One springtime in my young adult years, I decided that I was going to take up running as an exercise. The tight grip of winter had finally let go of its wrestle hold on the city of Chicago where I live. I bought a pair of good running shoes and came up with a strategy I thought would help me get into the discipline needed to become a runner. My plan was to commit myself to run every day of the coming summer, but I would only run as long as I enjoyed it!
The first few times I literally ran only one city block, then turned around and headed for home. Gradually I found myself running longer and longer and going farther and farther, while always remembering that I had to circle back and return home.
It worked! I really came to enjoy running and became a pretty good runner. I also came to have a deeper appreciation of this fundamental rhythm of life and of the life of faith. It's all about going out and coming home.
Marching orders from above
Jesus gave some very direct marching orders to us, His disciples: "As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you!" He is clearly telling us that mission is at the heart of discipleship. We are being told to go out and to extend Christ's transforming presence and power to every nook of the earth and every cranny of the human heart.
However, He orders us to go out only to draw us more profoundly home. His desire is that all who encounter Him on the road of life be baptized in the Spirit and be immersed in the deep waters of Trinitarian love.
Not all we meet will become church, but we who are church are meant to be the sacrament and embodiment of Christ's love for all humanity and all creation. Through our witness of compassion and care, and by becoming instruments of Christ's peace and justice, we are drawing all people home to the divine hearth of God's love for the whole world.
An erosion of faith
If Christ's challenge is to go out to the whole world, perhaps the place of most challenge today is the mission to our own country and culture. In our minds we may link "mission" with foreign missions, but all religious sociologists in America point to the erosion of faith life in our own land, in our own church, and indeed in every one of our families.
We are at a critical moment in the American Church. Clearly, this is not the time for maintenance but for mission. You, the Catholic Extension family, understand this. The challenge is real, but your zeal for Mission America is strong. You are proven runners in the mission of spreading God's Good News to the far reaches of our land, all the while knowing that this mission journey is leading all of us home to the heart of God.
You have come to know and to trust this rhythm of the life of faith. It is all about mission and communion, going out and coming home. May you come to know the deep and abiding joy of becoming who you truly are - extensions of Christ's life-giving love to every region of our country, every aspect of our culture and every dimension of the human heart. God bless you!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Go to the June 2008 issue of EXTENSION Magazine online.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
"Going Forward, Two by Two"
Something truly inspiring and exciting is happening among young people in our country and in our Church, and it is about to occur in just a few weeks. As the school year ends, a large cadre of high school and college graduates and undergraduates will choose to give a significant amount of their time during the summer months or for the next year or two of their lives in service projects across our country and around our world.
Filled with a true mission spirit and blessed with youthful energy and enthusiasm, they are choosing to move beyond the privileged enclaves of family and school and willing to walk with the poor of our land and our world.
You will find some of these teens and young adults working as Catholic Extension volunteers. As part of a new initiative of our Parish Partnership Program, they will be heading to the Gulf Coast, to the Dakotas and to New Mexico, helping to rebuild homes and neighborhoods while building up communities of faith and hope and compassion and love.
Father Frances Kelley, Catholic Extension's founder, must be very proud! His great hope was to "awaken the missionary spirit in the Catholic people of America." He was convinced that the spirit of the missioner is inside each one of us just waiting to be stirred. He would be the greatest cheerleader of our young people as he watches them following in the footsteps of the Lord, Who has come among us "as one Who serves."
I am certain that he is also cheering you on as a member of the Catholic Extension Family. You already have generously responded to the call of Jesus Who sent His disciples out in mission "two by two." Wherever there is a missioner or volunteer serving in our country's home missions, you are the other disciple. Through your continuing support of Catholic Extension, you are walking side by side with a missioner, sharing and embodying the good news of God's love. You are the faithful companion holding your mission partner in your prayers and providing for his or her daily needs.
Harvest is rich
However, we also need your voice to help awaken that missionary spirit in others. No missioner can truly walk alone. Whether a new young volunteer, a newly ordained priest, or a seasoned laborer in the mission field, the wisdom of Jesus keeps reminding us that "we have to do this two by two."
Wherever you are and whatever your circumstance, could I ask you to talk to someone this week about becoming a mission partner? Tell them about the work of Catholic Extension. Share this magazine with them. Invite them to walk "two by two" into America's missions, where the harvest is rich and the laborers few.
Next month we begin a special jubilee year commemorating the birth of St. Paul, the Church's first great missioner. Nobody knew better than Paul the wisdom of companions in mission. What an appropriate year for us as the Catholic Extension family to awaken the missionary spirit in the United States and to renew our commitment to be co-workers in the vineyard and partners in mission!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Go to the May 2008 issue of EXTENSION Magazine online.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
Filled with a true mission spirit and blessed with youthful energy and enthusiasm, they are choosing to move beyond the privileged enclaves of family and school and willing to walk with the poor of our land and our world.
You will find some of these teens and young adults working as Catholic Extension volunteers. As part of a new initiative of our Parish Partnership Program, they will be heading to the Gulf Coast, to the Dakotas and to New Mexico, helping to rebuild homes and neighborhoods while building up communities of faith and hope and compassion and love.
