{"id":24,"date":"2014-03-05T05:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wordpress.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2014-03-05T05:00:46","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T10:00:46","slug":"a-work-of-missionary-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/a-work-of-missionary-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"A Work of Missionary Discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pope

Pope Francis with UND delegation<\/p><\/div>\n

Recently, Pope Francis greeted a delegation from the University of Notre Dame.\u00a0 He offered the following exhortation to his guests, but more broadly, to be received by Catholic colleges and universities everywhere.\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n

In my Exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel, I stressed the missionary dimension of Christian discipleship, which needs to be evident in the lives of individuals and in the workings of each of the Church\u2019s institutions.\u00a0 This commitment to \u201cmissionary discipleship\u201d ought to be reflected in a special way in Catholic universities<\/b>, which by their very nature are committed to demonstrating the harmony of faith and reason and the relevance of the Christian message for a full and authentically human life.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This \u201cmissionary discipleship\u201d is the impetus for Saint Joseph\u2019s College Theology blog, which arose out of the desire on the part of the faculty for the Online Theology Programs to foster intellectual engagement among each other and in the wider arena of the Church in which our students and graduates live out their vocation of discipleship in many and various ways, such as religious educators, pastoral associates, hospital chaplains, college professors, campus ministers, just to name a few.\u00a0 The topics discussed in this blog reflect the varied interests of the bloggers, and so the topic of our inaugural blog on this Ash Wednesday is Confession.<\/p>\n

The Medicine of Confession<\/b><\/h2>\n

It is thanks to the medicine of Confession<\/em>
\nthat the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair.
\nAugustine, Sermon 82<\/em><\/p>\n

It is fitting <\/b>that a blog\u2019s debut on Ash Wednesday be devoted to Confession.\u00a0 It may, however, seem odd <\/b>that a college sponsored blog kick off with sin.\u00a0 <\/i>After all, in the ever increasing competitive market, many universities are clamoring to attract students by highlighting the warts-free ideal.\u00a0 It goes something like this:\u00a0 You<\/b>, prospective student, are terrific.\u00a0 We<\/b>, the college for you, are terrific. \u00a0Together, we are perfect.<\/b><\/p>\n

Maybe so, but since this is a blog of Catholic theology, <\/b>sin and redemption are foremost in our minds.\u00a0 Catholics \u2013 theologians or otherwise \u2013 view those they encounter as souls in need of salvation.\u00a0 That is to say we see others and ourselves as possessing an immortal soul and that human actions are for the good or the ill of others, not just here and now, but eternally.\u00a0 When a teacher of Catholic theology remembers that core truth and teaches in sincerity and with humility and joy \u2013 all the while sensitive to the diverse needs and backgrounds of his or her students\u2014the extraordinary happens. \u00a0The student who doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d terrific and may be on the brink of despair, experiences something wonderful:\u00a0 hope.<\/b>\u00a0 <\/i>For Catholic students, the Sacrament of Reconciliation may seem like a wonderful starting point, for in the confessional, \u201chope springs eternal,\u201d as the saying goes.<\/p>\n

After my son made his First Confession<\/b> at age seven, he ran to me and blurted out, \u201cMom, I feel like I have never sinned in my entire life.\u201d\u00a0 While we are reluctant to speak of \u201cfeelings\u201d in relation to faith\u2014as feelings come and go–what he really was conveying was an experience<\/b> of grace<\/b> that involved his entire being.\u00a0 When not even ten minutes later he started fighting with his brother, I was tempted to say, \u201cSo, do you remember now what it feels like to sin?\u201d\u00a0 Of course, I bit my tongue and refrained from sharing the proverbial parental \u201cgotcha.\u201d\u00a0 It was well I did keep silent because that initial grace of the confessional stayed with him, and later when the experience of sin became more profound as one matures and grows, Confession was a home to which he could return, a respite from the crushing weight of sin and guilt, and a place of hope<\/b> from which to set out on the path of True North again and again.<\/p>\n

Patricia Ireland <\/strong>is the Director of Theology Programs for Saint Joseph’s College Online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Pope Francis greeted a delegation from the University of Notre Dame.\u00a0 He offered the following exhortation to his guests, but more broadly, to be received by Catholic colleges and universities everywhere.\u00a0 He said: In my Exhortation on the Joy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19,24],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","category-sacraments","category-the-pope","tag-confession"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}