A Christian is someone who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Most of us find the Saviour part easy, and it is the Lord part we struggle with.

​This relatively short talk (34 mins) is one of the best I have ever heard on that topic:

Joe Chircop is one of the founders of the Servants of Jesus Community in Western Sydney, it is an ecumenical community, and this talk was presented in the middle of the lockdown that Sydney experienced from mid March - late May. 2020. His heritage is Maltese.
 
The first 3 mins are rather slow, as they give background to why he is speaking on the Discipleship topic. The last few minutes contain a prayer which extends to all online viewers.
 
Here is an excerpt:
 
Imagine if a young man proposed to a young woman - re marriage - and instead of giving her... and the young woman instead of giving herself she says to the man, you can have my jewellery, you can have my house, you can have my car, you can have my property, you can have my wealth: what would we think of that? We would think that's a bit strange. But actually Jesus is asking us the same thing, but we often say, well I'll give You my tithe, I'll give You my house, my talent or whatever, but refuse to give Him our selves.

.......................................................

I am blogging about this talk because I want to be able to find it again, and I am hoping that you might want to find it again too. All too frequently the things we share on social media get submerged and rarely found again.

I see this talk as a great resource for anyone assisting those who have recently accepted Jesus as their Saviour, and for those assisting others on their way to the fullness of the Christian life. As we all know, it is possible to get stuck along the way, and this video will go a long way to helping people get unstuck. It is short enough to be played at a Youth Group or Connect Group as a discussion starter.

Why? Because it often isn't easy to have a conversation about the truths this video contains, and I have rarely heard them expressed so clearly and in an easily understandable way.

But there's another reason I am blogging about this talk, and that is our responsibility to share with others the good things we have found. All too often we come across a great book, podcast episode, twitter thread, newspaper article or video link, and we do nothing to pass that good stuff on to others. 

It doesn't take much effort to write a review of a book and post it online at Amazon, Goodreads or elsewhere. It doesn't take much effort to like and share a podcast episode on Facebook. It doesn't take almost any effort at all to like and retweet a twitter thread. It is normally only a matter of using a search engine to find an online version of the newspaper article and to then share it on social media, or to take a photograph of the article and share that instead. It is rather easy to share YouTube videos on social media, and even easier to click the like button or to add a positive comment.

And yet so few people think to do so.

Your challenge today, should you choose to accept it,
​is to determine which content had the most positive impact upon you and your life during the past 7 days, and to then share it with others in at least 2 different ways, and with at least one of those ways being through social media.   

Following the blog post of 30 Aug 2020, 
​august-discoveries.html
it seemed like a very good idea to produce a beginners guide to Reddit, to assist anyone who felt called to take up Bishop Barron's challenge. 

What's Reddit?
Reddit is basically a large group of forums in which registered users can talk about almost anything you can imagine, from news, to pop culture, to technology, to comics, to film, to literature, to the weirdest things in the world, including 'Not Safe For Work' stuff.  Reddit is a massive and diverse community. And just like a vibrant city, there are the nice parts of town and there are those notorious streets where you shouldn’t park your car. Redditors are looking to learn, read, and debate all the important issues in their life.

What's a subreddit?
Those specialized forums are called "subreddits," which are referred to as r/"topic" (example: r/gadgets). There are more than 138,000 active subreddits. You can read and participate in all of them freely except private subreddits, which require an admission process. You can also subscribe to the subreddits, so their most popular posts appear on your personalized Reddit front page.

It can sometimes save time just to type in the subreddit you are primarily interested in at the search bar at the top.

Why join in?
Because it is a place where many young people (aged 13-30) go to ask questions, most of them young men, questions that they are not getting answered elsewhere or that they are not comfortable asking in person. If people with faith, experience and knowledge don't answer them there, other people certainly will (directing them to sites like Recovering From Religion).

