Of blogs & web sites

Call this an entry for the archives, but I’ve talked with Trish Nerviani and Scott Pluff and it looks like work on our future web site is something that may take place a little bit after this blog makes its public debut. It’s hard to gauge the impact a blog and web site can have, but in this age of instant communication I can only think that such a thing is a step in the right direction for the new age of evangelism. We are exhorted by the Church to use all the means at our disposal to further the message of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that our parishioners and visitors will find this to be helpful and engaging. If our efforts are guided by the Holy Spirit in this endeavor as they are in other areas of faith, it will bear fruit.

I can’t help but get excited about this quote from the Holy Father’s recent address on the Internet and digital media. "Without fear we want to set sail for the digital sea, facing the open waters with the same passion that has governed the ship of the church for two thousand years." The pope made his comments during an audience with participants of a national congress on digital media organized by the Italian bishops' conference. The congress, which ran April 22-24, was titled, "Digital Witnesses. Faces and Languages in the Cross-media Era."

Few things excite me more than the imagery of adventure which I think is so essential in our discipleship to Jesus Christ. The Lord has invited us to undertake the grand adventure of living as men and women of faith who engage the world with the humble truth of the Gospel. We preach a message of conversion, not perfection. We profess to be disciples, not flawless witnesses to the truth. In acknowledging our own sinfulness, we open our hearts to the healing mercy of God. We seek the truth of the Gospel and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to inform our thoughts, words and actions in every age and in every medium.

This humble bearing of the truth does not mean that we remain silent and timid servants of the Gospel. We are called to proclaim Christ to the world, with joy, courage and genuine conviction. We celebrate the gift of faith and believe that it is a gift that God desires to impart to all. The gift is not something to be coerced from others or forced upon them, but rather elicited through our message and witness, celebrated in our worship and strenghtned through the teaching of the Church.