Guest Post - Handing on the Faith to a New Generation: You Can't Give What You Haven't Got!

We can only bring others to Jesus
if we have a personal relationship
with Him ourselves. 

HANDING ON TO A NEW GENERATION

by James M. Thunder*

Last month I listened to a parish Director of Youth Ministry describe a sociological study documenting how so many young Catholics think of our Faith as a set of propositions without a personal relationship with God Who is the subject of the propositions. Then I watched World Over Live broadcast a videoclip of Bishop Robert J. Baker of Birmingham at the June meeting of the American bishops (the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), request that the words, the Name, Jesus Christ, appear at least once in one of the USCCB documents that was then under review.

These two events prompted me to think of the time I heard a priest say that St. Paul had such a deep relationship with Jesus that there are passages in his epistles where he uses the Name over and over again. When his letters are read at Mass, I’ll sit up and notice, for example, that St. Paul writes the Name five times in the opening eight verses of his Letter to the Romans, and eight times in the opening 10 verses in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

Is "Personal Relationship with Jesus" Truly Catholic?

A friend told me recently that her Bible Study group on Wednesday mornings at her parish in Connecticut had over a hundred women in it.  I was pretty amazed and when she told me about the program they followed, I naturally wanted to find out more about it.  We should all be glad when Catholic's enthusiasm for the faith is raised.   Bringing women together who have not previously been involved in their parishes is a really good thing.  My hesitation to get on board with this program, however, stems from its embrace of the concept of "getting to know Jesus personally."  Of "having a personal relationship with Jesus."  This is part of the message or plan in the materials written by Lisa Brennickmeyer in her program called Walking With Purpose. 

This "Scripture-based" program, I have discovered, is growing in popularity among Catholic women around the country.  I have not read the Brennickmeyer material and I could be very wrong but I would encourage all to tread with caution on any path not based on solid, historical, Catholic concepts of our relationship and knowledge of God.