Recommended Resources for Catholic Discipleship

Here are some great resources to better understand how to be a Catholic disciple and make more!

Forming Intentional Disciples - by Sherry Weddell
According to Weddell, these are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church. If the Church is to reverse present trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized- in other words, Catholics in the pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him.

Making Missionary Disciples - by Curtis Martin
In his book, Martin highlights three main habits of disciples: divine intimacy, authentic friendship, and conviction about spiritual multiplication. The author describes these habits as “simple but hard,” because they involve changing behavior to make evangelization possible. 

Living as Missionary Disciples - by USCCB
Living as Missionary Disciples provide dioceses, parishes, and other church ministries with a roadmap to “new paths for the Church’s journey” of evangelization. 

Rebuilt - by Michael White and Tom Corcoran
This book is a rich resource for pastors, pastoral staffers, and parishioners providing valuable and useful approaches that are easily transferrable to the parish setting. Rebuilt takes the New Evangelization seriously and points the way forward for others to do the same. 

Mission of the Redeemer, Redemptoris Mission, Encyclical Letter of John Paul II
John Paul II boldly proclaims in his Encyclical Letter that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. “No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.”

Manual for Spiritual Warfare - by Paul Thigpen
The primary purpose of this manual is to help everyday Catholics recognize, resist, and overcome the Enemy’s attacks in their own lives and the lives for whom they bear responsibility. Engaging spiritual warfare is a key component of discipleship

The Anguish of the Jews, Father Edward. H. Flannery
A significant contribution to Jewish-Christian relations and brings the Catholic community an entirely new development in their thinking about the people of the Jewish faith.

Unleashing the Power of Intercessory Prayer, Joseph Hollcraft
Catholics can struggle with intercessory prayer because they lack the key steps to becoming an intercessor. This book provides these steps!

From Woodstock Nation to a Holy Nation

Fifty years ago, I along with countless others made the trek through Bethel, New York to Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in White Lake, a subdivision of Bethel, to attend what was billed as an “Aquarian Exposition: Three Days of Peace and Music.” Close to 500,000 arrived to experience some of the era’s best bands, including a West Coast contingent that made for one of the greatest Saturday nights — continuing well past Sunday sunrise — of the rock era: the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone and Jefferson Airplane, with an explosive set by the Who. It lived up to that “peace and music” billing to gather an unexpectedly large, unexpectedly amiable community; it envisioned pleasure as an answer, not merely an escape. “Woodstock Nation,” despite Abbie Hoffman’s hopes when he coined the term, turned out to be a weekend happening rather than a political force.

When Woodstock Nation disbanded late Monday morning, I returned to my home in Upstate New York to continue my summer routines and prepare to return to Bowling Green University for my sophomore year of college. Eighteen months later, three young men came to visit my school and shared a message about a person who wanted to change my life and bring me into a whole new existence. Having been brought up in a strong, Irish-Catholic home, I had wandered away not only from my Catholic faith but from the Lord of all, Jesus Christ. These young men each shared their stories of how they had found a whole new life they never imagined existed. When I was at Woodstock, I was looking to fill a void in my life. I was searching for peace and love that can only be found in Jesus. That night I went to my room and called out to the One these fellows had proclaimed and whose stories roused my soul. The Lord came upon me and swept me into His kingdom. I was transformed, and suddenly, the void that led me to Woodstock was filled by the love of God poured out by the Holy Spirit.

Those three young men were used by God to change the trajectory of my entire existence. Just as the Lord used them in my life, so He wants to use us to reach others. They did not share a complicated theology nor a sophisticated three-point outline. They simply told their personal story of what great things the Lord Jesus had done for them. As they shared with me, my heart burned within me, and I turned my life over to the Lord. Each one of us can have the privilege and opportunity those three men had that night. God used them to lead me out of “Woodstock Nation” and into the Holy Nation spoken of by our first pope, St Peter. You, my friend, are called to do the same!

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

The Call to Become a Missionary Disciple

On the Fourth of July weekend, 2017, 3300 Catholic bishops, priests, and lay leaders gathered in Orlando. I had the privilege of participating as a lay leader. We came together to reflect on and respond to Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Pope Francis’s revolutionary Apostolic Exhortation on the duty and joy of evangelization. We also came to understand the causes of the Church’s great twenty-first-century crisis and find a way to address them.

