Tag: RCIA

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“GodJoy”

Driving to work, a shiny new black corvette pulled up beside me. It was not the car that caught my attention but the license plate. The plate read “Godjoy.”  I think Godjoy captures the spirit of Lent. Lent is the penitential season and hopefully we have found the right rhythm for our prayer, fasting and alsmgiving.  We are sinners who forget at times that we have been saved and when we forget that we fall back into our old ways.

The faces of the saved

The past two Sundays there was lots of Godjoy in the Archdiocese as we celebrated the Rite of  Election and the Call to Conitnuing Conversion. Gathered in the huge upper church of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception were 1,192 people who are seeking to become Catholics or to complete the sacraments of initiation. 1,192 faces with smiles of pure Godjoy.  Together, with their sponsors they filled the Shrine and in the presence of Archbishop Wuerl and the auxiliary bishops of Washington, the sponsors announced these catechumens and candidates ready to receive the sacraments to initiation at Easter.

Sorrowful Joy

Another expression of Godjoy during Lent is found in the music of African-American Spirituals. Sometimes described as songs of sorrowful joy, they capture the spirit of Lent. Even in the misery of slavery and oppression, African-Americans, like the Israelites before them  found a joy in knowing God has not abandoned them and only God will save them.  Their song becomes the song of all sons and daughters of God.

God comes looking for us

At the Rite of Election, one Spiritual we sang is called Somebody’s Knockin at Your Door and it captures the Godjoy of the Spirituals and of Lent. We are not sinners with nowhere to turn, and the very act of turning is not our initiative but the spirit of God within us calling us back to our deepest joy-right relationship with God.  Take a moment to listen.

watch?v=roXOqRXODDM

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40 Reasons for Coming Home – Reason # 29 – The Winning Team.

Reason # 29 – The Winning Team – OK, I’ll admit it. I cheated. I looked at the end of the book and read the end of the story. Guess what I found?  Jesus wins! It’s right there in final pages, in the Book of Revelation:

The Devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life.  The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,  coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God). He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away.” The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Do you get the Picture? Jesus wins, the devil and the world and wicked loose. And Jesus unites himself to his Bride (the Church) forever. Now here’s the point, Get on the winning team!. If you could go to the race track today with tomorrow’s newspaper, you’d be  a fool to bet on any other horse that the one announced as the winner in tomorrow’s newspaper. So here we are. We have tomorrow’s newspaper today. It says Jesus wins. Well then, why bet on the World or the Devil? Choose Jesus, unite yourself with his Bride the Church. The Scriptures are clear, Jesus and the Bride are the winning team. But make sure your name is in the book! You can sign up today at any Catholic Parish. Just knock on the door and say, “Sign me up for the Christian Jubilee! Write my name on the roll.” If you had once signed up but your name’s been blotted out, just go to the nearest Catholic Church and ask for the location of the confessional. So here it is, Jesus and his Church, the Bride are the winning team, the Devil and World are big time losers. Who you gonna choose?

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A Warning to the Church – Distinguished or Dead!

Here’s another Fr. Robert Barron Video where he reviews a recent survey on religion and some of the basic trends. The first half  describes the largest growing category of religious observance: “None.” If this is you or someone you know there are important insights.

The second half of the video however contains a kind of warning for the Church. Many of the Mainline Protestant denominations have lost dramatic numbers. Why? In large part because they are no longer distinguished from the world around them. Once the distinctiveness of the church experience is lost, its adherents begin to say, “Why bother going since I can get the same things from the world?”  Here then is the warning for us: We have been called out of the world, to be in sharp distinction to it values and priorities. Once we lose this distinctiveness we begin to loose numbers, parishes and schools close, and we shrink away. Dinstinguish or die! We’re supposed to be salt and light! So pass the salt and turn on the lights.

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A Report from the Frontline

As you know the Archdiocese of Washington is extending invitations to people who are part of our family of faith but have not been participating in our life of prayer and worship. Archbishop Wuerl has asked us to take his invitation and to give it to someone and invite the person to join us for Mass. This makes some of us quite nervous. It is not that we don’t want to do it. Many of us, in fact, pray regularly for family members or friends to find their way back to church. Often, our hesitation is wondering how the person we want to invite will respond. Today, I’d like to share two stories about “what happened next…” and ask you to share your stories.

 

Firstly, From Fr. Mike, a priest at St. Camillus parish. Fr. Mike is excited abut this initiative because a number of years ago, something similar changed his life. In his words:

Twenty years ago, I was just such a young man, who had drifted away from the church  for a number of years, until a friend invited me to come to Mass. Not realizing how much I missed the experience, I initially said “no.” This friend was persistent because he too had been away from the church for a while and knew it what a huge difference returning, reconnecting had made in his own life. Because of his persistent invitation and his sharing his experience I ultimately said “yes” and went to Mass with him. Absent that invitation 20 years ago, my life might have taken a very different course. To this day, I am incredibly grateful for the gift of this invitation. As we prepare to celebrate the greatest sacrifice, the mystery of Christi’s Passion and the gift of new life on Easter Sunday, let us reach out and bring God home to those who have drifted away from the Church.

Secondly, an eyewitness account from Maggie Gutiérrez, Coordinator of Evangelization and Hispanic Christian Initiation:

I have been explaining our Lenten initiative to my friends, my family, my coworkers and leaders on the parish evangelization team. Last week, I met with the planning team for the RCIA Retreat for Spanish speakers at which we are expecting 500 people. I was meeting the retreat planning team for dinner to go over some details. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Silver Spring and while we were driving I found myself again retelling the story of how Archbishop Wuerl sent hundreds of invitations to the parishes and that he is asking us to give them out to people who we want to invite back. After we ate our delicious dinner, and we were discussing the planning of the retreat, we noticed  that our young waiter kept coming back to the table and chit chatting in a friendly manner. 

At some point he asked if we were Catholic, which he probably figured out because Father Jose Arriaga was wearing his clerics and collar. So we talked to our waiter friend, Anastasio (Father told him it means resurrection in Greek)  and he told us that he always tries to go to Mass even when he has to work on Sunday, though that is not always easy. We told him that Saturday night Mass is also an option. He left us again to continue our meeting. I told Father:  “Hey Father, I have with me a few Spanish invitations, why don’t you give Anastasio one and ask him to give it to a friend?!” 

Father answered, “Anastasio could probably do that right here and now, just look around, all the waiters,  they are all young  adults.” So when Anastasio came  back, Father José, who is a Scripture scholar, a former university professor, very calmly, very clearly, very much the teacher, explains the   program to Anastasio, and asked Anastasio if he would be interested in helping us by giving an invitation to a friend. Anastasio smiled and immediately said, “give me two, Father.” 

The four of us rejoiced in this young man’s interest in being an evangelizer. We had one of those humble moments when we collectively realized how blessed we are to have an opportunity to be part of God’s ministry of reconciliation this Lent and every day of our lives!

I fear you might be thinking that it’s easy to invite when you are a priest or an RCIA retreat team and that maybe true, so please post a story of your own. Thanks!