New Evangelisation

We live in a wonderful time in the life of the Catholic Church. It is the time of the New Evangelisation. Thank God if you have a desire to be part of this move of the Holy Spirit, this wave of grace. On Saturday 8th May the co-ordinators of the Catholic School of Evangelisation met in Sydney. The one thing this diverse group has in common was that each person has encountered the Risen Lord Jesus, he has taken away our sin and filled us with new life in the Holy Spirit. It is this encounter that fires the desire to evangelise, the desire that everyone might come to know the Father through Jesus.

The co-ordinators, both in person and through written reports, shared testimonies of what the Holy Spirit has been doing through the courses and other activities of the School. They gave witness to what can happen when a group of Christians respond to the call to come TOGETHER to PROCLAIM Jesus in the POWER of the Holy Spirit. They gave witness to the kekako principle of the School at work. The Kekako principle of the School is the interaction of the three inter-related elements which underpin the spirituality of the School.

The first is the kerygma: the proclamation that in Jesus a person can find forgiveness of their sins and new life in the Holy Spirit. The Kerygma is like living water pouring from the side of Jesus refreshing, restoring, renewing the person in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the experience of the power of the waters of Baptism that becomes real as the kerygma is proclaimed.

The second element is the Karisma: the experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as he leads and drives the Church forward with a passion to proclaim Jesus. As Pope Benedict says if we have experienced Jesus how can we not want to proclaim him. We experience the Holy Spirit in his charisms and fruits; we experience the Holy Spirit as he causes us to shout out to the Father in praise. It is the Holy Spirit who fills us with Pentecost fire so that we want to offer this living water to everyone. This is the experience of Confirmation, the experience of the consuming zeal of the Holy Spirit.

The third element is the Koinonia, the community of faith. The Holy Spirit binds us together as friends, as disciples of Jesus and we always evangelise as part of the community. Evangelisation flows out from the community to bring people back into the community. This is the experience of Holy Communion, the Body of Christ, the living expression of the love of Jesus. As we proclaim the kerygma in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is saying to people, receive my body and blood in the love of real flesh and blood people.

To visual this you might think of fresh clean water being poured into a large bowl, and as it is poured in, the water overflows to water a beautiful garden. The more the water is given out the more it allows room for the bowl to be refilled. The water is the Holy Spirit, the bowl is the community and the pouring out is the new evangelisation.

This gathering of the co-ordinators of the School was a concrete expression of the New Evangelisation within the Catholic Church.

Seminary Courses

This gathering of the co-ordinators of the School was a concrete expression of the New Evangelisation within the Catholic Church.

SCENE

The School will be involved in the annual SCENE conference in Sydney in July. The School will conduct two workshops, one on how to share your testimony and the other on the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelisation.