Recommended Texts For Evangelization and Parish Revitalization
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ARTICLE – The Jesus Prayer: A Method To Pray At All Times
Did you know that there exists a method for praying at all times? It is called the Jesus Prayer and involves invoking the Name of Jesus as frequently as possible with the following formula, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This formula is based
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What can help children raised Catholic continue practicing the faith as adults?by Pierre-Alain Giffard on November 12, 2021 in Recommended Texts
According to The Pillar Survey on Religious Attitudes and Practices, there are factors that can help predict whether children raised Catholic continue practicing the faith as adults. These factors are the following: Attending Catholic school Going to Mass weekly with the family Saying grace Living with parents who are married
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ARTICLE – An Example of a Missionary Parish: Phoenix First Assembly of Godby Pierre-Alain Giffard on November 4, 2021 in Recommended Texts
Tommy Barnett was the senior pastor of Phoenix First Assembly of God in Arizona. His church was referred to as “The Church with a Heart” because of its more than 260 outreach ministries. Over the years and through its missionary efforts, it has experienced remarkable growth. Barnett says the growth
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Symbols Help Us To Remember…And To Evangelize, by Patrick Sullivanby Pierre-Alain Giffard on October 23, 2021 in Recommended Texts
Just the other night, I had the pleasure of once again sitting down to one of life’s greatest pleasures, that, of course, being the reading of theology. And through the various musings put forward by the author, some of which were dry of course, one obvious and exciting truth in
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ARTICLE – Satan’s Tacticsby Pierre-Alain Giffard on October 15, 2021 in Recommended Texts
Scriptures remind us that our spiritual battle between good and evil is real: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 6:12) We
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ARTICLE – Learning to Be a Missionaryby Pierre-Alain Giffard on September 23, 2021 in Recommended Texts
Learning to be a missionary takes place in a context and attitude of love for people who do not know or follow Christ. It requires being open to the ideas and perspectives of others and suspending our personal, cultural and religious ideas to listen to their experience. The path to
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ARTICLE – When We Cry Out To God, He Answers
The Brooklyn Tabernacle Evangelical church has emerged as one of the largest Christian communities in New York City, but its journey to this point was far from straightforward. When Jim Cymbala assumed the role of pastor in the early 1970s, the church counted only about 30 members and teetered on
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ARTICLE – Presence and Proclamationby Pierre-Alain Giffard on September 9, 2021 in Recommended Texts
Views on evangelization have often clustered around two poles: “presence” and “proclamation.” The term “Christian presence” was minted in French Catholicism. Blessed Charles de Foucauld described his vocation as being present amongst people, a presence willed and intended as a witness of the love of Christ. The term “Christian presence”
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ARTICLE – Saving Those Who Are Lostby Pierre-Alain Giffard on September 6, 2021 in Recommended Texts
The possibility of perdition for human beings is real. The Church has always taught this and it has not changed (COC #1022). In his Epistle to the Hebrews, Saint Paul speaks of those who are lost and those who save their souls: “We are not the sort of people who
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ARTICLE – Saint-Nazaire Parish: The story of a missionary transformationby Pierre-Alain Giffard on August 20, 2021 in Recommended Texts
The Saint-Nazaire church is another example of parish missionary transformation. Located in Sanary-sur-Mer, France, it changed parish priests in 1994. When he arrived, he found that the faithful were involved in parish activities, but most of the community was composed of seniors. Desiring it to change, he took his parochial
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