Posted September 19, 2013 Book: Catholic Update: Guide to the New Evangelization Series Editor: Mary Carol Kendzia Franciscan Media. Cincinnati, OH. 2013. Pp. 54 An Excerpt from the Jacket: What is the New Evangelization? Is this something new for Catholics? What does it mean to my everyday life? Starting with Pope John Paul II, the Church has made a renewed commitment to the process of evangelization. In the fall of 2012, the bishops gathered in Rome for a world synod to define what they called the New Evangelization, and highlight its meaning for Catholics today. Drawing on the trusted and popular Catholic Update newsletter, the Catholic Update to the New Evangelization traces the history of evangelization throughout Christianity, starting with the life and ministry of Jesus. You will learn about the work done by the Second Vatican Council in igniting a spirit of evangelization in the modern Church and how this practice can and should play an active role in the life of every disciple of Christ. Excerpts from the Book: Pope Benedict XVI noted that the New Evangelization is not new in its content but rather in its thrust and in its methods. "New" not in content but rather in its thrust and in its methods: "New" not in content, but in the interior impulse, open to the grace of the Holy Spirit who constitutes the force of the new law of the Gospel and who always renews the Church: "new" in the search of ways that correspond to the force of the Holy Spirit and are adapted to the times and the situations: "new" because necessary also in countries which have already received the proclamation of the Gospel." . . .the pope sees that the Church must evangelize by entering into dialogue with modern culture and confronting the cultural crisis brought on by the secularization of this culture. . . .Benedict noted that the Church is facing "the challenges of the present age [which] are certainly beyond human capacities; they are the historical and social challenges, and with greater reason the spiritual challenges. . .a more profound hunger, which only God can satiate," Man of the third millennium," the pope said, "desires an authentic and full life, he has need of truth, of profound liberty, of gratuitous love. Also in the deserts of the secular world, man's soul thirsts for God, for the living God." But, he added, "the process of secularization has produced a grave crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and of belonging to the Church." Table of Contents: 1. What is evangelization? 2. The history of evangelization in the church 3. Go out into the world Appendix Sources Contributors