Posted on 08/17/2013 2:06:44 AM PDT by NYer
The Church's most prominent outreach today, the New Evangelization, aims at reviving the spiritual lives of those who have drifted from Christ. While these people may have been baptized and perhaps catechized, while they may attend Church semi-regularly, they have never been truly evangelized. They have never experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ or real transformation through his Church.
A couple weeks ago, Pope Francis delivered a powerful message to the Brazilian bishops in the midst of his World Youth Day celebrations. Unfortunately, it didn't get nearly the attention it deserved.
Speaking on the New Evangelization, and using the Emmaus Journey as a framework, the Pope encouraged his listeners to reflect on why people reject the Church today—why, like the Emmaus disciples, they decide to walk the other way. To bring people back to Christ and his Church, we must understand why they leave in the first place.
To that end, Pope Francis offered ten specific reasons:
1. The Church no longer offers anything meaningful or important.
2. The Church appears too weak.
3. The Church appears too distant from their needs.
4. The Church appears too poor to respond to their concerns.
5. The Church appears too cold.
6. The Church appears too caught up with itself.
7. The Church appears to be a prisoner of its own rigid formulas.
8. The world seems to have made the Church a relic of the past.
9. The Church appears unfit to answer the world's new questions.
10. The Church speaks to people in their infancy but not when they come of age.
Read the excerpt below for more context:
"The two disciples have left Jerusalem. They are leaving behind the 'nakedness' of God. They are scandalized by the failure of the Messiah in whom they had hoped and who now appeared utterly vanquished, humiliated, even after the third day.
Here we have to face the difficult mystery of those people who leave the Church, who, under the illusion of alternative ideas, now think that the Church—their Jerusalem—can no longer offer them anything meaningful and important. So they set off on the road alone, with their disappointment. Perhaps the Church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas, perhaps the world seems to have made the Church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions; perhaps the Church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age.
It is a fact that nowadays there are many people like the two disciples of Emmaus; not only those looking for answers in the new religious groups that are sprouting up, but also those who already seem godless, both in theory and in practice.
Faced with this situation, what are we to do?
We need a Church unafraid of going forth into their night. We need a Church capable of meeting them on their way. We need a Church capable of entering into their conversation. We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples who, having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment, disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren, fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning.”
(HT: Thomas Doran at Catholic World Report)
Then how do you reconcile your assertion which is contrary to what the Book of Matthew claims?
Either you are right and the Book of Matthew is wrong or you are wrong and the Book of Matthew is correct.
Do I know that one group follows what their leaders tell them to do and that the other group does what their leaders have told them to do?
No; it does not.
Given the dispute, I’m going to side with Matthew, over you.
GOOD!
That's all I'm wanting you to do.
See what you get when you LEAVE OUT what the 'rock' is!
Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Again I was not talking with you. Please stop stalking me.
I actually POSTED it; so OTHERS can make up their OWN mind; instead of slavishly following what their 'church' has taught them.
HMMMmmm...
“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ “
Please tell me, what does the term, ‘petroglyph’, mean?
“That’s all I’m wanting you to do.”
Then why do you continue to teach error?
“Do I know that one group follows what their leaders tell them to do and that the other group does what their leaders have told them to do?”
Do you believe that obedience is a Christian virtue?
Still trying to find converts to that Utah version of... whatever?
When did Christ found the Orthodox Church?
“Then how do you reconcile your assertion which is contrary to what the Book of Matthew claims?”
It doesn’t
“Either you are right and the Book of Matthew is wrong or you are wrong and the Book of Matthew is correct.”
Matthew is correct. You are wrong.
“Still trying to find converts to that Utah version of... whatever?”
Are you accusing Elsie of being a Mormon, which is a religious cult I’ve seen you defend by quoting Aleister Crowley, a Satanist?
Are you still trying to win converts to the Catholic religion by quoting atheists and leaders of the Satanic movement?
Who’s talking to you, Alien?
Awww, don’t say that like my opinion doesn’t count. You don’t want to seem INTOLERANT, do ya?
“Intolerance is evidence of impotence.”
Aleister Crowley
81 posted on 6/9/2013 2:37:23 PM by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
You are confusing me for someone else on your planet Crouch-Bakker. Looking for enemies? Buzz off!
Hey, Elsie.
Arrogant haughtiness is the general condition of man, sadly. It’s a humanity problem. To say it’s just, or even chiefly, a Catholic problem is to be, well, arrogantly haughty.
It is wonderful that Christ forgives us for that if we believe. Some sins we may not even know we need to confess, and the Holy Spirit is very aware and there is an interesting passage in the scripture that says the Holy Spirit makes intercession FOR us... with groanings deeper than words. We just ask God forgive us of our sins... the Holy Spirit takes care of listing them out for us until the point we are clearly aware then the Lord presses us to confess them from our awareness. No self flagellation offering needed. Jesus took the flagellation.
I’ve gotten flak from both Roman Catholic and Protestant sides for my theological assertions. But I’m just following the ministry of Jesus Christ without bias, “believing all things.” I just get it strongly in my soul that BOTH the Roman Catholics AND the Protestants AND the Orthodox have some things right... and that they have some things wrong... and that Jesus is the very firm cornerstone at every earthly separated (but heavenly joined) segment of His church. The Protestant earthly segment of the church did not form out of thin air. It formed out of the witness of the early church, which had Peter as the formal human cornerstone... so I’m not sweating the Peter issue here. If we Protestants had to have a pope... Peter’s our pope.
Anyhow, blessings to everyone. I’ve had one huge ordeal of a life. God did it for an excellent reason.
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