Archive for category: Catechesis & Evangelization

By David Cooley.

In my office I have a painting of St. Padre Pio holding a rosary with the words “Prayer is the oxygen of the soul” written next to him. Pope Francis has declared 2024 to be the Year of Prayer, which will end when the 2025 Jubilee Year begins. I am so thankful for this emphasis on prayer — I need it, my family needs it, my friends need it, my country needs it, the world needs it, and the Church needs it.

Everything we do should begin with prayer, and the importance of prayer cannot be overstated. We are amazed by saints like Padre Pio, Frances Xavier Cabrini and Mother Teresa, and all that they were able to accomplish, but we can do even greater things. The holy men and women of the past all began the same way — in prayer. They handed their lives over to the Lord, and they maintained a very close relationship with him. To do what we are called to do — to grow the kingdom of God, here and now — we must, as the Holy Father said in January, “recover the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him, and adore him.”

It’s still early in our Lenten journey. Lent is a special time in the Liturgical Year, where we are invited by the Church to allow our hearts to be converted even closer to the Lord. That’s the meaning behind praying, fasting and almsgiving, ridding ourselves of anything that hinders our relationship with God.

Lent mirrors Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He left the city and went into the wilderness with nothing. He had nothing but his Father. He is teaching us that the Father’s grace and love are all we need, and we need to get away from worldly things to hear God’s voice. Imagine Jesus’ prayers at night in the desert. Those are the prayers our hearts are yearning to say. More than food and water, we need God; more than air, we need prayer.

It’s interesting, Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness harkens back to the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness. It should not have taken them that long to get from Egypt to the Promised Land. It took them 40 years because that is how long it took them to let go of their former life (conversion) in Egypt. As soon as Moses, through the power of God, rescued them, they forgot the agonies of slavery and only remembered the delicious food and beautiful idols in that exotic land. It was the life they were comfortable with.

Their journey lasted for years and years because, as Bishop John Iffert said in his Ash Wednesday homily, that’s how long it took them to understand that all that really mattered was their relationship with their God. It’s painful and difficult for us to let go of what we can experience with our senses. It takes a leap of faith to put our lives and our trust in God.

So, we can use this Lent and this Year of Prayer as a time for us to try and detach ourselves from evil and to assess whether we are placing things in our lives where only God should be. By beginning with prayer, we are ordering our lives toward the sacred.

When our lives are properly ordered, and we are journeying toward God, we can more clearly recognize God’s love for us. The more we recognize God’s love for us, the more we can share that love with others.

We live in a time where we are too busy, we are too distracted, we are too anxious, we are too overwhelmed. We are all in desperate need of faith, peace, joy and love. Jesus told us that there is only one thing necessary.

Forty days is not enough for us to spend praying. A year is not long enough. We need a lifetime rooted in prayer. Use this time the Church is giving us to develop good, lasting habits.

Pray together as a family every day. Pray for others who need your prayers. Pray for those who hate you. Remember, the object of prayer is holiness. We pray to draw closer to the Lord as the center of our life; to pause and remember the God who loves us. The God who loves us so much he sent his beloved Son to rescue us from sin and death, because there was no way we could have saved ourselves.

David Cooley is co-director of the Office of Catechesis and Evangelization in the Diocese of Covington.

By Isaak A. Isaak.

The Church has long talked about vocation and sacrament. The one sacrament referred to as a vocation, a calling, has been priesthood and religious life. The sacrament of matrimony was rarely referred to as vocation.

Today, it is! Our sacrament of matrimony is indeed a true sacrament. It is an outward sign of unity only achieved through years of letting go of self for the purpose of feeding the relationship. Those years couples share are years of adjustment, struggle, joy, peace and turmoil. They are years of happiness and sorrow, gain and loss. Slowly, two become one, sometimes despite the struggle each goes through to hold on to their own individual self.

The sacrament of matrimony has the same purpose as Holy Orders; to bring people to a deeper relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. It does so in a different format, relating to specified individuals as opposed to reaching out to masses of people at the same time. Both vocations rely on modeling, setting example and being consistent in one’s own relationship with God.

Couples are charged with bringing in new life, educating that new life and reaching out to those around them with the touch and love of Christ. They are to do all this with minimum training. Oftentimes, couples find themselves asking for the manual to being married and raising children.

