Open the doors of faith no audio

Open
the Door
of Faith
Orchestrated by
Leland Nagel
NCCL Executive Director
LNagel@NCCL.org

God is constantly
knocking at the
gate of my heart
to invite me to go
beyond the state I
have reached,
because my whole life
should be a journey
on the way to Love.
- Charles Cardinal Journet

It is possible to cross that
threshold when the
word of God is
proclaimed and the
heart allows itself to
be shaped by
transforming grace.

What do YOU see in the logo?
The boat is the sign of the
Church, and you can see this
is a moment of
movement, we also have the
cross, and the cross is the sign
of love, it’s the sign of our
faith. And together with the
cross there is the sign of the
Eucharist, and the Eucharist
for us is at the center of our
lives, it is the center
of the life of faith.

Boat of the Church +
Mast of the Cross +
Trigram HIS +
Sun/Eucharist

Are YOU a
card carrying
Catholic?
What does
your
purse/wallet
say about
you?

Sustained by the Witness of Teaching
Evangelii Nuntiandi

Modern man listens
more willingly to witnesses
than to teachers,
and if he does
listen to teachers,
it is because
they are witnesses.

- Pope Paul VI

Catholic saints are holy people and
human people who lived extraordinary
lives. Each saint the Church honors
responded to God's invitation to use
his or her unique gifts. God calls
each one of us to be a saint.

Saint Bartholomew
the Apostle
The people of Lipari celebrated his feast day
annually. The tradition of the people was to
take the solid silver and gold statue from
inside the Cathedral of St Bartholomew and
carry it through the town. On one
Saints occasion, when taking the statue down the
are hill towards the town, it suddenly got very
people heavy and had to be set down. When the
men carrying the statue regained their
like us strength they lifted it a second time. After
who another few seconds, it got even heavier.
simply They set it down and attempted once more
tried to pick it up. They managed to lift it but had
harder. to put it down one last time. Within
seconds, walls further downhill collapsed. If
Fr. Benedict the statue had been able to be lifted, all the
Groeschel towns people would have been killed.

Saint Ouen is also known
as Owen and Audoenus.
The people of Lipari celebrated his feast day
annually. The tradition of the people was to take
the solid silver and gold statue from inside the
Cathedral of St Bartholomew and carry it through
the town.
More Saints of the Day On one occasion, when taking the statue down the
• St. Aurea hill towards the town, it suddenly got very heavy
• St. Eutychius and had to be set down. When the men carrying
• St. Jane Antide Thouret the statue regained their strength they lifted it a
• St. Massa Candida second time. After another few seconds, it got even
• St. Nathanael heavier. They set it down and attempted once more
• St. Ouen to pick it up. They managed to lift it but had to put
• St. Romanus of Nepi it down one last time. Within seconds, walls
• St. Sandratus further downhill collapsed. If the statue had been
• St. Tation able to be lifted, all the towns people would have
• St. Yrchard been killed.

GIFT OF LOVE
Music to the Words and Prayers
of Mother Teresa
Bradley James
In the silence of the heart God speaks
Let God fill us then only we speak
Do small things with great love

The fruit of silence is prayer
The fruit of prayer is faith
The fruit of faith is love
The fruit of love is service
The fruit of service is peace

The Real Measure
of a Life Well Lived
The Bob Edwards Show, April 27, 2012

I believe that we shape our world
with kindness and love of what
we do in the simplest moments
every day. It is ultimately what
connects us to each other, no
matter who we are or where we
live. I believe that with each
sweet stitch of my tiny baptismal
gown, every old photo, and every
scrap of paper, my mother was
holding a tender place of love for
all of us.

The Revelation of God in Mission
Sharing the Abundant Love
We must go out because we want to
share with all people the abundant
love and hope, joy and peace that
Jesus brought to us. We want to
"proclaim the unfathomable
treasure of Christ" and "throw
light on the inner workings of the
mystery kept hidden through all ages
in God, the creator of everything"
- St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 3:8-9

- Pope Paul VI
The Year of Faith seeks
to inspire in the
hearts of those who
do not know God and
seeks to increase in
the hearts of those
who already believe.

It “Is a summons to an
authentic and renewed
conversion to the
Lord, the one Savior of
the world. In the
mystery of his death
and resurrection, God
has revealed in its
fullness the Love
that saves and calls
us to conversion of
life through the
forgiveness of sins
(cf. Acts 5:31).

Year of Faith
Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei
…the Year of Faith is a path, an
opportunity, that the Christian community
offers to the many people who possess a
longing for God and a profound desire to
meet him again in their lives. It is
essential, therefore, that believers recognize the
responsibility to provide an authentic
companionship of faith, to become a neighbor
to those who seek the reasons for and
explanations of our Catholic beliefs.

