Bishop’s Reflection for the Month of June

EVANGELIZATION, LITURGY & CATECHESIS: THE NEW PENTECOST

                  Beginning with the celebration of Pentecost 2019, the Diocese of Stockton will launch a collaborative effort of evangelization by means of prayer. It must be a prayer that is centered, and finds its origin, in the Holy Spirit who was given to the Church at Pentecost. This effort is in response to the challenge and invitation of Pope Francis and his predecessors in regard to the “New Evangelization.”
                First of all, there really isn’t anything “new” about evangelization. Evangelization is evangelization: the proclamation of the Good News of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! To be an evangelized Catholic Christian means that a person has accepted Christ as Lord of one’s life and that he or she has an ongoing relationship with the Risen One. The disciple of Christ is one who puts into action their faith. Faith-in-action is necessary if we are going to build up the Kingdom of God within, and beyond, our parish communities.
  In the midst of this special time of prayer, I, as Bishop, must be open to my own need for ongoing evangelization. In turn, I have the responsibility to offer opportunities for my Clergy and Religious to be evangelized in order to grow in greater love for Jesus, the Servant-Leader and model of priestly, diaconal and religious life. 
  The Clergy, in turn, is to offer you, God’s people, opportunities for you to have an “encounter” with Christ in your lives. This will be accomplished by way of a more effective catechesis and sacramental preparation and post-sacramental accompaniment. There is a great need to evangelize the family in this day and age.
  A first step for us, as the faithful of the Diocese of Stockton, will be to focus on the Eucharistic Liturgy, the Mass. It is at the celebration of the Mass that we are evangelized and encounter the Crucified and Risen Christ in Word and Sacrament. There, too, we are empowered with grace and mercy as we encounter Jesus and the call to repentance and ongoing conversion. It is at Mass that we are challenged to accompany one another as we are commissioned to be sent as missionary disciples of our present day.
  Offering ongoing catechesis on the Liturgy is necessary to assist us to: better understand the role of prayer and the purpose of worship; to experience the holy and sacred; to actively participate in the liturgy; and also, to realize the impact that liturgical music can have in the role of evangelization.
  Ongoing training in the roles of liturgical ministers: Presiders, Deacons, Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist, Altar Servers and Ministers of Hospitality will be all-important. Effective preaching and proclamation of the Scriptures can become graced moments of evangelization.
  Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us keep this effort of evangelization in our prayers. May the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this Pentecost, help us to be open to the gift of ongoing evangelization in our lives. May the “New Springtime,” the “New Pentecost” that St. John Paul II spoke of, become a reality in our parishes throughout the Diocese of Stockton. Let us entrust all of our endeavors of evangelization to the “Star of the New Evangelization,” the Blessed Virgin Mary.

VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS!