Don't forget to browse through my other blog...

Nellie's Corner -- (P.S. I write on that one a lot more often)

The Lord works in all of our lives in different ways. Some need to be knocked down by a hurricane; others can be moved by whispering breezes. But we can encounter Christ personally in both ways.

St. Benedict

Saint Benedict evangelized Europe during the first Medieval Age.

He lived in a time when the Roman Empire was continuing to crumble. There were invasions from the tribes of the north into Roman Italy. As society and families were crumbling around him, he established monasteries as stable spiritual families in which to live and from which they would minister to the world. Their commitment of "stability" enabled them to stay with the monastery and with the monks as part of the house and family of Christ.

Benedictine monasteries also kept civilization alive in Europe during the Dark Ages. Not only did they nourish the intellectual arts of learning, they also promoted the art of farming during an era of environmental crises caused by terribly inclement weather. Furthermore, Benedict's monasteries were often the center of villages and towns, and so they provided a semblance of orderly, civilized life.

The Benedictine monasteries of the past still give us a model of how celibate monks and nuns, as well as lay associates, can live in a countercultural way that will give courage and hope to the whole of society.

"We need to rediscover that we Catholics are the original evangelicals, the original evangelists, the original experts in evangelization."

- Oswald Sorbino

Proclamation: Catholic and Protestant

From the Siena Institute's blog Intentional Disciples:

The Pope's visit to Brazil last week generated a lot of attention to the success of Protestant evangelistic efforts there. Pete Acosi raised an important point last week in his comments on the “God is a God of the Present” post below:

"I think we can take two courses of action when we see God clearly working among our Protestant brothers and sisters - we can 1) react or 2) humbly learn (as JPII encourages us in Ut Unum Sint) and grow. Though it puts us in a position of "weakness" - I think that is a good thing. Listen to the words of Cardinal Avery Dulles:

“The Church therefore has one inescapable task: To lift up Christ. When she seeks to lift herself up she becomes weak, but when she acknowledges her own weakness and proclaims her Lord, she is strong.”

Or we can imitate St. Paul - who tells the Church in Philippi that some are preaching Christ for this reason or that ... and he goes on to say, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice!" (1:18)

In many ways Christ is being partially or fully proclaimed in many churches for many different sincere, insincere, or ignorant reasons ... but like St. Paul, I think we can learn to first rejoice as long as Christ is proclaimed... and then move from there... because, if our reaction isn't one of first rejoicing in the proclamation of Christ and him crucified - then we may need to allow God to purify our hearts..."

Then how should we, as Catholics, preach Christ?

This is our real problem: We simply aren’t effectively proclaiming Christ to this generation. And so the evangelistically oriented among us naturally turn to those we regard as “experts” – evangelical-Pentecostal Christians.

I’ve spent time with Catholic leaders who were so frustrated with Catholic apathy and cluelessness in this area that they had come to these conclusions: 1) Catholics don’t evangelize; 2) the sacraments are only relevant to on-going, not initial conversion, therefore, 3) Catholicism has nothing to say about initial conversion and 4) therefore, we must think outside the “Catholic box” by following the methodology of our evangelical brothers and sisters.

We’ve got a problem when Catholics use evangelical evangelistic resources, approaches or programs, without vetting and amending them to reflect the fullness of Catholic teaching. That’s because evangelistic resources teach as well as evangelize. Such resources explicitly teach the classical Reformation view of salvation – one’s personal faith alone is both the pre-requisite and the instrument through which one becomes a Christian, receives forgiveness for all sins, justification, adoption as God’s child, and eternal life.

We can’t expect them to teach the Catholic understanding that : “. . .the "good news" is directed to stirring a person to a conversion of heart and life and a clinging to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; to disposing a person to receive Baptism and the Eucharist and to strengthen a person in the prospect and realization of new life according to the Spirit “ (Catechesis in Our Time, 6).

When we use evangelical materials, the sacraments are presented, at best, as symbols of the real salvific event which has already happened in the privacy of one’s heart. Once you have absorbed the idea that work of salvation happens entirely through the disembodied, invisible, and interior means of one’s personal faith, the proposal that the grace of God is truly made available to us through the visible, physical, public means of the Church and the sacraments makes no sense at all.

If Catholics rely entirely upon evangelical materials, they may be making one of the most important parts of our faith not only obscure but practically unimaginable. At a point of tremendous spiritual openness – perhaps the first in someone’s life - we would not be taking the trouble to tell them the whole truth. Catholics should be preaching both-and: personal faith in Christ and repentence in the context of the sacraments and the Church. Of course, if the folks doing the lion’s share of proclamation don’t possess the fullness of the faith, we really can’t expect them to proclaim it.

As Billy Graham famously quipped “I prefer the evangelism that I’m doing to the evangelism that you’re not doing.”

Centro San Lorenzo

I've been thinking lately about how there's so much from my year in Italy that I didn't post on while I was there. Even though I'm all about posting in a timely manner, I'm going to let that go and start writing again about my many experiences from this time in my life. I think I wrote the following in November of 2005. I'll add a photo soon.

