magdalisa:
How can we effectively evangelize our Catholic faith?
I personally had a very long struggle with my conversion to RCC, but I have such incredible peace now that I am here. I feel sorry that others can’t or won’t understand the beauty of the fullness of the faith.
any ideas?
Peace –
magdalisa
Evangelization is nothing other than sharing and teaching the Gospel.
Like the Pope said, holiness is primary. He outlined the sacraments and daily mass as essential to holiness.
Next:
To evangelize, we must know the basics of the faith. We must know the basics of the Gospel that the apostles taught and preached.
But, to understand the Gospel, we must go beyond just the scriptures. We must understand the full Gospel is the entire teaching the apostles taught and preached. Because they received the full Gospel from Jesus and the Holy Spirit in teachings that were not written in scripture.
The Gospel the
apostles taught and preached was not written and summarized anywhere in scripture. There is no chapter which claims to have a summary of all the taught an preached. But, it was handed down to their successors, the bishops of the Church in union with the Pope. The early Christians knew this Gospel. The early Church Fathers are witnesses to this Gospel that the apostles taught and preached. And this early Church taught it to their successors. It was always taught in a fundamental and systematic way. The apostles always taught the Gospel in a fundamental and systematic way. This teaching, (called catechesis) was taught in the form of explaining the articles of the creed, the sacraments, the commandments and prayer. In other words, the Gospel taught by the apostles, that is, handed down in Tradition, was taught by explaining the parts of the creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer. Thus, after the first part of evangelizatin, i.e, explaining how God sent His Son to save us from all that oppresses us, especially sin and the evil one and how through Jesus we can have a right to heaven, then we must get into teaching the Gospel the apostles handed down.
That can only be done through catechesis, teaching the creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer.** All the early Christians knew these teachings, because this was the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. **
The Church teaches:
**105 Catechesis is nothing other than the process of transmitting the Gospel, as the Christian community has received it, (
from the apostles) understands it, celebrates it, lives it and communicates it in many ways. ****131 In local catechisms, the Church communicates the Gospel in a manner accessible to the human person so that it may be really perceived as the “Good News” of salvation. **
(from the General Directory for Catechesis)
So, in local catechisms, such as the Baltimore Catechism, the basic teachings of the Gospel that the apostles taught and preached are handed down. Thus as the General Directory for Catechesis says, " For this reason, it is an act of tradition."
Yet, some of these teachings are written partially in scripture. Thus, we must also use scripture as a witness to these teachings, and to illuminate these teachings. And since it is a living Gospel, we must use the teachings of the Popes of our times, in which the Gospel is addressed to the problems and situations of our current times. Thus, all three, the** magisterium, scripture and apostolic tradition all together make up the Gospel that we should evangelize. **
I was reflecting on Ratzinger’s letter entitled “The New Evangelization.” 