St Patrick and the New Arenas of Evangelisation of our Times

St Patrick, an Englishman, was kidnapped and enslaved to work as a shepherd in Ireland.  Tending the sheep he discovered the Good Shepherd looking after him.

Listen to my homily for today:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Gospel for today Luke 10:1-20 (National Calendar of England)

In the solitude and prayer of the green Irish hillsides, he heard the call of God to shepherd his people.  He escaped and went back to England, where he studied for the priesthood, and was ordained a bishop.  Sent back to Ireland he converted the entire nation quickly by a very strategic approach: he converted the chieftains, bards, and poets, the political and cultural leaders - from the top down.

It is a great mystery to be sent as a missionary.  For God so loved Ireland that he sent his beloved son Patrick.  God loves you and sent you into your family relationships, your workplace, your school, your particular sphere of influence.  Each baptised person has a missionary vocation.  Each baptised is sent by God to spread the Gospel.

There are more fruitful mission fields, or arenas upon which we will have a very fruitful harvest:

Conscience- We must live the teaching of the Second Vatican Council to end the dictatorship of relativism that sits upon the throne of many consciences like a tyrant, destroying the potency of the Catholic faith, and making many people who sit in the pews, unbeknownst to themselves, worshipers of relativism.  The teach of Dignitatis Humanae, the Declaration on Human Freedom is:

"This one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men...

"On their part, all men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and His Church, and to embrace the truth they come to know, and to hold fast to it... 

"Government is to assume the safeguard [NOT VIOLATOR] of the religious freedom of all its citizens, in an effective manner, by just laws and by other appropriate means...

"The disciple is bound by a grave obligation toward Christ, his Master, ever more fully to understand the truth received from Him, faithfully to proclaim it, and vigorously to defend it.

To sum up: we owe each conscience He for whom it was made - CHRIST!  We are bound in conscience to proclaim Christ as the Truth for which all men are created and bound to follow once they see it, especially in the proclamation of the lives of the disciples.  N.B.  THIS is the real teaching of the Second Vatican Council.  No one can say in the name of conscience to be a relativist catholic, worshiping the idol of self in place of the only King who should sit on the throne of man's inmost sanctuary, Jesus Christ the Lord.

The violation of the conscience which the Obama administration attempts in its HHS healthcare, in which it seeks to force Catholic institutions to go against the natural law in providing abortions, contraceptives, and sterilizations is not fighting the Catholic Church.  Let's be clear: Obama fights God.  Bring it!  We know who is going to win.

Family Life - There needs to be a clear proclamation of marriage as a one-man one woman covenanted union which is meant for the procreation and upbringing of children.  Same-sex unions can never match the same psychological health, wholeness, and blessing of marriage between one man and one woman.  For more info, read here.

The UK attempting to redefine marriage between same sex partners is ludicrous and the first consultation showed this.  70% said no and 78% said it's not a priority.  However, the government has discarded the first consultation for redefining same-sex marriages and made up a new three month long one, or they need to "redefine consultations before they redefine marriage."  Clearly this is so they can try to shake the tree until the fruit they want will fall from it.  Not going to happen.  Time for Catholics to sign the petition to stop this madness and write their MP's.  Please do this now if you are reading this.  It is so easy.  Just a single email with a few lines.  Click here for a directory.

There has to be a very clear proclamation from every Catholic Church and the life of every Catholic about the culture of death and the lies of contraception, abortion, sterilization, in vitro fertilization, same-sex unions, cohabitation, and everything that attempts to present itself as a legitimate form of family life that is really the seed of destruction of human civilization.

Digital Arena- You can watch live the Holy Father on a digital device.  You can know the teachings of the Church in a few clicks.  You now have no excuse to not know the Church's teachings.  You are not alone.  There is so much help for you and so much encouragement online to preach the Gospel.  The Holy Father said in his Message for World Communications Day a few years ago that especially priests, but all need

"to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.  Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ."

Social Teachings of the Church - The teachings of Christ about economics, politics, and civic life need to be lived and shared by Catholic to the world that is in desperate need of reordering.  The collapse of the economic order is because it is now based on materialism and greed, when it needs to be based on charity and solidarity.  There is an excellent online resource, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.  Read it!

May Our Lady help us to answer the call from our baptism to spread the Gospel with maximum fruitfulness.

Sacramental Catechesis and Mint Toothpaste

Although there are all kind of flavours available nowadays for children's toothpaste, I've always insisted that they have some kind of mint. I don't believe the new flavours exist in adult toothpaste (although perhaps soon they will, for the 'kidults' among us), and even if they did, I suspect that most grown-ups would prefer the bracing taste of mint in their mouths as they approach slumber. It's just part of the bedtime routine.

Ritual is so much part of everyday life with small children, and without it, solid food will not be eaten, sleep will not be sound; chaos and misery will ensue. It's another area where we would do well to consider what Our Lord means when he tells us that we must become like these little ones to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

But we are also aiming for maturity, and early foundations are being laid through these rituals. The taste of mint will always be part of the sensual experience of bedtime for my children. Even if they stray from it in older years, it will be deeply based in their subconscious as a necessary part of preparing for sleep.

And I don't want them to have strawberry toothpaste at Mass either. I want them to have the sensual experience, the sights, sounds and smells of the ritual. What they do with their body and what they experience with their senses will build up into an intuitive sense of the sacred which will serve them well in the future. By the grace of God, I hope and pray that they will be at home in sacred ritual, in prayer and in reverence.

[Image from Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License.]

Posted by Anthony Radice (A Tiny Son of Mary)