Some Grapes in the Desert. We’re Almost There.

By John D. O’Brien, S.J. 

Thus begins the final week of Lent, at least before the drama of Holy Week. Courage, dear friends. It’s the last lap, the final round. We’re at the point in the sojourn when we just.want.to.get.to.Canaan. It’s when Lenten penitential observances start to wobble. We sneak-spoon some ice cream. We watch part of a hockey game. We go on Facebook for just a quick look. No worries, the Lord loves us anyway. But fortitude, friends, fortitude.

Transitions

By Brother Daniel Leckman

Many things have taken place in my life during the past month that I wanted to blog about:

• The call I received one night after my Vatican II class (in the midst of all my business during the last few weeks of class no less) to begin a new blog on Pope Francis’ exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: Praying with Papal Documents. Almost two weeks later, I’ve slowly made my way through the introduction of the exhortation, taking two paragraphs every second day or so, and giving my own analysis of what I think the Pope is inviting us to with this document!

St. Anthony of Padua, a Saint for the New Evangelization

By Artur Suski, S.J.

Photo: http://prayersforourpets.blogspot.ca

We are now well beyond the halfway point of the Year of Faith that Pope Emeritus Benedict called last October. At the beginning of this "Year", Pope Benedict encouraged all Catholics to especially pay attention to the New Evangelization. As such, I thought it would be beneficial for us to take a look at role models whose lives may inspire and help us in this pursuit. We sometimes underestimate how powerful it is to look at the lives of the saints; they continue to work amongst us through their lived examples.

For instance, the life of St. Anthony of Padua was celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church yesterday. A Franciscan contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony’s life is a model for the New Evangelization. How so? I will illustrate this by discussing a few aspects of his inspiring life.

The New Evangelization

By Artur Suski, S.J.

The phrase “The New Evangelization” has been around for quite some time, and it seems to have originated at some point during the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II. I have been pondering about the exact meaning of this phrase for a while, especially as to how it relates to my soon-to-be ministry to youth and young adults. So, how are we to understand “The New Evangelization”?

The first thing that undoubtedly comes to mind is that it is new because there has already been an initial evangelization movement, in which those that have never heard of Jesus were introduced to him and the Gospel. The novelty of this new evangelization is that it tries to evangelize a culture or a society that is already familiar with Jesus and the Gospel. This society, however, has for the most part embraced many of the values of the Gospel, yet it has left Christ behind as well as some of his more demanding teachings.

The question is then how to re-evangelize, to “put on the new man” (Eph 4:24)? The following are a few humble insights into the matter: