2013 presentation v7.0

Faith, Mary and the Wedding Feast of Cana

Changing Water… into Wine

Roadmap

1. “They have no wine” (John 2:3)

Is something missing in your life? Leading people out of the desert…

Reading the “Signs of the Times” Through Discernment Through Catechesis Towards encounter with Christ

Sources: Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei Bible

Where do I get the: Answers? Strength? Blessing? Grace?

Moving towards: The Son who gives life in

abundance! A good place in life. Friendship and community.

2. “Do What He Tells You” (John 2:5)

Observation

Examination

Roadmap

4. New Evangelization & Year of Faith

New wine

Church of the future

Signs of fruit: In the Church In your life

3. “He tasted the water that had been

turned into wine.” (John 2:9)

What is good in your life? What can be better that is already

good?

Formation & Transformation … …vs. Education & Information

Warning !

• Interactive• Challenging

Conferences will be….

Homework

1. Find a Bible2. Read John 2 : 1-123. Write down ONE thought about it…4. …before

tomorrow!

PreambleReading the “Signs of the Times”

“Faith impels us to read and discern the signs of the times

in the present history.”

Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI, 2012

“The council yearns to explain to everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in the world of today….

Preamble(From Vatican II)

…To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes – “The Church in the Modern World,”

Para 2, , 1965 )

Preamble(From Vatican II)

How does the Church do this ? (scrutinize, interpret, explain)

“(The current times) should prove a stimulus to the Church: To increase its ever growing vitality, To take stock of itself, And give careful consideration to the signs of

the times, Always and everywhere ‘proving all things and

holding fast that which is good.’" (Ecclesiam Suam, Encyclical by Paul VI “On The Church,” 1964 )

Preamble

In other words, the Church asks: Where were we? (Past) Where are we? (Present) Where are we going? (Future) What’s good? (Keep or make better) What’s not? (Change or discard)

Preamble

And….how do we discern this? (next slide)

Reading the “Signs of the Times”

An Interactive Exercise

As a Church, where do we see:

An increase in vitality? The Church taking stock of itself? The Church giving careful consideration to the signs

of the times? “Holding fast that which is good"

Reading the “Signs of the Times”

As a Church, where do we NOT see:

An increase in vitality? The Church taking stock of itself? The Church giving careful consideration to the signs

of the times? “Holding fast that which is good"

Reading the “Signs of the Times”

As a believer:

Where do you see an increase in vitality in you life? How are your taking stock of yourself? Who helps you give careful consideration to the signs of the times? What is good in your life to which you are, and should be, “holding

fast?”

Reading the “Signs of the Times”

As a believer, where does there need to be conversion/redemption:

In what areas of your life is vitality lacking? What areas of your life have not been examined?

(“Taking stock of yourself”) Whom do you still need to consult to give “careful

consideration to the signs of the times?” What is NOT good in your life onto which you are still

“holding fast?”

Reading the “Signs of the Times”

Questions:What is this that we’re doing?

Why is this important?

What saint is famous for this process?

Extra Credit:What religious order did he found?

What book did he write?

What secular examples do we have of this process?

Reading the Signs of the Times,

An Example

Kate, Andy (not their real names) and the “New Year’s Eve Party”

PART 1“Do What He Tells You” (John 2:5)

Roadmap

1. “They have no wine” (John 2:3)

Is something missing in your life?

Leading people out of the desert… Reading the “Signs of the Times” Through Discernment Through Catechesis Towards encounter with Christ OBSERVATION

Sources: Benedict XVI, “Porta Fidei” Bible

2. “Do What He Tells You” (John 2:5)

Where do I get the: Answers? Strength? Blessing? Grace?

Moving towards the Son who gives life in abundance!

Moving towards a good place in life. Moving towards friendship and

community.

Parish of the past. Focus on: Social, Cultural, Political, Educational

Example: ethnic neighborhood parishes and Catholic schools

Faith was “self-evident.”

