What do we need to do to prevent church closings?

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Throughout the country, Catholic churches are closing due to lack of Catholics attending Mass and supporting their parishes. In urban centers, it’s often linked to the flight from inner city neighborhoods to suburbia. Rural areas are suffering from a depopulation as young people move to bigger cities seeking jobs and a place to raise their families. On an average, those Catholic young people who are raising families are following the cultural trend for smaller families, which is also affecting church attendance. At least it would affect church attendance if many young Catholics would actually go to Mass, but many young Catholics do not even attend Mass on Christmas and Easter.

So, how do we turn this trend around? Msgr. Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington proposes one classic response: evangelization. In his blog post More Church Closings – So What is God Teaching Us and How Will We Respond, Msgr. Pope challenges dioceses, priests, and laity to make a serious effort to evangelize fallen-away Catholics, other Christians, and non-Christians. He raises 50 questions that all Catholics should take very seriously. We need to take these questions to prayer and spend time reflecting on the answers.

For myself, I can say that I’m not hitting every point Msgr. Pope brings up, and need to seriously look at how I can live up to the demands of evangelization. I’m willing to make the changes in my life necessary to aid in evangelization of my parish and diocese. If you’re worried about the shrinking and closure of Catholic parishes, are you willing to take responsibility for reversing the problem?

Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

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As we approach the end of the liturgical year and prepare for entering into the Advent season, our readings take on a more somber note. We begin to look at death, the afterlife and the end of time when Our Lord comes again. They should remind us of the importance our daily decisions can have on our lives throughout eternity.
With the first reading and the Gospel focusing on death and the afterlife, it’s good to remind ourselves what the Scriptures mean by the resurrection of the dead. All of us are aware that our lives on Earth will end some day, whether we want to face it or not. The uncertainty of death comes not in its inevitability, but in what happens after we die.

As Christians, we believe in Jesus’ promise that death is not the end of our lives, but only the end of the beginning. Our Lord revealed to humanity that we have immortal souls, souls that will never die, that are joined to our earthly bodies throughout our lives. They will become separated from our bodies by death temporarily, but body and soul will be reunited one day at the resurrection of the dead. This resurrection of the dead will occur when Our Lord returns to “judge the living and the dead”, as we say in the Nicene Creed every week.

With this resurrection of the dead, we need to remind ourselves that there will be a judgment by Our Lord as to how we will spend that eternity. This judgment is not about God condemning us for not doing enough good things or rewarding us for avoiding enough bad things, but rather is a judgment of our own decisions to follow God or turn away from Him. Where we end up for eternity is a direct result of how important we make God in our lives. If we’re not willing to give God and His commands any priority in our lives now, how can we think that we’ll be willing to do so in eternal life?

That is the question that the Final Judgment will answer. It will not be like a criminal trial, but rather a revealing of our souls. Did we dedicate our lives to serving God and others, as Christ commanded, or did we spend our lives serving ourselves and using others? Did we submit our pride and humbly obey God and His Church, established by Christ, or did we place our opinions and what we want over His will? How we answer these questions will determine whether or not we will spend eternity in God’s presence in Heaven.

God does not condemn us, but rather allows us to decide whether or not to be with Him forever. If we are open to the grace God gives all of us to follow Him and remain in His friendship, we freely choose to enter into the perfect life in Heaven promised by Our Lord and opened to us through His death and resurrection. Of course, if we close ourselves off to God’s grace, seeking our own desires and will over His will and refusing to follow Him, we freely choose to shun that Heavenly life for an eternity without God. Those who enter Heaven have chosen God over themselves, but those who are condemned to eternal damnation in Hell have chosen themselves over God. The Final Judgment is a confirmation of that choice.

I think it goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyways: we need to choose God over ourselves, Heaven over Hell. This means we need to commit ourselves every day to following Jesus and His teachings given us through His Church in every aspect of our lives. Living as a Christian means constantly seeking God’s face, wanting to live in His love for us and expressing our love for Him. We need to be steeping ourselves in the Scriptures, daily reflecting on the Word of God. We also need to be learning the teachings and Traditions of the Church, and humbly living them out despite our disagreements or lack of understanding. We need to allow Our Lord, speaking to us in the Scriptures and Traditions of the Church, to root out of us our pride and self-centeredness that keep us from Him.

In short, we need to choose daily to enter into Heaven when our time on Earth is finished. May we allow God’s grace to live in us so that we might live in Him and one day enter into that perfect life in Heaven promised us by Christ.

A reflection on “ad orientem” celebration of the Liturgy by Rev. Know-it-all

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I think this post on celebrating the Mass ad orientem (facing the East, where priest and people face the same direction during the Consecration – not “the priest has his back to the people”) by Reverend Know-it-all doesn’t need my embellishment.

