Fr. Mike on Evangelization: Telling the Story of God’s Love

[Applause] if you walk in here tonight um one of the couple things I want to do is we just get started first is let's say a prayer that's okay we are kind of a chapel so if that's okay with you all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit father in heaven we give you praise and glory we ask you to please receive the gift of our time tonight receive the gift of our presence tonight as we sit in these chairs there were so many so many have studied and prayed in these in this in this space where so many people have worshiped to you we ask that you please allow our presence and I'll allow our hearts allow our praise to you to join with theirs that you may be glorified in all things father father receive our praise in the name of your son Jesus and hear our prayer father in the name of your son Jesus we ask you send out your Holy Spirit and abundance upon every person who's gathered here in the way that you alone know that we need you we entrust our hearts our lives our wounds and those we love to your love we ask you to please bless us in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Lord amen Father Son Holy Spirit amen thank you all again second six Benedict has ever maybe we do need an editor he said unfiltered I'm like shoot it's way easier to sit in front of a camera and like okay take two um take two is thank you all you all have somewhere else to be tonight not somewhere else we should be but you somewhere else you could be tonight and I on the way near though if you're a seminarian I was like you have to come to this so I guess we're required to but everyone else you you had a choice and I just that that that's not wasted that's not lost on me that you could be somewhere else and maybe you've driven a long way maybe you've had unlike the seminarians longer than a 5-minute commute to get to this place um and just I just want to let you know that I know that you made a sacrifice to be here you could be so many other places so I hope this time honors you and honors the Lord third thing this will be kind of a relatively brief presentation a father mentioned that there are discussion guides after my homilies because those are not relatively brief but after the relatively brief presentation there's gonna be a Q&A section and I thought that would be really fun I don't ever get to do those and so I thought it'd be really really fun to be able to do this because I came in tonight relatively intimidated first I was intimidated because like yeah our spaceship he will be there like what the and they're like no he's not gonna make it like okay thanks and then and then it's like oh it's the arch or the Cardinal Foley lecture series in like lecture series like I don't I don't give lectures what the heck am i I do give Stern talking's too but like and then thirdly or fourth or whatever number we're on right now they say they'd be in this Chapel and I was like I visited this Chapel a couple times filming for Ascension and I'm like what the no give me like an auditorium later somewhere that's like less intimidating than the most intimidating chapel I've ever been in in my life so that ping said last thing before we launch into this father also mentioned that I'm on campus with our students and maybe this is before the seminarians a little bit growing up and even working at parishes there was something I noticed that sometimes it happened when the priest was away when the pastor was was gone it was like everyone's like oh okay now we can breathe like okay now he's gone now we could just relax and now we can like cats away kind of a situation and I always thought like I wonder if that's like gonna he said it's not always the case that when when father's gone people are like who thank the Lord I just have to say that last night after Mass my students they they knew I was coming out to Philadelphia and they I'm going I'm gonna be back tomorrow at noon but they were like father we're gonna miss you so much like it's just it's not the same here when you're not here and just that sense of like really it's a my my brother seminarians the heart of your formation is to become a dad so when you leave the people in the parish your students your kids it's like even if you're gone for a day like we miss him you can't wait to get back like that step and that's the heart of it that makes sense also just bragging how much they like me so um no you know at new and we add that our Newman Center it's a small it's a little house really um and we have a motto around the house because it's just kind of like a again way to car garages are as our daily Mass Chapel it's been converted in on Sunday Mass we set up in the ballroom it's like yeah you have the big big place no it's not a big what's a big ballroom but other than that it's kind of small and so we have to own it right you have to own the community and so one of the models we have in that community is see a need fill a need you don't have custodians or anyone and so it's like see you need filling needs so students you're part of this community then so you know this you know that if you see something out of place like do something about it and one of the things we try to do in that is not just like clean up after ourselves but one of these you're trying to inculcate in our students is that notion that um you don't actually have to wait for permission to do good you never have to wait for permission to do good like you never have to wait for permission to share the gospel you don't have to wait for permission to help someone you never have to wait for permission to talk to someone you don't have to wait for the priest to come in to do the thing and you don't have to wait for permission to replace the toilet paper on the toilet paper roll like you don't have to like this it's real life stuff but it's also so clearly what it is to be Catholic Christian you never have to ask permission to do good because we've been already getting weak everyone who's baptized we've already been given a commission we've already already been told what to do he's so many ways I mean just let's go back to it then to Matthew's Gospel where does Jesus say he says go out into the all the world make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded you one of the things that Pope is the the sixth Pope Paul the sixth talked to in evangelii News eonni the evangelization in the modern world he says that's what evangelization is it's not it's not just one thing it's not just the curricular sounds of proclaiming Christ it's the whole thing it's going out into the world proclaiming Christ the kerygma evangelization making disciples like growing them up baptizing them so sacramental life bringing them into the Covenant and catechesis teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and no one in this space no one here has