Thomas Merton, Prophet of our Time

from: A Life in Letters, p.203  from a Sept. 1961 letter to Ethel Kennedy

"As a nation we have begun to float off into a moral void and all the sermons of all the priests in the country (if they preach at all) are not going to help much...It seems to me that there are dangerous ambiguities about our democracy in its actual present condition.  I wonder to what extent our ideals are now a front for organized selfishness and systematic irresponsibility...We cannot go on living every man for himself.  The most actual danger of all is that we may someday float without realizing it into a nice tight fascist society in which all the resentments and all the guilt in all the messed up teenagers (and older ones) will be channeled into a destructive groove..."
"Certainly our basic needs is for truth, and not for "images" and slogans that "engineer consent."  We are living in a dream world.  We do not know ourselves or our adversaries."

Ecumenical prayer gathering at the Wall in Hidalgo, Tx.

Blow the Shofar, let the Wall come down.

Some 50 people representing a number of different Churches prayed together.

Prayers for:

Our National Leaders.

All Nations

Law enforcement/Peace officers

Humanitarian treatment of all immigrants.

Sacramentalized but not Evangelized.

This quote from the book FORMING INTENTIONAL DISCIPLES sticks with me. "The majority of Catholics in the United States are sacramentalized but not not evangelized."

Pope Francis in THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL #3 "I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them;  I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day."

      "Could you briefly describe to me your lived relationship with God to this point in your life?" The author of the book Forming Intentional Disciples tells of the difference that this question made in their giving evangelization seminars. They found that The National Directory for Catechesis outlines two critical steps that should precede catechesis: pre-evangelization and initial proclamation of the basic kerygma, or the Great Story of Jesus. 

      They propose a pre-evangelization process.  "There is no way of knowing what a particular person's journey has truly been and where the person is now until we earn the right to hear his or her story and then listen carefully and prayerfully."