Catholic Church: Then

The previous stuff was good (for its time) The previous stuff is still good,

But now, it’s drinking water at a wedding. (AKA, “old wine skins”)

Need to change water into wine.

Catholic Church: Now

78/5 – 18/2 Lights hidden US Catholics floundering (Europe is worse…)

And yet: Inactives: Interest in the spiritual,

“spirituality,” transcendence, service. (Katrina, Haiti, Sandy)

Actives: Interest in Bible, catechesis, leadership

Catholic Church: Now

• Finding the good• Making the “good” even

better

How do we change Water into Wine ?

THROUGH: * Encounter *

Discernment * Catechesis

“They asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works of God?’

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 6:28-29 (NIV)

Christifideles LaiciGifts, Charisms and the Dignity of the Lay Faithful.”

Gifts vs. Charisms What’s the Difference?

Gifts vs. Charisms

Gifts :Difference?

Supernatural Given by God TO you… Given by God FOR you For your sanctification

Charisms :

Natural Given by God TO you… …for OTHERS! For their consolation

Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Gifts:

1. Wisdom (desire spiritual > temporal) …..2. Understanding (know truths beyond faith).. 3. Knowledge (circumstances) ……………….4. Counsel (right/wrong judgment) …………. 5. Fortitude (courage) ………………………………6. Piety (reverence)…………………………………...7. Fear of the Lord (wonder and awe)………..

Corresponding Virtues:

Charity Faith Faith Prudence Courage Justice Hope

Sacrificial & Consecrating Charisms:

Penance/ConfessionVirtueObedienceMartyrdom

Silence Solitude Prayer Charity Poverty

Speaking Charisms:

• Teaching• Exhorting/

Encouraging• Pastoring/

Shepherding• Apostleship• Evangelization

Words of Knowledge

Words of Wisdom Prophesy Tongues Interpretation

Ministering Charisms:

• Helping• Hospitality• Giving• Government/Ruling• Showing Mercy

Faith Discernment Miracles Healing Exorcism

• “They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here not abiding city but seek one which is to come, think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities…

Why is this important?Vatican II, Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), para. 43

• Nor …are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations,

• …and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from religious life.

Why is this important?

• This split between the faith, which many profess, and their daily lives, deserves to be counted among the most serious errors of our age.”• (Benedict XVI, Porta fidei)

Why is this important?

Charisms… determining, and discerning

Discerning Ministries

and Charisms: Catherine of Siena Inst

itute

“Called and Gifted” “

Spiritual Gifts Inventory”

Steps:

Explanation and inventory First session (1 hour ) Going in Depth Discern How to Apply in

Life Start to Apply /

Experience Re-DiscernHow could do you do this on

your own ?

End of PART 11. “They have no wine” (John 2:3)

“DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU” ( J O H N 2 : 5 )

PART 2

FAITH THEN “COMMITS EVERY ONE OF US TO BECOME A LIVING SIGN OF THE PRESENCE OF

THE RISEN LORD IN THE WORLD."

F RO M P O R TA F I D EI , PO PE BE N E D I CT X V I

ROADMAP

1. “They have no wine” (John 2:3)

• Is something missing in your life?

• Leading people out of the desert… • Reading the “Signs of the Times”• Through Discernment• Through Catechesis• Towards encounter with Christ

• Sources:• Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei• Bible

2. “Do What He Tells You” (John 2:5)

• Where do I get the:• Answers?• Strength?• Blessing?• Grace?

• Moving towards the Son who gives life in abundance!

• Moving towards a good place in life.

• Moving towards friendship and community.

THE “GREAT QUESTIONS”

• Suffering

• My Family

• What Should Lay People Do? • (vs priests & nuns)

• Women

• Human Sexuality

THE WORD !

WHERE DO WE GET ANSWERS?

THE WORD (REFORMATION THEOLOGY)

• The Word = The Bible

• Whole of Christian truth found within the Bible’s pages.

