America offers an overview of the growing importance of evangelization within the Catholic Church, including recent statements by Pope Francis. Scott Hahn also makes an argument for the connection between evangelization and the Mass.
 A year's waste produced by Johnson's family. Bea Johnson's new book, Zero Waste Home, tells how her family of four moved toward living more simply and sustainably, ultimately reducing their annual waste to what would fit in a quart-sized jar. They use a "five R's" system: In the San Francisco Chronicle, she says after some experimentation to find the right balance, the shift felt right, became natural, and saved them a lot of money. "We wanted to live the American Dream: buy a big house, drive a big car," she recalls. "We rode that wave for a while, but having stuff didn't make us happier." The San Francisco Chronicle interviews Adam Grant, whose new book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. Grant advocates a pay it forward approach to helping co-workers, especially those who are junior, and argues that this approach leads to greater success for the giver. He also talks about how he has seen this work at Google. Q: How do you do it? How do you manage your time, the requests and the demands it takes to be a giver? Pope Francis continues to speak out on core daily life issues, now turning to gossip: Pope Francis further developed this reflection. “When we prefer to gossip, gossip about others, criticize others- these are everyday things that happen to everyone, including me – these are the temptations of the evil one who does not want the Spirit to come to us and bring about peace and meekness in the Christian community". "These struggles always exist" in the parish, in the family, in the neighborhood, among friends”. Instead through the Spirit we are born into a new life, he makes us “meek, charitable." In the pre-conclave meetings, before he was elected pope, Cardinal Bergoglio gave a challenging, prophetic speech on evangelization and the Church. He said the Church "is called to come out of herself" to evangelize and "go to the peripheries." In commentary relevant to "ecclesial institutions" from the upper echelon of the Catholic hierarchy down to the parish level: When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referent and then she gets sick. (cf. The hunchback woman of the Gospel). The evils that over the course of time happen in ecclesial institutions have their root in a self-reference and a sort of theological narcissism. In Revelation, Jesus says that he is at the door and knocks. Evidently the text refers to his knocking from outside in order to enter but I think of the times in which Jesus knocks from within so that we will let him come out. The self-referent Church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him come out. |
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