The convocation recognized that the Catholic Church is suffering from a critical membership hemorrhage. Speakers in plenary sessions and many of the breakouts acknowledged reports that for every person joining the church, six leave. That’s the poorest loss/gain ratio among all Christian groups. The attrition is most apparent among Millennials. Fifty percent of Catholics born between 1982 and 2004 have left the church. Many claim no religious identification and have come to be known as the “Nones.”

At the final plenary session, Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of Santa Barbara and the founder/director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, said that causes of the drain include: Scientism which falsely claims to explain all reality and so denies the transcendental; The growing sub-culture which regards all religion as a fairy tale and “Who cares, anyway;” and Secularization, which substitutes living for power, pleasure, honor, and wealth instead of for truth, goodness, and beauty, that is, for God.

Over four days, many speakers suggested potential solutions to resolve the crisis. One striking note came from a youth leader. He shared that once a young “None” approached him and said, “Stop calling me a problem—I’m a person.” And another panelist urged just as parishes have adopted a preferential option for the poor, they must now adopt a preferential option for the Nones (and the “Dones,” the older dropouts). At the heart of all recommendations was Pope Francis’s call for all Catholics, especially the laity, to do evangelization as “missionary disciples.”

All the baptized, wherever they function in the Church or their maturity in the Faith, are instruments of evangelization. This plan would be an insufficient call if evangelization were to be carried out by a select few. Rather, the call to missionary discipleship is a call to all the Faithful! Pope Francis makes this clear… Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries,” but rather that we are always “missionary disciples” EG, 120.

As missionary disciples, the Pope commissions us to find and accompany people on the peripheries. There we will meet the unbaptized, the hurting, non-practicing Catholics, the Nones, the agnostics, and the atheists. We will show and tell them how the Lord Jesus can fill the emptiness. So, we are sent to bring women and men to encounter Jesus Christ and then go and make disciples. Missionary disciples implement Pope Francis’s charge: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day” EG, 3.

I Will Build My Church

Sacred Scripture offers us a picture of the Church Jesus instituted. First, this sacred building would be built by Jesus Christ Himself. It would not be built like the Old Testament Temple with stones chiseled in Solomon’s quarries but rather as St. Peter told us, “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition). Secondly, this new presence in our time/space world would have a foundation described as “ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). This new spiritual building would endure the test of time because of its foundation.

Historians inform us that this building seems to be severely tested every 500 years. The first time the Church was extremely tested was in the fall of Rome, the first 500-year period. It had a rebirth when great missionary disciples like Augustine in England and Patrick in Ireland spread the faith and risked everything for the Name. Then came a second “earthquake” around the year 1,000 with the Islamic invasions and the Great Schism of the Church in Constantinople in 1054. All seemed lost, yet the Holy Spirit raised saints like Francis and Dominic, Clair and Catherine of Sienna.

In the third 500-year period nuns and priests were defecting. Tetzel was selling indulgences and then came the reformers who began reforming the faith, and there was nothing wrong with the faith — it was the moral culture that needed to be reformed. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross arose and saw what Jesus was building and became models of ancient spirituality.

Throughout the history of this New Testament building, as it is continually being built, scaffolding surrounds its structure. Scaffolding is only used in the construction of a building; it does not support the building, the foundation does. Once the building is complete, the scaffolding is taken down. It may come as a surprise to some of us that the building continues to stand after the Lord removes the scaffolding. Sometimes it is hard for us to remember that the building is beautiful and eternal because of Her Builder. The scaffolding that surrounds the building in every age and every culture is a construction filled with materials and workers, both righteous and unrighteous. These are part of the necessary scaffolding, which will eventually be removed. Scaffolding surrounds the Temple of the Lord and here now, after another 500 years, the Lord is removing the scaffolding.

Our calling now becomes ever so clear. If we allow history to inform us, we, like Augustine in England and Patrick in Ireland, must focus on going out as missionary disciples, to evangelize. Like St. Francis, we volunteer to become rebuilders and repairers. Like Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, we look through the scaffolding and see the beautiful Church Jesus Christ continues to build with Her spirituality restored. May we too, look at the building Jesus constructs and be ready to say, “yes” to the Master Builder!

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them” (Rev. 21:1-3).

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is only used in the construction of a building; it does not support the building. Once the building is complete, the scaffolding is taken down. It may come as a surprise to some of us that the building continues to stand after the Lord removes the scaffolding. Sometimes it is hard for us to remember that the Kingdom of God is not made up of meetings or organizations. These are part of the necessary scaffolding, which will eventually be removed. Each time we come to another tack and another change in the wind, we are forced to leave some things behind. What we must abandon is the scaffolding, not the building. In the process, we discover that God has added to us understanding that we never had before. We do not want to miss the mark and continue on the same course, but neither can we go back the way we came.

