{"id":3135,"date":"2020-02-06T07:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T12:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2020-02-06T07:32:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T12:32:42","slug":"how-we-can-witness-to-our-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/how-we-can-witness-to-our-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Can Witness to Our Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s something I wrote for our parish bulletin 2\/9\/20<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evangelization:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Can You Share What Our Faith Means to You?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hesitated to use the word\n\u201cevangelization\u201d in the title of this article. \nI think when people here the word \u201cevangelization\u201d there is a tendency\nto think of evangelicals calling out Bible verses or people who go door to door\ntalking about their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that is evangelization, but\nwe are not all called to do that. \nHowever, that is not all that there is to evangelization.  At its most basic level, evangelization means\nsharing<\/em><\/strong>\nour faith.  Some of you might feel\ntroubled by the idea of having to share<\/em><\/strong> our faith.  You might feel like you don\u2019t know enough\nabout our faith.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have two responses to\nthat.  First, I encourage you to learn\nmore about our faith.  I believe this is\nimportant for our future as a church.  This\nis why I do the presentations I do and it is why I have my own website and blog\n(www.renewaloffaith.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, I wish to clarify by\nwhat I mean by \u201csharing our faith\u201d.  We\nare not all called to give \u201ctheological discourses\u201d using \u201cbig fancy church\nwords.\u201d  If you have the knowledge and\nfeel the called to do that, go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, I want to talk about\n\u201csharing our faith\u201d in some basic actions. \nFirst and foremost is coming to Mass every Sunday.  Maybe it means missing a practice.  Maybe it means making the effort to get out\nof bed on Sunday morning when you rather sleep in.  The fact that you are willing to make your\nschedule around getting to Mass is a very important witness, a way for you to\nshow how important your faith is to you. \nWhen others see coming to Mass is important to you, maybe it will plant\na seed in them to get them to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday Mass is something we are\nall called to as part of the Third Commandment, Keep the Sabbath holy.  For those who are able, I also encourage\nattendance at daily Mass.  I know that\nmany people can\u2019t attend daily Mass because of work or school.  Most of the people who attend daily Mass are\nretirees but we also have a young home-school family that comes.  It is a great way to start the day.  Returning to the theme of evangelization and\nsharing our faith, I think attending daily Mass can be another important witness\nof how important your faith is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, I mention Adoration of\nthe Blessed Sacrament.  At St. Patrick\u2019s\nwe offer a holy hour on the third Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m. with\nExposition, a Rosary, and Divine Mercy Chaplet, both prayed together as a\ncommunity with some silence for you to pray on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At St. Mary\u2019s we offer private\nAdoration each Thursday from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. \nBy private, I simply mean that people are free to come and go as you\nwant and simply prayer in silence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is witness value in coming\nto adoration.  First, it shows you\nbelieve in the Real Presence.  It is not\njust bread.  It has become the Body of\nChrist.  It also witnesses to others that\npraying is important to you.  Lastly, you\ncan use some of the time you spend there to pray for those who don\u2019t come to\nchurch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, sharing the faith\nstarts with showing how important our faith is to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peace,<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nFr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s something I wrote for our parish bulletin 2\/9\/20 Evangelization: How Can You Share What Our Faith Means to You? I hesitated to use the word \u201cevangelization\u201d in the title of this article.  I think when people here the word \u201cevangelization\u201d there is a tendency to think of evangelicals calling out Bible verses or people …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘How We Can Witness to Our Faith’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[113,9],"tags":[689,688],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Oz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3136,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}