SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN By Pat McCloskey, OFM
Living Our Faith Boldly
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Yes, the trend is worrying and may continue. To be fair, many people in this age group were raised in families where religious practice was more social than reflective of any deep personal commitment. Many younger people are asking themselves, “Who needs that kind of religion?” I think the answer is for all of us to live our faith in such a dynamic way that women and men in this age group will ask themselves, “What do they have that I don’t?” That seemed to attract people immediately after Pentecost.
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WE HAVE A DIGITAL archive of past Q & As. To get started, go to StAnthonyMessenger.org. Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, Jesus, moral issues, prayer, saints, redemption, sacraments, Scripture—and many more! 10 • June/July 2021 | StAnthonyMessenger.org
Help Needed
Are there some resources you can suggest for the struggle I find myself surprised to be experiencing: believing that my mom, who died several months ago, is indeed in heaven with God?
These two Scriptures may provide some consolation for you: Wisdom 3:1–9 (read at many funerals and one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible) and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (Paul’s advice to Christians who worried that deceased relatives and friends who died before Christ’s Second Coming would be at some disadvantage compared to believers still alive then). The second passage is part of the oldest book in the New Testament. The first passage may have been written only 100 years earlier.
Stifling the Holy Spirit’s Work? St. Paul told believers in Corinth, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (1 Cor 12:7). He then identified gifts that the Spirit gives each believer, such as the ability to give wise advice, studying and teaching the word of God, special faith, the power to heal the sick, the power to perform miracles, the power to prophesy, the power of discernment, the ability to speak in
TOP AND LOWER LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: JOSH BLAKE/ISTOCK
Pat McCloskey, OFM
Over the past years, I have noticed a steady decline of the younger folks in the Catholic Church. I recently saw the results of a Pew Research Center study, which indicated that approximately 20 percent of all Americans and 33 percent of all Americans under the age of 30 have left the traditional Churches. Do you have any explanation for this exodus? Could it be that they have had plenty of dogma and doctrine, but no personal spiritual experience? How can the Catholic Church mitigate this trend? Do you see this trend continuing?