This evening we went to the Centro San Lorenzo, which is the Vatican youth center where we help lead mass (in English and sometimes Italian) three times a week. It is the home of the World Youth Day cross and began 20 years ago when JP2 decided a youth center close to St. Peter's was needed. There is a small church which is quite old and has a San Damiano cross given to the center by the Taize community. Two girls, an Italian and a French girl, work there full time, greeting young pilgrims and organizing the numerous trips abroad that the WYD cross makes. On Friday we pray the rosary half in Italian and half in any other language that happens to be present, and Mass on Fridays is often celebrated by a bishop or a cardinal.

By the way, Saint Lawerence's (San Lorenzo) feast day is August 10.

Here's an article on the history of the place:

Centro San Lorenzo, Something Old and New
By Catherine Smibert ROME, AUG. 19, 2005 (Zenit) -

Everything has a moment of conception -- a place and a time when it all began. This is valid for the World Youth Days too, and Rome was where it began. Specifically, it was the Centro San Lorenzo/International Youth Center and was one of Pope John Paul II's first big steps at renewing the faith of the young. As his pontificate started, he was concerned about the dwindling numbers of young people active in the Church. That's when he went on a search to give youth a place -- it could become the Vatican Youth Center -- and he managed to find one practically in front of St. Peter's Square.

It was the old Church of St. Lawrence "in Piscibus" (at the Fish Market) that had been forgotten due to the modern palazzi blocks which had been built around it. With fourth-century foundations, the stunning church we see today was reconstructed in the 12th century following the Crusades. Its alternating interior columns still have little crosses carved into them as symbols of the "conquest over paganism." The church had gone through a lot of hardships by the time John Paul II came upon it -- from being de-consecrated and turned into an artists studio, to becoming a home to Rome's fish markets at one time.

Yet, the Pope saw potential in this lovely building that had almost been left to ruin, just as he saw potential in the youth of the day. He reconsecrated it in a special youth Mass in March 1983. During this Mass -- photos of which still hang on the walls of the church -- John Paul II expressed his desire that the church, its basement and courtyard become "a hothouse of faith-filled evangelization and a breeding ground for mission." During this time there was a rise in the newer communities, many of them based on the Charismatic Renewal. They were attracted to the Pope's enthusiasm and decided to respond to his invitation by pooling their resources. Ever since then, the Centro, as its affectionately known, has offered the youth of the world a place to come and ask questions when visiting the Eternal City. They then have an opportunity to partake in daily sacraments -- reconciliation, Mass, etc. -- in a variety of languages, and a holy hour at 5 p.m. every weekday. Over the years many youth have also taken the chance to kneel at the foot of the original cross, given to young people by the Pope in 1984, which stays here when not traveling around the world.

Vatican Museums Evangelize With Art

Masterpieces Synthesize Gospel and Culture

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 19, 2006 (Zenit.org).

The Vatican Museums provide an "extraordinary opportunity for evangelization," Benedict XVI said on the occasion of the institution's 500th anniversary. The Pope said this Saturday during an audience with the participants of an international congress which closed a year of events commemorating the long history of the Vatican Museums. The Holy Father described them as "the greatest museum institutions in the entire world." Benedict XVI congratulated those participating in the symposium to reflect on the identity and role of the museums today, and their prospects for the future. The congress identified "elements that make it possible to better delineate the function, which we could describe as 'educational,' of museums in the context of the present globalized society," said the Pontiff. The Pope said that "the Church has always supported and promoted the world of art, considering its language as a privileged vehicle of human and spiritual progress."

The Vatican Museums have the following inscription placed on the main door: "Ad augendum Urbis splendorem et asserendam religionis veritatem" (To promote the splendor of the city of Rome and affirm the truth of the Christian religion). Benedict XVI continued: "The development in time of the Vatican Museums shows that these ends have always been clearly present in the Popes' intentions."

The Vatican Museums "can represent an extraordinary opportunity of evangelization because, through the different works exhibited, they offer visitors an eloquent testimony of the continuous intertwining that exists between the divine and human in life and in the history of nations," added the Pope. The Holy Father said: "The enormous number of people that visit them every day shows the growing interest in these masterpieces of art and these historical testimonies, which are a marvelous synthesis of the Gospel and culture." The Pontiff said that the museums are no longer "reserved for artists, specialists and men of culture alone, in our days it is increasingly everyone's home, thus responding to a widespread formative need of society." Benedict XVI added that the institutions belong as well to the youth, "which can recognize in the museums the roots of their history and culture." The Pope said that "every opportunity to foster integration and encounter between individuals and nations is, undoubtedly, something that should be stimulated." "In such perspective, also museums -- though keeping in mind the changed social conditions -- can become places of artistic mediation, links of relationship between the past, the present and the future, crossroads of men and women of several continents, in addition to sources of research and forges of cultural and spiritual enrichment," the Holy Father said. The Pontiff said: "The museums will be able to spread the culture of peace if, while retaining their nature of temples of the historical memory, they are also places of dialogue and friendship among all."