Denver Catholic

2 MAY 23-29, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC @ArchbishopDen May 17 Pray for the Spirituality Year Seminarians as they begin 30 day silent directed Ignatian Retreat! +sja Archbishop's Page Vatican Denver Catholic (USPS 557-020) is published weekly except the last week of December and the fi rst weeks of January, and in June, July and August when it goes bi-weekly. Denver Catholic is printed by Signature Ož set in Denver. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $42 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $48 air; Canada, $55 air. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or email circulation@archden.org. EDITORIAL: 303-715-3215 or denvercatholic@archden.org | ADVERTISING: 303-715-3253 or denvercatholicads@archden.org CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-715-3230 or circulation@archden.org General Manager KARNA SWANSON Director ANDREW WRIGHT Business Manager MICHAEL O'NEILL Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 Archbishop's Column Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila Text 'BISHOP' to 313131 to register SAINTS Find out more about the Restored Order of the Sacraments of Initiation on May 28 during a live Q&A phone call with Archbishop Aquila! ARCHBISHOP'S SCHEDULE May 24: Annual confi rmation Mass, Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (12:30 p.m.) May 25: Memorial Day Mass, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Wheat Ridge (10 a.m.) May 27: Mass and confi rmation, St. John the Evangelist Parish, Johnstown (7 p.m.) May 28: Live Q&A phone call on restored order of sacraments (7 p.m.) May 29: Mass, St. Anthony Parish, Sterling (last school Mass) (9:30 a.m.) May 30: Mass and confi rmation, Holy Rosary Parish (5:30 p.m.) May 31: Mass and confi rmation, Cure d'Ars Parish (11 a.m.) PHOTO OF THE WEEK Archbishop Samuel Aquila presides at a confi rmation May 12 at Holy Ghost Parish in Denver. PHOTO BY TODD WOLLAM Reorienting religious education This column is adapted from a May 19 address that Archbishop Aquila delivered to catechists at the Leadership Apprecia- tion Breakfast. C onsider the wake of a great ship, which begins in a point at the bow, but continues to broaden more and more, until it is lost in the horizon and touches the two opposite shores of the sea, the famous French poet Charles Péguy once wrote. Christ is the bow of the ship and when we meet him our lives are forever changed, like the sea is by the ship. On Pentecost, I issued the pastoral letter Saints Among Us (www.archden. org/saints), which began the fi ve-year process of restoring Confi rmation within the Archdiocese of Denver to its origi- nal place in Christian initiation. When children receive the graces of Confi r- mation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit sooner, then their encounter with Christ at a deeper level begins sooner. To use Péguy's analogy, the wake of God's grace will begin to wash across their lives and into their families and the world sooner. This process also gives us a chance to recall the purpose of all Christian formation, to create authentic disciples of Jesus Christ, and to reorient every family, catechetical eƒ ort and evangeli- zation endeavor toward that goal. Families come fi rst in this realignment because they are the place where love is fi rst given and received, the human space where Christ is fi rst encountered. The success of any catechetical or evangeli- zation eƒ ort is fueled by the grace of God and built on the foundation of the family. "In our time, as in times past," Pope Benedict XVI told a 2011 gathering of the Pontifi cal Council for the Family, "the eclipse of God, the spread of ide- ologies contrary to the family and the degradation of sexual ethics are con- nected. And just as the eclipse of God and the crisis of the family are linked, so the new evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family." When our families experience and live the joy of Christ's forgiveness, the out- pouring of his grace and love, then we have already begun to evangelize the world, which is made up of millions of families. The devil understands this, and there- fore is dedicated to undermining and dismantling the family in any way he can. The Church's history of evangelization also provides us with a valuable insight into who is being called to re-evange- lize our increasingly godless society. In a retreat that he gave for the pope and Roman Curia during Advent 2011, papal preacher Father Raniero Cantalamessa oƒ ered this helpful synopsis. "Parallel to the appearance of a new world to evangelize, we have also witnessed a new class of evangelizers emerging each time: bishops during the fi rst three centuries (especially in the third), monks during the second wave, and friars in the third. Even today we are witnessing the emergence of a new cat- egory of protagonists of evangelization: the laity. This obviously does not mean replacing one category with another, but rather adding a new component of the people of God to the other…" (Navigat- ing the New Evangelization, p. 43). Father Cantalamessa is talking about you. Yes, he is talking about well-known evangelists, but he is also talking about par- ents, grandparents, relatives and catechists. You are the people being called to carry the Gospel into the modern world, working side-by-side with your fellow parishioners, priests, consecrated religious, and me. To help you in forming true disciples, I would like to share the model that Jesus used with his followers. Christ's model for discipleship can be summarized in three words: Win, Build, Send. It looks like this. Jesus fi rst met the Apostles while they were engaged in their everyday activities – fi shing, collecting taxes, or following John the Baptist. He won them over with his words and welcomed them into his company. Over the next months and years, Jesus spent time building up the Apostles: teach- ing them, opening the Scriptures to them, healing people and casting out demons, and calling them to a deeper faith. After he rose from the dead, Jesus gave the twelve Apostles an even more specifi c mission. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," he told them, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19). He sent them out to live, preach and make present the Kingdom of God. As we go about the process of restoring Confi rmation to its original place, I ask that every person use this occasion to reorient themselves toward becoming and forming authentic disciples of Christ. During Pentecost, may you encounter Christ more deeply, and may the eƒ ects of that meeting echo like the wake of a great ship to the shores of the world!

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