Father Frances Kelley, Catholic Extension's founder, must be very proud! His great hope was to "awaken the missionary spirit in the Catholic people of America." He was convinced that the spirit of the missioner is inside each one of us just waiting to be stirred. He would be the greatest cheerleader of our young people as he watches them following in the footsteps of the Lord, Who has come among us "as one Who serves."
I am certain that he is also cheering you on as a member of the Catholic Extension Family. You already have generously responded to the call of Jesus Who sent His disciples out in mission "two by two." Wherever there is a missioner or volunteer serving in our country's home missions, you are the other disciple. Through your continuing support of Catholic Extension, you are walking side by side with a missioner, sharing and embodying the good news of God's love. You are the faithful companion holding your mission partner in your prayers and providing for his or her daily needs.
Harvest is rich
However, we also need your voice to help awaken that missionary spirit in others. No missioner can truly walk alone. Whether a new young volunteer, a newly ordained priest, or a seasoned laborer in the mission field, the wisdom of Jesus keeps reminding us that "we have to do this two by two."
Wherever you are and whatever your circumstance, could I ask you to talk to someone this week about becoming a mission partner? Tell them about the work of Catholic Extension. Share this magazine with them. Invite them to walk "two by two" into America's missions, where the harvest is rich and the laborers few.
Next month we begin a special jubilee year commemorating the birth of St. Paul, the Church's first great missioner. Nobody knew better than Paul the wisdom of companions in mission. What an appropriate year for us as the Catholic Extension family to awaken the missionary spirit in the United States and to renew our commitment to be co-workers in the vineyard and partners in mission!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Go to the May 2008 issue of EXTENSION Magazine online.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
"Love In A Land of Plenty"
I suspect that, except for a few bishops who might be reading this column, not too many of us will have the opportunity to actually meet Pope Benedict XVI when he visits the United States this month. Yet, we members of the Catholic Extension Family have a special reason to anticipate that the Pope is going to be speaking especially to us.
I have no advance copies of his homilies or speeches, but I can't help but think that one of his overriding themes will be the mission of the Church in America.
And who is more attuned to hear what the Pope says about mission than all of us who are part of Catholic Extension and who share a keen desire to foster and give witness to the Gospel in every corner of our country?
Church as family
In Benedict XVI's first encyclical, "God is Love," he focused on the threefold mission and responsibility of the Church: "to proclaim the Word of God, to celebrate the sacraments, and to exercise the ministry of charity."
"The Church is God's family in the world," says the Pope, "and in this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life."
Those of you who provide financial and prayerful support to the work of Catholic Extension are particularly alert to these words. You have partnered your life with missioners throughout America to ensure that everyone who is hungry for the Word of God and for the Eucharist is richly fed, and that all have a place of honor at the family table.
You have helped to set the Lord's Table in some of the humblest communities of our country. At every one of those Eucharistic celebrations, the passionate love that God has for every human heart is being revealed ever anew in the words of Christ: "This is My Body given for you; this is My Blood poured out for you."
Spoken to our hearts at every liturgy, these words remind us that at every moment of our life's journey we are being loved by God into life - truly into fullness of life. This is the fundamental fact of our being. It is simultaneously an invitation to participate in God's life-giving love for others.
Living in God's grace
Paraphrasing John's epistle: God is love, and when we are in love - involved in becoming life-giving love for each other and for the world - we are in God.
I somehow sense that you as a member of the Catholic Extension Family have a special understanding of this beautiful reflection on Divine Love that Pope Benedict offers us in his first encyclical.
I see that understanding manifest every day. You continue to generously respond to those most in need in our land and you constantly reach out to be the helping hand to our home missioners. Your participation in the work of Catholic Extension is a powerful expression of your participation in God's love for the Church and for the whole human family.
And in this family, as Pope Benedict reminds us, no one ought to go without!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
I have no advance copies of his homilies or speeches, but I can't help but think that one of his overriding themes will be the mission of the Church in America.
And who is more attuned to hear what the Pope says about mission than all of us who are part of Catholic Extension and who share a keen desire to foster and give witness to the Gospel in every corner of our country?
Church as family
In Benedict XVI's first encyclical, "God is Love," he focused on the threefold mission and responsibility of the Church: "to proclaim the Word of God, to celebrate the sacraments, and to exercise the ministry of charity."
"The Church is God's family in the world," says the Pope, "and in this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life."
Those of you who provide financial and prayerful support to the work of Catholic Extension are particularly alert to these words. You have partnered your life with missioners throughout America to ensure that everyone who is hungry for the Word of God and for the Eucharist is richly fed, and that all have a place of honor at the family table.
You have helped to set the Lord's Table in some of the humblest communities of our country. At every one of those Eucharistic celebrations, the passionate love that God has for every human heart is being revealed ever anew in the words of Christ: "This is My Body given for you; this is My Blood poured out for you."
