The goal of the Neocatechumenal Way is to live out the Gospels. To be born again of spirit and water so that we become a new creature in Christ. To live out our baptism as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
537 Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in the Son and "walk in newness of life":
- Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him. Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God.
"We become sons (and daughters) of God. To convert. By conversion, we mean "a change of heart." During biblical times, the word "conversion" held a different meaning than today. Today, it means to change from one religion to another religion. But during Early Christianity, conversion means "a change in heart." An excellent example of conversion is St Paul who persecuted Christians. After his conversion, he no longer persecuted Christians. Yet, St. Paul still considered himself a Pharisee and a Jew.
We cannot convert on our own. We need God. Only God can make us holy. Our goal in the Neocatechumenal Way is to be disciples of Christ, sons and daughters of God. Of course, this does not mean that we are no longer sinners. From time to time, in our weakness, we will fall, but we have Christ to lean on. He will always be there to pick us up, and we continue our walk toward holiness and sanctification.
I would also like to add...that living out the Gospels also means to grow in faith. After our baptism, one needs to grow in faith.
ReplyDeleteCCC 1254 For all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after Baptism. For this reason the Church celebrates each year at the Easter Vigil the renewal of baptismal promises. Preparation for Baptism leads only to the threshold of new life. Baptism is the source of that new life in Christ from which the entire Christian life springs forth.
We know that we become true children of God when we imitate Christ by loving our neighbors including our enemies. As St. John said,
1 John 3:10-19 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister......Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
It is prevalent view in Catholic circles all around Europe that the church needs renewal from inside. The main goal is spiritual growth and increased faith, just as you say, dear Diana. Reaching maturity in faith happens through a persistent path with well defined of stages. So it is just natural to think of the Neocatechumenal Way as one of these faith renewal attempts with a characteristic feature of small communities.
ReplyDeleteNow, it is a fact that there are sporadic anti-Way sentiments incited mostly by dogmatic traditionalists groups. These groups do not consider growth in faith important as they think of themselves self righteous who do not need any more faith beyond what they already have. This leads to complacency and an aridity in faith. So behind anti-Way sentiments we always find groups without an ability to grow in faith. Yes, Diana, this is exactly the reason they are so adamantly against the Way. Because we provide a vivid and natural environment of growing in Catholic faith, reading the Bible and coming to the Lord Jesus. Shortly, the Way is a diametric opposite of their aridity and inability of growing in faith.
This is what we see at the JungleWatch blog and with the people gathering around it. They don't understand the power of the Way, so they try to destroy it. Their envy turns into furious wrath while they are weaving their anti-Way mantra. But they only expose themselves as haters. They got their satisfaction by attacking us, Diana, and spreading gossip about the Way while they don't even remember anymore how to approach the cross of our Savior in humility.
Tim Rohr is one typical leading figure of these groups you may observe all around in Europe and, in particular, in Rome. These leaders ride high on the ignorance of others. They feed the ignorance and incite sentiments by following a well designed script. He is actually a rather mediocre figure head by European standards. European anti-Way hate groups are much more professional than the JungleWatch group, but they are also limited by their own immoral methods that Tim Rohr tries to imitate so desperately.
In short, Tim is a typical anti-Way fighter, who disguises his own inability of coming to the Lord by arrogance and aggression against his Catholic sisters and brothers. We should see the big picture behind this phenomena, place JungleWatch in the proper context and understand the incredible level of depravity that leads these people to this behavior.
Dear Zoltan,
ReplyDeletePaul John Paul II said that what is needed are holy people. He is correct. Holy people are witnesses to Christ and His miracles. This is the goal of the Neocatechumenal Way......to walk with Christ. To imitate Him. This means that we are to love our enemies. In other words, we pray for those who persecute us. That is really all we can do for Tim Rohr and his followers. We leave it up to God to take care of them.
