Domenico Betteinelli Asks a Good Question
At Betnet,Dom makes an excellent point:
"It’s one of the quirks of Catholicism that it’s those observances that aren’t the most important to actual devotion, faith, and worship that are most important to many Catholics who would otherwise disdain the practice of their faith. I’ve had priests tell me that the biggest congregations of the year--apart from the obvious holy days of Easter and Christmas--are Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday. The theory is that on those latter two days you actually leave the church with some evidence of your continuing association with the Catholic faith, namely ashes and palms. The thinking is that if you don’t get your ashes on Ash Wednesday, you lose your Catholic identity. What’s ironic is that ashes are neither a sacrament nor are they a requirement of Catholics. Of all the things that many Catholics latch onto it’s the things that are the least important, at least compared with the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession and the rest."
The point is that the mission field is not barren, but that there remain seeds and shoots that can be cultivated and blossom into full-blown faith. Right now there remains an opportunity for evangelization and catechesis to change this current generation. But if we wait too long, will the next generation have even that left? "
Actually, I can think of an practical, doable thing: Use Ash Wednesday as the opportunity to
inviting people to an evangelization retreat during Lent.
I've encountered 5 different parish-based retreats around the country that can jumpstart a lapsed Catholic's faith in a single weekend and bear fruit that goes on for many years. Hundreds of thousands of adult Catholics have had their faith restored or rejuvenated through such retreat and thousands of parishes put them on around the country. Lent is the perfect time of year for this because even marginal Catholics feel the tug and many come back because they are genuinely seeking.
What if an entire diocese did something like that during Lent as well as make confession available at all parishes like the Archdiocese of Washington is doing this year? Some people will respond better to a communal experience, others to a private one.
posted by Sherry W @ 8:03 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
I “stumbled” on to your “websight” today and was pretty much overwhelmed. I allowed those puns because it seems y’all (as they say here in Florence, KY) use them frequently yourselves.
I call it your “websight” because of the insight I got from your website, and then when I continued to read, that initial revelation would just be the beginning of several challenges.
I “stumbled” in because of a search for quotes, meanings, images, etc, for our family calendar. My path led me here.
I “stumbled” in because I am one of those mediocre Catholics to whom you refer. Our family recently moved to a new area and therefore a new parish. I resisted in changing churches because our old one just recently had a change of pastors – and the new priest is so dynamic and (now, don’t get mad) for the first time in a long time I looked forward to going to Mass on Sunday to hear the homilies. (Sadly I realize I haven’t learned to practice what they preach!)
Again, don’t yell – y’all apparently have your degrees in faith and it seems I’m starting 2nd grade. There’s significance in selecting the 2nd grade because it feels that I’m only preparing to meet Jesus in my First Holy Communion. Sometimes I get little glimpses of spirituality or faith and other times I just don’t get it at all. I know I’m not doing “my homework” like I should … (prayer and praise, scripture and service) … so why would I think I could be any different?
Deep down inside I knew I should do what hubby wanted and switch to our local parish. Yah, it’s got a lot more people at than our previous parish, but it’s too “non-denomination looking” for me. Hooray for kneelers again and the sense of reverence is something that I haven’t experienced for years. But it’s so big I can’t see the priest on the altar half the time and one of the priests is difficult to understand – partially because of his accent (from India) and partly because he is so gentle and soft spoken. My bilateral hearing loss in the ears should not be an excuse to my “hearing loss of the soul.” I am finding them to both be wonderful blessings and expect as time goes on I’ll be more familiar with them.
Anyways, the first interesting challenge was that just because someone moves into the area, doesn’t mean they can slip quietly into this new parish. The letter from the pastor (in a Reader’s Digest version for this writing) is that the staff requests the inquirers to reflect and pray on their commitment of time, treasure and talent toward active involvement of this church and the greater community. The pastor invites you to membership after this discernment. Ok, now anyone could still just sign that commitment paper and never do anything else, but WOW! What a bold statement of faith.
My concern about our new parish I also feel like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. I feel a little out-classed in many ways compared to other people I see in this geographical area and our church community. The ministry leaders are very welcoming and spiritual and . . . what I consider . . . very active in service ministries. Then I started realizing a lot of the church-related things I done in the past were very superficial and self-serving. Sometimes I had my heart in the right place, but even in those times, I failed to follow through after a short period of time. More often than not, things were done to help out but also to make me feel good, or important, or worthwhile. My world of Christian Service seldom went outside of a few miles. So your “International” call to Discipleship is so . . . err . . . “foreign” . . . and troubling and challenging.
At one point I was excited when I had a mental image of “the harvest is plenty” and seeing a personal view of that. I’ve got the seeds to sow. I can see myself scattering them but I wish I had prepared the soil better. I cut way too many corners, so now the fruits won’t flourish into their full potential. The next thoughts (and all of these in shooting star fashion) were that I’m the one who will need to harvest my own seeds. If I neglect these seeds, my gifts, what good am I to the Kingdom?
Then some of YOUR shooting stars illuminated further that I should reevaluate the focus. The field is much bigger than my own back yard and I better start really looking at the bigger picture! Ouch. I’d really like to do that . . . but where do I really start? It’s scary. To do what you seem to be accomplishing, for me there are commitments and bills and physical and educational limitations that I see as insurmountable obstacles.
(thank heavens for spell check!)
The Kingdom of God is not limited to my corner of Kentucky or even the United States. I’ve known this in the back of my mind but it hibernates there with my baggage and my list of “Someday I’ll get my act together” stuff.
While I want to know Jesus and feel a personal relationship to God, maybe I could refocus and think more like St. Francis . . . not wanting so much to be consoled as to console, to be loved as to love with all my soul.
I don’t expect to ever be able to join you in Rome or France or even Seattle, although my daughter-in-law is from there! But thanks to your ministry giving me a firm nudge, I will be taking some bigger faith steps because of y’all.
Thank you, friends.
Tess
“We cannot all do great things, but we can do all things with great love.”
Mother Teresa
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