Spoken to our hearts at every liturgy, these words remind us that at every moment of our life's journey we are being loved by God into life - truly into fullness of life. This is the fundamental fact of our being. It is simultaneously an invitation to participate in God's life-giving love for others.
Living in God's grace
Paraphrasing John's epistle: God is love, and when we are in love - involved in becoming life-giving love for each other and for the world - we are in God.
I somehow sense that you as a member of the Catholic Extension Family have a special understanding of this beautiful reflection on Divine Love that Pope Benedict offers us in his first encyclical.
I see that understanding manifest every day. You continue to generously respond to those most in need in our land and you constantly reach out to be the helping hand to our home missioners. Your participation in the work of Catholic Extension is a powerful expression of your participation in God's love for the Church and for the whole human family.
And in this family, as Pope Benedict reminds us, no one ought to go without!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
"The Great Vocation Challenge"
Let me share some very encouraging news with you. According to our current data, there are over 400 seminarians studying for the priesthood in America's home missions!
Four hundred young adult and adult men are preparing to become missioners to places in our country where people are longing to be fed on the Word of God and the Eucharist, and to experience a community of faith that is gifted by the spiritual and pastoral presence of a priest among them.
We know how great the need is. I have just returned from the Diocese of Brownsville in the southernmost part of Texas, where I discovered the ratio of priest-to-laypeople in this diocese is one of the highest in our country - 1 for every 8,065 Catholics!
From Alabama to Arizona to Washington state - throughout America's poorest counties - our mission dioceses have asked Catholic Extension donors to help their future priests prepare to serve in some of the poorest parts of our land.
Nevertheless, this wonderful news brings along with it a daunting challenge. Presently it costs approximately $25,000 a year to train and educate a future priest, and it takes minimally four to six years to prepare for ordination. In aggregate, the poorest dioceses of the United States need to raise more than $10 million dollars a year to educate their seminarians.
It is ironic that the more successful the dioceses are in encouraging vocations to the priesthood, the more their budgets are stretched in meeting the many demands they face as the poorest places of the Church in our country.
That's where we come in. You and I, the family of Catholic Church Extension Society, have the capacity to raise $10 million this year. There are 100,000 members of our Catholic Extension family. If every one of us took responsibility in the month of March to donate or to raise just $100, we can erase this burden from our poorest dioceses in just one month!
At the same time we would have the honor and joy of bringing 400 young men a year closer to ordination.
For those who can give more, we need you. For those who can give some but not all, we need you. Perhaps you could even ask a few friends or family members to pool their donations with you to increase your gift.
In the present presidential political campaigns, tens of millions of dollars are being raised on small amounts of $25, $50 and $100 from individuals across the country. This shows what a grass-roots effort can do. For the future of the Gospel in America, can we not do the same?
I firmly believe that the Catholic Extension family of donors can take on this challenge facing our poorest dioceses. By banding together, we can create our own grass-roots movement to shape the future of the Church in a powerful way and bring a new generation of priests to the mission Church in America.
Consider the legacy that your gift will mean to the future of the Mission Church. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
Four hundred young adult and adult men are preparing to become missioners to places in our country where people are longing to be fed on the Word of God and the Eucharist, and to experience a community of faith that is gifted by the spiritual and pastoral presence of a priest among them.
We know how great the need is. I have just returned from the Diocese of Brownsville in the southernmost part of Texas, where I discovered the ratio of priest-to-laypeople in this diocese is one of the highest in our country - 1 for every 8,065 Catholics!
From Alabama to Arizona to Washington state - throughout America's poorest counties - our mission dioceses have asked Catholic Extension donors to help their future priests prepare to serve in some of the poorest parts of our land.
Nevertheless, this wonderful news brings along with it a daunting challenge. Presently it costs approximately $25,000 a year to train and educate a future priest, and it takes minimally four to six years to prepare for ordination. In aggregate, the poorest dioceses of the United States need to raise more than $10 million dollars a year to educate their seminarians.
It is ironic that the more successful the dioceses are in encouraging vocations to the priesthood, the more their budgets are stretched in meeting the many demands they face as the poorest places of the Church in our country.
That's where we come in. You and I, the family of Catholic Church Extension Society, have the capacity to raise $10 million this year. There are 100,000 members of our Catholic Extension family. If every one of us took responsibility in the month of March to donate or to raise just $100, we can erase this burden from our poorest dioceses in just one month!
At the same time we would have the honor and joy of bringing 400 young men a year closer to ordination.
For those who can give more, we need you. For those who can give some but not all, we need you. Perhaps you could even ask a few friends or family members to pool their donations with you to increase your gift.
In the present presidential political campaigns, tens of millions of dollars are being raised on small amounts of $25, $50 and $100 from individuals across the country. This shows what a grass-roots effort can do. For the future of the Gospel in America, can we not do the same?
I firmly believe that the Catholic Extension family of donors can take on this challenge facing our poorest dioceses. By banding together, we can create our own grass-roots movement to shape the future of the Church in a powerful way and bring a new generation of priests to the mission Church in America.
Consider the legacy that your gift will mean to the future of the Mission Church. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.
Order your free issues of EXTENSION Magazine.
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