DAILY SEQUENTIAL EXCERPTS from The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith – Instrumentum Laboris:
51. The duty of the new evangelization compels the Church to examine the way Christian communities both live and bear witness to the faith today. In doing so, the new evangelization now becomes discernment or the ability to read and decipher the new sectors which have emerged in human history in the last decade, so that, in turn, they might be turned into places for proclaiming the Gospel and experiencing the Church. Once again, the magisterium of Pope John Paul II has shown the way by first providing a description of the sectors of the new evangelization, which were used in composing the Lineamenta and were further discussed and substantiated in the responses. These sectors include cultures, society, economics, civic life and religion.
52. Given its importance, the cultural sector was seen as a priority. Broadly treated in the preceding paragraphs, the cultural sector was mentioned in many responses as the place where secularizing trends are taking place at a rapid pace. Prevalent in a particular way in the West, secularization is the result of certain social and philosophical happenings and movements, which have had a profound effect on its history and identity. Secularization is wrongly perceived in our cultures today as a sign of liberation and the capability of envisaging life in this world, and human life in general, without any reference to the transcendent. In recent years, secularization has not assumed the form of publically or directly speaking out against God, religion and Christianity, despite the fact that, in some instances, it can oftentimes have an anti-Christian, anti-religious and anti-clerical tone, even in these times. Many responses indicate that the rather subdued tone in secularization has allowed this cultural form to invade people's daily lives to the point that some have developed a mentality in which God is effectively absent, in whole or in part, and his very existence dependent on human consciousness. (Instrumentum Laboris, “Chapter 2: Time for a New Evangelization,” paragraph 51-52)
52. Given its importance, the cultural sector was seen as a priority. Broadly treated in the preceding paragraphs, the cultural sector was mentioned in many responses as the place where secularizing trends are taking place at a rapid pace. Prevalent in a particular way in the West, secularization is the result of certain social and philosophical happenings and movements, which have had a profound effect on its history and identity. Secularization is wrongly perceived in our cultures today as a sign of liberation and the capability of envisaging life in this world, and human life in general, without any reference to the transcendent. In recent years, secularization has not assumed the form of publically or directly speaking out against God, religion and Christianity, despite the fact that, in some instances, it can oftentimes have an anti-Christian, anti-religious and anti-clerical tone, even in these times. Many responses indicate that the rather subdued tone in secularization has allowed this cultural form to invade people's daily lives to the point that some have developed a mentality in which God is effectively absent, in whole or in part, and his very existence dependent on human consciousness. (Instrumentum Laboris, “Chapter 2: Time for a New Evangelization,” paragraph 51-52)
To the upright I will show the saving power of God. (Psalm 50:23, Mass).
COLLECT
May the venerable intercession of the
glorious Virgin Mary come to our aid,
we pray, O Lord, so that,
fortified by her protection,
we may reach the mountain which is Christ.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, for ever and ever.
glorious Virgin Mary come to our aid,
we pray, O Lord, so that,
fortified by her protection,
we may reach the mountain which is Christ.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, for ever and ever.
“The Sectors of the New Evangelization,” 5 in number in the Instrumentum Laboris, are examined over the course of 8 paragraphs in this section. In reviewing today’s selection, one might ask: ‘what is new about these realities?’ Has not human history always had to deal with realities opposing the religious and spiritual dimensions of life? Permit a crystal clear answer: yes in the sense of no; no in the sense of yes. Clear? Perhaps not. Concerns regarding “cultures, society, economics, civic life and religion” color the pages of human history and at times particular sectors even vividly adorn and impose on life a direction that minimally is not friendly to the Sacred. What makes the present situation ‘new’ is the speed, almost incomprehensible at times, that these sectors influence and cause change in life.
Consider:
Consider:
- Might a renewed cultivation of contemplative prayer among ALL the faithful help to slow life so as to know whether life’s direction is ordered towards the Person, Jesus Christ?
- Are there any good dimensions to life’s rapid pace?
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