Evangelization Efforts

[Nihil Obstat]

I am of the opinion that most of it is pretty wretched outside of Mass too, but that being said I care not even a little bit if someone else enjoys it outside of a liturgical context.

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='CherieMadame' timestamp='1303231008' post='2230207']
I think this is [i]definitely[/i] an area where Catholics need to come to the fore!!! It could be a great tool for evangelization. Most of the "Catholic" contemporary Christian music I have heard is just, well, [i]hokey. [/i]
[/quote]


Funny cuz I just had a major discussion with a catholic musician who disagrees with other catholic musicians playing christian music. To which I answered -- if catholic musicians would market themselves better (i.e. -- itunes) then I wouldn't be listening as much to the christian stuff. Or playing it.

I gave the example ... when I was new to the faith I found a wonderful christian music shop .... I brought between 50-100 CDs over time there (they had some amesome specials). Its where I first heard of a number of christian musicians (spanish) that I thoroughly love.

Imagine if it was a catholic music shop with the whole gambit of catholic music ... from the chant to the contemporary. wowsers. And good quality stuff? Yeah baby.

I know of catholic musicians that have high quality productions. They're not on itunes, and unless I'm somewhere where they're playing or someone who works with them brings their stuff I don't hear their music. Its sad.

[Lil Red]

aftermass records is on iTunes. and amazon.

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1303237853' post='2230244']
aftermass records is on iTunes. and amazon.
[/quote]


Who's aftermass?

[Lil Red]

[quote name='cmariadiaz' timestamp='1303246344' post='2230307']
Who's aftermass?
[/quote]

http://www.phatmass.com/hiphop/
http://aftermassrecords.com/

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1303253658' post='2230336']

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/hiphop/"]http://www.phatmass.com/hiphop/[/url]
[url="http://aftermassrecords.com/"]http://aftermassrecords.com/[/url]

[/quote]


Nope hadn't heard of them ... besides I tend to go to spanish Mass/spanish retreats/etc.. Now I could start rattling off a few of the spanish Catholic musicians that I know.... did like some of the beats that I heard though.

Edited April 20, 2011 by cmariadiaz

[TeresaBenedicta]

The question of music is interesting. Evangelization flows from and returns to the Holy Mass... and it goes without saying that beautiful liturgy not only brings greater glory to God, but also inspires within ourselves a greater understanding and appreciation of sacred liturgy. All of this helps to enhance our evangelization efforts.

Here is an excerpt from a talk by Archbishop Chaput:

[quote]The first is this: We need to recover the intrinsic and inseparable connection between liturgy and evangelization.

Liturgy is both the source of the Church’s mission and its goal. This was the teaching of Christ and the practice of the early Church. And it was reaffirmed by Vatican II.

Sacrosanctum Concilium says this: “The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of his Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord's Supper.”iv

This is a beautiful vision of life lived from the Eucharist and for the Eucharist. This should be the foundation not only for our thinking about the liturgy but for our pastoral strategies as well. The reason we evangelize is in order to bring people into communion with the living God in the Eucharistic liturgy. And this experience of communion with God, in turn, impels us to evangelize.

In this regard, the Novus Ordo, the new order of the Mass promulgated after the council, has been a great blessing to the Church. Our liturgy gives us the zeal for the evangelization and sanctification of our world. The vernacular has opened up the liturgy’s content in new ways. It has encouraged active, creative participation by all the faithful -- not only in the liturgy but in every aspect of the Church’s mission.

By the way, for the record, I’m also very grateful that the Holy Father has allowed wider use of the older Tridentine form -- not because I personally prefer it, in fact I find the Novus Ordo, properly celebrated, a much richer expression of worship; but because we need access to all of the Church’s heritage of prayer and faith.

So my first point is that we cannot look at the liturgy as something distinct from our mission. Our worship of God in the Mass is meant to be an act of adoration, submission and thanksgiving. It’s also meant to be loving acceptance of our vocation as disciples. That’s why every Eucharistic liturgy ends on a missionary note -- we are sent out, commissioned to share the treasure we have discovered with everyone we meet.[/quote]

((You can read the rest [url="http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/4113"]here[/url].))

