The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
- Details
- Written by: Fr. Larry Rice
Green is the color of most of our Church year. Green vestments on the priest and deacon, green banners hanging behind the altar, green plants adorning the sanctuary. After the glitz and glamor of the Christmas and Easter seasons, this season in our Church year can seem, well, ordinary.
Ordinary Time
The period in our Church year that follows the Christmas season, and then again follows the Easter season, has an unfortunate name—Ordinary Time. The name comes from the fact that while we are outside of special seasons, the Church simply counts the time as it passes (3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, etc). It's counted time using the ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd...) which is how it got it's name. Of course, being that it's also outside of the special seasons, it often feels mundane, routine, ordinary as well.
Rev. Larry Rice, CSP explains Ordinary Time this way...
- Details
- Written by: Kristin Bird
Have you heard of the Jesus Juke?
The “Jesus Juke” is a move that tells a friend,
“I wish you possessed the uber holiness I do and were instead talking about sweet baby Jesus in this conversation.”
Coined by Jonathan Acuff in his Stuff Christians Like blog, a Jesus Juke is like a tiny “shame grenade.” You throw it into an otherwise harmless conversation and then watch it splatter everyone in guilt and condemnation.
Christmas (and maybe Easter) seems to bring out the worst of the Jesus Jukes. Combine them with intentionally controversial headlines and memes and you can suck the Christmas joy right out of jolly ol’ Saint Nick himself.
- Details
- Written by: Kristin Bird
A disciple is someone who follows Jesus: who hears his call, responds to it, and keeps learning from him for the rest of their life. The word comes from the Greek mathētēs, meaning a learner or follower, but in the Gospels a disciple is far more than a student. A disciple lives in relationship with Jesus and lets that relationship change how they live.
- Details
- Written by: Fr. Weber
Shortly after I was ordained, I was asked to give a tour of our parish church to an interdenominational group. A woman stopped me and asked, “Don’t Catholics believe in the resurrection of Jesus?” I assured that we not only believed, but that that doctrine is central to our understanding of salvation.
At that, the woman pointed to the crucifix and added, “Then why do you still depict Jesus dying instead of having an empty cross?”
I admit that I was surprised by the woman’s assumption, but since then I have become grateful for her questioning. Having grown up Catholic and having looked at a lifetime of crucifixes, I had never found any contradiction in seeing Jesus on the Cross and believing that Jesus rose from the dead.