to wait for permission to do those things I'm not saying go baptize people on your own but I'm saying like like there's a sense of like he's already told you this is your job he's already actually you've been anointed that this is your job if you're baptized I've been anointed that this is actually what he wants you to do and there's something so I mean to realize here's Jesus who's actually entrusting every everything about this the fact that the fact that he left everything about that that in Acts chapter 1 when Jesus is standing out over the city of Jerusalem at Bethany and the apostles look at him and say Lord are you at this point gonna restore the kingdom to Israel basically hey we believe who you are we know that you are the one you say you are you know we know you're the Messiah we know you're gonna restore the kingdom we know you're the savior of the world so are you gonna restore are you gonna bring this to the whole world right now what does Jesus say in response he says basically it's not for you to know the timer seasons because that's okay but then he says it's like I'm not telling but then he says but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria to the ends of the and ends of the earth like to think about that the Apostles Lord are you gonna bring all of your mercy to the whole world and he's like no you are Lord are you gonna bring salvation to the world no you are who are you gonna bring hope and justice and peace and all everything you want to the world and Jesus looks at his disciples and he says no you are with my power with my spirit and this is the spirit that dwells in you this is the commission that's been extended to you and so what do we do we do what we do at Neuman we look around the world and we see a need motto is see you need fill a need but I've got before I go any further here's what I want to ask because this is not just about the you know sometimes we talk too much about going out and I just want to take one moment and go in I've been thinking about this a lot lately ever since well for a couple weeks which for me is for a lot and if you remember the the Gospel reading for um two weeks two Sundays ago it was John's Gospel about Saint John the Baptist and st. John the Baptist he says this about Jesus he says I did not know him I hadn't really ever focused on that ever and praying through John's Gospel how many to it twice John the Baptist says I did not know him but he came here I did not know him I just think about this here is how many times is that us and you could say well John how are you kidding me your cousin's to this guy we can say the same thing about us like are you kidding me you were raised in the church just because we're in the vicinity of Jesus doesn't mean that he's in our hearts John the Baptist ultimately he's gonna say the reason why I came baptizing this is really interesting I just think is John the Baptist sums up his entire mission is there actually his entire meaning for existence think about like the reason why my mom and dad couldn't conceive a child the for so long the reason why God had to appear to angel appeared to my dad in the temple the reason why he was struck dumb the reason why they need me John the reason why I lived in the desert the reason why I wear Kamel Sarah the reason why I've been hearing honey and locusts everyday in my life the reason John says the reason why I came baptizing is to make him known to these two things which is an act in fact almost one thing that John says sums up my entire life the reason why everything in my entire life has ever happened is to know him and to make him known my entire life why did this happen I need to know him well why did that happen I need to make him known because there's a need right and one of the greatest needs that we have right now in our day huh sorry the greatest need I have is to know him you guys you can talk about Jesus all day seminary they talk about Jesus all day if you have church work you talk about Jesus all day but that's not the point the point is I need to know him because there's a need in my heart I imagine there's a need in your heart be able to say my life doesn't make sense unless I know it my life doesn't make sense unless I know him and my life is unfulfilled unless I make him known like think about this my life is unfulfilled unless I do absolutely everything in my power to know him and to make him known cuz I have a need in my heart and so I need to fill a need I need to fill it with him and there's need in our world and that need is to bring America that's the Great Commission Lord are you going to go to the ends of the earth and he just says no you are Lord even a sense someone to my to my niece to tell her about how much you love her he says yeah I am you to know Jesus and to make him known you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses that's the need and so we feel a need how do we do it you know there's so much we talk about like new media we talk about the media that gosh I told I told father daily I'm like I don't know I just hit record and then I hit stop and you go to the Internet and upload it and like I don't know anything about this thing is like it's okay just tell stories I'm like fine I can do that because that's the heart of this is in the heart of the Caribbean is in the heart of evangelization just telling stories they're just they're just awesome story cuz they're true like the heart of evangelization is telling the true story about Jesus not only Jesus what he did when he was alive on this earth those 33 years but also Jesus in the last few thousand years what he's done on this earth Jesus what he's done in your life and in my life this is the heart of evangelization tell the story and they say make it as simple as that how do we do Evangelos a ssin in the modern world you tell the story cuz I have no idea how microphones work I have no idea how to upload stuff I had no an upload I'd never do it no idea how to create it I have no idea how to do any of these things but I tell you what I do know how to do I know how to say yes too often so lemme tell you what story maybe it's boring if that's a great way to start a story I'm gonna tell you a story it's pretty lame most of you'll wonder why is he telling us this story no um people will ask me they'll say that how did you get involved how did you get started with the whole the whole deal I'll tell you here's the story so I'm Jesus changed my life when I was 15 years old there's a whole story about that let's skip that part started following him at pretty seriously we went right from there also really poorly followed him really poorly for roughly up until now just you we do our best right just kind of man keep falling down and keep asking God to help us long story short I get ordained in 2003 and I was in a parish for two years and was such a gift it's such a