EVANGELIZATION RESOURCES

In What Matters Most, University of Notre Dame theology professor Leonard J. DeLorenzo urges youth ministers, teachers, and parents to help young people redefine success in light of their call to discipleship--completely saying yes to God.

In Luke's account of the Annunciation, Mary offers a true model of discipleship for young people to follow. Her example will empower them to make choices about how to live their lives as a courageous yes to God in everything they choose--just as she did.

DeLorenzo, who served as the long-time director of Notre Dame Vision--a program designed to help young Catholics find their true calling as disciples of Jesus--shows how Mary exhibited four habits that will guide young people to make important life decisions:

Pat Gohn knows what her one thing is: "More than any single factor in my life, belonging to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church has had the greatest impact on me. Faith gives meaning to everything in my life."

In this passionate and unapologetic account of why her faith in Christ and the Catholic Church are the source of meaning and joy in her life, Gohn--popular speaker, retreat leader, catechist, and author of Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious--invites you to become more confident in the power of the Catholic faith to transform your life as well.

Being a cradle Catholic, cancer survivor, wife, and mother are all a part of Gohn's story. But in this appealing, personal book, she shares why her relationship with Jesus and her confidence in his Church are so much bigger than her medical diagnosis, more powerful than her family history, and more significant than her career path.

Gohn ardently shares why belonging to the Church will strengthen and nurture your relationship with God. It will keep you connected with Jesus and the sacraments--conduits of grace, forgiveness, healing, wisdom, and renewal. Belonging to the Church connects you to millions of others around the world, to the saints, and to your loved ones in heaven. These relationships are at the heart of Catholicism. In this time when life and society are so fragmented, the joy of belonging to a community--as imperfect as it can be--easily outweighs the agony of separation or isolation.

Gohn's confidence in her faith emerged despite and even out of a struggle with disillusionment. Working in a parish when news of the sex abuse scandals broke in Boston, she confronted heartbreak and anger within herself and her fellow parishioners. Yet she never left the Church and relates how she found a way to dig deeper and discover reasons to stay faithful.

Each of the nine chapters identifies a dimension of the Catholic faith that is a source of Gohn's confidence, including the Incarnation, God's plan, the Fatherhood of God, the friendship of the Holy Spirit, and the love of neighbor. Each chapter also features reflection questions to challenge you.

Not long ago, veteran Youth Minister Everett Fritz counted the number of his former Youth Group members who were still practicing the Faith.

The result? Almost all of them had left the Faith!

Fritz learned that other parishes reported similar staggering losses, pointing to a grim truth: today's Youth Ministries simply do not form young people into lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.

Not satisfied with these dismal results, Fritz devised a different way of forming young people in the Faith. It's an approach that can truly transform the spiritual lives of young people by applying the same one-to-one personal method that Jesus Himself used to form his twelve original disciples . . . only one of whom was lost!

Fritz has worked with countless parishes, helping them make the shift to a small-group discipleship structure. You'll learn to avoid the many pitfalls and common mistakes parishes make, as well as ways you can easily build the volunteer base needed

Winner of a first-place award in the future church category from the Catholic Media Association.

We can't just talk about Christ's presence in the Eucharist; we have to believe it, celebrate it, and live it both individually and as a community of the faithful. And we must cultivate a culture in our parishes that treats Real Presence not only as an important Catholic doctrine, but also as the most important part of parish identity.

In Becoming Eucharistic People, theologian Timothy P. O'Malley, author of Real Presence, outlines four essential dimensions of a Eucharistic culture in a parish--one that fosters reverence and unity among the faithful, includes every dimension of human life in the mystery of Christ's Body and Blood, and invites people back to parish life or to become Catholic for the first time.

O'Malley--director of education at the McGrath Institute of Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, and a member of the executive planning team for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Eucharistic Revival--shows what it means to foster a parish culture where the Eucharist infuses the worldview, priorities, and practices of its members. O'Malley leads you through discovery and discernment about how to create a parish culture where each person is called to holiness and receives the spiritual, theological, and pastoral help they need to meet Christ fully present in the Eucharist and to become a witness to him in the world.

O'Malley will help you reflect on four essential facets of a Eucharistic parish culture:

O'Malley says that when we reflect Christ's Real Presence to others, our parishes will become sacred spaces in which every person is led to deeper communion with God and with their neighbors.

Online resources, including ideas for parish retreats, teaching resources, and videos based on this book and the US bishops Eucharistic Revival are available from the McGrath Institute for Church Life.

Books in the Engaging Catholicism series from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame help readers discover the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith through a concise exploration of the Church's most important but often difficult-to-grasp doctrines as well as crucial pastoral and spiritual practices. Perfect for seekers and new Catholics, clergy and catechetical leaders, and everyone in between, the series expands the McGrath Institute's mission to connect the Catholic intellectual life at Notre Dame to the pastoral life of the Church and the spiritual needs of her people.

Are you BORED? Not likely, given the endless opportunities today to see, share, post, watch, and like. So are you bored? No way!

(Except maybe at Mass.)

We want the Mass to entertain, make us laugh, give us foot tapping music and sound-bite theology, and get it done in under an hour. Yet every Sunday many of us tune out.

Author Tim O'Malley, in a series of reflections on every part of the Mass, challenges us to turn the idea of boredom on its head, calling boredom--the "good" boredom that opens us to the quiet interior space where we can encounter God--a "sweet gift."

It is there that full participation in the Mass becomes possible--the potential to be transfixed by a ritual, to contemplate the readings, to savor the Eucharist. To be fruitfully "bored again."

Become a Bored Again Catholic and rediscover the power of the Mass to change your life - and the entire world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timothy P. O'Malley, Ph.D. is director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He teaches in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He researches in the areas of liturgy, catechesis, and Christian spirituality. He is the author of Liturgy and the New Evangelization: Practicing the Art of Self-Giving Love (Liturgical Press, 2014). He and his wife Kara live in South Bend and have one son.

This is the most up-to-date, comprehensive, and thorough defense of the Catholic Church against Protestant objections in print. This book is especially relevant as the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation draws near and discussion of the arguments made against the Church during that time in history receive renewed interest.

The Case for Catholicism answers arguments put forward by early Reformers like Luther and Calvin as well as contemporary defenders of Protestantism like Norm Geisler and R.C. Sproul. It provides a meticulous defense of the biblical and historical nature of Catholic doctrines from Scripture and church history. Finally, in both answering Protestant objections to Catholicism and in providing evidence for the Faith, The Case for Catholicism cites modern Protestant scholars who question Reformation assumptions and show how evidence from Scripture and church history support aspects of Catholic theology.

This book is divided into four sections, with each answering a key question Christians have asked about the nature of their faith. Those key questions are:

The Case for Catholicism will become a reliable, resource for any Catholic who desires a well-researched, readable, and persuasive answer to Protestant arguments made against the Catholic faith.