The Joy of the Gospel
It is our tradition to send out weekly emails during the season of Lent that help us reflect on different aspects of our faith. This year we are using a selection of videos that are part of the series "The Joy of the Gospel" launched by LEARN@CTU, followed by a short comment from a young adult. Each video explores a passage from Pope Francis' recent exhortation, titled Evangelii Gaudium.
Introduction
In this opening video, CoC Faculty Moderator Steve Bevans, SVD, introduces this series. He shares his thoughts on Evangelii Gaudium, and gives a preview of what you'll be seeing in the coming weeks.
Week 1
During this first week, CTU's Vice President and Academic Dean, Sr. Barbara Reid, OP, reflects on the quote: "We need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church."
Reflection:
As Sr. Barbara Reid, OP notes "there has always been a female presence in the Church." Today women continue to be a vital and important part of the life of the Church. As a Dominican Volunteer, I spent two years living in community with Dominican sisters in Chicago who ministered to the homeless, the mentally ill, the incarcerated and immigrants. I learned a great deal from them about how to live as Jesus taught us; how to love your neighbor, including those living in poverty and other marginalized populations; and how to speak out for peace and justice. In addition to being active in the grassroots Church and working directly with the People of God, I know a number of Catholic women -vowed religious and otherwise-who serve important administrative roles in their parishes, religious congregations, and other Catholic-affiliated institutions. The Catholic elementary school I attended in my tiny hometown would not have celebrated its 100th year anniversary were it not for the excellent leadership of the now retired principal. She not only kept its doors open when enrollment dropped significantly a few years ago, but also managed to revitalize the school community, drastically increasing enrollment and parent involvement in a short amount of time. Indeed Catholic women all around the world are having real impact on the People of God. As a young Catholic woman, I find Pope Francis' call for "a more incisive female presence in the Church" not only rejuvenating, but indeed joyous. May that call soon be fulfilled in a concrete and just manner.
Ann Marie Castleman
Week 2
During the second week, CTU professor Bob Schreiter, CPPS, reflects on the quote: "In the basic core of the gospel, what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died on the cross and was raised from the dead." [36]
Reflection:
What do I do to reach out to the world? What do I do to reach out to those in need? Honestly, my answer would often be: not a lot. In the past, I've understood what it means to serve the church, but I didn't always understand what it meant to serve the church JOYFULLY.
We are called NOT just to LIVE the Gospel, but to live JOYFULLY the call of Christ. We live with joy because we know that we are a people of a savior; a savior that died for us, gave out great mercy for us. We are joyous because we are loved! Wow, that changes things so much! Because of that message, serving is no longer suffering; serving is loving others!
During this Lent, not only do we take time to reflect, repent and fast, we are called to SERVE.
Today, reflect on your Lenten journey so far: What is God asking of you this Lent? How can you serve another person this Lent? How will you exude the Joy of the Gospel to others that you encounter?
And remember that God loves you today!
Week 3
During the third week, Vanessa White, Assistant Professor of Spirituality at CTU, reflects on the following passage: "Loving others is a spiritual force drawing us to union with God; indeed, one who does not love others 'walks in the darkness' (1 Jn 2:11). Furthermore a committed missionary knows the joy of being a spring which spills over and refreshes others." [272]
Reflection:
Dr. C. Vanessa White's reflection on Spirituality within Pope Francis' exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), laid a foundational understanding of this exhortation as one that is "rooted in love and joy."
What I found powerful from her message is that we are all called to be missionaries and to be in relationship with others. As a student at Dominican University and a Sinsinawa Dominican Associate, one of our community mottos is "at the heart of ministry is relationship." I directly connected this motto to Dr. White's message as she explained the five finger prayer practice of Pope Francis.
Dr. White reminds us that through Pope Francis prayer practice, we remain in a consistent relationship with those around us and in our world. She also reminds us that we must pray for ourselves as well, and this reminded me of the idea of practicing self-care, a practice I first discovered through black feminist author, bell hooks. This practice of self-care is crucial for all ministers; I learned this because as a Pastoral Ministry major at Dominican University, we have been educated to be ministers to all people, but especially to ourselves.
Therefore, Dr. White's messages of discovering the joy of ministry, but also self care practices, are vital points within the exhortation.