gift to be able to be away from school just like a real parish I'm not like wow there's people who aren't just my age around here this is amazing the world is full of other people so I got to be in a parish for two years and that was awesome and then they said my bishop said I want you to go back to the University I'm like okay it went fine um but when I was in 2007 so I got to campus in 2005 she does a seven one of our students asked me if I would like to record my homilies and I said no and she said why and I was like well that seems a little self aggrandizing doesn't it kind of seem a little bit like I need to inflict my opinion on the world like that seems weird she's like 'no no would be fine um because what about the former students who are graduated and they still want to you know their spiritual father to speak to them I'm like okay you know how to sucker me into all these things I said but I can't like I don't know how to do that she's that don't worry about it you hit record hit stop I'll take care of the rest and so it was just a student whose idea it was and then it was a student who said I'm gonna teach myself how to do podcasts and a student who said I'm gonna teach myself how to post hum Alize I'm gonna teach myself how to make a website and the student said I'm gonna teach myself how to use iTunes and they said oh there's this other thing out another you know pod Bay whatever I'm teaching my heart to do that so that what you do can get out there because of what I do so okay that sounds easy and then the next step was um there's this guy worked for lighthouse Catholic media and he was walking by his teenage son one day and his teenage son had some earphones in and he thought he said what what band listening to it is I'm not listen to any music I'm listening to this priesthood has homilies online I think I was like that's weird you're my teenage son you're listening to a priest give homilies to send me some of your favorites and so he sent him some and they made a CD out of a little homily series I did on the Eucharist and so that was that next step they said can we do that and I said yeah will it cost me anything no great yeah go ahead and do it one summer I led a group of our youth to a student Ville conference and got to the zoo Steubenville conference and it was crazy on Friday night they said our preacher for tomorrow is it here follow Mike could you preach tomorrow at stupid low conference I was like sure I mean that never happens now right like they they have this thing scheduled out for like months maybe a year in advance and sure sure no problem so I did that and they said would you come to the next conference and be the priest I mature and then later on ascension contacted me and said hey would you want to be part of this confirmation program and write one or two lessons like sure one write three sure at one point I got this message from a Maria Mitchell who said yeah just my hair from ascension press and there wanna have an online presence because people live on the internet now they live on YouTube and what essentially wants to do is they want to make this free because all the 18 to 24 year olds are living online and we can't reach them in so would you want to do a little 5 to 7 minute videos sure and so that's what brought me here tonight because one of the things that kind of gets in it gets in my craw a little bit is when people ask things like hey how do you how do you become I like you have like speaker like well you get baptized then you start talking and that's that's pretty much the summer that's it that's what it is right there it just kind of because ultimately when it comes down to I think in so many ways is what I found is I just I think God really wants to use people who just make themselves available that's I think that's the secret if there's any secret God just wants to use people make themselves available not necessarily someone who has a big plan as strategy and the vision for the whole thing that I love those kind of people I wish I was those kind of people I'm not that kind of people I just know how to say yes and I think the most important thing position one comes the evangelization and the media is who are you first saying yes to John the Baptist I need to know him who my first saying yes to I have to be for after first being saying yes to him and the next thing for me is like well I'm saying it's my bishop I just say yes to him Bishop says you're signed here I say yes bishop and I get asked to do this thing Bishop can I go do that thing yes like great he says no great that's when people start i'm jealousy a priest cuz you have someone telling you what to do I'm like just get married you can do that the same thing like it just it's really easy just find someone and say whatever you tell me I'm gonna do it so just makes it really really simple but there's something you know I remembered this his man name's John this man name is this man's name is John he works for Franciscan University assumin Ville in their outreach office and one of the things he's mentioned to me before he's like you know sometimes he says not everybody he says they're some Catholic speakers you know quote-unquote Catholic speakers he says that I know are willing to get on a plane and fly thousands of miles to talk to thousands of people but they're not willing to cross one street to talk to one person about Jesus and so there's well that's one of those things he told me years ago and like I never ever want to be that person just want to be able to if I can't live my faith where I'm planted then I can't live my faith at all and if I can't talk to the people who are next to me about Jesus that I shouldn't maybe I should think twice about traveling somewhere to talk to people about Jesus but if I'm willing to this is the thing yeah a flipside is this if I'm willing to start talking to anybody about Jesus then you get to talk to anybody about Jesus I'm willing to share my faith with anybody then you get to share your faith with anybody Jeff Cavins some of you guys know what Jeff Cavins he's relatively well known people asked Jeff about Jeff how do I get to do what you do like how do I get to go around the world and I teach the Bible to hundreds thousands of people and Jeff points out he says well the way I develop the Bible timeline is I would sit down at Perkins with one person and had walked them through the Bible for hours every night and because I walked one person at a time taught them how to read the Bible one person at a time just sitting in some restaurant in Minnesota that's why I can get up now and I can talk to thousands of people at a time because if I'm willing to say yes to one person and you're gonna be willing to say yes to a hundred people or a thousand people they're willing to say yes to Jesus where I am they don't have to be worried about where he's gonna take me