Paul is NOT dead

Every once in a while I go down to Brighton on a Saturday morning to meet with a small group of friends from Church.  This little group is called "yHope," which stands for "Young Heralds of Pauline Evangelization."  We can all agree on what we do when we meet.  Mass, Adoration, Praise & Worship, Discussion - typically 2 or 3 of the 4 on any given Saturday.  But if one were to ask what our mission or purpose was, no two people would give the same answer.

Since this is my blog I will provide my answer.  Our purpose is to evangelize - Pauline style.  And we are young.  Saint Paul was a living witness of the Faith to many people who had no prior exposure to it.  He spent time in each place he visited to familiarize himself with the people and the culture and then taught them the faith in a way that they could most easily relate to.  In other words, he met them halfway.  This is what I generally try to do with this blog.  It is geared toward an audience that may not be all that familiar with all the fancy, snazzy, intellectual psychobabble you hear or read sometimes from the more academically inclined.

When the original Twelve apostles were sent out "two by two" to proclaim the Kingdom of God (3rd Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, by the way), they had little or no formal training.  They never went to seminary, they never did formal spiritual exercises, they never read books from authors whose names are nearly impossible to pronounce, they did not use big and fancy words or phrases.  They just received the Word of God and then passed it along.  Saint Paul took this proclamation a step further and brought it to foreign lands.

Evangelizing is not just teaching or speaking.  Most of it is just living your life as a witness to the Faith.  As the saying goes, "always preach the Gospel, if necessary use words."  So what do a Weekday Mass, Adoration, Praise & Worship, and Discussion have to do with evangelization?  They make us strong and they reinforce our foundation such that the source of what we proclaim is always legit.  Well, doesn't Sunday Mass do the job?  It does but there's more.  A Saturday morning at yHope is like a snack between meals if you're engaged in a lot of physical activity.  It keeps you going.  Saturdays at yHope provide what we need to carry out our mission and serve our purpose which is to evangelize to the masses by being living examples of the Faith.

Mark 6: 7-13