We must be ready to take action!

By THOMAS G. CRONIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

We need the fire of the Holy Spirit now like never before. The secular world continues to chip away and build momentum in opposition to religion. The world is working very hard to make Christians feel meek and scared to fulfill our mission of sharing our love for Christ with everyone we encounter. As Christians, we are experiencing not only discrimination and opposition, but persecution.

The beauty is that the Holy Spirit is here with us like always when we call to mind and recognize its power or potential power in our lives. Wake up! We are under attack. Our Church is under attack. The core of our society — families are under attack. Our doctrine continues to be attacked. Something as fundamental as the right to life has been politicized and branded as a “freedom” for some, but a death sentence for others, especially those that can’t defend themselves — the unborn, the disabled and the elderly.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us. The power of the Eucharist and the loving presence of the Trinity is what we need to not just survive, but to thrive. According to Pew Research, there are approximately 1.3 billion Roman Catholics in the world and about 2.3 billion Christians globally which equates to about one-third of the world’s total population being Christian. We need to unite around the commonality of Jesus’ love and being brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to unite locally before we can unite globally. Our parishes must do a better job collaborating to best fulfill our mission rather than operating as silos, or worse yet competing.

The Synod Listening Sessions have increased my awareness that we must do a better job hearing each other. I have been working with parish leaders on developing parish or parish network strategic plans. It is critical that we create these plans so we can operate with our mission at the forefront and execute with a sense of urgency. Talking and listening is the first step, but not the only step. We need the courage to speak the truth and be ready to take action.

If a motley bunch of fishermen, a tax collector and others could change the world 2,000 years ago, why can’t 2.3 billion Christians do it again today? I believe we can and that an organized effort by one parish or a parish network at a time will make that happen. We must assess our needs, determine our resources, put a plan in place, and most importantly — take action.

Be not afraid! As Philippians 4:13 tells us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Please contact me with any questions about boosting evangelization efforts at your parish at [email protected] or by visiting https://www.rcda.
org/evangelization. Follow me on Instagram: tom_rcda