Blessed Dominic Barbari of the Mother of God the Italian Passionist priest who had a burning desire to come to England and to evangelize there and Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, is something I mentioned in my intervention. Blessed John Henry Newman s heart was touched by the example and the witness of this Italian Passionist. We ve adopted Blessed Dominic Barbari as the patron for the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith in our own archdiocese in Birmingham, not least because next year is the 50th anniversary of his beatification. I want to encourage people to intensify prayer, especially for the intervention of Blessed Dominic and Blessed John Henry Newman because it would be marvelous to see them both eventually canonized, perhaps together, if that is the will of the Lord. ZENIT: You were appointed Chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales Special Commission on Overseas Seminaries. There is a rich history of mission attached to those seminaries, especially at the time of the reformation at a time when it was illegal to train priests in England. For instance, the Venerable English College here in Rome, which this year celebrates its 650th anniversary, has such a history. Could you speak about promoting, or renewing, this spirit of mission throughout this Year of Faith? Archbishop Longley: I m delighted that I ve been called upon by my own bishops conference to serve our three seminaries overseas: the two seminaries in Rome (the Venerable English College whose history reaches back to the time of the reformation as a seminary, and as a hostel for pilgrims to Rome much before, emphasizing the link between England, and Wales, and the Holy See). The Beta college, a pontifical college near Saint Paul s Outside the Walls, was developed principally for older vocations; those who were converts to the Catholic Faith. In Spain also, there is the English College in Saint Alban s in Valladolid. Those two old colleges spring from a desire to ensure that the Catholic faith wasn t lost within England and Wales, and now they give our seminarians in those places an extraordinary experience of the universal Church. That is something which they carry with them into ministry as priests. For those three colleges I m grateful that they are well supported, and the men who come home as priests to England and Wales have a very deep sense not only the bond of with the Holy Father, but of the universality of the Church two things which we ve experienced in a remarkable way during this Synod of Bishops. Servants of the Paraclete have a subscription for reprint from ZENIT.

4 Year of Faith The Creed I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

5 Servants of the Paraclete... Celebrating 65 years of Priests for Priests For 65 years the Servants of the Paraclete have reached out in ministry to those fellow priests and religious brothers who have come to them in pain and suffering. Be it issues of personality, vocation, addiction... the ministry to listen, pray, forgive and provide has been unfailing. While the winter usually brings thoughts of cold, early dark and snow... it is in the brilliance of that season that Father Gerald found the Servants of the Paraclete in the snow filled canyons of New Mexico; January The beauty of all the seasons in the canyon cannot be expressed on paper... only in the eye of the beholder. We share our winter scenes from Jemez Springs, New Mexico!

6 During the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI is presenting a series of catechesis on faith during general audiences. We bring this series to you as part of our commitment to the Year of Faith and the New Evangelization. In our series of catechesis for the Year of Faith, we now consider the nature of faith. More than simply knowledge about God, faith is a living encounter with him. Through faith we come to know and love God, who reveals himself in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and in so doing reveals the deepest meaning and truth of our human existence. Faith offers us sure hope and direction amid the spiritual confusion of our times. Before all else, faith is a divine gift which enables us to open our hearts and minds to God s word and, through Baptism, to share in his divine life within the community of the Church. Yet faith is also a profoundly human act, engaging our intelligence and freedom. When we welcome God s invitation and gift, our lives, and the world around us, are transformed. May this Year of Faith help us to live our faith fully, and to invite others to hear and welcome God s word, opening their hearts to the eternal life which faith promises. Faith is a gift of God, but it is also a profoundly free and human act Dear brothers and sisters, With the inauguration of the Year of Faith, I begin a new series of catechesis on faith. And today I would like to reflect with you on the basic question: What is faith? Does faith still make sense in a world where science and technology have opened horizons heretofore unimagined? What does it mean to believe today? Indeed, in our own day a renewed education in the faith is greatly needed. This should naturally include a knowledge of the truths of the faith and the events of salvation, but above all it should come from a true encounter with God in Jesus Christ, from loving Him, from trusting Him, so that it involves the whole of our lives. Today, along with so many signs of goodness, a kind of spiritual desert is also widening around us. Sometimes we get the feeling from certain events we hear about each day that the world is not moving towards the building up of a more fraternal and peaceful community. The very ideas of progress and wellbeing also reveal their shadows. Despite the grandeur of scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs, men today do not seem to have become freer and more humane; so many forms of exploitation, manipulation, violence, oppression and injustice still remain. In addition, a certain kind of culture has taught men to move only along the horizons of things, of the practical, and to believe only in what can be seen and touched with one s hands. On the other hand, however, there are an increasing number of people who feel lost and who - in the quest to move beyond a merely horizontal vision of reality - are ready to believe everything as well as its opposite. Within this context several fundamental questions emerge, which are far more concrete than they appear at first sight: What is the meaning of life? Is there a future for man, for us and for the new generations? How shall we direct the choices we freely make toward a successful and happy life? What awaits us beyond the threshold of death? These insuppressible questions show that the world of planning, exact calculation and experimentation - in a word, of scientific knowledge - important as they are for the life of man, of themselves are not enough. We don t only need bread; we need love, meaning and hope. We need a firm foundation and solid ground that helps us to live with real meaning, even in times of crisis, darkness and difficulty, and amid our daily problems. This is precisely what faith gives us: it is a confident entrusting of oneself to a Thou who is God; it provides a kind of certainty different from but no less sure than what comes to us from exact calculation or science. Faith is not simply a matter of man s intellectual assent to truths about God; it is an act whereby I freely entrust myself to a God who is a Father and who loves me; it means clinging to a Thou who gives me hope and confidence. To be sure, this adherence to God is not devoid of content: it enables us to know that God himself revealed himself to us in Christ. He showed us his face and he truly drew near to each one of us. Indeed, God revealed that his love for man, for each one of us, is without measure: on the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God made man, shows us in the clearest fashion how far this love goes -- to the point of giving himself, to total sacrifice. By the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, God descends into the depths of our humanity in order to bring it back to himself, to raise it to his heights. Faith means believing in God s unfailing love, which endures even in the face of man s iniquity, of evil and of death, and which is able to transform every form of slavery by granting the possibility of salvation. To have faith, then, is to encounter this Thou - God - who sustains me and offers me the promise of an imperishable love that not only aspires to eternity but also gives it. It means entrusting myself to God with the attitude of a child who knows very well that all of his difficulties and problems are safe in the thou of the mother.