I post it only with these comments: 1) At no time did the Second Vatican Council ask, hint, demand, or expect Mass to be celebrated facing the people; 2) Neither has the Holy See (AKA “Rome”, “the Vatican”, etc.) demanded celebration facing the people; and 3) There are a lot of things that have been tacked on to the liturgy in the United States and much of Europe that came out of the opinions of liturgists and were initially done out of dissent to the legitimate authority of the Holy See, such as celebrating Mass versus populum (facing the people).

The Need for the New Evangelization

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The readings for today’s Mass demonstrate clearly why we need a new evangelization in the Church today. At the end of the parable of the steward who squandered his master’s property, Our Lord says, “The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.” (Lk 16:8) It was true then, and it’s true now. Just look at the programming on television. The secular TV networks all have very attractive programming with high production values and are good at capturing people’s attentions, yet the Christian channels constantly struggle to get viewers outside of their core audience. I love EWTN, and encourage Catholics to watch it as often as possible, but most programs follow one of two formulas: interview style where two people are sitting and the interviewer is asking questions of a guest, or one person standing at a podium or walking around the stage lecturing. While there’s nothing wrong with these formulas for a live program, such as Journey Home or The World Over, it becomes tedious when repeated ad nauseam.

As Catholics, we need to find ways to reach out to the world and make our message heard because our message is the Gospel, which is far more life giving than the message “proclaimed” by secular media. Look at how St. Paul puts the message of the world: ‘Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their “shame.” Their minds are occupied with earthly things.’ (Phil 3:19) How about our message? “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.” (Phil 3:20-21) We have the message that brings life and hope, the world has the message which brings suffering and death.

As faithful Catholics, we need to be getting the Gospel message out to all corners of the world. That’s what Pope John Paul II meant by his call for the New Evangelization, a call continued and encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI. Throughout his papacy, Pope Benedict has been challenging and encouraging all Catholics to use find ways to spread the Gospel message through the new media, using technologies like blogs, podcasts and videocasts, and social network sites. This is a call to all Catholics, not only clergy or religious, to use these new media outlets to both broadcast the Gospel message and to reach out to individuals that may not otherwise hear the Gospel of Christ.

Use of the new media is happening, slowly but surely. Fr. Robert Barron, one of the professors at Mundelein Seminary throughout my theology studies, has been doing a great job of using videos and podcasts at his Word on Fire website. Likewise, blogs (like my own) are popping up all over the blogosphere. A couple examples out of the literally thousands to choose from: iPadre, Mark Shea, and National Catholic Register.

Of course, talk of the new evangelization wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Catholic radio. EWTN Radio does a fantastic job in the talk radio format. One of the great programs on EWTN Radio is Catholic Answers Live, a program I’ve regularly listened to pretty much from its beginning. The Catholic Channel on Sirius and XM satellite radio also has some very good programming. A personal favorite is The Catholics Next Door with Greg and Jennifer Willits. Anyone who has ever visited the Rosary Army will be immediately familiar with Greg and Jennifer.

The fact is, Catholics, using the new media to the fullest possible extent is a must. We must not only use this media, but exploit the capabilities available to us for the sake of the Gospel. Each and every one of us can do something, from using status updates on Facebook and Twitter to talk about our relationship with Jesus, to writing blog entries and producing podcasts explaining and defending the Gospel, and everything in between. We all can do this, we’re all called to do this, and we all need to do this for the sake of the billions of souls in the world today.

New Translation Resources

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With the new English translation of the Roman Missal being promulgated for usage in little more than a year, resources for learning and using the translation are starting to pop up on the Internet, as well as pamphlets, brochures, and books. The USCCB has had an excellent resource site for some time which includes sample texts for the people’s parts and priest’s parts. If you’ve never taken the time to look at the new translation, I highly encourage spending time looking at the USCCB Roman Missal site.

Another site that I’ve recently become aware of is A New Translation for a New Roman Missal. Video interviews talk about the theology and process behind the translation, as well as the Scriptural basis to the texts of the Mass. Other videos show Msgr. Moroney, Executive Secretary of the Vox Clara Committee, reciting the four primary Eucharistic Prayers. All the videos are available on a DVD for offline viewing as part of parish adult education classes, but can be viewed via YouTube.

If you have any interest in the new translation, especially if you’ve never looked at the new texts, these two sites are worth spending a couple hours perusing.

Best device ever

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A regular column on the Unclutterer blog is Unitasker Wednesday. A unitasker is an item that is designed for one, very limited purpose. This week’s device is Doughnut To-Go, which solves the problem of carrying a single doughnut securely while keeping it fresh. If you’ve ever been worried about someone stealing your doughnut, the Doughnut To-Go even includes holes for applying a padlock. Check it out! (And laugh at the ridiculousness!)

A Blessed Solemnity of All Saints to you all!

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On this Solemnity of All Saints, Rocco Palmo of the Whispers in the Loggia blog has a wonderful quote from Pope Benedict XVI on becoming saints. It’s not a long quote, only about 6 paragraphs, and well worth reading. As Mother Angelica put it on the introduction to her Mother Angelica Live program: “We’re all called to be great saints. Don’t miss the opportunity!”