Megan Graves
Week 4
During the fourth week, Gina Wolfe, reflects on the quote, "This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties, they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church's pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them." Evangelii Gaudium [198]
Reflection:
"I find this passage...really very challenging and one I hope that I will have enough courage to maybe address and meet in a small way." These closing words of Gina Wolfe's reflection encapsulate how most individuals of economic means may feel in response to Evangelii Gaudium. This is because the work of becoming a "Church which is poor and for the poor" requires something more from us than a change in opinion or even policy, it requires a conversion of heart.
The call to be evangelized by the poor, to listen to the poor and to lend a voice to their cause impels us to more than being a Church for the poor. Rather, we are a church that is poor and of the poor. The poor are not the "other" beyond our borders, but they are a part of us and we a part of them. To find conversion, an open ear and motivated actions requires that we have the eyes to see and the heart to feel the solidarity toward which the Pope is beckoning us. Their cries should be ours as much as our material security should be theirs.
Benedict XVI taught the greatest form of poverty is isolation. By continuing to exist in a world of boundaries, of segregation, of dehumanizing economic discrepancies, we perpetuate the deception that that our achievements are our own for ourselves rather than of God and for betterment of our human family, we actively perpetuate a consciousness of division between peoples.
If we begin to recognize the true human interdependency that exists at the depths of our spirit, we can know that those of means are as dependent upon, if not more so, on those left at the margins by our society as the destitute are on those who know material security.
Graham Golden, O.Praem.
Week 5
In this episode, Dianne Bergant, CSA, reflects on the quote, "one can observe in many agents of evangelization, even though they pray, a heightened individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervor." Evangelii Gaudium [78]
Reflection:
I chose to comment on Dianne Bergant's reflection because when I read the section of Evangelii Gaudium where Pope Francis addresses the challenges to pastoral workers of relativism, skepticism, and individualism, I felt like he had been spying on me in my office at the parish where I work! As a Director of Religious Education, I find within myself a tendency towards individualism in my ministry. As Dianne points out, even in prayer I can be very self-focused, praying for strength and growth for myself as a minister. But as Pope Francis reminds me, I am not in ministry for myself, but for others. It does me no good if I have the skills to be an excellent DRE, but am not focused on the people with whom I am ministering. How often do I pray for the families in my program, for their strength and growth? And as an educator, how am I teaching the children to be other-centered, to pray and act for others? Pope Francis' message reminds me to refocus my attentions to others on a daily basis. With the correct focus, instead of becoming tired and burnt-out, I serve with a joyful purpose refreshed by the reminder that this is God's work, and not mine.
Week 6
In our last installment Antonio Sison, C.PP.S, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, reflects on the passage: "Each particular church should encourage the use of the arts in evangelization, building on the treasures of the past but also drawing upon the wide variety of contemporary expressions so as to transmit the faith in a new 'language of parables.'" Evangelii Gaudium [167]
Reflection:
In his reflection, Antonio Sison shares that films can reveal "different modes of what it is to be a human being amidst a life of contradiction, amidst the many challenges that we all face in our journey." In my second year of college, I remember being deeply moved by one particular scene in the film Entertaining Angels, which tells the story of Dorothy Day and the beginning of the Catholic Worker Movement. In this scene, overwhelmed by the desperation and destitution she is encountering in her work with the poor and with the Catholic Worker community, Dorothy walks into an empty church. She goes straight to the foot of the crucifix and pours out all of her questions and anger at God, weeping at Christ's feet. It is a dramatically human moment of raw irreverence before God. And yet it's a scene that also reveals intimacy with God, and a desire for truth and goodness. As Ton shares, "we're given a glimpse of how in fact there is a beautiful narrative underneath a narrative of challenge, and ugliness sometimes." Art gives us ways to endlessly explore God's hidden narrative by opening ourselves to seeing ordinary stories from new perspectives and reflecting on the questions and challenges that arise there. During this often difficult and dreary season of Lent, Pope Francis' encouragement of the arts puts us in touch with the hopeful promise of God's creative movement, which draws us ever closer to wholeness and resurrection.
Click here for the complete Evangelii Gaudium document.