"to walk with Christ. To imitate Him"
DeleteJesus Christ is not only the Way, but also the truth. To imitate him we must love the truth. The NCW fails to imitate Jesus Christ insofar that it distorts the truth of the Catholic Faith. Every aspect of the teaching of the NCW is distorted and twisted.
You will find, in fact, that the disengaged Catholic is more prepared to accept the NCW than is the non-lapsed Catholic. This is because the non-lapsed Catholic has a "sense of faith", as transmitted by the Church of the Ages, and can recognise bulls**t when they hear it.
As long as the NCW continue to defend to the hilt every word, action and attitude of their illustrious leaders (even despite the possibility that they aremistaken, misled or suffering from a misunderstanding), there will be true Catholics who will speak up against them, and seek to defend the truth. The latest debacle is proof enough of this
Dear Anonymous at 1:53 p.m.,
DeleteWhen you say that the NCW distorts the truth of the Catholic Faith, you need to be more concrete than that. For example, what in the Catholic faith is it that is distorted?
Well, read back over the comments on your own blog. The sacrifice of the Mass; Sense of sin and confession; violation of the internal forum; the 'reformed' tabernacle and an ascribed equivalence between the presence of Jesus in the Word, community and Eucharist; the nature of the Church (ie not a juridical and hierarchical society, but a spiritual, charismatic one); Jesus has not been presented to anyone as a "model" to be imitated; we should actually hate our parents, brothers, relatives; Hell should not exist, nor should one speak of Purgatory, of prayers and of indulgences for the dead etc etc and so on and on... and on... and on.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 4:25 p.m.,
DeleteNo where in my posts or comments did I ever say that the Hell and Purgatory does not exist nor have I ever said that the sacrifice of the Mass does not exist. You only hear that from those who oppose the Way. The brothers in the Community believe in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, if you read my post, I did say that we are to imitate Christ.
These problems are evident here for a start:
Deletehttp://www.hope-pub.com/proddetail.php?prod=978-1-932717-27-3
You might like to read this sometime. Words matter. If you change the meaning of "sacrifice" and then speak about "sacrifice", you distort meaning. Kiko and Carmen are experts at this technique, - misappropriation of Church language and concepts is rife in the NCW ( eg "Receiving Communion") Unfortunately, adherents such as yourself suspend your own judgement and reason and accept these distortions almost deliriously.
Dear Anonymous at 9:19 p.m.,
DeleteWe never changed the meaning of sacrifice. People who are concern with words like priest and presbyter, mass and eucharist are only looking at semantics. The Catholic Church uses all these words. The Eastern Catholics call their mass "divine liturgy," but I do not have a problem with that. People who look at semantics are the ones who causes the distortion and division. It does not matter whether priest or presbyter is used especially in light of the fact that the Catholic Church uses both.
Yes, you change the meaning of most concepts - subtly, but changed nonetheless. It is a question of semantics, yes, and it matters. " People who look at semantics are the ones who causes the distortion and division" - see, you can say this, and have no sense of the irony, can't you!. I notice you didn't deal with "receiving communion" either , which is a classic example of the problem.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 7:51 a.m.
DeleteWe do not change the meaning of any concepts. It remains the same. The only ones who says any different are those who oppose the Way. I have already discussed "receiving communion" on my blogsite so many times. How many more times do you need to hear it? If you've been reading my blogsite, you should already know by now that the way we received communion was changed in 2008. I heard Father Pius instruct us to receive the Body of Christ standing up, then we are to sit down. He said that they received that instruction from Kiko and Kiko received that same instructions from the Pope. I've said this so many times already. And you're saying that I didn't deal with "receiving communion"????
You are both shameful examples of Catholics. So full of yourselves and your "holiness" that you don't see that the same things you say about other people not in the way is exactly how you both come off. It is so apparent to all but the both of you.
ReplyDeleteDiscard this, discard me, I don't care. The stain is on your soul already.
Oh dear Anonymous at 6:24 p.m.,
DeleteWhat ails you on the inside??