and who I get to see say talk to Jesus talk about Jesus to where he might lead me that makes sense so I'd say if the question is how do you get started you never need permission to do good just get started well do I need to buy camera do I need to get like your recording equipment just I think you just need to it's need to get started is evangelization is telling the story so question I could ask myself question we could all ask ourselves is when was the last time I told the story not even like the story in the beginning I mean I mean the story of like hey what'd you do last weekend Oh super good well we went to Ikea for all day because that's what you do all day on Saturday and that night oh I was eight we stayed in we rented a movie and then Sunday we got went to church after his had brunch with my family and they went to that that little thing I remember talking to this man at where I work out in the gym and I asked him he went on a trip to Colorado said how was collaring he great he said he's skied we did it we did it went to church he just dropped it in there and it was like oh dude I go to church too he just told me the story he didn't say we went to church did you go to church he just said he said it as it was the most natural thing in the world because for him it's the most natural thing in the world if that's part of your story it's the most natural thing in the world it's part of your story to be willing to just tell the story to anyone who's right in front of us how do we evangelize if the new media well we don't if we're not willing to evangelize without the new media I'm gonna say that again because I think it's worth letting it sink in how do we evangelize in the new media we can only evangelize if we are willing to do it without the new media we're just willing to tell our story but here's here's a couple things and then I want to open up for questions cuz there's so much more to say but one of the things one of the things that I do need to say is I am absolutely convinced that what I get to do is not a one-man show i grit I get it I'm the only person in the screen but like what I get to do is not a one-man show it is so Catholic in the sense of it needs family it needs community it can't be done without that there's so many levels here's one level if someone says I want to get into this I want to get into new media I want to get into making content I want to get out there I said great you need to be part of a team not just because there's some things that you can't do that other people can do although that's very important let me think about maybe some of the content that you have been blessed by maybe it's shoot I'm talking blanking maybe it's like Catholic stuff you should know and those priests out in Denver maybe it's the Catholic talk show or the Catholic man show the whole team of guys maybe it's abiding together podcast where's the three women sister Miriam and Heather and Michelle but it's a team of people who are able to like check each other two people who are like it's not about them it's all about him my mom whenever I get nervous I'm gonna go somewhere I like coming here like she's like what you doing I'm going to Philly I'm a little nervous it's a lecture don't worry Archbishop he won't be there like I'm nervous and she's like just remember who the real star is like mom I know his name is Jesus but be part of a team cuz you're part of the team then it gets to be about him doesn't have to be about you I just think of all the people who have helped whether it be the podcast I still have not edited one word on the podcast oh the essential presents the people who like even just had ideas of like we should leave the bloopers in you know that was that was an actual debate and Maria fought for the bloopers of saying I'm like Magoo purrs are my favorite part like that's it like I love anyways anyway so last thing some of you probably are you might be diaries' or catechists or teachers youth ministers volunteers in your parish and it happens regularly that I'll talk to people when they say oh my gosh thank you so much we we show your videos in our classroom we show our videos in front of our youth be sure if it is to whatever and they're thanking me and I'm like okay this is really interesting because I don't know if you are keeping score but one of us has the easy job one of us has the difficult job I get to sit in my living room sit down I get to sit down hit record and say I don't I spell the mic fits the center presents I could talk really fast and I get to get done I'd get this press stop and I get to go to my computer and upload it and I like it okay but the real only reason your kids if it's ever helped your youth or ever helped your family the only reason it's ever helped them is because you're there you're like yeah my truth could really like it hopefully feel like it some of them hate it whatever the only reason they even hear it in the first place is because you're there the only reason why it matters to them is because you're willing to have the messiness of relation real relationships so that's when people are like oh wow it's so courageous this to put all that content you said that bold thing about that controversial thing like it's not it is the opposite of courageous to sit in my living room let's emphasize this one more time to sit in my living room not get any feedback if I don't want any feedback I just don't read the comments it is courageous for you to show up to that youth group again show up for that classroom again to actually get into the messiness of real people's lives and say actually I think this might help you and only because they trust you are they willing to listen to me because they trust you why because at some point in your life you saw a need and at some point in your life you chose to fill a need it it takes a church it takes a Catholic Church to have any any impact in this world right now so it takes the people on the cameras you have Matt and Shawn and you have Maresa you have Linds and you have all these people who are continuing to help and then we also have you are willing to get in people's lives and you're willing to tell your story and tell his story he willing to share what you know has helped you because there's a one if there's one thing that sums up any of our lives is the thing that's summed up John the Baptist's life reason why we do anything that we do is to know Jesus and to make him known so that was the boring part the fun parts happening now we're all gonna dance if you got in this side just getting up there's gonna be a line that's forms and father Daley had mentioned that it's gonna form right over here it's why if you want to come forward please do an dance ask your questions sing us a song tell us a joke in the meantime right you have freely is gonna point where you can you can congregate if you'd like in the meantime