There is a Longing
Anne Quigley

There is a longing in our hearts,
O Lord,
for you to reveal yourself to us,
There is a longing in our hearts
for love we only find in you,
our God.

Share with Others
the Joy of Knowing Jesus
THE CATECHIST
• Has encountered Christ
• Has been converted by Christ
• Follows Christ
• Shares in Christ’s life and mission
• Possesses a living social conscience
• Well-rooted in the cultural
environment
-National Directory for Catechesis

Go forth and teach
all nations…
Symphony of Faith

The four pillars of the
Catechism remind us of • Woodwinds
a symphony that has • Brass
four movements. The
fullness of the faith and • Strings
the fullness of the
symphony share this
• Percussion
wholeness.

PRAY
• Emphasizes various prayer forms
– Communal
– Private
– Traditional
National – Spontaneous
Directory for – Gesture
Catechesis, C – Song
hapter – Meditation
5, Liturgical – Contemplation
Catechesis

Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day

Celebrate the
sacraments regularly

We must rediscover a taste for feeding
ourselves on the word of
God, faithfully handed down by the
Church, and on the bread of life, offered as
sustenance for his disciples (cf. Jn 6:51).

How To Eat a Poem
by Eve Merriam
Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice
that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.
For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

The Eucharist is "the source and
summit of the Christian life. -CCC 1324
The Year of Faith “will also be a
good opportunity to intensify
the celebration of the faith in
the liturgy, especially in the
Eucharist.”
All of the faithful are invited to
participate in the Eucharist
actively, fruitfully and
with awareness, in order to
be authentic witnesses of the
Lord.

Porta Fidei
Faith grows when it is lived as
an experience of love
received and when it is
communicated as an
experience of grace and
joy. It makes us
fruitful, because it expands our
hearts in hope and enables us
to bear life-giving witness:
indeed, it opens the hearts and
minds of those who listen to
respond to the Lord’s invitation
to adhere to his word and
become his disciples.

Love my neighbor
as myself

Love my neighbor
as myself
The Good Samaritan – Revisited

A Christian may never think of
belief as a private act. Faith is
choosing to stand with the
Lord so as to live with him
We want this Year to The heart indicates that
arouse in every believer the first act by which
the aspiration to profess one comes to faith is
the faith in fullness and God’s gift and the action
with renewed of grace which acts and
conviction, with transforms the person
confidence and deep within.
hope. -Porta Fidei -Porta Fidei

Which of these is more powerful?
Military helicopters hover over
their little village and their
monastery, with their
propellers sounding ominously
like war-drums. As this war-
beat drowns out most every
sound, the monks respond by
going to their chapel, putting
on their monastic robes, linking
Of Gods and Men arms and chanting gentle songs
of trust and praise to God, and
we are left staring at the
contrast:
gentle songs of trust in the
face of hovering military
hardware. Which of these is
more powerful?

That scene is paralleled in the
Gospels when they describe
the birth of Jesus:
A world filled with
violence, under the hard
military fist of the Roman
Empire, is looking for an
answer from above.
The Nativity
And what is God's
response:
A helpless baby asleep in the
straw. How will this baby
ultimately triumph? How do
gentleness and meekness
Julie Vivas inherit the earth? -Ron Rolheiser

If you ever think you had a difficult
time while pregnant, think again.

Use the gifts that I’ve
been given wisely

Use the gifts that I’ve
been given wisely

CAIN & ABEL:
Finding the Fruits of
Peace

By Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Illustrated by
Joani Keller Rothenberg

Cain and Abel - Today
A Boy in a Bed in the Dark
Born with a cleft palate,
My two-year-old brother,
Recovering from yet another surgery,
Toddled into our bedroom
Toppled a tower of blocks
That I had patiently built
And in a five-year-old's fury
I grabbed a fallen block
And winged it at him
Ripping open his carefully reconstructed lip.

The next hours were gruesomely
compressed
Ending with a boy in a bed in the dark
Mute with fear
Staring out into the hallway with
horror
As the pediatrician went in and out of
the bathroom
With one vast blood-soaked towel
after another
Shaking his head worriedly.

My brother's howls
And my parents' cooed comfort
Became the soundtrack to this
milky movie
That plays
"A Boy in a Bed In my darkest theatre,
in the Dark" by
Brad The one that I sidle past each
Sachs, from In night
the Desperate With a shudder
Kingdom of And a throb in my fist.
Love: Poems
2001-2004.

