Catholic Ping!
You bet! I have been doing it for years.
Can't add much to that.
Peace be with you
Speak the truth in love.
“Catholics MUST evangelize!”
When I attended World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, Blessed John Paul II told us not to be afraid to go out onto the streets and preach the Gospel like the first apostles, saying now is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. I think the almost universal rebellion inside the Church against her teaching on birth control, which has extended to other matters, has sapped any fervor for evangelization for most Catholics. What can such people evangelize but a type of lukewarmness when they aren’t right with Jesus or His Church? The Church seems nothing more than a weekend club for too many Catholics, a place of cultural tradition where you marry, get your children baptized,and have a funeral.
Don’t Be Afraid To “Cross The Line” For Jesus!
Okay, this is a peeve of mine and as I seem to be hearing and reading this more and more lately I feel compelled to comment on it. How many people reading this thread would walk to their priest and start speaking to him using just his first name? How about speaking about him to others in your church? Would you refer to the pastor as Bill or Bob or whatever? I doubt many people would really be comfortable doing that, and yet listen to how few times anybody ever feels it appropriate to include any honorific or title of respect in regards to the Lord and his Blessed Mother. Most every Saint gets at least a Saint in front of their name, but for our Lord Jesus Christ nothing. Why is that? What does it say about us and how we really view Him?
I can remember a letter in our parish which recounted the history of the religious order which founded and staffed it. It referred over and over to this or that Venerable, or Father this and Blessed that. However, not once did it ever refer to our Lord as anything other than just Jesus, or his Mother as anything other than merely Mary. Why did these "Venerables" deserve such respect when their master gets none? Who is greater? Surely if we truly desire to evangelize for the Lord we should show some basic reverence for his name, as we do for so many other people we speak of every day. Just a thought.