Posts Tagged ‘Mission of the Church (2014)’
The Mission of the Church – Part Eight
The Mission of the Church – The Joy of the Gospel/Conclusion Francis congratulates those already working for the good of the Church, while warning about the specific temptations that face those within the institutional church. An inordinate emphasis on the individual has been a detriment to the mission of the Church, leading to inflated egos…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Seven
The Mission of the Church – Continuing the Council’s ExhortationPope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium makes alive and practical the lessons of the Second Vatican Council. “With Christ, joy is constantly born anew“. The Mission of the Church depends on believing Christians living out the joy of the Gospel in a real and tangible way. This joy…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Six
The Mission of the Church – Impediments to MissionMission is vital to the gospel. Each of the gospels ends with a directive to a mandate to mission. The mission is not based on our abilities but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit that we shine forth. We must respect other religions in that we must respect…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Five
Vatican II directed the Church outward, through Ad Gentes and echoed 25 years later in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio, which describes an intentional trajectory of where the Church believes that Christ wants us to go in mission. Evangelization is the duty of all Christians, and it brings us closer to Christ. There has been, however, a decline in missionary activity…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Four
The encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi instructs us that the teaching of the Church is unchanged and irreplaceable. The task of evangelizing all people is the essential mission of the Church, but the Church has a need to be evangelized herself. This is the spiritual liberation, not a human liberation, as secular humanists and modern atheists might advocate.The techniques of evangelization must…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Three
The Second Vatican Council’s center was missionary and evangelistic, engaging the world in more positive and effective ways, addressing the decline in faith in the western world.After John XXIII began the council, Paul VI continued it, perhaps as a much more significant council than John envisioned. Events from the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, the civil rights movement, the…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part Two
This is an exciting time to be Catholic.” This episode picks up the rousing theme where the last left it off. Vatican II stressed the Church’s need to engage with the modern world. The popes that followed have, with unrelenting urgency, urged every Christian to take up the task of mission. This episode sounds the…
Read MoreThe Mission of the Church – Part One
The goal of this series is to equip Catholics to live out the mission of the Church, which is to proclaim Christ to the whole world. We will explore what this means for the faithful laity using the documents of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The documents of the Second Vatican…
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