Looking for ideas on how to evangelize Catholics

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Kermit

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I feel like I am being called to do more to help evangelize fallen away Catholics. I have been making Rosaries and giving them away at my church festival along with other Catholic info, but once a year doesn’t feel like enough. I feel like The Holy Spirit is giving me lots ideas but how do I know what I should be doing?

What do you do to help your fellow Catholics fall in love with their faith again?
 
Have you had the opportunity to make a Cursillo?
How to evangelize effectively is one of the things that is addressed.
 
Cursillo is a lay movement that started in Spain in the 1940’s because of a lack of catechesis. Cursillo stands for Little Course in Christianity. It involves a three day weekend retreat plus continued lifetime formation (the fourth day).
To make a cursillo, you would need sponsorship from a cursillista plus permission from your parish priest.
Weekends for men are separate from weekends for women.
natl-cursillo.org/affiliated.html
 
Oh my Gosh! My husband (a devout, zealous Catholic man) is always surfing the net looking for great Catholic sites. He found the Catholicscomehome.org website and couldn’t wait to show me. It is truly awesome! At the bottom of the homepage are 3 commercials (brief videos) that they run on TV during various times of the year in different cities. Then they watch to see if they are effective at bringing people back to the church. They are! I urge you to go to the site and watch them. I cried during all three! They are so professionally done and powerful!!! I would contribute to a fund that would put them on during the Superbowl, the NBA finals, the Olympics, the season finales of everyone’s favorite shows, etc!!! Catholics are finally using all the same methods as protestants to deliver their message to the world. YAY!!!
 
for us wearing t-shirts with catholic messages has been a huge way to evangelize. People seem to be always attracted to ask about the meaning of the shirts we wear… that is why we started our ministry selling shirts so that others can do the same
 
Kermit said:
I feel like I am being called to do more to help evangelize fallen away Catholics. I have been making Rosaries and giving them away at my church festival along with other Catholic info, but once a year doesn’t feel like enough. I feel like The Holy Spirit is giving me lots ideas but how do I know what I should be doing?

What do you do to help your fellow Catholics fall in love with their faith again?
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DO I HAVE IDEAS FOR YOU!!!

Go to your nearest Bookstore and order:
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala

This is what you should be doing with your rosaries. YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY.
 
I think the biggest problem with Evangelization in Catholicism today is the Church itself. Recently a lady with an 18 year old son who is having problems in school came to me and we discussed the matter. Both of us agreed her son needed to join a youth group and make friends. He also needed a relationship with God. Our parish church is hopeless in terms of activities for kids. so I went to the Dioceses Websites looking for other parishes. The link for youth ministry showed me why nothing was happening. The Bishop was a control freak. He was effectively stiffling all new ideas, creative thinking, participation by parents and youth ministers. It was his way or the high way…and my teenage kids wanted nothing to do with the guy. So I reluctantly found several Protestant Churches with good programs and sent her son there. The protestants were great: weekly hip hop dances, a surfing club that met at the local beach and offered free lessions, a teen center with bible discussion groups, mid week prayer groups with ice cream, lockins, group dates, counseling, ezines for teens, opportunities to make short video clips and show them at church, bookclubs, river baptisms, free concerts, visiting speakers, summer boot camp for athletes,missions overseas, garage bands that did Christian Rock at Services, etc. The staff was open minded, young, vibrant and full of the Holy Spirit. There were both High School and College Ministry with many kids (several hundred) attending weekly. Try doing this in the Catholic Church. IMPOSSIBLE. The Bishop is so full of himself no one can do anything without his approval, and micromanagement. JP2 loved kids and understood them. His successor Benedict16 is slowly but surely killing Life Teen Programs and The Newman Center with his Reforming the Reforms of Vatican2. Hopefully the Holy Spirit will convict the Pope of his mistakes but until that happens ALL IS LOST.
 
