Pope Francis: Catechize to the Way of Beauty

“Every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the “way of beauty” (via pulchritudinis). Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful, capable of filling life with new splendour and profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties. Every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus. This has nothing to do with fostering an aesthetic relativism which would downplay the inseparable bond between truth, goodness and beauty, but rather a renewed esteem for beauty as a means of touching the human heart and enabling the truth and goodness of the Risen Christ to radiate within it. If, as Saint Augustine says, we love only that which is beautiful, the incarnate Son, as the revelation of infinite beauty, is supremely lovable and draws us to himself with bonds of love. So a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith.”

                     Pope Francis (The Joy of the Gospel)

The Battle of Prayer

The following comes from The Catholic Exchange:

Prayer is a powerful source of grace and the mother of all virtue but the Catechism acknowledges that prayer is a battle. The Gospel is the story of spousal love and prayer is a means of communicating that love. Love is a necessary catalyst for persevering in prayer.

A priest once relayed this story in a weekday homily: “When I was a newly ordained priest I was so happy and sure of the priestly authority of Jesus given to me through the sacrament of Holy Orders. Shortly after ordination I traveled to a famous Marian shrine to thank Our Lady for the helping me through the seminary. At the shrine several people asked me to aid a lady who was in spiritual distress and manifesting evil spirits. As I approached the woman I reminded myself that I have the authority of Jesus Christ and His Church to pray for her liberation. After ministering to her for a time I began to bind and cast evil spirits but nothing happened. I tried three times without results and a crowd was gathering. I began to doubt my ordination. The Lord spoke to my heart, “Look her in the eye and tell her that I, the Lord, love her. Let My love manifest through your priesthood.” When Father did as the Lord said, the evil spirit left with a loud scream, and peace was restored as everyone witnessed.

In each case of deliverance or exorcism we see the power of divine love evicting the evil one from the person and premises. The priest and team surround the afflicted person with the prayer of the Church wrapped in ardent charity.

Part four of the Catechism presents a section entitled, The Battle of Prayer:

2725. Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the temper who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from a union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The “spiritual battle” of the Christian’s new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.

Prayer is absolutely transformative for good and that is why we have enemies of prayer that include our fallen nature, the flesh, the world and the devil.

Read the rest here.

Fr. Robert Barron: "Don’t dumb down the faith!"

(CNS)  The “dumbing down of the Catholic faith” that impacted catechesis in the mid-1960s “was a pastoral disaster of the first order,” Father Robert Barron told a crowd of about 500 people at the Catholic Media Conference in Denver June 19.

“That’s why many people in my generation left the faith,” Father Barron — creator of the “Catholicism” television series — told conference attendees and members of the public who came especially to hear his evening keynote address. “Don’t dumb down the message.”

That was the second of six suggestions Father Barron gave for spreading thenew evangelization. His other suggestions included “leading with beauty” and “preaching with ardor.”

Father Barron, who currently is rector of Mundelein Seminary in the Chicago Archdiocese, started out by noting that the convention marked the 20th anniversary of World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, where it is widely though that Blessed John Paul II kicked off the new evangelization, which urges Catholics to renew their faith and aims to re-ignite the Catholic faith in traditionally Christian countries where the people’s practice of the faith has grown lax.

In leading with beauty, the Catholic Church will draw people to itself the way the main character in Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” was drawn to the church — from beauty to goodness to truth, Father Barron said.

Another way the church can spread the new evangelization is to “tell the great story of salvation history” that includes the Old Testament story that set the stage for Christ’s incarnation.

“Don’t turn Jesus into a bland cypher,” he said. “He’s not just another mystic or guru.”

Noting the large number of people in modern society who suffer from addictions, Father Barron said the church must also help people reject “false gods of wealth, honor, pleasure and power,” and teach the anthropology of St. Augustine, who wrote that “our heart is restless until it rests in thee.”

“We need to mock (false gods) publicly,” Father Barron said.

And to combat modern atheism, the church must spread the message of St. Irenaeus, who wrote that “the glory of God is a human being fully alive,” Father Barron said. The saint, who died in the early third century, taught that the creed contains the essential truths of Christian faith.

In Christianity, God and man do not compete with each other, he added. It is only in pagan and atheistic belief systems that gods stand in the way of human progress.

Scott Hahn: Catechism and the Year of Faith

Read the Catechism for the Year of Faith

For this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict has encouraged you to study and reflect on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Well, here's an easy way to do it. Simply click here and go to the flocknote site and enter your email address and - starting October 11, 2012 - you'll start getting a little bit of the Catechism emailed to you every morning. Read that little bit every day and you'll read the whole catechism in a year.