Evangelization...Not Just for Committees!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to talk a little bit about evangelization. Not, you know, standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says "Jesus will come again" or something crazy like that. I mean simple little things, like saying something in passing to your friends about church or something like that.

Here, let me explain.

When I first started really getting into the RCIA program, my family and I talked about it. Not a lot, but I brought it up to my best friend one day when I was at her house. Her mom, who had been part of RCIA before, asked me about it, and I was telling her all about it. My best friend and her little brother had never been confirmed, so they decided that they wanted to get into the program and become confirmed. On May 18th, I'm going to go watch them both get confirmed, and then they're having a confirmation party.

There's also a family that my family is friends with, a couple named Cindy and Junius. When we started the process of becoming Catholic, Cindy was pregnant with their first child. When we saw them and got to talking, every once in a while we would say something about something that happened at RCIA (like when Fr. Cesarone told us about his first confession and accusing himself of adultery at the age of seven), and after just talking about it in passing a few times we got them interested. When baby Michael was born, they got him baptized Catholic. Since their marriage was outside the Catholic Church, they are in the process of getting it blessed so they can get confirmed, Eucharisted (is that a verb?) and be in the faith with us.

Both of those times, we didn't run up to them and say, "HEY GUESS WHAT WE'RE GONNA BE CATHOLIC COME READ THE BIBLE AND PRAY WITH US AND YOU CAN BE CATHOLIC TOO AND..." and so on. If something funny or interesting happened at church or at Life Teen, just mention it to someone. If you think they would like Life Teen, even if they're not Catholic, invite them to check it out. If they like it enough, it might interest them in becoming Catholic themselves.

Wow, this was a long post. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that anyone can evangelize without even thinking about it. I never consciously tried to evangelize anyone, and my family alone brought five people into the faith just by saying things in passing. I'm sure people with more experience in the church can do even better than us. So don't be afraid to say something -- go ahead and evangelize! It's not just for the Evangelization Committee, you know!

~Nicole

GET INVOLVED!

I realize that I may be “’preaching to the choir” here, but in light of the parish mergers and other things going on around the diocese, I thought this was a good topic to talk about.

Do you know that on average, there are about 380 people that attend the 6pm Life Teen Mass at St. Agnes? Did you also know that we regularly do not have enough Eucharistic Ministers to provide both the Body and Blood of Christ to the congregation? Do you know that we would need just EIGHT or TEN Eucharistic Ministers to be able to provide both species? EIGHT or TEN out of close to FOUR HUNDRED people. That is not a lot. (in fact only 2.5%)

This trend of people not participating in Mass and their parishes doesn’t stop at our 6pm Mass. Take a look at the front of the bulletin. Do you see all the spots where it says “office” instead of a person’s name? That’s because no one is there to run that ministry. You don’t have to be perfect to run or participate in a ministry in YOUR parish. (Think about the Church’s first Pope, Peter, for example. He denied Jesus 3 times in one night! And he was POPE!)

Our diocese is undergoing a major renovation, with many parishes merging, some closing. It used to be that there were enough practicing Catholics to keep all these parishes open. The decrease in Mass attendance has been going on for a long time, so this restructuring of the diocese has been a long time coming.

Father Jeff put it best a couple of weeks ago when he talked about how different the pews looked that Sunday (maybe the third Sunday of Easter) versus the pews on Palm Sunday, Christmas and Easter. If each parish had the attendance they had on any of those three holidays every week, there would be no need for mergers and closings.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! Now here’s where you come in. I’m not exactly sure exactly who reads this blog, but this applies to anyone. Here are some small (and not so small) things you can do!

TEENS: Start getting involved in your church now! At our 6pm Mass, you can volunteer to be an usher, or bring up the gifts, or be a lector (you have to be confirmed to be a lector). Come to our Life Teen meetings or get involved in another ministry at church. Make it to church every week- even when your parents don’t “make” you.

YOUNGER KIDS: You can get involved in the children’s choir or be an altar server! If you come to the 6pm Mass, we can always use some help gathering up the songbooks after Mass. And remember when you get older to stay involved in church- it’s really important.

PARENTS: We really can use help during Mass. We definitely are in need of Eucharistic Ministers (at any of the masses, but most especially the 6pm). Help your kids stay involved in their church- whether it be as an altar server, usher, lector, or a Life Teen member.

ADULTS (w/ or w/o kids): Volunteer for a ministry. There are so many at our particular parish. Find something that interests you and go to a meeting! There are so many aspects of the church that you may not even know exist!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR EVERYONE: Go to Mass every week. It’s simple, really. We are commanded by God to worship. Going to Mass only on holidays does not make you a Catholic. If you want to truly be Catholic, you have to go to Mass WEEKLY. There are only a few excuses that you should miss Mass- one of them being that you are so ill you can’t leave your house (or your hospital bed), another is if it is physically impossible. (You are in a rainforest in South America giving needed medical care to orphans, and the closest Catholic Church is 500 miles away and would necessitate you to fly and take a boat and then hike through dangerous mountains).

I know that a lot of people are upset at the bishop and the diocese for the merger and closings, but really, it is us as a whole, who didn’t stop it. Think about all of the good the Camden Diocese does for people all over South Jersey. There is Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, St John of God School, various nursing homes and hospice centers. When the church does so much for us around here and around the world, why can’t we give something back. PLEASE GET INVOLVED!

(Thanks for listening to my rant)
~Alison