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Today\u2019s topics: Evangelii Gaudium on Parish-based Evangelization\nSummary of today\u2019s show: Pope Francis has outlined a comprehensive vision for evangelization in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O\u2019Connell are joined by Fr. Paul Soper and Dan Cellucci to discuss one portion of that vision that deals with evangelization within the context of a parish, including how a parish can evangelize as a community, but also how individuals within that parish can walk together with others who are also on the journey of life.\nListen to the show: Dan Cellucci and Fr. Paul Soper\n\nToday\u2019s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O\u2019Connell\nToday\u2019s guest(s):\nLinks from today\u2019s show:\n\n\n\n\nExcerpted passages from Evangelii Gaudium:\n\n\n\n28. The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be \u201cthe Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters\u201d.[26] This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God\u2019s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration.[27] In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.\n\n\n33. Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: \u201cWe have always done it this way\u201d. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities. A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the means of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory. I encourage everyone to apply the guidelines found in this document generously and courageously, without inhibitions or fear. The important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, and especially under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment.\n\n\n169. In a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity and at the same time obsessed with the details of other people\u2019s lives, shamelessly given over to morbid curiosity, the Church must look more closely and sympathetically at others whenever necessary. In our world, ordained ministers and other pastoral workers can make present the fragrance of Christ\u2019s closeness and his personal gaze. The Church will have to initiate everyone \u2013 priests, religious and laity \u2013 into this \u201cart of accompaniment\u201d which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life.\n\n\n170. Although it sounds obvious, spiritual accompaniment must lead others ever closer to God, in whom we attain true freedom. Some people think they are free if they can avoid God; they fail to see that they remain existentially orphaned, helpless, homeless. They cease being pilgrims and become drifters, flitting around themselves and never getting anywhere. To accompany them would be counterproductive if it became a sort of therapy supporting their self-absorption and ceased to be a pilgrimage with Christ to the Father.\n\n\n171. Today more than ever we need men and women who, on the basis of their experience of accompanying others, are familiar with processes which call for prudence, understanding, patience and docility to the Spirit, so that they can protect the sheep from wolves who would scatter the flock. We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than simply hearing. Listening, in communication, is an openness of heart which makes possible that closeness without which genuine spiritual encounter cannot occur. Listening helps us to find the right gesture and word which shows that we are more than simply bystanders. Only through such respectful and compassionate listening can we enter on the paths of true growth and awaken a yearning for the Christian ideal: the desire to respond fully to God\u2019s love and to bring to fruition what he has sown in our lives. But this always demands the patience of one who knows full well what Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us: that anyone can have grace and charity, and yet falter in the exercise of the virtues because of persistent \u201ccontrary inclinations\u201d.[133] In other words, the organic unity of the virtues always and necessarily exists in habitu, even though forms of conditioning can hinder the operations of those virtuous habits. Hence the need for \u201ca pedagogy which will introduce people step by step to the full appropriation of the mystery\u201d.[134] Reaching a level of maturity where individuals can make truly free and responsible decisions calls for much time and patience. As Blessed Peter Faber used to say: \u201cTime is God\u2019s messenger\u201d.