I'd like to tell you some stories something tragic happened before I left Duluth someone broke in through the Newman house and the night before I left and they stole my limbo stick how low can you go seriously actually the police came by later on and they asked me where I was between five and seven and I said I don't know kindergarten first grade somewhere in there I'll keep going and tell you someone comes up and it asked the question they are so good great question super good question um so this is completely obviously anyone can disagree with anything I say that's clear I really like the opportunity that YouTube gives us because YouTube offers us the opportunity to like make a cogent argument one of the things that I find incredibly frustrating about social media is the temptation to fall into like the idea of like the I remember I got to the point where I was convicted of a couple things here's one of the things I was convicted that um I needed to run away from any attempt to inflict my hit and run opinions on the world and I think that that that Twitter is all about that right your hit-and-run opinion it's like I'm gonna say blah and I say this and then I just get to walk away and if people agree with me they like it and if they don't agree with me then they don't like it or whatever but I've never convinced any I don't never I've never seen a tweet and going like wow I'm gonna live differently now I've seen the tweet and gotten mad I have let it ruin my day before but I've never actually seen it used as a real force for good there's maybe some positivity like look at this meme of a dog and like okay fine that's great or maybe here's a scripture quote or rats New York Oats like I love those kinds of things so those are decent things but in my opinion when it comes to things like Twitter like Facebook yeah I think people can use them for two things well maybe more than two but here's what to connect and to disseminate information I don't think I I prefer not to use those not to consume those things and that so I have to be really intentional I go on the internet because it's way too easy to be a consumer of social media and it's far more difficult to be a disseminator or a producer or creator of social media because you have to be really intentional about that kind of thing so when it comes to seminarians okay here's a little convicting moment again from as as dad so I was it was it was kind of early on I just got Twitter hey was still helping out at a stupid Ville conference in Atlanta and I remember taking off us on the plane to fly back to Minnesota and I was like oh I should say something about this because I've seen this on online before and I tweeted out something like hey Scooby ATL thank you so much for a great weekend blah blah blah and I got to Minnesota and all my friends the student held up their phone and said what's this I was like just it's a trick question it's a tweet and they went like no this is how celebrities tweet you're not a celebrity you're a priest I was like oh at first I was like oh but then I was like oh yeah you're right you're right and so so then on I'm like no I do not need to inflict not only my hit-and-run opinions on the world I don't know I do not need to inflict my opinions on the world like I don't need to share the meal I just prepared for one um you know with the world in fact actually I do I do so here's what I do I think a picture of my food and I have a group text of all my family members and say look what Mikey did you know and I and I share it with them because they're people I love people I I need to impress and people that I care about I don't need to share with the entire world so I have a couple rules one is I'm not a celebrity number one that's number rule number one any priest in a bishop any religious not a celebrity I'm a priest the bishop I'm religious other than that number two I should not share my random thoughts with the world I just don't think the world deserves it I mean that in the positive way but I realize this about my heart I realized it thought my heart that I would be looking for something that I should not be seeking I'd be looking for some kind of affirmation I'd be looking for some kind of response looking for some kind of whatever and I do not need to do that that's not I don't need to give my heart to strangers when I can give my heart to the people who are living right in my midst number three there are some people and I I wonder if I can see this in my temptation of my own self I don't tweet a lot I don't Facebook post a lot I don't Instagram too much because I think that if I did I realized it would be an attempt on my part to keep myself in front of people's consciousness and hey I don't deserve to be in front of people's consciousness for a picture ID token and B they have other things to think about and lastly when it comes to social media social media I need to guard against any attempt to share my hit-and-run opinions on people that makes some sense okay so that again people can disagree with that but that's what I think yeah so good um and that's one of the reasons why I do love like the Internet still you know it's not like him a Luddite or anything it was like I love the Internet and one of things I love about being able to make the video is that ascension lets me make is you put them out there and people can stumble across they can choose to watch or choose to listen when they're ready something's so good about that like um so you have videos that are you know here's why the Catholic Church is actually founded by Jesus all the way to when do you go to bed at night like that kind of idea and one of the things that we found in and some of the folks who help out so much have said we have people commenting on this like wait a second I wasn't gonna watch this because it was a priest but actually made sense and so what I find is when people are ready to make the content you tell the story right you get it out there and when they're ready you made it available and not only that but your family members about your friends you can say like someone says hey I'm really struggling with X and if you've already kind of been exposed to some of these stories you almost to somewhere else telling the story then you get to say well actually what do you think about this that makes sense one of the things that we get to do is we get to share each other's content and so it's nothing that doesn't have to be proprietary it gets to be shareable and it gets to be one of those kind of things where we have this massive pot so people sometimes ask like should parishes start making their own videos I don't know if you have a parish budget that lets you make videos and they're gonna be awesome great that's fantastic go ahead but your parish website can be a depository of of other people's content that you just direct people to all the