7 And this possibility of salvation through faith is a gift that God offers to all people. I think we should meditate more often on this in our daily lives, which are sometimes characterized by tragic problems and situations. We need to reflect on the fact that Christian belief involves this trusting self-surrender to the profound meaning that upholds me and the world: that meaning we are incapable of giving ourselves but can only receive as a gift, and that provides the foundation on which we can live without fear. And we must be able to proclaim this freeing and reassuring certainty with our words and to demonstrate it by our Christian lives. Each day, however, we see around us that many people remain indifferent or refuse to welcome this announcement. At the end of the Gospel of Mark we today have before us hard words from the Risen One, who tells us: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16), he will be lost. I would like to invite you to reflect on this. Confidence in the action of the Holy Spirit must always move us to go out and preach the Gospel, to courageously witness to the faith. But in addition to the possibility of a positive response to the gift of faith, there is also the risk of the Gospel being rejected, of a vital encounter with Christ not being received. St. Augustine posed this problem in one of his commentaries on the parable of the sower: We speak he said we cast the seed, we scatter the seed. There are those who despise, those who criticize and those who scoff. If we fear them, we shall have nothing more to sow, and the day of harvest will remain without a crop. Therefore, may the seed come forth from good soil (Discourse on Christian discipline, 13, 14: PL 40, ). Rejection, then, cannot discourage us. As Christians we are witnesses of this fertile soil: despite our limitations, our faith shows that good soil exists, where the seed of God s Word produces abundant fruits of justice, peace, love, of new humanity and of salvation. And the whole history of the Church, with all its problems, also demonstrates that good soil exists, good seed exists, and it bears fruit. But we ask ourselves: where does man obtain that openness of heart and mind that enables him to believe in God who became visible in Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and to receive his salvation so that Christ and his Gospel become the guide and light of life? The answer: we are able to believe in God because he draws near to us and touches us, because the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Risen One, enables us to receive and welcome the living God. Faith, then, is first and foremost a supernatural gift, a gift of God. The Second Vatican Council states: To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 5). Image here? The basis of our journey of faith is Baptism, the sacrament that gives us the Holy Spirit making us children of God in Christ - and marks our entrance into the community of faith, the Church: we don t believe on our own, without the preceding grace of the Spirit; and we don t believe alone but together with our brothers and sisters. From Baptism on, every believer is called to re-live and make this confession of faith his own, together with his brothers and sisters. Faith is a gift of God, but it is also a profoundly free and human act. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states it clearly. It says: Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. [It] is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason (n. 154). In fact, it involves them and exalts them in a gamble on life that is like an exodus; i.e., a going out of themselves, a departure from the security they afford and from their mental constructs in order to entrust themselves to the action of God, who shows us the way to attain true freedom, our human identity, true joy of heart and peace with everyone. To believe is to entrust oneself in all freedom and with joy to God s providential plan for history, like the patriarch Abram, like Mary of Nazareth. Faith, then, is an assent whereby our minds and hearts pronounce their yes to God by confessing that Jesus is the Lord. And this yes transforms life and opens the way towards the fullness of meaning, making it so new, so rich in joy and reliable hope. Dear friends, the times in which we live need Christians who have been seized by Christ, who grow in faith through familiarity with the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacraments persons who are like an open book that tells of the experience of new life in the Spirit and the presence of God who sustains us on the journey and opens the way to endless life. Thank you.

8 # Servants of the Paraclete PO Box 9 Cedar Hill, MO ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED November Newsletter Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID St. Louis, MO Permit No Mass Stipends We appreciate the many mass stipends that we receive. We thank you for supporting that part of our ministry. While many priests may designate how they want to utilize the mass stipend funds, the Servants of the Paraclete share in the mass stipend pool, as directed by their vows and constitution. Mass Stipend Form Name of Person to be remembered in a mass celebrated by a Servant of the Paraclete: q living q deceased Name of person donating the stipend: Do you want an acknowledgement card sent to someone? If so, please put the name, address, city, state and zip so that an acknowledgement of the mass in memory or honor of someone can be sent. Name: Address: City, State, Zip: If you would like to request a specific date, please list below. Please allow 2-3 months for specific dates as they must be distributed to our priests from the Development Office. Requested Date for Mass: DEVELOPMENT OFFICE INFORMATION The Development Office has moved! All donation envelopes enclosed in the Priestly People Newsletter are coded properly with the correct address. PO Box 9, Cedar Hill, MO We still have some folks sending things to Jemez Springs. The Development Office moved from Jemez Springs to the St. Louis area over three years ago. While the Servants of the Paraclete still maintain their motherhouse in Jemez Springs, development mail has to be forwarded to Missouri for deposit and recognition. Our contact information is as follows: Mailing Address Servants of the Paraclete Development Office PO Box 9 Cedar Hill, MO Phone (toll free) mwolaver@theservants.org Marian Wolaver, Director bbehlmann@theservants.org Barb Behlmann, Associate