By: John

John — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 09:29:54 +0000

This article is a start.
Admitting that there must be something in it for young people is admitting to a failure, and admission of this is usually followed by repentance.
God always provides.
Those who engage in anything which they call Catholic must be convinced of it.
If this conviction is not present how can they expect youth to engage?
Youth must see adults engaging in the future of the church, hear their
stories and be able to appreciate why they do the things they do.
Too often past years of indoctrination, of following like illiterates
(which many in those years were), to be enlightened with scholarly aspects but without love, without joy, have been singularly
cold and empty.
Hypocrisy, particularly religious hypocrisy has a bad smell about it,
and the sooner that it disappears from Catholicism the better.
It is not about the extrinsic, but the intrinsic.
Youth are quick to notice.
Catholic Carmelite Christopher O’Donnell (O.Carm), writes about a ‘crisis’ in the church. He goes on to say, that what is needed is stored away like something in an attic.
Attics can reveal much of interest.
A Catholic educator in a Catholic school whose husband is a Catholic Principal admitted that she was unaware that there were over a hundred miracles of the Eucharist on the internet.
How many others are unaware?
How many know of the many incorrupt bodies of well-known saints? Who has read of the numerous bilocations of Maria Carloni, known to four Popes?
Events such as these put meat in the sandwich.
MOST importantly why have they been placed in the attic?
The supernatural is very real, and should always be incorporated into
the lives of the faithful, particularly those struggling with faith. Faith
is much more than dogma and doctrine. God deliberately intervenes in history, at various times.
Youth can be supplied with these and the innumerable events in the lives of saints, and of martyrs, which does more than fill in an RE programme. These are easily tapped into by parents who make the time to see what the educators have in their curricular.
TV has set a set of different values before youth. These can be challenged simply by providing examples from mission fields, and by
a dialogue which taps into the Christian supernatural. While shame has been eroded, and atheism from the US has intruded, the contradiction that can be supplied has every change of germinating in the minds of young people, and can be built upon with the relevant committed older generation.
Early choices by savvy parents can easily supply essential guidelines.

Comments on: Launching the next generation of saints

By: John