Christ The King

The Archbishop of Portland Oregon, John Vlazny, writes a weekly column, which I receive via email – how I came across this, I cannot remember. His latest filled more than just me with the holy spirit, as I shared it… Here are a few excerpts….

“This coming weekend, November 24-25, 2007, Catholics around the world will be celebrating the feast of Our Lord, Jesus Christ the King. It is the final weekend of the liturgical year and soon our hearts will turn to thoughts of Christmas as the Advent season begins the following weekend. With Christ as our King, we Christians are citizens of the kingdom of God Jesus came to build on this earth. But all the work wasn’t accomplished two thousand years ago during his public ministry. He established a church to carry on the work of kingdom-building throughout the ages. Now that evangelizing task is ours.”

“As we prepare our hearts for a new liturgical year and the many challenges that confront our church’s evangelizing mission, we would do well to remember what it means to be true evangelizers of God’s Kingdom. The work of evangelization is at heart the work of the Holy Spirit.”

“Evangelization happens in our families when parents pass the faith onto their children. It happens in our churches through the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the saving deeds of Jesus. It is evident to the community when we go about our work responsibly, share our blessings with our neighbors and care for the stranger, the poor and the needy. It is simply through the ordinary activities of our Catholic life that we proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God and call ourselves and others to conversion and new life in Christ.”

“What about building the kingdom? How do we do it? Making the presence, the love and care of our God felt in today’s world typically occurs in two ways: by our witness, which is the simple living of the faith, and by our sharing, which is spreading the good news of Jesus in a very explicit way. It is clearly our hope that the story of Jesus will be influential far beyond our own church communities. It is not enough for us to live as the gospel teaches on our own. Our faith must also touch the values of our communities, our nation and our world.”

With the advent of the new liturgical year, let my resolution redouble, conversion – renewal – witness…