free stuff that's on the line on the line online and this yeah share it one of the things that what we've found helps so much is that when people are willing to share what's been said then there's almost no limit to the reach that we can have with the videos with a podcast because last thing Sherri Weddell in the thresholds of conversion what's the first one the first one is a of trust or second level the second level trust and if you're a relationship with that person and they have some degree of trust with you and you say we'll just hey watch this tell me what you think that can go so far and if I get to be the person like or you make content and you're someone who is consistent then they realize that if they can trust you - that's what I would say to anyone who's interested in creating when it comes to this not just sharing not just distributing but creating is one of the things we absolutely need to be as authentic and consistent it's one of the reasons why fourth reasons well I don't tweet because that's when I would be inconsistent cuz I'm really angry right now and like now I need to be more winsome hopefully it helped a little bit yeah absolutely so um one of the things that thank you for the question very good and very helpful I think probably so many of us even if your job is to pray I think that it can be difficult to find time to pray and so one of the questions is always going to be to what degree do I believe that prayer makes a difference we had never the story of Jonah and there's a there's that portion in the moment in the story of Jonah where it's not about Jonah anymore it's about the people of Nineveh and Jonah's going he's gone through the city and he's declared that 40 days more Nineveh will be destroyed and so then the King declares that everyone fasts for days then no food no water no nothing and that they actually change how they live they change what's going on and it's always struck me that like wow I they were willing to actually let this message of conversion that's called the conversion impact and change how they lived and to think like okay I'm gonna stop eating on my stop drinking water for however long it takes until God has mercy on us that's faith what I'm saying in that is I'm saying that God sees he notices it matters to him it makes a difference and when I can't find time to pray it's ultimately because I'm not absolutely convinced that God sees that God notices that it matters to him and that it makes a difference so when I can't find time to pray ultimately this is not a crisis of time management it's a crisis of love it's a crisis of faith because if I truly believe that prayer made a difference I would do it every time sorry we're human beings we won't be perfect I would do it most of the time just like I believe that the diet works and don't do it every time I believe the exercise works in tree every time but if I'd really truly believe that prayer made a difference it would be the priority of the day but what if you're really really busy I remember father Thomas Dube he in one of his books he talked about a prayer for people who are busy parish who are moms and dads and he said no no you don't have to pray an hour a day if your mom or dad like if you said if you're if you're a dad and you're okay with being a mediocre dad then no don't you don't have to pray an hour a day and if your mommy you know okay with being a mediocre mom you're right you don't have to pray an hour a day but if you want to be an amazing dad then yeah you do if you want to be an amazing mom then yeah you do and I like that answer I remember father Thomas tibay said that I didn't say that at times Dube said that I didn't say see I like speaking in generalities because it's easier and so the question if we're praying regular basis again nothing nothing sacred about 60 minutes that's important to understand although the show is quite good so it's just a substantial enough time to grow your faith enough time to grow your relationship with the Lord and I think so some some people like starting out for 20 minutes would be enough for them to begin growing that relationship with Christ so again there's no magic number but how do you do it there are as many ways to do this as there are Saints I would say this that just my own experience the thing that helped me the most was an intensive moment it was intensive retreat that not everyone can take and so I understand that but what happened in the intensive retreat was I was invited to pray with the Gospels and a consistent basis that didn't rush through the Gospels it was it was depraved with the Gospels through what a thing is called egg nation prayer and a nation exercises and basically what that meant if you're not familiar with that was basically I was invited to place myself in the scene of Christ in one of the Gospels and use your imagination ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and you can slowly add in the various senses so first just to see the scene just look around like see who is who's who's there weren't they doing what does Jesus look like what's he doing and ask the Holy Spirit to guide that imagination and to return to it as often as you need to see the thing is through too many of us were like oh yeah I already paid with Jesus walking on the water I'm on to the next story like didn't know stay there and then you add in sounds now okay on the walking on the water I can see what's going on I came just like here what's happening here you can see people are crying out what is he what's mark saying that mark was in there what's with Peter saying what's Matthew saying what's the what is the wind sound and then you don't just Morris rush off from there it's like this could take weeks in one scene you add in is it cold is it is it is it is it hot is there a hot night that Jesus is walking across the water or what's it what's it like what's the water feel like then you start interacting like okay are you gonna be part of this story the most important thing for me and that's in that like so I did this long retreat just doing that kind of prayer at the end of that retreat I remember getting done with it and the singular there were two Grace's that came out of that retreat one is I always thought of Jesus at that up to that point as like my Uncle Tom medical Tom he lives out in California and I got to see him occasionally and talk with one on the phone like oh yeah I love Mykel Tom kasam I always still Uncle Tom I love you and I really believed it but it was like after that kind of Prayer he was like I'd spent a lot of time with medical Thomas and when I looked at him and said Uncle Tom I love you it's like I know who I'm saying I love you too and that was it was like for Jesus it was like after that much time of not racing through I just want to understand the story I want to get an insight no no I just want to spend time