Why a blog? That's a fair question, or at least I think so. Why are groups of people starting blogs? and why especially are Catholic youth blogging about their faith?
To understand this we have to look at something else. These two words are being tossed about all over the world by Catholics. The phrase is New Evangilization. What in the....? Well lets brake it down.
Evangilization: This is the spreading (or more formally the propagation) of faith. Now seeing as the Catholic faith is the one and true faith, seeing as we are the one true church, it is our duty to spread the gift around! We take this responsibility from our Lord's great mandatum. Yes if you have read my other post I mentioned it last night too. The mandatum is going to be a theme for me and my blog posts. Mandatum is Latin, "having been ordered/mandated". Christ himself makes the mandatum, therefore making it a requisite to authentic faith. Now the mandatum again..... "go out and make disciples of all nations".... simple enough, but read into it deeper then face value (although that too is important). Jesus is saying that those 'who believe in me, and better yet those who love me, will never be satisfied if they are not battling to bring souls to my tender and awesome embrace'. That's what evangilization really is. It is an aspect of the battle for souls, which takes place on every front of existence.
The Battle for Souls is an expression used less and less over the last century but it is absolutely vital to our faith. The simple truth is Christ himself tells us of His Kingdom in Heaven, and He forewarns us of the eternal absence of His Love by choice which results in eternal damnation. Yes Heaven and hell, there is a possibility of both (don't forget purgatory, it's not particularly relevant here but it is important). Satan, the Prince of Darkness, has his armies, the souls he successfully lures away from the Father, but God has His forces in the Communion of Saints, those attached to the Body of Christ as described by St. Paul. Do not be fooled, at every moment the war is being waged by both sides, and it is our responsibility to serve the Body of Christ and bring souls to the side of Christ. For though the battle wages, the Lord will prevail and all souls not protected by Him will be lost. So we are truly battling now, to save souls! That is what evangilization is about.... we must be sure to bring people to Christ and give them every chance of salvation. If they don't find Christ will they perish? I can not say, I have not the power to save nor damn, but I can tell you that those who find refuge in authentic love and faith in the Lord will never be lost. So we follow the will of Christ and spread the Way the Truth and the Life, so that less may be lost, and not to neglect the virtue of obedience!
I know that may sound bleak but it should give you hope, because the will of God is to conquer evil, then "the gates of hell shall not prevail against us". See, one thing leads to another, and to think I was supposed to be talking about blogging and the new evangilization.... oh wait I am!
We can see what and where evangilization is and why its important, but if I am saying its been going on at the very least since the issue of the Lord's mandatum, then how can it be new? Well, in the past, we encountered groups of people in the world who had never been introduced to the truth. Even the protestants are for the most part ignorant and therefore hostile to the Catholic church. Fulton Sheen once said, "not a hundred people hate the Catholic Church, but countless people hate what they believe to be the Catholic church". Ignorance is what we aim to eradicate through traditional evangilization. Now, we have a group of people who walk away from the truth, those Catholics who for one reason or another stop practicing their faith. The second largest single religion in America (following Catholicism) is that of former Catholicism. These people chose to walk away, and now we need to sort of re-evangelize them. We can't be settled with their loss, never shall we be content with losing a soul while there is still work to be done. So now we bring in the "new" part. We need new ways of reaching these people, so that we can help God to work in them and help them return to the Light. Blessed John Paul II cried out for this new evangilization and Benedict XVI has continued the great sentiment. It's important. We cannot lose the traditional evangilization, but we must inspire a new evangilization to reunite lost members to the Body of Christ.
Now to connect it with this blog. We here at LMB think that the youth get a bad rap. We are the largest unrepresented and disrespected demographic in the world. But it's ok because we'll grow out of it? NO! When we see something that we can do to further the authenic cause of Christ, we have an obigation to fulfill it. We are not exempt from the great battle for souls simply because we are young. That is a pathetic excuse! No if anything our youth is exactly what the NEW evangilization needs, new blood! The current Holy Father has sought the involvement of the youth in this endeavor and we here at LMB can not stand to neglect his cry. The internet is a source of great evils, but it can very easily become a tool of great good! That is what we are doing, writing so that we can reach someone, anyone and bring them to AUTHENTIC CATHOLICISM (that phrase isn't going anywhere!). We are battling with every word we type, every minute we spend, and ever prayer we say. And I promise you, we are not going anywhere. So keep reading I promise, this is just about to get interesting.
God Love you,
AMDG
Peter James d`Aquino
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