Today, society is struggling to maintain its balance. Marriages are breaking up at unreasonable rates, couples living together imitating marriage, society striving to redefine marriage and its purpose, attempting to eliminate God and his purpose for humankind. If society is to rebound from where it finds itself at this point, it will have to be through strong, God–centered couples intent on living out their vocation.

The basic cell of society is the family. The family has conquered difficult environments, overcome strife and deprivation, but in the midst is still able to teach new life of God and God’s ways. It is the faith and families we celebrate. It is the vocation of matrimony which holds hope for society.

It is time to regain society as God intended for us, one family at a time. Therefore, “Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage.” (Heb. 13:4)

Isaak A. Isaak is co-director of the Office of Catechesis and Evangelization.

By David Cooley.

Education is a ministry of the Catholic Church because there is an undeniable thread between the general pursuit of knowledge and the journey of understanding who we are in the universe. We cannot come to fully know ourselves and the world around us unless we come to know the Creator of all things.

The goal of education is not to get into the best university or to be successful at a desired career. The goal is not even for an individual to ultimately obtain his or her financial freedom. It is so much deeper than that. Education is good for its own sake. There is something innate in us that makes us want to find the truth.

And the Truth is a person. It is not enough for us to just be financially free, we long to be completely free. And we will only be completely free when we come to know, love, and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a foundation that is missing in secular education, and it is one of the many reasons why Catholic schools are so important.

Education cannot and should not only be an intellectual exercise. Not only must the intellect be formed, but the will must be formed as well. This is why Catholic schools put such an emphasis on a complete formation of the human person. Human beings are intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional, and social beings. We long for communion with each other and with God.

We are made for so much more than a career. We are made for God, and we are restless until we understand this and give over our lives, which are a complete gift, back to God. Learning about God must be part of a student’s education; however, Catholic schools are designed to not only be a place where we learn about God, but, more importantly, to be a place where we can encounter and grow in our relationship with Him.

To know about Jesus is to love him, and to love him is to serve him. Only on this path can we truly learn to know and love ourselves, and to love and serve our neighbors.

Our Catholic schools can and do prepare students for college and the work force, but they go way beyond that. Our Catholic schools do form good citizens that will contribute in a positive way to society, but that is just a happy accident. Our Catholic schools have great athletes, but they are more concerned with forming disciples of Christ and future saints than anything else. Now is the perfect time for all of us to double down on our faith, be bold and proud Catholics, and let our children know that it is way more important for them to get into Heaven than it is for them to get into Harvard.

David Cooley is co-director of the Office of Catechesis and Evangelization, Diocese of Covington, Ky.

By David Cooley.

In the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus’ disciples ask him why he speaks to the people through parables. He answers: “… because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” (Matt 13:13) He goes on to explain that the people he is talking about fulfill an ancient prophecy of Isaiah: “You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.” (Isaiah 6: 9-10)

Jesus’ parables are always fascinating but what’s striking in the passage above is how he refers to those who aren’t following him. What does it mean to be a person that looks but does not see, or a person that hears but does not understand? And how can disciples of Jesus today be sure to be people who truly see and understand?

I often think of Pope St. John Paul II and the world in which he grew up. Observing the horrible ways that so many human beings were treated in the first have of the 20th century had a profound impact on him. He realized early on how important it is that we understand who we are and how we ought to act in the world. His teachings on the Catholic understanding of the human person are often referred to as the Theology of the Body.

The understanding of what it means to be a human person in light of Scripture, helps us to understand how we were created, our identity in Christ and our gifts so that we may see ourselves and others the way God intended.

Today, children are growing up immersed in social media. While it’s bad enough that traditional childhood activities are set aside in order to digitally “follow” others, create Tik Tok videos and stay up to date on the latest trends, what is even more worrisome is how young people are learning to perceive themselves and others. The line between what is real and what is not real is continuously becoming more and more blurred.

Since all of creation has a message to tell, it is important that we pay attention. Since part of the mystery of God is revealed through the human body, it is important that we have a proper understanding of human sexuality. In today’s culture, young people are being formed to not see creation the way it was meant to be seen, to not see their bodies the way they were meant to be seen, and to not see others the way they are meant to be seen.

This is all part of what it means to be spiritually blind, and Jesus is constantly inviting us to become people that see. In a fallen world we must train our eyes to see God’s plan for creation and to see that God has a plan for all of us. Only then will we be able to explore the two fundamental questions from the Catechism of the Catholic Church — where do we come from? And where are we going?

