A Note from Outside the (Catholic) Bubble

Greetings from New York City, where I’m currently vacationing with family. Things may be light here on the blog for the next few days as I make the most of one of my few opportunities to have all four of my family members together.

We arrived last night and I’ve been thoroughly unplugged for about the past forty eight hours. I did seen enough news to learn of the incredibly sad train accident in Spain and to have an update on Thomas Peters’ health. Both situations merit our continual prayers.

One sad thing about the timing of this vacation is that I’m completely missing the news coming from World Youth Day. Blessedly, my Youtube subscriptions are full of videos from Brazil. It’s clear to me that this WYD is being covered in the Social Media more than any prior WYD event. That will afford me the chance to go back in a few weeks and take it all in.

But these few days outside the typical “Catholic bubble” I typically live in have reminded me how much of what we do in places like Catholic blogs is “inside baseball” or “preaching to the choir”. I wondered as I strolled amidst throngs of young adults last night in NYC, how many of them had ever even heard of World Youth Day…

Getting offline and into the “real world” — whatever that is — reminds me that the vast majority of our work in the New Evangelization really does need to be in our own circles of influence, with family, neighbors and co-workers. By comparison to sharing what we believe with real, live human beings we have to see day after day, duking it out with challenging commenters on a blog or putting up with trolls on twitter feels simple.

I’m going to sign off now and head back out onto the street. I’ll likely be back with a few more observations, but while I’m offline I recommend you take this summer day, wherever you happen to live, to get outside the bubble a bit too. I’d love to hear what you discover while you’re out there!