OCIA teams often struggle with getting catechumens and candidates to participate regularly in the church’s liturgy. Those who do often feel bored or confused, or they see it as a nice tradition or an inconvenient obligation rather than the heart of our Catholic faith. So we fill the gap with more catechesis that explains the liturgy to seekers, and we pray they will have a better personal experience on Sunday. Yet neither causes them to love the liturgy as we do. In Divine Blessing: Liturgical Formation in the RCIA, Timothy P. O’Malley shows us how we can break out of a classroom model about liturgy and instead invite seekers to be formed by the Risen Christ through the liturgy. This book will give you a process for preparing your catechumens and candidates to learn the liturgy’s symbolic language of self-giving love that will sustain them with divine blessing and train them to be Christ’s disciples in the world.
"Sacramentalized, but not evangelized" is a phrase often used by those in the Church involved in pastoral outreach and evangelization efforts. While the phrase gets at a truth -- many Catholics who have received the sacraments are still in desperate need of evangelization -- it is theologically and spiritually imprecise. The problem is not that people have "only" received their sacraments, but that we do not fully understand the evangelizing work of the sacraments themselves. In Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing Through the Sacraments, theologian, author, and speaker Timothy P. O'Malley shows how the sacraments, as efficacious signs, are Christ working in the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. This book presents a pastoral introduction to sacramental theology from the standpoint of evangelization. How do sacraments evangelize? How do sacraments both heal and divinize those who receive them? Invitation and Encounter introduces the major terms and ideas of sacramental theology and helps the reader recognize how the sacramental life is integral to evangelization. By evangelizing through the sacraments, the goal of the New Evangelization is fulfilled, building up the Body of Christ with more Catholics who are sacramentalized and evangelized. About the Author Timothy P. O'Malley is director of McGrath Online and the academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy. He is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches and researches in the areas of liturgical-sacramental theology, catechesis, and spirituality.
Author Tim O'Malley, in a series of reflections on every part of the Mass, challenges us to turn the idea of boredom on its head, calling boredomthe "good" boredom that opens us to the quiet interior space where we can encounter Goda "sweet gift." It is there that full participation in the Mass becomes possiblethe potential to be transfixed by a ritual, to contemplate the readings, to savor the Eucharist. To be fruitfully "bored again."
In A Fierce and Tender Love, bestselling author, speaker, and theologian Timothy P. O'Malley invites us to contemplate Mary, as a model of tenderness, hope, and renewal, and as the Church's first and preeminent disciple. As O'Malley writes, "Mary's vocation is also to be ours. Like her, we are called to find our meaning and our identity most completely in the tender mercy of God revealed in the face of the Son." Through personal stories, spiritual reflections, and deep theological insights, O'Malley shows us how Mary, as the Mother of God, Mother of the Church, and Queen of All Saints, guides us to Christ, teaching us how to live as true disciples. Along the way, we learn what it means to belong to the Church, to journey together through history as a pilgrim people, and to play our part in the "revolution of tenderness" that Pope Francis speaks of--a movement rooted in the mystery of God becoming human in a virgin named Mary. O'Malley helps us to see that in this time of renewal and hope, Mary offers us the key to unlocking both. The book offers seven thoughtful meditations on Mary's life, including: The Immaculate Conception as a model of true freedom The Annunciation as the wisdom to trust God The Visitation as a source of enduring hope The Incarnation as the revolution of tenderness that changes everything The Seven Sorrows of Mary, showing us how she walks with us in suffering Mary's motherhood of the Church, calling us to deeper discipleship The Assumption as a glimpse of our own future victory in Christ These meditations help us to walk with Mary, aligning our lives with hers and discovering renewed hope in Christ and in his Church. Through O'Malley's guidance, readers will see how Mary's life offers a sure path for navigating times of uncertainty, suffering, and our world's profound need for spiritual renewal. Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us This book is part of the Engaging Catholicism series from the McGrath Institute for Church Life.