The subreddit r/Catholicism gets a vast array of questions ranging from the precise liturgical, to pre RCIA and RCIA questions, as well as lots of God-seeking questions, confession related questions (lots of people with scruples), how to deal with demonic influence questions, and lots of struggling with male chastity questions. This last one is a real need, one which could really do with input from people experienced in helping young men via the training received in seminary or in religious formation, and from those with life experience in guiding other young men through to victory in these areas.

At times it can be hard to judge whether a question is honest, or someone larking around. For these questions it is better to assume they are honest ones, lest a real one slip through the cracks.

r/Catholic is a less safe place
r/exCatholic has a lot of vitriol, but the occasional honest question
r/agnostic is a bit on the wild side, but it is far less toxic than r/atheist
r/Christianity gets its fair share of 'how can I know God is real?' questions like R/Catholicism does, and a few other questions where a gentle Catholic perspective would help
r/CatholicPhilosophy is also available
r/RCIA exists, and is very small compared with other subreddits

But if no one shines a light in these dark corners, how are they going to find it?

With some questions, all you can do is pray, and that may be enough.

Sometimes all that is necessary is to upvote someone else's good answer.

There are some bishops (few), priests and seminarians who are active on Reddit. Should you find someone that has a track record of talking sense, by clicking on their Reddit handle you can choose to follow them and therefore have their posts etc show up in your personalised feed. Many of them need the support and encouragement of upvotes particularly when they are trying to present unpalatable truths in the most palatable way possible.

Don't be surprised to see people who profess to be Catholic holding opinions at total variance to the teachings in the Catechism. Be gentle, everyone is on the path to the fullness of faith and will have many mini conversions along the way. The most we can do is pray, and offer the best counter arguments possible, without getting personal, vindictive or emotional.

This is a specialised ministry/apostolate that only some people are equipped for. Not everyone has the requisite combination of active faith, solid prayer life, wide knowledge, diligent ongoing study and sufficient life experience. Should you come across such a person, please invite them to take up this ministry/apostolate.

Because it is really is a ministry, you need to pray for the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit each and every time you open up Reddit. The Holy Spirit knows the answers that the questioners need most, and the best way of lovingly expressing those answers.

You may never know the impact the answers inspired by the Holy Spirit, pulled together from the raw material of your experience, studies and interests, will have. It isn't about chasing votes, it is about helping souls. Should you go to a lot of trouble to pull together a comprehensive answer, and it gets no public response, that's OK. You never know when that answer might be pulled up by a search engine in answer to a query, and have more impact than you could have ever dreamed possible. But if it only gets read by the questioner, that's OK, because we know Jesus is willing to go in search of a single stray whatever the cost.

How do I submit to Reddit, comment and vote?
Reddit is open to anyone to navigate and read freely. This means that you can take your time getting to know how the subreddits function before signing up.

You can also register and become more involved.

Registered users can make submissions to any of the public subreddits. This is like posting information on other social media sites. They can also join the subreddits, an action that will affect how Reddit's front page will look for you (more on this later).

Registered users can also comment on other people's submissions by just clicking on the open comment field right under the submission. In the same way, you can reply to people's comments by clicking reply.

And finally, registered users can upvote or downvote any of the submissions, which is the way that Reddit makes submissions surface to the front page. An upvote is not the same as a like, it is a vote for a worthy argument. In a similar way a downvote is not a don't-like, but sending a message that this is a poor, unworthy argument or not relevant to the discussion.

Posts on Reddit come in two categories; statements/something to share or questions.
The questions are usually far more interesting.

How does the front page work?
Reddit has a front page in which certain submissions are featured, thanks to different algorithms. This front page has different tabs.

If you are not registered, the default tab is "Hot," which is basically a view of the submissions with the highest scores over a period of time. The score is determined by subtracting the downvotes from the upvotes.

If you are registered, then the default tab is called "Best." It features the most-voted posts from all the subreddits but it takes into account other things, like the submissions in which you have spent time before or the subreddits you have joined. This is a personalized view that will also eliminate things that you have already clicked through the next time you load the front page. This is done to ensure that the Best page remains fresh.

