Joy of the Gospel!

What the bulk discounts look like:
5 – 10 copies 10%
11 – 25  copies 15%
26 – 50  copies 20%
51 – 100 copies 25%
over 100 copies 30%

The Joy of the Gospel! It's in your heart, but is it on your bookshelf?

Be sure to let your parish ministry team know that the handy paperback edition  of Pope Francis' document is ready to ship--and that there are bulk discounts available (at $9.95, it's already the least expensive version out there, and the bulk rates start at only five copies!).

Here in Chicago, I'm committing myself to not just study the document, but to guide a Lenten adult faith program on it. (That way I have to study it--but will also equip myself to offer presentations on Francis' prescriptions for spiritual health.)

Meanwhile, some of the mega-wealthy are taking umbrage at what the Pope had to say in the document about the idolatry of money. Some are even hinting that if that's how the Pope feels, maybe they won't be so generous in donating to Catholic causes...thus pretty much proving the Pope's point. (This is going to be an interesting discussion in our Lenten program!)

Evangelization in "The Light of Faith"

Since I am on retreat this week, I have prepared a thought a day from Pope Francis' first encyclical, "Lumen fidei" (the "light of faith"). This passage (from #32) struck me as a wonderful description, even a definition, of evangelization:

"Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God's total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience.... illumining all reality with the love of God made manifest in Jesus, and seeking to love others with that same love..."

Do you ever think of evangelization in terms like these?

Cultural bonanza: Mark your calendars, Chicago!

Aid for Women, for 39 years an incredibly effective provider of services to women in crisis pregnancies here in Chicagoland, just announced its Benefit Dinner, and you want to be there, even if I can't make it (I'll be in Rome, God willing).

The event will be at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago on Sept. 19. The keynote speaker is Father Robert Barron. As if that were not enough, the honoree of the evening is Barbara Nicolosi. That's right: two brilliant, articulate, spot-on culture watchers offering an intelligent and witty Catholic perspective on the issues. Please get your reservation in early.

If you can't make it to the dinner, please consider donating to Aid for Women.  They take no federal funding, as that would put restrictions on the spiritual formation they offer. Right now they especially need used cars in working condition to help the women in residence at Heather's House get to and from doctor's appointments, classes and work. You can also contribute items to their Baby Registry at www.babiesrus.com (registry # 46439641).

TOB Tuesday: Coming Soon

 Next week, Christopher West will be doing a live webcast based on his new book, "Fill These Hearts" (the book trailer I posted yesterday):
6 p.m. ET on Thurs., Feb. 7. 

Sign up here: http://www.livestream.com/imagebooks

What's new about the new evangelization? UPDATED

I'm preparing the conferences for the First Saturday retreat in St Paul; my topic deals with the "New Evangelization," so that has been the filter for much of my spiritual reading lately. Pope John Paul introduced this expression during his visit to Haiti in 1983 (the year I made final vows!), although Blessed James Alberione had kind of hinted at it back in 1926 or thereabouts when he remarked, "The world is in need of a new, prolonged and profound evangelization."

Pope John Paul listed three attributes of the New Evangelization, that second wave of effective proclamation of Jesus Christ: It is to be new in its ardor, in its methods and in its expression. I think it is age to say that just as Blessed James "incarnated" the qualities of "new, prolonged and profound" evangelization in his long life in the use of media, Pope John Paul showed us what the "new ardor, methods and expression" look like in his.

What I have noticed, though, is that any "new expression" tends to make people nervous in a way that "ardor" and "methods" do not. A new expression takes the treasure of Divine Revelation and puts it in an unexpected framework, perhaps using a different vocabulary than one might find in, say, the words used to formulate the dogma itself centuries ago. Instead of seeing the same Divine Revelation, people can fixate on the novel terminology. Wasn't the old expression good enough? And so you find efforts to tell the Good News that are hampered by technical language instead of "translating" the ever-ancient, ever-new reality into words or images that mean something to the uninitiated, or criticisms by an in-group, based not on the way a message would be perceived by someone with no background in theological language, but on how consistent the expression is with earlier, "approved" expressions. It's a pretty big risk to take on "new expressions" of the Gospel!

