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.
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- Written by Kristin Bird
There is a cost of discipleship — Jesus sometimes calls us to leave behind professions, friends, even family. Does that mean that work and human relationships are at odds with growing in our relationship with God? The concept of detachment can help us understand this problem.
Jesus calls us to put God first, above everyone and everything else. And that’s really the point of the virtue we call “detachment.” Detachment is the opposite of attachment. If we get too attached to someone or something, we cannot let that person or object go, even when such letting go is necessary. We must be detached enough from other people and possessions, Jesus insists, that they cannot interfere with following God’s will.
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- Written by Burning Hearts Team
Sister Cecilia Joy interviews Executive Director Kristin Bird about how to evangelize by sharing your story of faith along with tips on how to build evangelizing into your home life.
Need help identifying your own story of faith? We can help!
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The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity serve in Catholic Health Care, Education, Campus Ministry and Parish-Community Service throughout the United States. From Missions on Dioceses in Arizona, to the Dioceses of Lincoln and Omaha; from Columbus and Steubenville, to Mississippi, and Wisconsin and Michigan.
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- 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...
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- Written by Kristin Bird
Fr. Dan Beeman, a priest and pastor from Norfolk, VA took to Twitter recently to share about how to navigate conversations about faith and spirituality at your Thanksgiving gatherings.
Sometimes we feel like our family and friends can get "sick" of hearing us talk about our faith. Even the most open-minded, prayerful, and loving comments we make and stories we share can be perceived as judgement and lecture. Just mentioning the slightest thing about spirituality and faith seems to cause certain family members to shut down or roll their eyes. We, in turn, find ourselves getting defensive and avoiding the topic completely - often feeling like we can't be authentic and true to ourselves. It's a vicious cycle of judgement, defensiveness, and silence that leads to cultural maxims like: "We just don't talk about religion here."
Fr. Beeman's suggestions are great if you don't have anyone actively hostile or defensive (on either side of the faith discussion) sitting at your Thanksgiving table. But what can you do if you feel like anything you say related to faith and spirituality is outright ignored, causes anger, inflates tension beyond bearable levels, or is openly mocked?
