the Synod discussion paper that was featured in the September edition of Evangelise Australia. Such grassroots feedback is re-ally important as the Church seeks to discern the new methods of proclaiming the kingdom of God for our times.

If you know of others who might benefit from reading Evangelise Australia, or you would like to share your testimony in a subsequent edition, please contact us on 1300 4 FAITH (1300 432 484) or info@catholicenquiry.com

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Marita Winters, Director

Evangeliseevangeliseaustralia

a monthly newsletter of the National Office for EvangelisationIssue 4: November 2011

In this fourth edition of Evange-lise Australia we focus on a personal encounter with God as the inspira-tion for our efforts in evangelisa-tion.

The Lineamenta for the forthcoming Synod on the New

Evangelization states “As Christians, we are to learn a new manner of responding in ‘gentleness and rev-

erence and a clear conscience’ (1 Pt 3:15,16) with the gentle strength which comes from union with Christ in the Spirit and with the conviction that our goal is a personal encounter with God the Father in his Kingdom.”

The New Evangelization continues to be front and centre in Rome as the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evan-gelization hosted the conference from 15-16 October for in-ternational leaders engaged in spreading the Gospel message. Pope Benedict XVI showed his support by addressing their gathering.

In Sydney the CREDO office of the Archdiocese of Syd-ney hosted a Colloquium on the New Evangelisation from 7-8 October. About 100 people were present for this two day event.

Thank you to all those individuals and groups across Aus-tralia who responded to the Bishops’ request for feedback on

God the Father“God the Father is not a big old

man with broad shoulders and a huge white beard but a Transcendent Spirit of Love, interested in each one of us, completely rational and Creator of the entire cosmos and universe, extending, as we now estimate, for thirteen and a half billion light years and includ-ing billions, perhaps trillions of stars, some of which would dwarf our sun in their size. This omnipotent Spirit loves us and He loved us so much that He gave us his only Son that we might be saved. This is the same God revealed to Moses as a “God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kind-

ness and faithfulness”.Do Christians and Muslims believe

in the same God?The short answer is “yes”, because

only one God exists. Jews, Christians and Muslims are all, in different ways, children of Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, who was born in Ur, Iraq, probably about 1900 B.C., and left his homeland for Canaan. The one true God promised him as many descend-ents as the stars through his son Isaac, who was born to his elderly wife Sarah. God chose this small difficult people the Jews to be His chosen people, rather than Egypt, the super power to the West, or the succession of later

super powers to the East, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians.

It does not follow from the fact that only one God exists that the three monotheistic religions have identical notions of God. While we find consid-erable similarities, there are also impor-tant differences in faith and in morals. Jews, Christians and Muslims are not al-ways making the same claims. Religions are different but this is no reason why we cannot cooperate and be friends.”

[Edited segment of a Homily Trin-ity Sunday]

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney. 19 June 2011.

From the Bishops

InspirationFrom the NOE“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and

before you were born I consecrated you’ (Jer 1:5). The words God addressed to the prophet Jeremiah affect us personally. They remind us of God’s plan for each of us. He knows us individually because he has chosen and loved us from eternity, entrusting to each of us a specific vocation within the general plan of salvation.” - Homily of Blessed John Paul II, 17 August 2000

May we listen and respond to God’s voice calling us to action to be part of His plan. What a joyful privilege: though hum-ble creatures, we are given a role in the salvation of creation!

Faith alive – Fr Richard Healey (Wollongong)

I never expected that a simple action of standing up in front of a classroom full of other teenagers would have made such a difference in my life. But that day it did; that day I answered an invitation from the parish priest that if we were prepared to live for Jesus Christ, then we needed to do some-thing about it; we needed to make that commitment public. After waiting for some time to build up the courage to do something, I stood up in front of my school friends and others who only

days before I had barely known – and declared that I wanted to follow Jesus. Fr Gerard had insisted we didn’t just say something vague, but that we made our commitment to the Lord as concrete as possible; so I said I would follow Jesus through daily prayer, reading scripture and through attending Mass during the week as well as Sunday.

Before that weekend, I had been a practicing Catholic, attending Mass and even praying the rosary with my family. At the state high school that I attended, I often argued about faith and church with friends. If someone asked me if I

believed in God, I would have readily said ‘yes’ – but what that meant, I could not have explained. There was a vague sense of a ‘god’ somewhere out there, but my life was not based on God or built on God; I didn’t know that God had a plan for me or that you could actually be in a relationship with the Lord of all.

My life radically changed that week-end. And the friends I gained kept me true to my commitments and ensured that faith in Jesus Christ became the habitual desire of my life. (for full story please visit evangeliseaustralia.com)

The Father’s Tale by Michael O’Brien.Michael O’Brien has taken the elements

of the parables of The Good Shepherd and The Prodigal Son and created an epic novel that can sit comfortably alongside literary giants such as Dickens, Austen, CS Lewis and Tolkien.

Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower, waiting to die. He is con-tent to be considered, by all who know him, a “boring man, an unimportant man”. His quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without explanation or trace. The father sets off to find him and is taken on an odyssey that takes him to fascinating places and frightening perils.

Through the uncertainty and the anguish, the loss and the longing, Graham is pulled into conflicts between nations, as well as the eternal conflict between good and evil. Stretched nearly to the breaking point by the inexplicable suffering he witnesses and experiences, he discovers unexpected sources of strength as he presses onward in the hope of recovering his son—and himself.

Available from Ignatius Press www.ignatius.comISBN: 9-7808-9870-8158If you have an evangelisation related resource, contact us and we may

be able to include it in a following newsletter

Testimony of Faith

Resources Upcoming events

To have an evangelisation related event listed in following newsletters, contact us with your event information

National Office for EvangelisationAn Agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference

National Office for EvangelisationPO Box 415, Crows Nest NSW 1585

Phone: 1300 4 FAITH (1300 432 484) Fax: (02) 9211 4470 info@evangeliseaustralia.com

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, this is what He taught them::

Father, may your name be held holy,Your kingdom come;Give us each day our daily bread,And forgive us our sins,For we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.And do not put us to the test.” (Lk 11:2-4, JB)

As disciples of Jesus we, too, are invited to pray to our “Abba”, our Father.

Prayer

Date Event DetailsNovember

Various Neocatechumenal Way Catechesis

For those interested in knowing more about or renewing the Catholic faith. See calendar at evangeliseaustralia.com

2 Nov Truth on Tap Come for a good dose of truth, beer & food. Brookvale, NSW. See truthontap.com.au

2 & 7 Nov Revised Mass text seminar

Hear Paul Turner, sacramental theologian, talk about the revised Mass translation. Melbourne, VIC. See cam.org.au

20 NovSex, intimacy, & the quest for wholeness

A no-holds-barred, in depth examination of the big issues for Catholic men. Paddington, QLD. See menalive.org.au

December

3-4 Dec Catholic Engaged Encounter

Pennant Hills NSW. See www.engagedencounter.org.au

7 Dec Truth on Tap Brookvale, NSW. See truthontap.com.au

9-11 Dec Stronger RetreatA dynamic Catholic retreat for young people, equipping them to change the world. Harrietville, VIC. See stronger.org.au

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If you have a story of how God has brought you back to Himself, and would like to share it in a following issue of this newsletter, please contact us.