Renewal and Evangelization

Person, Church and World

by Jeffrey A. Mirus

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Book Description

Over fifty essays originally published on CatholicCulture.org between 2005 and 2014 on the urgent need for a Catholic renewal, including the power of evangelization. These essays explore the necessary elements of personal holiness, ecclesiastical reform, and the leavening of the social order. Main topics include prayer, the liturgy and spiritual growth; ecclesiastical discipline and the strengthening of the Church's identity; evangelization and the formation of Catholic culture. Jeffrey A. Mirus is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org, as well as a co-founder of Christendom College. He has been a Catholic apologist and commentator on Catholic affairs for over forty years.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTORY IDEAS
• Introducing Renewal and Evangelization
• Predictability: The Curse of the Spiritually Unprepared
• PERSONAL RENEWAL
• The Mystery and Power of Personal Prayer
• The Five First Principles of Prayer
• The Ecclesial Context of Personal Prayer
• Prayer: A Primer on the Path to Union
• Active Participation
• How to Discuss the Liturgy
• If Only I Could Avoid Temptation . . .
• The Annunciation and the Measure of Spiritual Progress
• Discipleship: No Excuses
• Are You Growing Holier?
• Practice Makes Perfect
• Living the Will of God: Vocation, Avocation, and Moment to Moment
• Spiritual Self-Reliance: The Enemy Within
• The Consequences of Not Fasting
• The Spiritual Peril of Our Own Sensibilities
• ECCLESIASTICAL RENEWAL
• OK, so what sort of renewal did Vatican II prescribe?
• The Pope, Reform and Discipline
• Ecclesiastical Culture: Walking the Walk
• On Discipline, Again
• Loving to Discipline: The Case for Excommunication
• Not Just Teaching, but Change
• Have the Popes Written Enough? A Sharp Turn in Renewal
• Meatless Fridays?
• On the Crisis of Theology and the Need for Rulers
• The Pope and the Jesuits: Explaining the Problem
• None So Blind: Obedience is an Antidote to Stupidity
• Episcopal Reform and the Rights of the Laity
• Vatican Reform: Time for a New Inquisition
• The Church’s Jurisdiction Today: Action Trumps Inaction
• Spiritual Worldliness: Pope Francis’ Critique of the Church
• Who Is the Enemy? A Growing Emphasis on Changing Ourselves
• SOCIAL RENEWAL AND EVANGELIZATION
• From Scandal to Catholicism
• Evangelization, Apologetics, and the Incarnational Difference
• Using Ecclesiastical Penalties to Shape Both Souls and Culture
• The Impossible Reform of Catholic Universities
• Ex Corde Ecclesiae in America
• The Credibility Wars: Where We Go From Here
• Eucharistic Lives of Love
• Toward an Incarnational Culture
• How Culture is Done
• Religious Privatization and the Need for Community
• Toward the New Evangelization, with Courage
• The Three Most Important Characteristics of an Evangelizer
• The New Evangelization: Down with Optimism, Up with Hope
• Ten Keys to Effective Evangelization
• The New Evangelization: What Does It Look Like?
• Toward Effective Christian Witness: Making Room for the Gospel
• CLOSING THOUGHTS
• Converting the Average Catholic
• Because I Love God