The Early Church 3 – The early apologists and the witness of Faith

What was New Testamant Christianity really like? We must look to the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the records of the early Apostolic Fathers. Theirs is a critically important witness to the actual Apostolic Deposit. The foundations of the Apostolic Age were mission and community. The role of the Holy Spirit was evident, as…

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The Early Church 2 – The early, undivided Church in Acts of the Apostles

Luke’s Acts of the Apostles is an account of some of the pivotal moments in the Church’s earliest history. Historical records give us good reason to believe all of the early apostles, with the exception of John, died a violent martyr’s death. They kept the faith unaltered, despite being widely scattered and seperated for years.…

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Bible Study Begins This Week: The Advent of Hope

This week we begin our new study, The Advent of Hope. This will be a study on God’s saving intention toward his creation. There will be five lessons, taking us up to Christmas: each lesson, we’ll focus in on scriptural witnesses to the unfolding of God’s plan. We’ll also be trying out a new format:…

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The Early Church 1 – Introduction and Acts of the Apostles

This series provides a survey of early Church history beginning with the Acts of the Apostles and ending around the year 600 with the rise of Islam. The early, undivided Church was a remarkable period in Church history full of lessons for Christians today. We see in this period an organic development of doctrine and…

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The Mission of the Church – Part Eight

The Mission of the Church – The Joy of the Gospel/Conclusion Francis congratulates those already working for the good of the Church, while warning about the specific temptations that face those within the institutional church. An inordinate emphasis on the individual has been a detriment to the mission of the Church, leading to inflated egos…

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The Mission of the Church – Part Seven

The Mission of the Church – Continuing the Council’s ExhortationPope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium makes alive and practical the lessons of the Second Vatican Council. “With Christ, joy is constantly born anew“. The Mission of the Church depends on believing Christians living out the joy of the Gospel in a real and tangible way. This joy…

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The Mission of the Church – Part Six

The Mission of the Church – Impediments to MissionMission is vital to the gospel. Each of the gospels ends with a directive to a mandate to mission. The mission is not based on our abilities but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit that we shine forth. We must respect other religions in that we must respect…

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The Mission of the Church – Part Five

Vatican II directed the Church outward, through Ad Gentes and echoed 25 years later in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio, which describes an intentional trajectory of where the Church believes that Christ wants us to go in mission. Evangelization is the duty of all Christians, and it brings us closer to Christ. There has been, however, a decline in missionary activity…

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The Mission of the Church – Part Four

The encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi instructs us that the teaching of the Church is unchanged and irreplaceable. The task of evangelizing all people is the essential mission of the Church, but the Church has a need to be evangelized herself. This is the spiritual liberation, not a human liberation, as secular humanists and modern atheists might advocate.The techniques of evangelization must…

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