janelle
07-18-2003, 11:08 PM
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- The toughest mission territory in the world is no longer Africa or Asia but rather the United States and wherever affluence and secularization have set in, an Oblate priest told the North American Institute for Catholic Evangelization July 12 in Portland.
"It's most important for us because it involves our own children," said Oblate Father Ronald Rolheiser in a talk on the spirituality of evangelizing on the last day of the July 9-12 institute. Father Rolheiser said the present moment in the Catholic Church was akin to "waiting in the upper room," as described at the end of Luke's Gospel. The disciples were told not to leave that upper room until they were clothed anew from on high. They waited, and the Holy Spirit came to them. "We're being asked to go back to the upper room," said Father Rolheiser.
"What's the strategy? I don't know, and neither does anyone else." He did have an idea about what the upper room looked like. "It looked a lot like a church basement meeting room; they just didn't have Styrofoam cups yet," he said.
"It's most important for us because it involves our own children," said Oblate Father Ronald Rolheiser in a talk on the spirituality of evangelizing on the last day of the July 9-12 institute. Father Rolheiser said the present moment in the Catholic Church was akin to "waiting in the upper room," as described at the end of Luke's Gospel. The disciples were told not to leave that upper room until they were clothed anew from on high. They waited, and the Holy Spirit came to them. "We're being asked to go back to the upper room," said Father Rolheiser.
"What's the strategy? I don't know, and neither does anyone else." He did have an idea about what the upper room looked like. "It looked a lot like a church basement meeting room; they just didn't have Styrofoam cups yet," he said.