Evangelisation lessons from Bruce Lee
We can learn a lot about evangelisation from the philosophy of martial arts film star Bruce Lee, claimed Jared Zimmerer on WordOnFire.
“He believed in human dignity and the unity of all mankind, and that all men must be willing and able to stand up for the good no matter what the situation,” he wrote. “I think he offers a vision of what modern evangelisation could look like in the Christian world.”
Zimmerer picked out three things he has learned from Lee. The first is to see the good in every situation and to disengage from the difficulties surrounding us. The second “was to be firmly rooted in who you are, but love the culture you wish to evangelise”.
He continued: “The third thing I learned from Bruce Lee about evangelisation is to live concretely the message you wish to spread. If you go to YouTube and watch several of Bruce’s interviews you see a calm, cool and collected individual whose words flowed with confidence, clarity and control. He thoroughly knew and lived what he believed. This made his message attractive because people saw it in action. People wanted what he had.”
Dealing with anxiety the Christian way “I have inherited a high level of anxiety and perfectionism which makes peace difficult to attain in my life,” began Paul Kniaz at catholicstand.com. But as a Christian he has found a way to cope with this.
“During stressful times of life, I have found that a simple aspiration such as ‘Jesus, I trust in you’ or ‘Thy will be done’ works as a soothing balm to my mind. Even if at the time I am desperately caught up in a decision or obsessive thoughts, saying this prayer helps me remember that God is with me and that I can accept whatever God’s will may be,” he wrote.
“Prayer and meditation are one of the few moments that allow release from the flow of time and offer entrance in a small way into the eternity of God.”
Banishing the Loch Ness Monster
If there isn’t a monster lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, we have St Columba to thank. So Churchpop.com suggested, possibly not entirely seriously.
Columba was travelling with some companions along “the banks of the River Ness, a short river that flows out of the Loch Ness”, and discovered that a “man had just been killed by a monster in the water”.
The saint sent one of his followers to swim across the river when the monster “suddenly rushed out, and, giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream”.
Columba raised his hand “and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, ‘Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.’” And terrified, the Loch Ness monster fled…
✣Meanwhile…
✣ The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has a novel way of ensuring that computers aren’t infected by the recent ransomware attack – which hit Russia even worse than it did Britain’s NHS.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow sprinkled computers at Russia’s ministry of internal affairs with holy water to protect them against attack. Kirill often appears in public blessing, for instance, with the Russian Olympic team.
✣ BBC bosses were worried that an episode of Doctor Who, in which the Pope asks the Doctor for help in solving the mystery of an ancient text in the Vatican, might offend Catholics.
Head writer Steven Moffat had the idea for the story, called Extremis. But the show’s executive producer Brian Minchin apparently feared that it might cause offence.
“You have to keep in mind that Catholics with great regard for the Pope will watch this and they will expect not to be sneered at,” Moffat said.
“You’re entitled to watch a TV show and not be sneered at if you’re a perfectly kind law-abiding citizen.
“We can’t just go around saying: ‘The Pope is corrupt and God’s just a made-up person.’”
✣The week in quotations
The citizens of Manchester and members of the Catholic community are united in condemning the attack Bishop John Arnold on Monday’s bombing Twitter
Your children are a promise for the future of the Church Pope Francis speaks to families in Rome Zenit
The difficulty makes it more interesting Alberto Serna, who has built a model of St Peter’s Square with 36,000 toothpicks Catholic World Report
We cannot agree The Belgian bishops condemn euthanasia proposals by the board of the Brothers of Charity Official statement
✣Statistic of the week
0.6% The proportion of Catholics in Laos, which will soon have its first cardinal Source: factsanddetails.com
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