On a subreddit you can choose how the posts are sorted, eg hot, new, top, controversial or rising. My preference is for the fresh questions, so my default is new.

No self-promotion or spam is allowed. Just be mindful about what you do, try to be respectful of others, and you will be fine.

Do subreddits have extra rules?
Yes, beyond the logical etiquette, (no self-promotion or spam allowed) each subreddit has its own rules that you should read and abide by when posting or commenting. Some subreddits — like r/pics — may only accept image submissions and no external links, for example. Others will require you to be more descriptive in your posts, like r/science.

What's a "flair"?
Some subreddits will require you to apply a "flair" to your submission, which roughly identifies what it is about. Example: The subreddit r/gadgets has flairs like Phones, Desktop/Laptop, TV/Projectors, Music or Transportation, among others.

There are other tabs, like "Rising" — which features posts that are new and are getting upvotes quickly — and "Controversial" — which uses an algorithm to determine which posts are the subject of conflicting opinions by looking at the fluctuation of the upvotes and downvotes.

Common flairs are 'Question', 'Support', 'Rant', 'Advice', 'Experience Report'.

Others are related to the subbreddit, for example r/Catholicism has a rule that promotions are only permissible on Fridays, hence the flair 'Free Friday'.

Other Tips
Setting up an account requires an email address, and for you to provide a username and password. The username cannot be changed. Anonymity is highly valued on Reddit.

Read the rules for individual subreddits, not all subreddits want you to act exactly the same.

If you don't have time to comment, but want to do so later, you can save the post. Just click in the top right hand corner there is a white icon. Then later open up your profile, and one of the options is 'Saved'. You will find any saved posts there. It is a rather useful feature.

It can also be useful to click on someone's reddit handle, or hover over it. Sometimes there are descriptions. If you click on the handle/username you can see their most recent posts. Often there can be more than one post on a developing situation or struggle.

Start getting karma by commenting smart/funny/constructive things and eventually post your original content on relevant subreddits.

/s means sarcasm which may result in a bunch of downvotes if you interpret this incorrectly.

At first, you will have a limit on the number of comments you can make. This is to ensure that you aren't a spam-bot. Once you get some positive karma, you will no longer be limited.

Seriously take the time to really become a Redditor, so you can understand the platform, its features, and its users.

Find the Subreddits you are passionate about so that you can better understand the conversations happening. Become familiar with the intricacies from one Subreddit to another and participate with a sense of authority around the topics and discussions you already understand.

Take the time to really understand all the features Reddit has to offer, including settings options and the various sections of your profile.