The older generations must properly lead the younger generations. Adults have a perspective about life that young people lack. They can see the bigger picture simply because they have been around longer. It seems like every year more and more studies are coming out about the increases in depression and anxiety in young people. There is a direct correlation between these findings and the rise of social media. This makes sense because they are selling themselves short and not realizing that they are made for so much more.

Those of us who have been around for a little while need to make sure that we, ourselves, are close followers of Christ and reading the signs of the times in light of the Gospel. We cannot do that unless we are on our knees praying every day and making the sacrifices that we need to make.

Secondly, we need to lead by example. Children are always watching and learning from us — how are we spending our time? We also need to make sure that the line of communication is always open and that our young people know where to go for information when difficult questions arise.

Finally, we need to at least ask the question: Do young people need to be on social media at all? It is skewing their vision of the world and their vision of themselves. It’s warping their ability to establish and grow real relationships that they will need later in life. Worst of all, it is plunging them into a society that is loud, showy, fake and often manipulative. Social media trains the person to look but not to see.

Our technology is growing so fast that we are all at risk of missing the world we were meant to see and not becoming the people we were meant to become.

David Cooley is co-director and office manager of the Office of Catechesis and Evangelization in the Diocese of Covington.

Messenger Staff Report.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption will begin offering First Friday Veneration of the True Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ beginning Friday, May 5 from noon to 1 p.m. in the sanctuary of the Cathedral Basilica, Covington. A relic of the True Cross will be shown for veneration in a special throne in front of the main altar for both faithful and pilgrims to venerate in prayer.

The First Friday veneration is brought to the Cathedral Basilica through the combined efforts of Father Ryan Maher, Cathedral rector, and Msgr. Gerald Twaddell, prior of the local section of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. The relic has been made available by Father Jordan Hainsey, a Priest Knight of the Order and custos of Relics for the Diocese of Covington.

The relic will be shown in a new reliquary donated to the Cathedral Basilica for the monthly veneration. The cross reliquary features the traditional implements of the passion.

“People have prayed before the Cross of Jesus ever since the earliest days of the faith,” said Father Hainsey. “It is one of the oldest and most devout practices in the Christian tradition.”

“This is a great way for the faithful to continue to receive graces we received during Lent and at Easter,” said Father Maher. “In praying before the True Cross, we are paying the highest honor to the Lord through the instrument of our salvation. The Cross is inseparable from his sacrifice, so in reverencing his cross we, in effect, adore Christ himself.”

From the very beginning of Christianity, the cross of Jesus has been an object of special veneration. The Apostles considered it the most important object in their lives and in the life of the world.

“O precious Cross!” cried St. Andrew as he was being martyred, “How long have I desired thee! How warmly have I loved thee! How constantly have I sought thee!”

Saints throughout history have all identified the cross as the only path to salvation. “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we get to heaven,” wrote St. Rose of Lima.

St. John Vianney, patron of priests, observed: “Everything is a reminder of the Cross. We ourselves are made in the shape of a cross.”

Even St. Paul, patron saint of the Diocese of Covington, wrote to the Galatians: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Gal 6:14).

“The cross is the symbol of our Order of the Holy Sepulchre, but more importantly, the cross is at the center of our faith,” said Msgr. Twaddell. “Whether one is able to spend five minutes or the whole hour praying before the True Cross, we hope people will come and take advantage of the opportunity to get closer to the Lord.”

The relic to be used in the First Friday veneration is from the same cross found in 324 A.D. by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine. Tradition holds that she found three crosses buried at Golgotha but didn’t know which was the one on which Jesus had been crucified. To test and see which was the true cross, members of her courtiers searched for a leper at the outskirts of Jerusalem. Once one was found, they returned to the site of Golgotha, where the leper was instructed to touch each of the crosses one by one. He touched the first one and then the second, but nothing happened. When he touched the third cross, the leper was instantly healed of his leprosy. From that time on, the cross was known as “The True Cross.”

As the years passed, tiny fragments were distributed to the care and protection of many Catholic churches around the world.

“The First Friday veneration will be held at the same hour as we have confessions,” said Father Maher. “I’m so pleased we can provide this opportunity for people to partake in both the Sacrament of Confession as well as be able to pray before the True Cross where they can unite not only their sufferings with the Lord, but also their joys and hopes.”

Fr. Jordan Hainsey