The brief prayer service included some Scripture readings and quotations from church documents or public addresses on Evangelization. The words of JPII at the World Mission Day in 1991 are very clear: "Either it is a missionary community or it is not even a Christian community." And, from the American Bishops' booklet, Go and Make Disciples, "Its essence is the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and the response of a person in faith, both being the work of the Spirit of God."
The man seated next to me was from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
He gave me a copy of their archdiocesan plan for evangelization from 2002. He is charged with implementing the plan among the 630 permanent deacons in the archdiocese. After listening to John speak, he and his friend from the Camden diocese were scheduled to visit Paulist Father Frank DeSiano, some expert in the field. He also wanted to get John to come out of Chicago.
The ladies on the other side of me were from Philly. They had recently attended the School of Evangelization at St. Veronica's in Howell.
I recognized a few others from the year-long training who, like me, were making up a missed session. There were many others that I couldn't account for.
Since I am more than half-way through the year-long training, the morning was review, good review. The afternoon material was new to me and I look forward to resuming the year-long program next month to contemplate the new material in greater depth. There's lots of depressing statistics that John puts out in the first hour: less than 20% of registered Catholics attend weekly Mass; since VCII, the annual net attrition rate in the US has been 1 - 1.5%; the number of unchurched in NJ is growing faster than any other demographic, and the largest Christian denomination in NJ is "inactive Catholics".
Personally, I could relate to the information about parish evangelization teams. John said that in 1995, 59 parishes in the diocese of Trenton had evangelization teams. By the time John arrived in the diocese in 2000 (at the bidding of the bishop, I'm sure), there were three! I joined ours in '95 and beyond reading Evangellii Nuntiandi and the American Bishops' booklet mentioned above and some other training, a shortened version of Listening Lab I, for instance, we did nothing. After two years of attending weekly meetings, I told the team leader that I was starting my second masters program and would not have the time for anything else. And that was that. Yawn.
Probably the most important aspect of the training is acquiring an awareness or sensitivity towards those around us and recognizing the needs of others. And prayer helps a great deal in developing this skill. I mean, in prayer, God can reveal to us whom he's calling and it's usually not the people that we think! And meeting those needs also requires prayer because we rarely have at our disposal naturally sufficient resources to address all of the issues.
It was a long day but good to get back after a month off.
I'd like to say that it has been ten years since I've been to the diocesan pastoral center in Trenton but that's misleading. Truth is, I've never been there, except for a brief tour shortly after the building opened. My memories from ten years ago are actually of Notre Dame High School which is on the same grounds as the diocesan center. I have attended many, many training sessions at NDHS over the years. More recently, 'though, about three years ago, I made a visit to St. Ann's just south of Rider when I was trying to find a school for Kenny.
Yesterday morning, I had to blindly follow the directions to the diocesan center because I am always tempted to take the first exit for route 206 and that's wrong, somehow. 295/95 around Trenton confuse me so much, even after all these years. I mean, how much sense does the coupling of 295 N with 95 S make? Yet, that's what the signs say. Coming home, I had to follow 295 S / 95 N, New York /Camden, instead of 95 S Philadelphia and I'm thinking, "I just want to go east!"
The ladies on the other side of me were from Philly. They had recently attended the School of Evangelization at St. Veronica's in Howell.
I recognized a few others from the year-long training who, like me, were making up a missed session. There were many others that I couldn't account for.
Since I am more than half-way through the year-long training, the morning was review, good review. The afternoon material was new to me and I look forward to resuming the year-long program next month to contemplate the new material in greater depth. There's lots of depressing statistics that John puts out in the first hour: less than 20% of registered Catholics attend weekly Mass; since VCII, the annual net attrition rate in the US has been 1 - 1.5%; the number of unchurched in NJ is growing faster than any other demographic, and the largest Christian denomination in NJ is "inactive Catholics".
Personally, I could relate to the information about parish evangelization teams. John said that in 1995, 59 parishes in the diocese of Trenton had evangelization teams. By the time John arrived in the diocese in 2000 (at the bidding of the bishop, I'm sure), there were three! I joined ours in '95 and beyond reading Evangellii Nuntiandi and the American Bishops' booklet mentioned above and some other training, a shortened version of Listening Lab I, for instance, we did nothing. After two years of attending weekly meetings, I told the team leader that I was starting my second masters program and would not have the time for anything else. And that was that. Yawn.
Probably the most important aspect of the training is acquiring an awareness or sensitivity towards those around us and recognizing the needs of others. And prayer helps a great deal in developing this skill. I mean, in prayer, God can reveal to us whom he's calling and it's usually not the people that we think! And meeting those needs also requires prayer because we rarely have at our disposal naturally sufficient resources to address all of the issues.
It was a long day but good to get back after a month off.
I'd like to say that it has been ten years since I've been to the diocesan pastoral center in Trenton but that's misleading. Truth is, I've never been there, except for a brief tour shortly after the building opened. My memories from ten years ago are actually of Notre Dame High School which is on the same grounds as the diocesan center. I have attended many, many training sessions at NDHS over the years. More recently, 'though, about three years ago, I made a visit to St. Ann's just south of Rider when I was trying to find a school for Kenny.
Yesterday morning, I had to blindly follow the directions to the diocesan center because I am always tempted to take the first exit for route 206 and that's wrong, somehow. 295/95 around Trenton confuse me so much, even after all these years. I mean, how much sense does the coupling of 295 N with 95 S make? Yet, that's what the signs say. Coming home, I had to follow 295 S / 95 N, New York /Camden, instead of 95 S Philadelphia and I'm thinking, "I just want to go east!"
No comments:
Post a Comment