Cursillo focuses on little e versus big E evangelization. Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.
For the young people in our Church, it would be worthwhile to try to locate a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ). This group, along with other groups who have experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit, is mentioned in the United States Cathecism of the Catholic Church. This would be the place to begin since it does have the blessing of the Magisterium. The United States Cathecism of the Catholic Church is a cooperative effort the US bishops developed from the CCC which has Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) as the imprimateur. The Holy Spirit is at work in the Church. It just may be that we need more lay leaders to step forward and help with the needed youth ministries. If you want to take this role, speak to your pastor. Approach him respectfully with the information that comes from the USCCC.
One of the things the Church had even before Vatican II was CYO which stands for Catholic Youth Organization. Maybe it is time to bring this back. The CYO combined catechesis with such youth activities as organized sports and dances. It is not a matter of being conservative or not, it is a matter of being available for our youth.
 
skyryder said:
I think the biggest problem with Evangelization in Catholicism today is the Church itself. Recently a lady with an 18 year old son who is having problems in school came to me and we discussed the matter. Both of us agreed her son needed to join a youth group and make friends. He also needed a relationship with God. Our parish church is hopeless in terms of activities for kids. so I went to the Dioceses Websites looking for other parishes. The link for youth ministry showed me why nothing was happening. The Bishop was a control freak. He was effectively stiffling all new ideas, creative thinking, participation by parents and youth ministers. It was his way or the high way…and my teenage kids wanted nothing to do with the guy. So I reluctantly found several Protestant Churches with good programs and sent her son there. The protestants were great: weekly hip hop dances, a surfing club that met at the local beach and offered free lessions, a teen center with bible discussion groups, mid week prayer groups with ice cream, lockins, group dates, counseling, ezines for teens, opportunities to make short video clips and show them at church, bookclubs, river baptisms, free concerts, visiting speakers, summer boot camp for athletes,missions overseas, garage bands that did Christian Rock at Services, etc. The staff was open minded, young, vibrant and full of the Holy Spirit. There were both High School and College Ministry with many kids (several hundred) attending weekly. Try doing this in the Catholic Church. IMPOSSIBLE. The Bishop is so full of himself no one can do anything without his approval, and micromanagement. JP2 loved kids and understood them. His successor Benedict16 is slowly but surely killing Life Teen Programs and The Newman Center with his Reforming the Reforms of Vatican2. Hopefully the Holy Spirit will convict the Pope of his mistakes but until that happens ALL IS LOST.
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Um, what? Have you actually read any of Pope Benedict’s addresses to youth? He loves us young folks just as much as JPII did. I think you are unfairly maligning the Pope and your bishop. They are your shepherds and I think they deserve a little more respect from you.

No wonder it is so hard to evangelize Catholic youth these days…their parents have an obvious disdain for our Church and its leadership. This is the real roadblock to evangelization in my eyes.

Anyhoo…I feel the same desire as the OP, to reach out to fallen away Catholics, the “lost sheep of Israel” of our days. I’m looking for good ways to do this too. I will see about making a Cursillo.
 
DebChris said:
Cursillo focuses on little e versus big E evangelization. Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.
For the young people in our Church, it would be worthwhile to try to locate a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ). This group, along with other groups who have experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit, is mentioned in the United States Cathecism of the Catholic Church. This would be the place to begin since it does have the blessing of the Magisterium. The United States Cathecism of the Catholic Church is a cooperative effort the US bishops developed from the CCC which has Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) as the imprimateur. The Holy Spirit is at work in the Church. It just may be that we need more lay leaders to step forward and help with the needed youth ministries. If you want to take this role, speak to your pastor. Approach him respectfully with the information that comes from the USCCC.
One of the things the Church had even before Vatican II was CYO which stands for Catholic Youth Organization. Maybe it is time to bring this back. The CYO combined catechesis with such youth activities as organized sports and dances. It is not a matter of being conservative or not, it is a matter of being available for our youth.
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Deb. Thanks for the info.

Sadly this situation is similar to a person calling an ambulence during an emergency and being told you have to go to the garage, unlock the gate, jack up the car, change the oil, put on new tires, jump start the battery, go beg in the streets for gas money, read a mantenance manual in a foreign language, and then renew the license plates before the ambulence answer your distress call. This is insanity.