I think that, with the new missal coming out in Advent, we have a great opportunity to catechize people about the Mass and how to truly actively participate in the Holy Sacrifice. This would be HUGE for our evangelization efforts.

Personally, I'm trying to get my hands on certain liturgical decisions made at the parish where I work as DRE. We don't have any huge abuses or anything, but the music is retched and there are other components that could really enhance the liturgy.

[Amppax]

[quote name='AudreyGrace' timestamp='1303100905' post='2229692']
The biggest problem is that too many Catholics don't truly [i]know [/i]the faith to evangelize it effectively. There's so much more to the Catholic Church than there is to most Christian denominations, which makes it easier for them to actively evangelize. Cases like Father Wall are great, in part because his mission is constant and he's always prepared (or at least I would hope he is) for whatever questions he is asked regarding God and His Church. Recently, I've been taking a Catechism class with my parents for their training to become RCIA teachers. It made me realize that the education kids and teens get in regular church school or religious ed comes nowhere near what they should be learning. It's no wonder why we lack people passionate about the faith who are well equipped to and have a desire to evangelize.

Also, it doesn't hurt to remember that evangelization doesn't necessarily mean knocking on doors, handing out pamphlets, or trying to convert everyone we meet to the Church. Evangelizing can simply be giving a witness of our own lives to others, granted we root our lives in Christ and His Church.
[/quote]

Totally agree, I just started reading Peter Kreeft's book "Catholic Christianity" (which I understand is itself a simplification of the Cathechism [i'm prepping for reading the whole Bible and Catechism this summer!!!]), and I have been amazed at how much I am learning. I have attended Catholic school's all my life (K-12+) and in all that time, I really didn't get even half the theology that I am getting know. We have a serious problem in teaching (can you tell I'm going to be a teacher yet?), probably even more serious than our problem in evangelization. For how can we attempt to evangelize, when most of us don't even really understand what we are talking about.

Although, I don't think that all evangelization needs to be of the deep, theological kind, because obviously, not everybody needs that or is open to that. But there is a serious divide between your average, run-of-the-mill Catholic's basic understanding of their faith, and you average Protestant's understanding. I have found (much to my deep shame) that most of my evangelical friends have a greater understanding of their faith than I do of mine, and it would seem that that is basically the norm. I'm not even talking about cafeteria catholics (small c intentional) I'm talking about really devout Catholics (not exactly putting myself in that group yet, I have a serious ways to go)! I think we first need to evangelize ourselves, before we can evangelize the world (I just typed that off the top of my head, but that is probably paraphrased from something, not sure what).

Anywho, that's just my thoughts, but I totally agree with Aud.

[Sarah147]

[quote name='CherieMadame' timestamp='1302805755' post='2228684']
....

I came from a convent in which the musical heritage was PART of our apostolate of catechesis, so "evangelization with music" was a [i]huge, huge[/i] part of what we did. We used [b]all[/b] traditional hymns, and we had a HUGELY positive response from people. We used Latin hymns, too, and there was always a translation for the Congregation to at least know the meaning of what they were singing. That in itself, while seemingly simple, does so much good, and introduces people to the "language of the Church." What a beautiful way to bring Latin into more common usage: starting with the music! There are countless traditional, beautiful, incredible hymns that were composed in Latin (e.g. Mozart's "Ave Verum" is a perfect example!), and perhaps people wouldn't have such a problem with Latin responses in the Mass if it was already being used in the music.

People would leave our convent's Sunday Mass literally in [i]tears[/i] over the beauty of the Liturgy, and a huge part of that was the music. It was reverent, uplifting, beautiful; oftentimes we could sing [i]a capella[/i] so we wouldn't even need an instrument. The organ was the perfect compliment to our voices, however, when we did need an instrument. I'm a firm believer, as I said, in traditional hymns, including Gregorian chant. I've seen the good it has brought about in people time and time and time again. Sure, a nice choir helps (and by choir I mean just a handful of people; nothing major) but it's not necessary.