• Contains all material one needs for understanding about:• Who is God• Who am I• My relationship with God• My relationships with others

THE WORD (REFORMATION THEOLOGY)

• Material is sufficiently clear

• Thus one does not need any other teaching authority to help one understand it. • (Like “apostolic tradition” or the Church’s “Magisterium”)

• Anything extraneous to the Bible is unnecessary, non-authoritative or wrong - and may well hinder one in coming to God.• (ibid) 

THE “WORD” (CATHOLIC TRADITION)

• Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God • (Vatican II, Dei Verbum para. 10)

• …there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture.

• Both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, merge into a unity.

THE “WORD” (CATHOLIC TRADITION)

• Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, …

• …while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity …

THE “WORD” (CATHOLIC TRADITION)

• ….so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may - in proclaiming it - preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known.

i.e. … applying the Scriptures, in practical ways, to everyday situations in our lives.

THE “WORD” (CATHOLIC TRADITION)

• Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed.

• Both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.

NEW WINE – NEW WINESKINS

• Mark 2:22 …

• “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; • or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, • the wine is spilled, • and the wineskins are ruined.

• New wine must be put into new wineskins.”

As Catholics, how do we begin applying

the “Word” to everyday life?

AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE “WORD” IS AN ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE “WORD” IS AN ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST

“WORD” = SCRIPTURE & TRADITION

THE WORD AND THE “GREAT QUESTIONS”

• Alone: • For edification• Spiritual nourishment• Catechesis

• When discerning:• Don’t read the “Word” alone • Lose opportunity for support, communio• Lose perspective and additional information

TIMING

• This takes time (“Waiting on the Lord”)• Give it a year…• Thoughts• Word• Posture• Prophetic prayer

• Might mean taking away; NOT adding on.

FRUIT

• “Search for the beauty of faith…• …until the heart finds rest”

• Or other feelings like:• Conviction• Courage• Confidence• Hope

We need to pay attention to feelings. We cannot be governed by our emotions, but the Holy Spirit does live within them. (St. Francis de Sales).

“DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU” ( J O H N 2 : 5 )

END OF PART 2

Faith "is the life long companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us.

Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI

PART 3

“He tasted the water that had been turned into wine.” (John 2:9)

Roadmap New wine Church of the future Signs of fruit in the

Church Signs of fruit in your life

What is good in your life? What can be better that is already good? Formation & Transformation … vs. Education & Information

4. New Evangelization & Year of Faith

3. “He tasted the water that had been turned

into wine.” (John 2:9)

Remember this?

….Your thoughts

Engaging the “Word” “Reading the context is not

enough… Unless the heart is opened

by grace” (Benedict XVI, Porta fidei.)

Engaging the “Word”

“Word” = Scripture, Church Fathers, theological masters, saints…

Reading the text, Understanding the

interpretation/explanation. Finding “something” there, and… Discovering a meaning within the

context of your life.

Engaging the “Word”

It’s not academic. It’s not about the mind, …it’s about the “heart.”

Its not about information, …it’s about formation and trans-formation.

Engaging the “Word”

Done within the context of a (“holy”) hour.

Done within the time of the “Holy Hour.”

Then it’s water -> wine Mind thing -> encounter with

Christ

An aside –

Confession as “spiritual direction”

The Manifestation of the “Hidden Mystery”

From a treatise against the heresy of Noetus by Saint Hippolytus, priest (A.D. 170-235)

The Manifestation of the “Hidden Mystery”

There is only one God, brethren, and we learn about him only from sacred Scripture.

It is therefore our duty to become acquainted with what Scripture proclaims and to investigate its teachings (aka, “sacred tradition”) thoroughly…

The Manifestation of the Hidden Mystery

Sacred Scripture is God’s gift to us and it should be understood in the way that he intends…

….we should not do violence to it by interpreting it according to our own preconceived ideas.

The Manifestation of the Hidden Mystery

Two questions:

Question #1: Why is this important?› (Hold that thought…)

Question #2: What is the “Hidden Mystery?”

