The world has grown cold.

Vatican City, May 30, 2011 / 10:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict stressed the urgency of evangelizing modern society, saying that Christians today face the task of reaching a world that grows increasingly apathetic to the message of the Gospel. [Isn't the attitude of just letting Catholics do whatever they like form of priests growing lazy on the job?]

“The crisis we are living through,” he said, “carries with it signs of the exclusion of God from people's lives, a general indifference to the Christian faith, and even the intention of marginalizing it from public life.”  [Now are you wondering why we have grown so cold about issues about life, marriage or even faith in the public square?]

The Pope made his remarks on May 30 to members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, as they prepare for their upcoming synod in 2012. During the meeting, which will take place Oct. 7-28 next year, bishops and other participants from around the world will discuss the late Pope John Paul II's vision of proposing the Christian faith in new ways.

Pope Benedict explained that “the term 'new evangelization' recalls the need of a new way of evangelizing, especially for those who live in a situation like today's where the development of secularization has left deep marks on even traditionally Christian countries.”  [No, not that inculturation trash.  And neither is that Earth Worship service in Euntes, MST and SVT.]

He noted that “proclaiming Jesus Christ, the sole Savior of the world, is more complex today than in the past, but our task continues to be the same as at the beginning of our history. The mission hasn't changed, just as the enthusiasm and courage that motivated the apostles and first disciples should not change.”  [And that Jesus is a real person, a historical one, who lived, died and physically rose and ascended into heaven.  Not an Avatar type of Jesus that Euntes, MST and SVT is preaching.  Oh, come on, don't deny it!]

The Church's message, he said, “needs to be renewed today in order to convince modern persons, who are often distracted and insensitive. That is why the new evangelization must find the ways to make the proclamation of salvation more effective, the salvation without with life is contradictory and lacking in what is essential.”

Pope Benedict observed a growing “phenomenon” of people in modern society “who wish to belong to the Church but who are strongly determined by a vision of life that is opposed to the faith is often seen.”  [Are the pro-RH people and even President Aquino like this?  Yes, your included Fr. Bernas.]

“It is important to make them understand that being Christian is not a type of outfit that one wears in private or on special occasions, but something living and totalizing, capable of taking all that is good in modernity.”  [I guess Fr. Bernas won't agree with this unless his theologian friends say so.  Ha!]

He emphasized that the entire Christian community “is called to revive the missionary spirit in order to offer the new message that persons of our times are hoping for.”

The “lifestyle of believers needs real credibility, as much more convincing as the more dramatic is the condition of the persons to whom it is addressed.”  [Ouch.]

Pope Benedict expressed his desire to council members [No, it's not another Ecumenical Council.] that they outline “a plan to help the entire Church and the particular different Churches in the commitment of the new evangelization; a plan whereby the urgency of a renewed evangelization takes charge of formation, particularly that of the new generations, and is united to the proposal of concrete signs capable of making the Church's response in this particular moment clear.”

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That is the reason why we need to stress the importance of the sacred in how we worship.  We completely lost if even if we have a world-renowned liturgist in our midst.

People have grown accustomed to jokes during homilies, to dancing, to some form of surprise numbers during the Mass, to clapping!  The Mass became a social event due to the over emphasis on the meal aspect of the Mass.  Liturgists deliberately took away the sacrificial nature of the Mass.  It is more of the "coming together" to share one another's company instead of sharing the sacrificial Lamb who shed His Blood for our salvation.  IT IS HIM WHY WE COME TOGETHER.  Not us coming together to make Him present!

No wonder nobody genuflects whenever they enter a church...

because they do not have a sense of the sacred anymore...

because they cannot find Christ at the center of the church and someone of something, like the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle, is put to the side or an inconspicuous place, you are telling people that the thing or the person is not important.  Try putting the president of the company or even of the country, during a big event, try having him seated to the side!

Why can't we do it to the Lord?  Why place the priest's chair in the center and the Blessed Sacrament to the side?  I just don't get it?

Well, I guess because the priest or liturgist that man is more important than God.

Well, what a great job our liturgists have done for the past 40 years!

World famous indeed!