Anyway, I say all that to offer proof of the fact that traditional liturgical music IS catechetical. It [i]compliments[/i] the Liturgy and draws people to it. I don't believe any sort of Christian "rock" music belongs in the Liturgy; it's just completely unsuited to the intensely beautiful, awe-inspiring, and reverential mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. People often told us they felt like they were worshiping amongst the angels singing -- that is the image the music we sang at Mass put in their minds, and that's the image that [i]should[/i] be put into our minds, because that's the reality of the Mass. I don't think the same could be said of "modern" Christian rock music.
[/quote]


Wow. SsEW

[philothea]

[quote name='Amppax' timestamp='1303864359' post='2233701']
Totally agree, I just started reading Peter Kreeft's book "Catholic Christianity" (which I understand is itself a simplification of the Cathechism [i'm prepping for reading the whole Bible and Catechism this summer!!!]), and I have been amazed at how much I am learning. I have attended Catholic school's all my life (K-12+) and in all that time, I really didn't get even half the theology that I am getting know. We have a serious problem in teaching (can you tell I'm going to be a teacher yet?), probably even more serious than our problem in evangelization. For how can we attempt to evangelize, when most of us don't even really understand what we are talking about.

Although, I don't think that all evangelization needs to be of the deep, theological kind, because obviously, not everybody needs that or is open to that. But there is a serious divide between your average, run-of-the-mill Catholic's basic understanding of their faith, and you average Protestant's understanding. I have found (much to my deep shame) that most of my evangelical friends have a greater understanding of their faith than I do of mine, and it would seem that that is basically the norm. I'm not even talking about cafeteria catholics (small c intentional) I'm talking about really devout Catholics (not exactly putting myself in that group yet, I have a serious ways to go)! I think we first need to evangelize ourselves, before we can evangelize the world (I just typed that off the top of my head, but that is probably paraphrased from something, not sure what).

Anywho, that's just my thoughts, but I totally agree with Aud.
[/quote]
Assuming you know enough to be able to answer the questions you're going to get afterwards, I think inviting people along to a (nice!) mass can be the best evangelization. I know that's what got me into the Church, from my wee atheist origins... even though there was a decade long gap between first going to mass and becoming interested in joining the Church.

(The delay mostly because when I asked my Catholic friends questions, they all looked panicked and clammed up. I assumed it was all a big members-only secret. )

[tinytherese]

Evangelization Vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0nSjxDKJEo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-4H9hXGVk0


Evanengelli Nuntiandi http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi_en.html

The Mystery we Proclaim by Francis D. Kelly

[TeresaBenedicta]

Two friends of mine went out together to a secular campus and walked around visiting with students. They'd approach and say that they were doing research on religious beliefs... And they'd ask them questions, probe them, etc. Not surprisingly they ran into many moral relativists, but said that most people were happy to have a conversation with them.

I thought that was a neat and easy way to just have a conversation with someone. It wasn't "Hey- I wanna tell you all about this super cool dude Jesus Christ" but that's essentially where they took it after hearing from them. But each conversation was unique and they let the other person drive the direction of the conversation in a sense. Very Dominican. They'd pick out was true, comment on it, and then challenge them to more truth.

I feel like young people have a better chance of being successful with something like this. You have to overcome the stigma of looking/seeming like Mormon missionaries or Jehovah Witnesses.

I'd enjoy doing this at the Mall or a park or something. Obviously with a partner.

[Amppax]

[quote name='TeresaBenedicta' timestamp='1304207356' post='2235141']
Two friends of mine went out together to a secular campus and walked around visiting with students. They'd approach and say that they were doing research on religious beliefs... And they'd ask them questions, probe them, etc. Not surprisingly they ran into many moral relativists, but said that most people were happy to have a conversation with them.

I thought that was a neat and easy way to just have a conversation with someone. It wasn't "Hey- I wanna tell you all about this super cool dude Jesus Christ" but that's essentially where they took it after hearing from them. But each conversation was unique and they let the other person drive the direction of the conversation in a sense. Very Dominican. They'd pick out was true, comment on it, and then challenge them to more truth.

I feel like young people have a better chance of being successful with something like this. You have to overcome the stigma of looking/seeming like Mormon missionaries or Jehovah Witnesses.

I'd enjoy doing this at the Mall or a park or something. Obviously with a partner.
[/quote]

that is a great idea, mind if I steal it?

[TeresaBenedicta]

[quote name='Amppax' timestamp='1304544785' post='2237083']
that is a great idea, mind if I steal it?
[/quote]

Please do!