Learn the Reddit language, so when you are engaging in each Subreddit, you sound like you belong. There are a lot of Reddit terms and phrases you definitely do not know but should if you want to have success on Reddit.
​
Is there any specific Reddit lingo?
Yes, there is. Aside from the usual internet acronyms like 'As Far As I Know' or 'In My Opinion', Reddit has a lot of specific acronyms and expressions. Here are some useful ones: 
AMA: Ask Me Anything. People — generally those who are famous or have done something of interest — use this acronym on a submission to have a dialogue with redditors. There's also a subreddit dedicated to AMAs in which everyone from Barack Obama to NASA scientists to Bill Gates (who often participates) answers questions from users. To get an idea, here's a top 10 of best AMAs ,or just go to the subreddit here.
ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5 (years old). If you have a question about a complex subject, use this to ask it. There's a subreddit for this, too.
EDIT and ETA: Edit and Edited To Add are expressions added to comments when people edit them. It seems to be etiquette to explain why you edited a post or comment.
TL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read. This is used at the end of long text posts or comments to criticize an article or comment as being too long to read. It can also be used to provide a summary of the main point of the text in case people don't have time to read the entire thing. 
Alt - Alternative user account.
AMAA - Ask Me Almost Anything
At a [0-10] - "Being at a [0-10]" is a sliding scale of "highness" from marijuana, with 0 being sober and 10 being blown into space. Mostly used in subreddits like /r/trees. Example: "I wrote this at a solid [7]"
Cakeday - The day a user joined reddit. Like a birthday. It displays a small icon next to the username.
Crosspost - Indicates that the post was also posted on another subreddit where OP recognized it.
Ctrl-F - Indicates that the user was searching for this specific reference in a thread.
DAE - Does Anyone Else - An appeal to a common feeling/situation/dilemma. Also a subreddit
EDIT - Indicates someone has changed their comment after first posting it. Usually followed by additional text, responses to subsequent comments, or explanations of why they edited their comment and what they changed.
Flair - The images or text that appears next to usernames in certain subreddits. Usually customizable.
[FIXED] - A remix of an original post, often with the effort of making the post more relevant/close to the truth.
FTA - From The Article
FTFY - Fixed That For You - A small edit of a previous comment that changes the meaning in a (sometimes) fundamental and (almost always) humorous way.
IAMA - I Am A - Also a subreddit in which famous or uncommon people get interviewed by the reddit community. It featured guests like President Obama, Snoop Dogg, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Scientists of the Mars Curiosity Rover Mission and many more.
IMO - "In My Opinion".
IMHO - "In My Humble (Honest) Opinion".
IIRC - If I Recall Correctly.
ITT - "In This Thread".
Karma - The point system Reddit uses. If people upvote on of your posts you get link-karma, if they upvote one of your comments you get comment-karma. The opposite when they downvote. Self-posts (submissions in "text" mode) don't bring you karma. You can see a total of your karma on your overview page (when you click your username) and it is broken down in to comment and link karma if you use the RES extension. Karma is practically completely use- and worthless. The only practical use it has on reddit is removing a rate-timer for posts in subreddits in which you got a specific amount of karma (you can post faster), and for wiki pages if the mods set a subreddit-karma limit. There are several sites that provide karma statistics like karmawhores.net
MIC - More In Comments.
Mod - Moderator of a subreddit. They have the power to remove comments and posts, among other things.
NSFW – Not Safe For Work – Usually a warning of a link to a sexual image/video or gory content. People can also tag their posts to be nsfw by clicking "nsfw->yes" below the posted link.
NSFL – Not Safe For Life – Usually a warning of a link to extreme gore.
OP - Original Poster. The person who made the submission that is now being commented upon.
Orangered - The color of the envelope icon when a you have a unread reply/message. To have an orangered is to have unread messages waiting.
RTFA - Read the f…..ing article.
SJW - Social Justice Warrior. Almost always an insult. What it refers to exactly ranges from "crazy person who takes everything as a personal insult and uses the rhetoric of social justice to bully people" to "person whose politics are left of mine".
Sub - An individual subreddit.
TIL - Today, I learned...
TL;DR - Too Long; Didn't Read - After a wall of text a commenter may include a shorter description of what they wrote about, sometimes humourously. Also sometimes inserted by another commentator to explain an article or previous comment.
Whoooosh. - Indicates that a joke has gone over someone's head.
WIP - Work in progress.
X-post - Indicates something that has been posted in multiple subreddits.
 
References:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/what-is-reddit  viewed 5 Sep 2020
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Reddit   viewed 5 Sep 2020
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media/reddit-guide/#ok    viewed 5 Sep 2020
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/wiki/glossary   viewed 5/Sep 2020
 
Blog-post last updated 21 Sep 2020

​After wading through the first third of the Congregation of the Clergy’s Instruction on Parish Renewal, I came across Fr Michael White’s blog on the Parish of the Future, http://nativitypastor.tv/the-parish-of-the-future/ which includes discussion on this Instruction.

He inspired me to attempt my own report on the Instruction, which I had already half begun to think about. Why? Because I’m finding the document hard to decode without some examples to apply it to.

Here is a copy of the Instruction in English, 27 x A4 pages in length:
Don’t worry, it isn’t as quite as much reading as that; the last 8 pages are references for footnotes. 