My foundation consists of rich and valuable Pentecostal roots, coupled with a strong theological base from an Episcopalian Seminary, and enhanced repeatedly by fresh encounters with the Holy Spirit. These foundational truths will never change. Foundational truth is not scaffolding; it will always remain part of the building. If I had rejected everything that was part of my experience in those days, I would not only be losing the scaffolding, I would also be removing part of the foundation. We must always build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, His Word in Holy Scripture, and the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. These will always be an ongoing and eternal part of our experience.

Much of God’s purpose in allowing us to go through major course corrections is to bring about death to that which is carnal and unredeemable. Christ is inexorably committed to burning the chaff. Part of our fleshly nature dies when we have to change our habitual way of doing things, our private revelations, and our comfortable spiritual environment. One of the essential steps toward a New Testament Church community is a practical understanding of what it means to walk in unity within the Body of Christ.

Each one of us has experienced the attitude that says, “When everyone else wises up, they will do things our way.” Each time we are forced to come about and make a course correction, more of that attitude dies, and we are better able to accept other members of the larger Body of Christ for what God has done in them rather than how they compare to our standards and our own way of doing things.

In Attendance at the School of the Holy Spirit

With colleges, high schools, grade schools, pre-schools, and yes, even day-care centers closed, one may wonder, are there schools open anywhere? I would say emphatically, there is one school that never closes, and that is the School of the Holy Spirit. His school, many times, may seem unavailable or even remote, but now, during this Covid-19 pandemic, all Catholic Christians are enrolled and they KNOW IT!

What is the Holy Spirit instructing us in during these unique and may I say, historic days? I would like to offer three concrete lessons that come to the forefront. First of all, we are all learning and being taught and re-taught this: the domestic church is the birthplace of the Christian life. Down through the ages, as people were converted and beccame believers, “they desired that ‘their whole household’ should also be saved. These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1655). Building up the domestic church will bring integrity, conversion, growth and discipleship to our Catholic Church. Catholic parents can look to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for direction regarding their responsibilities to impart the faith to their children. There we learn, “The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called ‘the domestic church,’ a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity” (No. 1666). There is one characteristic that expresses the Holy Spirit’s presence in this first “curriculum” of His school-prayer. Simply put, “A family that prays together stays together” (St. Teresa of Calcutta). Additionally, our Catechism tells us, “The Christian family is the first place for education in prayer” (No. 2694). We must endeavor to lay a foundation of prayer in our domestic churches as a key lesson from the COVID-19 crisis. It will undoubtedly be one of the most important things we will ever do as Christian parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles.

The second lesson taught in the School of the Holy Spirit is the necessity of being a part of a small group and community. We cannot serve Jesus wholeheartedly in isolation. “So that all parishes of this kind may be truly communities of Christians, local ecclesial authorities ought to foster...small, basic or so-called ‘living’ communities, where the faithful can communicate the word of God and express it in service and love to one another; these communities are true expressions of ecclesial communion and centers of evangelization, in communion with their pastors” Pope John Paul II, {The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People). The pressures experienced presently are reminding us that being in community with identifiable relationships is no longer a luxury. During this crisis small groups at Seton are utilizing technology to fellowship and encourage one another. When we can see one another again, I encourage each of us to seek out small group expressions where we can know and be known by others. Jesus promised His Presence would be there!

The third lesson in the School of the Holy Spirit, I believe, is this: we have a unique if not historical opportunity to give witness to Jesus Christ and to share our Faith with others. The Holy Spirit is “tenderizing” the hearts of many throughout the world in this difficult time. There may not be a better opportunity in our lifetime to proclaim Jesus Christ. If this is intimidating to you, you are not alone. Learning to share our faith takes a certain preparation. Just as schools are preparing now their options of opening in the fall, so we too should prepare ourselves to give a witness to those the Lord will bring our way. “ in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE).

At St. Elizabeth Seton, we will be hosting a School of Evangelization, beginning in September, by the St. Paul Evangelization Institute. This year long course will equip you with the ability to share your faith. You will be empowered and changed into the man and woman Jesus wants you to be-His witnesses! For more information on this exciting opportunity, click here.

May we join together and fully attend to the School of the Holy Spirit. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3 NRSVCE).