with Jesus so after that time I could look I don't exist it was a great singular grace I was able to say Jesus I actually know who you are and I love you that was the numbness to of my heart to you was I knew definitively that no matter what I could trust in God like this such a that's that's from him then no matter what I did how badly I messed up no matter what happened is I just out of that time with just spending with him in the Gospels seeing how he interacted let him touch my heart like no no no I I I know that no even if I wreck everything Jesus I can trust you it's that that that more specific [Music] it's great question because although screen Agers are out there some of them are even like in their 40s decanting get off their phones recording this whole thing it's feeding about it no well you know there's this great talk by simon Sinek about just even that that hormonal response we get from checking our messages or being on our devices that it's it's far easier to communicate behind a screen than it is face-to-face it just takes it demands something out of us that that communicating on the screen doesn't doesn't demand out of us and so in order to do this in order to communicate better we have to say I think that being more intentional I'm sorry let me clarify I have to be more intentional so one of the things that I've found myself having to do is making a decision whether that means deleting apps that would distract me I remember at one point I was meeting with one of our focus missionaries one of our first focus missionaries ever and we're in this one-on-one that we had every week and at one point I got a text from someone else in the ministry like oh they just Heather just texted let me just say no to her and our missionary said um when we're meeting could you please not text I was like oh yes okay of course absolutely but it was she was right just like that sense of like but you know we get that kind of behavior that we're willing to tolerate and so if she was willing to tolerate it I would keep texting she wasn't willing that tolerated so I stopped very quickly and never picked it back up but that's the kind of thing is like we have this agreement you know it's so interesting we have such curated lives when it comes to not just even a presence on the internet but also when it comes to even our texts I mean how often do you get mad at someone if you texted them and they call you back like no no no that's a faux pas foul like if I would have wanted to talk to you I would have called you I did not call you do not call me back but what's one of the problems with that it's like no I want to be able to edit my words I want to be able to think about this and there's something really great about that spontaneous actual incarnation 'el relationship so what do you do I think you agree someone has to say let's put our phones away and a way away not let's face down but like we're pointing them away 10 make sense there what do you think there's more to that Thanks yeah Oh such a great question thank you for that um how can we tell the story in a way that people listen okay when was the last movie that was made I don't know there's a couple I imagine but what do we do in Hollywood even what do we do in Hollywood what did they do in Hollywood is you guys how many Rockies were there there's seven plus Creed 1 and Creed 2 so this is the story that we've all heard before we're gonna go pay more money to go see someone tell it to us again so when it comes to stories if you get a good story it doesn't get old and if you can tell it in a way that is like new even just repurpose repackage it's like you want to listen to this kind of thing so the big challenge for a lot of us is what's your story do I even know my story haven't practice my story so one of the things I love to tell Sharon especially when they're seminarians here it's CS Louis gave a give it a talk to seminarians and to youth ministers in the Anglican Communion and he said that there should be a final test before men are ordained and sent out to be in in the in the parishes is that final tests should be met yep after all the other kind of things are done they're given a point of doctrine and being asked to explain that point of doctrine to the average dockworker and that's the test if you can take something complex and make it understandable and compelling to the average human being in the parish that you're going to be in then you're ready to read and if you can't then you shouldn't be ordained yet and he made the point he said because you're not going to be a missionary to Burma and not be able to speak Burmese and so if I can't tell the story that hopefully has changed my life to someone I care about to someone who's right in front of me then I need to just work on telling the story that makes that make sense because because there's nothing there's nothing more exciting than the story and it's not just the old story it's the story what God is doing every single day the other thing is again this is X I don't know how many more questions we get so I want to share this as well when it comes to telling a story when it comes to preaching when it comes to this I haven't thinking about so priests preach basically almost every day right more or less every mass you have opportunity to preach so you would think this if you think that if a priest preaches every single day that in 20 years of doing that every single day then every priest who is a rendered aimed at least 20 years should be amazing at preaching no but think about this I mean honestly if you how many of us think you do something every single day and don't become incredible at it unless you're just not trying this is not it I don't know how anyone preaches here I just have said but we thought about it like this with the proper motivation with the proper feedback and with a proper intentional practice us priests we should be incredible at this after even five years the question is what's missing is it the motivation I don't really want to be able to tell the story to people who show up is it no feedback like I don't want to know if it was good only tell me if or only tell me if you didn't hate it or am i lacking the intentional practice am i lacking like sitting down and on in a real way every single day saying I'm gonna try you would never expect a professional athlete to be a professional athlete unless they're willing to have intentional practice get feedback and have the proper motivation and that's just to do something like kick a ball or hit a ball or throw a ball or shoot a ball and we're talking about life and death so that's my last little think about maybe there's more great question you might be asking the wrong person because you use the word concise there's a lot of adjectives people have used to describe me and my speaking style concise has literally never been used