We all come at these Vatican documents with different lenses, so I will disclose mine. I have lived in both city-suburban and regional parishes, but not yet in a cathedral parish. I have visited parish churches and cathedrals in many parts of Australia and in some overseas locations.
​
I was part of a covenant community at the time they were applying to be recognized as an Association of Christ’s Faithful. Because of this experience, I understand the tensions between an organization that gathers and serves beyond a parish’s boundaries and the parishes where the members of that organization regularly worship.

I also understand, first hand, how it is possible to be members of more than one parish simultaneously, eg weekday parish vs weekend parish; the parish you go to when you are rostered on vs the parish you go to when you are not rostered on; the parish you go to for most things vs the parish you go to for confession; and in these pandemic times and in times of chronic ill health, the parish you live in vs the parish/es you visit for live-streamed Masses.

This would also be the case for those who belong to one of the Eastern rites of the Church, but who also attend the Latin rite. Ditto for those who attend a Traditional Latin Mass regularly but also attend Novos Ordo Masses. Then there are those who attend Masses as part of a national chaplaincy service (eg Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino etc) as well as local parish Masses. Similarly there would be members of the Anglican Ordinariate who from time to time would attend a local parish Mass or non-Ordinariate Mass when on holidays.

The Instruction begins by referencing Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium 27, and this Instruction could be considered a response to that papal challenge.
“I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with Himself.”

The traditional view of parish, in living memory, is situated in a specific geographical location and ministers to the people who inhabit that location, and where you would expect most people to be baptized, married and buried from the parish in that location. In modern society this lifetime identification with a single location is now more the exception than the rule.

It also makes building sustainable ministries quite difficult. A pastor of an inner city parish expressed the difficulty to me something like this: As an inner city parish he had lots of couples who had moved in to be close to work in the CBD, but by the time he had got to know them, they had received an interstate or international transfer with work, or had moved out of their apartments to a location in the suburbs more conducive to bringing up their first child or welcoming their second. The average length of stay of these couples was 3 years. By the time you got to know them, found a fit for their ministry passions and talents, within 6 months they were gone. When the ‘bricks’ keep on moving, it is hard to build anything.

In this context, section 9 of the Instruction makes sense:
9. As a living community of believers, the Parish finds itself in a context whereby the territorial affiliation is increasingly less evident, where places of association are multiplied and where interpersonal relationships risk being dissolved into a virtual world without any commitment or responsibility towards one’s neighbour.

Not all parishes and pastors are equal, and people do vote with their feet if it is convenient to do so. While parish leadership may consider parish loyalty a virtue, in reality many parents choose to attend the parish that has the greatest chance of engaging their children (children’s ministry, youth group, better than average preacher, better than average music, convenient time, ample parking) and adults go where they feel they are receiving the most spiritual nourishment even if they have to travel 30-50 mins away to do so. The concept of staying within the parish boundaries to receive sacramental ministry is quite foreign to many, especially those who don’t live in rural and outback locations.

I do know of current experiments where non-parish faith communities have been given permission to have chaplains and to administer sacraments to their members. What I can’t remember is whether that non-parish faith community was linked to a television-and-parish-mission ministry or whether it was linked to an ecumenical covenant community’s Catholic fellowship. Not that it matters too much, because I can see the logic in bringing someone into sacramental participation among the same people who evangelized them rather than sending them to his/her local parish where they have no personal connection. It also makes some degree of sense that if the person to be initiated into sacramental life has taken on the sense of mission and is growing in the charisms given to that non-parish faith community, then receiving the sacraments within that community will strengthen and support that vocation. Obviously, a non-parish faith community would have to be of substantial size to receive this kind of permission, and would have to demonstrate processes of keeping in communion with the universal church.

But we also live in an age of online communities and movements. Think of Bishop Barron and Word On Fire and of Fr James Mallon and Divine Renovation. It could be argued that they lead far more than the diocesan and parish responsibilities entrusted to them. With their online content, and offline content, they have attracted many people from across the globe who look to them for spiritual nourishment and who have formed online communities of shared faith.