The Catholic Church ain’t doin its job. If youth ministry don’t exist because of mismanagement, you call another ambulence company.
 
I attend conferences and retreats and can interact with other Catholics. I have worked in Catholic schools sharing my zeal and love for Christ. My own kids are teens and I share the frustration with the lack of Catholic youth activities. My kids go to protestant youth events that their protestant dad takes them to.

BUT, the most exciting thing is going on right now. My boys need to attend Religious Ed this summer, and they have 3 Catholic friends who wouldn’t be going, but I, in my evangelical zeal, have asked their parents if we could take their friends with us. Looks like we’ll have a carload of teens going to RE together.

I like to ask Catholics if they are attending Mass regularly and receiving the Eucharist, which will give them power in their lives to combat the enemy. If they are struggling with sin, I ask them and encourage them to go to Confession.
 
Kermit said:
I feel like I am being called to do more to help evangelize fallen away Catholics. I have been making Rosaries and giving them away at my church festival along with other Catholic info, but once a year doesn’t feel like enough. I feel like The Holy Spirit is giving me lots ideas but how do I know what I should be doing?

What do you do to help your fellow Catholics fall in love with their faith again?
Click to expand...
Its great you are thinking of attending Cursillo. Understand though that Cursillo is not a retreat nor is it a program. It is also not recommended for persons who are not in a position to receive the sacraments. It is not meant as a cure all to problems you may be dealing with personally. It is intended to form leaders who will go out into all aspects of life and spread the gospel through charity and unselfishness.
Have a great day
Check out this site…this is where I made mine.
whowillsit.com/Cursillo.html
 
i dont know if this is the right place to put this. As i have said before im very drawn to the catholic faith so i plucked up the courage to go to mass on saturday at a catholic church in our nearest town. Noone smiled at me or asked if i had been before. After mass the priest came towards me and said i looked puzzled i explained that i wasnt a catholic but i said i was drawn to the faith he didnt listen to what i said he just said oh youre looking round are you gave me a leaflet about the church and then left. I dont really know what to think i came home rather despondent. I may try mass at my most local church sometime.
 
Burdock said:
i dont know if this is the right place to put this. As i have said before im very drawn to the catholic faith so i plucked up the courage to go to mass on saturday at a catholic church in our nearest town. Noone smiled at me or asked if i had been before. After mass the priest came towards me and said i looked puzzled i explained that i wasnt a catholic but i said i was drawn to the faith he didnt listen to what i said he just said oh youre looking round are you gave me a leaflet about the church and then left. I dont really know what to think i came home rather despondent. I may try mass at my most local church sometime.
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Welcome, Burdock! I’ve experience that too.

One think to keep in mind, is that Catholics go to Mass to focus on Jesus, not to focus on the people at Mass. That is a HUGE difference between protestant services and Catholic Mass.

While some Catholic Churches might use volunteer “greeters” at the door to make visitors welcome, not all do.

Sorry the priest wasn’t effusive with his charm, not all are. Some are though. Give it another chance. People are people everywhere and each place is different. Some priests are very introverted, and might seem uninterested. Sorry about that.
 
Thankyou for your reply . At the moment i belong to a united reformed church where i am happy but i stil feel drawn to the catholic church i started to go for instruction with a catholic nun when i was 17 im now 44 i pray the rosary and i have bought a cathecism[think ive spelt that wrong] Please pray for me it will probably take years to work this out. I have made a commitment to jesus as my lord and saviour and so has my daughter who is 17 but my husband and younger daughter dont seem interested my 14 year old doesnt think that she believes in god at all. I know i would have a lot of opposition if i did become a catholic one of my friends is a grace baptist they wont join in churches together because they dont agree with the catholic doctine. Thanks again for your kind reply god bless.
 
Phew! I thought this thread was a Protestant looking for a way to evangelize Catholics and I thought to myself “The nerve!”. lol Thankfully, it’s not that. Try this link:

catholicscomehome.org/

You can get a free book called Rediscovering Catholicism at that site and in that book is a card to order 5 free copies of the book to hand out to fallen away Catholics. It’s really a great idea! 👍
 
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