But the New Evangelization isn't just about words! New "expressions" in our day can especially mean giving a new visual expression to the message of Jesus. The good news about the New Evangelization is that young, ardent Catholics are naturally taking it up! You'll find it in unexpected forms--a book trailer, a "spoken word" video, a heart that knows how to sing!

The book trailer expression

The spoken word (with witness) expression

Back from Baltimore!

I just got back from Chicago after spending the weekend with our sisters in Alexandria, VA. They graciously provided a car for me to get to Baltimore. (Little did I realize that entailed getting past the thousands of purple-clad fans who were streaming to the stadium!)  I went to take part in a conversation between bishops and bloggers, and many of the leading lights of Catholic blogdom were present.

The meeting was a prelude to the bishop's semi-annual meeting (which begins today, and which you can follow live on EWTN), and was meant to give the bishops a chance to get the first results of a study they had commissioned on Catholics and social media, and to meet with some enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics who are involved in social media as Catholics, and to allow those same enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics to meet the bishops.

Here's an interesting fact from the study: 31% of Catholics who use social media wish their pastor or bishop would blog. (Are you one of those? What kind of content would you actually follow, read and share?)

Here's another interesting bit of info: The two most trusted sources of information on church matters are (in this order) parish bulletins and diocesan newspapers. Even though print is losing "market share" to digital media every day, it still carries more weight, even with young adults. You know what else carries weight with young adults? Word of mouth. (I am guessing text messages and other personal digital messages are in that category, but I haven't read that part of the study yet.)

I think the most beautiful thing I heard all day was in answer to Brandon Vogt's question (the bishops had their "Questions for Bloggers" session, and then the bloggers had their "Questions for Bishops"). Vogt's question to the bishops was "What is it you fear the most about social media?" And a response came from someone on the USCCB staff (I was in the back and couldn't always understand who was speaking). Anyway, that person said, "The bishops want to respond to every single communication, and they can't figure out how to do that in a timely manner, so they get overwhelmed." I was moved by that: that the bishops want to be engaged with the people, but--as one bishop commented--it won't just be people in their diocese who respond to their blog posts or tweets. (That would be overwhelming.)

I was also reminded by bishops in rural areas that their parishes and parishioners don't have the high speed Internet access that seems so ubiquitous. Nope. In parts of Missouri (never mind Alaska!), the parishes don't even want images sent with email: it takes too long to download.

The whole meeting was live tweeted (although that got off to a rocky start when the hotel wifi kept fading away; the USCCB had to set up its own router!); the idea was that we would live tweet, and our tweets would be scrolling in real time on the smaller screen you can see in the front of the room. (I stayed in the back because my own back is still acting up and I kept squirming.) Finally, the USCCB set up its own router and we were on our way!

You can follow the action by going to twitter.com/search/%23bspblog  (as I type this, their assembly is in fully swing, and Bishop Sample of Marquette MI is live tweeting, using #usccb12 !) In fact, here you can follow my growing list of Catholic bishops on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nunblogger/catholic-bishops

Or you can read the Catholic News Service write-up (which even mentions yours truly): http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1204754.htm

Fr Barron: Seminary is med school for "soul doctors"

Fr Robert Barron (the man behind the Catholicism TV series),  newly appointed rector of Chicago's Mundelein seminary, was interviewed recently about his vision for preparing men for the priesthood "in a new setting that’s become indifferent to the faith, at best, and hostile at worst."

It is, he says, a matter of turning young men into heroic leaders: "In the wake of the sexual abuse scandals, many men have come forward to say it’s a time for greatness in the priesthood and heroic priests." (That word "hero" shows up a striking number of times in the short interview featured in the National Catholic Register.)  "I want people who are well-trained soul doctors and who also understand the culture. We cannot hunker down behind a wall."

Barron says that his goal is "to make Mundelein a powerhouse of the New Evangelization — a place where the New Evangelization is thought about, where it’s practiced and implemented, and where that ethos is placed in the heart of the students." And this means really grasping what the bishops at Vatican II intended fifty years ago: "The Second Vatican Council was a reform council to make the Church a more effective vehicle for evangelization in the modern world. My generation [Barron is 52] received an inadequate interpretation of Vatican II. The reform has to recover a correct interpretation — that is to make the Church at all levels a more effective vehicle for the true evangelization."

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-robert-barron-named-rector-of-mundelein-seminary/#ixzz1ux6SJqmg