You are.

Question #1: Why is this important?

Because you are.

Effects of Engaging the “Word”

Undue the damage Fill the lacuna Renew you physically, emotionally Renew you within the Church

“Redeeming” internally and externally

Redeem = “change” and “exchange”

Redeeming internally and externally

Internally: thoughts, affections, mentality, conduct:› Need to be purified› Need to be transformed

Externally: › Venture capitalist and “entrepreneurial prison

ministry”

Redemption, Restoration, Transformation

Gabe Lyons’ idea of “restorers” (redeeming)

Redemption, Restoration, Transformation

In the past Mass was sufficient; today Sunday is not enough.

A heart is shaped by transforming grace needs:› Contact with the Word› Contact with people of the Word

What the Church Must Do

Remember this ………………....

Practical activity insufficient unless:› Expands love for man› Nourished by encounter with Christ

“Charitable activities at all levels must avoid risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance.” (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est)

Caution (again): pelagianism

End of PART 3

“He tasted the water that had been turned into wine.” (John 2:9)

PART 4

The New Evangelizationand The Year of Faith

Roadmap:3. “He tasted the water that had been

turned into wine.” (John 2:9)4. New Evangelization & Year of Faith

• What is good in your life?

• What can be better that is already good?

• Formation & Transformation

• vs. Education & Information

• New wine

• Church of the future

• Signs of fruit in the Church

• Signs of fruit in your life

The “New Evangelization”

Definition and Context

Type of “Callings”

The New Evangelizationand The Year of Faith

What the Church Does(Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est)

•Kerygma – Proclaim the Word

•Leitourgia – Sacraments

•Diakonia - Charity

Calling - Disciples

•From Greek, “Discipulus”

▫Pupil▫Learner▫Apprentice

▫Might have a mission (smaller) (Example: Luke 10:1-24 and the “70 disciples”)

Calling – Martyrs

Types: Examples:

• Blood

• Public witness

• Poverty (simple life)

• Chastity

• Obedience

• Action for Justice

• Charity

• From Greek, “Martus”

Calling and Faith

•What the world needs:

▫Credible witnesses

▫People able to open the hearts of others (“Charity”)

▫But also people “enlightened” in mind and heart.

Why both mind AND heart?

A Time For Witnesses

• 1 Peter 1:6-7 “Now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

• These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold - which perishes even though refined by fire …

• …may be proved genuine …• …and result in praise, glory and honor • …when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

A Time For Witnesses

• Is our current suffering a prelude to joy ?)

• “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties.

• For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

• (1 Corinthians 12:10)

What the Church StillNeeds to Do (Benedict XVI)

• Remember ……………………

• Practical activity insufficient unless:▫Expands love for man…▫Nourished by encounter with Christ

▫“Charitable activities at all levels must avoid risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance.”

Faith in Action

Mary as the Model

Faith Applied in Action:

•Discern for yourself what the Lord is telling you during your retreat this year.

•Discuss this three times with at least one person over the course of the next year.

Faith Applied in Action:

•There are 18 Marian celebrations and feast days…

•Celebrate just one of these days that honor Mary this year.

Faith Applied in Action:

•Commit to saying the Rosary (or Divine Chaplet) daily during October, the month dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Faith Applied in Action:

•Mary is mentioned close to 50 times in the New Testament. …

•Over the next year, chose and read just one Marian story or passage. Sit with and pray with this passage for one week from one Saturday to the next.

Mary as the Model

What you might experience:

What to do:

• Joy• Trepidation• Trust• Confusion• Wonder

• Treasuring Memories▫ “Pondering”

• Meditation▫ “Reflecting”

• Tasting ▫ The fruits

End Presentation…

The New Evangelizationand The Year of Faith

Calling and Faith

• Faith without charity bears no fruit…

• Charity without faith is mere sentiment at the mercy of doubt.

Church’s role in moral teaching

Relationship between faith and reason