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Discipleship Weekly (Taken from Divine Renovation by Fr. James Mallon) How do we make disciples? If a disciple is one who learns, who yearns to grow, who hungers for knowledge, how does this happen? We know that just because someone “believes” in Jesus or goes to church does not necessarily mean they have this hunger. Something must happen to awaken this hunger: that something is evangelization. We know that “to evangelize” literally means to announce good news, but what is the Good News? I suspect that many of us could fill pages describing the Good News of Jesus or the Good News about Jesus. It is multilayered and complex. A part of us resists the temptation to oversimplify things and ends up giving in to the temptation of unnecessarily complicating them. We can speak of the message of “God with us,” of God’s Kingdom or Reign, of God’s mercy, of God’s unconditional love, of the forgiveness of sins, of God’s love being revealed on the cross, and of the defeat of death through the resurrection of Jesus. We can speak of the truth that we are never alone, that God desires to dwell in us, to consume us and have us consume him, but in the end, it is possible to simplify the message in one word: Jesus. In Jesus, we have the very embodiment of God’s salvation presence, love mercy and life. We know in the Gospels that he who was the proclaimer of the Good News of the Kingdom becomes the Good News and the embodiment of that Kingdom. To receive this Good News, to be evangelized, is not only to hear these wonderful truths, to know about them, but to come to know him—to not just believe in him, but to love him and to be in love with him. Only then will our hearts sing and our song be heard. Only when we come to encounter him as alive and real, he who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, de we then desire to walk his way, hunger for his truth and seek to live his life.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Liturgical Ministry as service

Preparing for Next Sunday

Special points of interest

How can I live out Jesus’

Beatitudes?

The Assembly—the most

important ministry at Mass.

Get a jump start on next

Sunday’s Mass by reflecting on

the Scripture Readings. The

parable of the Mustard Seed.

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The Beatitudes Blessed are the Poor in Spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The wisdom of the Beatitudes begins with this simple message: Place your trust in God. Surrender your will humbly to God. Be strong in your faith. Jesus calls this poverty of spirit. The first Beatitude builds upon the first commandment: “I am the LORD your God . . . you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). The essence of this Beatitude is a close relationship with God. The poor in spirit recognize they are poor without God. They discern the will of God instead of forcing their own will. They accept that they are not always in control. We are what we seek. The poor in spirit are on an intense search for spirituality. They are looking for authentic ways to be of service to God and others. Poverty creates a vacuum that desperately needs to be filled. Poverty of spirit creates a spiritual vacuum that can only be filled by a close proximity to God. Like water flowing down a mountain, seeking the lowest point, poverty of spirit seeks God’s presence, grace, and blessings. The poor in spirit are prayerfully discerning the will of God for a mission to do God’s work. The poor in spirit empty themselves from the inner desires for the exterior rewards of life. They find the wisdom in God’s presence and recognize the providence of God’s hand in the events around them. They pray. They open themselves up to the power of the Holy Spirit. The rich in spirit are full of themselves. They seek fame, fortune, and material comforts. Wealth of spirit is like a cup turned upside down. Water poured into that cup just bounces away. As we turn our cup right side up, the grace, gifts, and wisdom of God can flow into our lives. This is our conversion point. To become poor in spirit by putting God and others first is the first step on our faithful journey to live and lead by the Beatitudes.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT APPLYING THE BEATITUDES TO YOUR LIFE? JOIN FR. GREG SCHLARB ON WEDNESDAY

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 IN RHOADY LEE FROM 7:00 PM TO 8:00 PM FOR THE FIRST OF EIGHT MONTHLY PRESENTATIONS

ON THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS

Reflection Questions (“Blessed are the poor in spirit”)

Think about times when you felt the need for God the most in your life. Were those times of loss or crisis? What can you learn from those times?

What is your mission in life? Is it apparent to the people you touch?

As a leader, how well do you use mission to keep your followers in-trinsically motivated?

(Taken from Dr. Dan R. Ebener, Blessings for Leaders: Leadership Wisdom from the Beatitudes)

B L E S S E D

A R E

T H E

P O O R I N

S P I R I T

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About Liturgy: Ministry as Service

We usually think of service in terms of doing for others. A very special kind of “doing for others” is the ministry each of us undertakes at any given liturgy. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states in no. 95: “In the celebration of Mass the faithful form a holy peo-ple, a people of God’s own possession and a royal Priesthood, so that they may give thanks to God and offer the unblemished sacrificial Victim not only by means of the hands of the Priest but also together with him and so that they may learn to offer their very selves. They should, moreover, take care to show this by their deep religious sense and their charity toward brothers and sisters who participate with them in the same celebration.” There is a direct link between our ministry at liturgy and our service of each other, between doing what is expected of us and doing the “more” that aligns us with God. The most important ministry at Mass is that of the assembly. This mean, first, that each member of the assembly has an active, decisive ministry. To be assembly means to surrender ourselves to God’s Presence and in that surrender we become church made visible. Our very act of surrender, then, is an expression of faith because it takes us beyond ourselves. This is made concrete in the common responses, gestures, postures, and singing we do at liturgy. Faith is also made concrete in the active listening to God’s word proclaimed, in heartfelt giving of praise and thanks during the Eucharistic prayer, in the genuine gift of self to others in the sign of peace, and in walking together in procession to God’s banquet table where we are nourished for the demands of discipleship. Each of the specific, visible ministries at liturgy (presider, deacon, hospitality ministers, altar servers, musicians, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, sacristans) is, of course, also an opportunity to express faith through service. But we must never forget that the most important ministry is to surrender to being church made visible. This is the most de-manding service because it requires us to lose ourselves in something bigger than ourselves. This is how faith the size of a mustard seed can move mulberry trees—we are not alone, but our service is always with the other members of the Body of Christ.

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We live in violent times. Perhaps because of the ease of communication , we hear about violence more quickly then in past ages. Our liturgy today uses a passage from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, who cries out against the violence, strife, and discord in his day. Like us today, the prophet wants God to intervene, to bring an end to the distress. God answer, “the vision of God’s peaceable reign will be fulfilled, the prophet must be patient.” The disciples of Jesus, in today’s Gospel, much like the prophet Habakkuk, want Jesus to fix things by giving them more faith. What they don’t already see is that they have enough faith. Jesus’ image of a tiny mustard seed is very apt for us as well. The mustard plant is Jesus’ example is deep rooted and difficult to uproot and replant. But mustard plants, growing from the tiniest seeds are fast growing. Once they get started they are almost impossible to eradicate. So Jesus’ image ought to give hope to us today, who are struggling to plant seeds at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Scottsdale community, and our world. Jesus ends with another parable of servants who are doing their duty. Scripture scholar Sr. Barbara Reid, O.P., suggests that the faithful servants of the kingdom are not “unprofitable” are our translation means, rather that “the word means literally that they are without need.” Perhaps that’s a way to approach our violent world. As believers in Jesus, we have all we need to be instruments of peace. May we respond to the gift of our own faith, small or large, to work with Jesus in healing our world.

Going Deeper to Understand the Gospel

The “impossible” I have done because of my faith is...

October 2, 2016 Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Habakkuk: 1:2-3; 2:2-4 Responsorial Psalm: 146: 7,8-9,9-10 “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

Prepare Yourself for Next Sunday’s Mass The Prophet Habakkuk