SPIRITUS – Breath
Inspiration – Holy Spirit
FRUITS of the Spirit
 LOVE
 JOY
 PEACE
 PATIENCE
 KINDNESS
 GENEROSITY
 FAITHFULNESS
 GENTLENESS
 SELF-CONTROL

We cannot accept that salt
should become tasteless or the
light be kept hidden.
(cf. Mt 5:13-16).
You are the salt of the earth,
Shake It!

How would you answer
these charges?
• Sadistic God: Useless Savior
• 30,000+ Versions of “Truth”
• Promotes Hate, Calls it “Love”

“The disciple of Christ must not
only keep the faith and live on
it, but also profess
it, confidently bear witness to
it, and spread it.” (CCC 1816)
Discipleship is not a
destination but a "Being a disciple is who we are;
process of it is central to our identity. It
stretching, falling, gr encompasses everything we do.
owing, questioning,
It affects our view of life, our
and advancing in
values, and our actions."
the lifelong pursuit
Mercadante, 18
of becoming like

Forgive
as I have been forgiven

Forgive
as I have been forgiven
Forgiveness is Possible

I am so, so sorry. I would give my
life if your son could live again

I don’t know if you will ever be
able to ask, so let me be first,
YOU ARE FORGIVEN

Love your enemies

Kim Phuc

The True Value of Life
The Bob Edwards Show, December 9, 2011
I believe in the power of
forgiveness and compassion. This
act is so hard for many, including
myself, but it is important to show
an understanding heart when
someone is faced with discord. It
gives a chance, for some, to repent
for their previous mistakes. I have
come to learn the true nature of
forgiveness over the
years, beginning with a personal
experience of mine that was life
changing. It happened when I was
thirteen.

Every baptized Catholic is called
through baptism to be a disciple
of Christ and proclaim the Gospel
The Year of Faith is an opportunity for each and
every Catholic to renew their baptismal call by
living out the everyday moments of their
lives with faith, hope and love.
This everyday witness is necessary for proclaiming
the Gospel to family, friends, neighbors and
society.
In order to witness to the Gospel, Catholics must
be strengthened through celebrating weekly
Sunday Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

BLESSING
The first element in any blessing is that
there has to be a relationship with
God. When we bless, when we ask for
goodness, we ask from the source of all
goodness, we ask God. When things
are going well in our lives – when the
road seems to rise and meet us – our
relationship with God will be positive.
Cursing is the furthest thing from our
minds.

BLESSING

When things are not going so well in our
lives – when the road does not rise to
meet us – everything in life can seem like
an uphill struggle. It is during these times
that we run the risk of losing our
relationship with God. If we allow this to
happen, we are unable to bless. We
become like the embittered psalmist who
can only curse.
Relationship with and belief in God are
essential to blessing.

BLESSING

The second element in a blessing is the
ritual of transfer of the blessing or the
goodness. Historically, this transfer of the
blessing takes place physically through
words that we pronounce and gestures
that we make, such as uplifted arms or
actual laying-on of hands.
The person giving the blessing transfers
the blessing in such a manner that it will
somehow be experienced by the receiver.

BLESSING

The sense of touch, whether it is the wind
at your back, the sun shining upon your
face or the firm hand of a person signing
your forehead, can convey an enormous
life-sustaining power.
A blessing is the bridge between heaven
and earth. The transfer of the divine that
occurs when we bless is truly a sacred
moment.

BLESSING

The third element of a blessing is the
enhancement of the receiver, wherein we
envision the goodness of the blessing. Even
Jesus, when he pronounced the
Beatitudes, envisioned a goodness that
would give comfort and hope to millennia of
believers. We have in our possession the
ability to envision virtually any future for
humanity.
The power to bless is incredibly awesome. It
is the vision of divine enhancement, of a
people resting in the palm of God’s

BLESSING
Your Turn

Bless (Give)

and be Blessed (Receive)

BLESSING

May the Angel of Healing turn your
wounds into sources of refreshment.

May the Angel of Compassion open your
eyes to the unseen suffering around you.

May the Angel of Encouragement confirm
you in worth and self-respect, that you
may live with the dignity that resides in
your soul.
To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue

BLESSING

May you be blessed in the holy names of
those who, without you knowing it, help to
carry and lighten your pain.

May a window of light always surprise you.

May memory bless and protect you.

May you know that though the storm might
rage, not a hair of your head will be harmed.
To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue

• To request a copy
of this
PowerPoint, please
email
LNAGEL@NCCL.org
and request Tulsa

Open the doors of faith no audio

Open the doors of faith no audio

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