nonetheless I will try to answer your question um so a principle to keep in mind regardless of whether this is a three-minute homily or a gosh I feel so bad now I'm not saying this is a good idea I'm just saying that I have cracked the 30 minute mark on a Sunday homily more than once so but it's their fault I blame them I like if you don't want just go somewhere just kidding um but regardless of whether it's a it really is a three minute or longer than that I'm a real strong believer and I hope to be a strong accomplisher of the idea of a one point message like this is to be able to if I can't summarize the main point of the homily in one sentence then I don't know what I'm trying to say so yesterday as an example we we're doing a series we do series is on our campus and so the series right now is called underestimated and the yesterday felt one point was don't underestimate what God is doing when it seems like God is doing nothing that's it and it took me twenty six minutes to communicate that to our students using a number of examples so one point and I always ask the question okay what I want them to know and what do I want them to do for free for anyone who is interested there was a book once I gave a talk at a stupid field conference it was a keynote maybe one of my first keynotes and I got done and I stepped off the stage and there's a guy named Paul George was there Paul George's is awesome human being and he didn't say hey good job and say like that was great he didn't say anything he just said hey have you read the book preaching for a change I said no he said you should and I didn't know what he meant I didn't know if he was like wow that was so good you should read this book or like wow you need so much help you should read this book nonetheless I've read the book roughly 45 times and that's the main message of the entire book is you ask the question what's what you need them to know what you need them to do so again for preachers I would say make it even more more urgent it's not just what do you want them to know what do you want them to do it's there's this thing called the preachers burden and I believe that prea priests anyone Deacon what whoever preaching should not ever get up behind the pulpit unless there is the preachers burden which is this is what they need to know if they do not hear this this weekend there is consequences so what do I need them to know what do I need them to do and and that sums it up all up so make sense it took me 7 minutes to say that thanks brother so closing closing remarks once again one of the things that one of the things that I'm really grateful for is I'm grateful for the opportunity to come here tonight I'm really grateful for your patience I'm incredibly grateful for the existence of Technology and for ascension and for letting me I even even be here in your presence the people I keep working with they're so good I was talking to this priest from Tyler Texas last week and he shared the story he said there's this he was he was at a rock climbing wall and his there's this young woman who was at the rock coming wall with them or just happened to be there and they started talking and she knew he was a priest and she was kind of a higher up in the evangelical church down in Tyler Texas and she had some questions about the Catholic Church and so he said well maybe I want to read this let's take a look at this and she went home and she called him a couple days later and she said so I read John chapter 6 like 30 times you know John chapter 6 the bread of life discourse and was eat my flesh drink my blood to have life John chapter 6 about 30 times and then I found this priest on YouTube and I spent the entire day watching his videos and so I don't have any more questions for you except for how do I become Catholic and has just thinking about this like what an incredible opportunity he looked at he said we were on skype and he looked and he said had you want to say thanks brother because um trying to explain all that to her to take my entire day and who knows if I would have had the time to do it and who knows he said humbly was like who knows if I would have been able to do it as good a job but the great thing is she has a parish now this priest that she knows this community that she has she got some help from some videos and now she's a parish she has some work to a help now she has incarnation or community she got some online teaching and now she has a place where she can go and get some in-person formation and that's why one of the reasons why I really believe that evangelization in the new media it doesn't stop with the new media it might start with the new media new media might be part of it but it always always always comes back to relationships it always comes back to who's there it always comes back to what's the community do I think that sometimes I get I get letters probably every day from people who say things like I was raised Muslim and I saw some of these videos and now I want to become Catholic I was raised a theist I saw these videos all these questions what do I do now that I was raised in different denominations I was taught all these crazy things about Catholics and now I want to learn more where do I go and I have to point them to is to say what's the closest Catholic parish in your neighborhood question is when that person shows up what's gonna happen are they gonna find someone who's willing to tell the story I think I find someone who's willing to live the story I think the find someone was willing to share the story with them when they walked through that door are they gonna meet a community who sees their need it says come on in do you guys here we can fill that need that's what I'm hoping for thank you again for your time making the sacrifice to come tonight Thank You bishop senior for being so welcoming and hospitable father Dailey and all the staff here at st. Charles Borromeo and the you guys thank you all for being the kind of Catholics who are willing to tell your story and are willing to be the kind of people who when they walk through the door you're ready I'll glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen may Almighty God bless you all the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 512,127

Rating: 4.9051538 out of 5

Keywords: new media, evangelization, 21st century evangelization, post-christian world, evangelizing on social media, catholic media, kerygma, Pope Paul VI, Ascension media, Cardinal Foley lectures, st. charles borromeo seminary, Lighthouse Catholic media, Steubenville conference, confirmation program, Chosen, Franciscan University Outreach, Jeff Cavins, Abiding Together podcast, fr. mike talk, father mike schmitz, evangelizing to zoomers, generation z, evangelization on the internet

Id: mib825ROL7M

Length: 64min 45sec (3885 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 01 2020