It seems to me that if you are feeding God’s sheep, online or otherwise, and those sheep engage with you in a substantial way, eg sign up for email newsletters, follow on social media, participate in on-going online discussions (eg Alpha, Bible Study, mentorship, online training course, then you have ipso facto pastoral care for them until such time as they have been successfully integrated into an in-real-life parish community. It further seems to me that this Instruction is acknowledging that this pre-evangelism, evangelism, catechesis process is taking place outside the traditional parish model, and also giving it the green light to be explored and developed further.

At minimum, if by sharing the Word of God with people online or offline, we are feeding them, then we should also be praying for them consistently and regularly, even if we don’t yet know what their names are, nor where they live. And this applies as much to lay people and religious, as it does to those ordained to be pastors.

Here’s what the Instruction actually says:

14. With the Parish no longer being the primary gathering and social centre, as in former days, it is thus necessary to find new forms of accompaniment and closeness. A task of this kind ought not to be seen as a burden, but rather as a challenge to be embraced with enthusiasm.
 
16. The Parish territory is no longer a geographical space only, but also the context in which people express their lives in terms of relationships, reciprocal service and ancient traditions. It is in this “existential territory” where the challenges facing the Church in the midst of the community are played out.

18. Ecclesial membership in our present age is less a question of birthplace, much less where someone grew up, as it is about being part of a community by adoption, where the faithful have a more extensive experience of the Word of God than they do of being a body made up of many members, with everyone working for the common good.

These are some other excerpts that caught my attention

24. In these times, marked as they are by indifferentism, individualism and the exclusion of others, the rediscovery of brotherhood is paramount and integral to evangelisation, which is closely linked to human relationships.

25. A Parish must be a place that brings people together and fosters long-term personal relationships, thereby giving people a sense of belonging and being wanted.

27. The Code of Canon Law emphasises that the Parish is not identified as a building or a series of structures, but rather as a specific community of the faithful, where the Parish Priest is the proper pastor.

29. The Parish is a community gathered together by the Holy Spirit to announce the Word of God and bring new children of God to birth in the baptismal font.

I think these excerpts give us permission to think about parishes as groups of sheep under a shepherd, and to loosen our focus on parish buildings and sharpen them on relationships; relationships between pastor and parishioners, and between parishioners who are on a discipleship journey through pre-evangelisation through to missionary discipleship.

What a very different place/community our parishes would be if the commitment to building long term faith-sharing relationships was normal and had some primacy in our structures of accepted/cherished values!

The Instruction has to speak in terms that are universally applicable. It is possible that they had the concept of a personal parish in mind. If you want to know what that looks like in practice, read this article about this parish in Pittsburgh USA:
https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pittsburghs-newest-personal-parish-shines-light-on-the-black-catholic-tradi

The team at Divine Renovation also did a 5 part video series discussing this document. It is worth watching/listening to.
Hopefully this link gets you to the playlist for the full 5 parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpDOJiw6wP4&list=PLqZfwqi7RxBDzEYiTzvJ0DITKyuJbN7OV

The Instruction also goes into some detail about what is, and isn’t, possible according to Canon Law, and the various ecclesial structures other than the traditional parish which are considered legitimate. That section takes some ploughing through, but it is useful information for everyone to be familiar with. Many of these non-traditional structures are quite common in places considered to be mission territory, and I recognized some of them from my studies in early Australian Catholic history and from conversations with a missionary priest resident in South America.

If God is bringing about something new and more pastorally effective in this post-Covid era, then the recommendation about putting new wine into new wine-skins applies. If the familiar structures are no longer suitable for the mission, then we need to be open to different structures, and to be willing to explore them, as the Holy Spirit leads. This Instruction functions as high octane motivation power to get that exploration and innovation started.

May God bless, protect and empower those who are called to take the permissions given in this Instruction seriously, and who called to be pioneers of the new things God wishes to come forth in this new era.
​
Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, pray for us.