A Call To All

Recently, Br. Emili Turu, Superior General of the Marist Brothers, addressed the Synod on the New Evangelization as a guest who heads a Congregation of 3,700+ vowed educators and 60,000 lay Marist colleagues.  This cohort of Evangelizers can and should be making a profound impact on the lives, attitudes, beliefs and practices of their charges, and thus serve as a leaven in the loaf of the entire mission of the Church.  Br. Emili reminds us that "The Catholic school is right at the "heart of the Church": it participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian eduction is carried out." (The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millenium 11)  He went on to say,   "There is an urgency in this epoch for Catholic parents, educators and "each baptized person to take seriously their Christian vocation and live it in depth, not as a burden, but through the conviction that is the path that leads to full self-realization: to be disciples of Jesus, called to live in community, who witness above all by the quality of their lives and their commitment. And it also seems to me extremely important to be very attentive to the signs of the times, through which the Spirit speaks to us."  He noted attitudes that should be abandoned if our efforts at evanglization are to ring true and touch the hearts of others, for example: "the arragonce of presenting ourselves as persons or institutions that already know it all, that have answers for everything and don't need to learn from anyone.  We should learn to be humble, to approach other people with respect, and be disposed to be evangelized by them.  Dialogue is fundamental, not as a strategy, but as a basic attitude."  Holy Spirit, let this message penetrate to the depth of my being so that I may act on it and live it as part of who I am.  Amen.
Bro. Rene