{"id":5464,"date":"2014-08-27T22:45:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T04:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=5464"},"modified":"2020-09-10T15:08:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T21:08:06","slug":"know-relationship-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"commit-relationship-jesus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was already a little tipsy when I started this conversation with Andre Regnier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That didn’t make it any easier.<\/p>\n

Marcel Lejeune and I had already indulged in\u00a0a few beers at the social before we went over to Damon\u2019s, a sports bar at the bottom of the hill Franciscan University is perched on.<\/p>\n

It serves as the main hangout after activities at the\u00a0 St. John Bosco Conference are finished.<\/p>\n

Andre was at\u00a0my talk earlier that afternoon and I was anxious to hear what he had to say. We had discussed evangelization the\u00a0day before and he was intrigued by my topic–how to build conversion into your catechesis.<\/p>\n

The conversation<\/h2>\n

\u201cI loved your talk but something was missing,\u201d Andre told me. I found out later he has this conversation with a lot of Catholics speaking about evangelization.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d I asked. I really wanted to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me ask you a question. How do you know you have a relationship with Jesus?\u201d he said. That took me off guard. I don\u2019t think anyone ever asked me that question before.<\/p>\n

I fired back, \u201cWell, I have a strong prayer life.\u201d I was sure this was the right answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how do you know?\u201d Andre asked again.<\/p>\n

Okay, this time I had to dig. I was sure I had it the first time. \u201cI speak to Jesus about my thoughts and desires. I go to adoration regularly and spend time with him. I practice devotions,\u201d I said. But I wasn\u2019t as confident anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got you now,\u201d Marcel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the answer?\u201d I asked Marcel shooting him a glare. How did he know the answer?<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I know the answer,\u201d said Marcel. \u201cI\u2019ve been hanging out with him all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, I\u2019ll make it easy on you,\u201d Andre finally told me. \u201cYou know because at some point you\u2019ve said it. Either someone led you to say it or you\u2019ve said it by yourself, but you know because you can trace it to a specific time when you verbally committed yourself to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say that sounds too Protestant, but it\u2019s not,” Andre continued. There\u2019s a solid Catholic tradition built around making a choice and performing an action to solidify that\u00a0commitment. It\u2019s all over sacramental theology. Like in Baptism. There’s a before and after. You\u2019re not baptized, a minister says words and pours water over you, and now you are. It\u2019s an action of God but you have to make the decision freely. If you don\u2019t, it\u2019s not valid. I\u2019m not saying a verbal commitment to relationship with Christ is the same as a sacrament, but there\u2019s precedent for the power of choice and taking a concrete action to solidify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour talk was great. I agreed 100% with everything you were saying,\u201d Andre told me. \u201cYou laid out the Gospel perfectly, but then you stopped short. You didn\u2019t follow through. You didn\u2019t give them a way to take an action. You didn\u2019t lead them to a commitment. Don\u2019t feel bad\u2026hardly any Catholics get\u00a0this. It\u2019s not in our culture, but it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catholics don’t\u00a0follow through<\/h2>\n

That conversation really got me thinking. He was absolutely right. Catholics never follow through. We never have a call to action.<\/p>\n

My gospel presentation did have\u00a0a call to action, but it was fuzzy. It wasn\u2019t definite and concrete. It wasn\u2019t the kind\u00a0where you knew you had committed yourself to something and now things would be\u00a0different. I said something like, \u201cJoin yourself to Christ and his Church and follow him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was leaving it up to them. But that’s not enough. We\u2019re bound up by inertia. Inertia and fear. It\u2019s the human condition. If you don\u2019t put\u00a0them on the spot a bit,\u00a0that commitment will probably never happen.<\/p>\n

What if this became a part of religious education?<\/h2>\n

When I got back home, I told\u00a0people about that conversation. I talked to catechists. I talked to priests. I talked to my RCIA team. Most people said the Catholic Church didn\u2019t operate that way. We don’t put them on the spot, we respect how God is moving in them. What if\u00a0they\u2019re not ready for commitment right away?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s actually a valid point. Sherry Weddell lists\u00a0the different stages of conversion in\u00a0Forming Intentional Disciples<\/em><\/a>. You shouldn’t\u00a0expect to get a firm commitment if someone\u2019s at the beginning stages. However, I’m afraid that idea keeps us from ever doing it…even when the time is right.<\/p>\n

What Andre said got me thinking of ways to\u00a0implemented this in a parish. What if, at the end of every year of religious education classes, we asked for a commitment? What if we led our students in a prayer that pledged them to relationship with Jesus? What if we led confirmation students to pray the same prayer before beginning preparation for the sacrament?<\/p>\n

It could respect the ages and stages they\u2019re in. It doesn\u2019t have to be the sinner\u2019s prayer that commits their whole lives\u00a0to Jesus. Or, it could be. I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

But I do know this is something seriously missing from Catholic religious formation and this element of verbally committing yourself to a relationship with God\u00a0needs to be somewhere.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Where should this commitment be included? Is it too Protestant or can this actually be incorporated into Catholic religious formation?<\/p>\n

Let me know in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was already a little tipsy when I started this conversation with Andre Regnier. That didn’t make it any easier. Marcel Lejeune and I had already indulged in\u00a0a few beers at the social before we went over to Damon\u2019s, a sports bar at the bottom of the hill Franciscan University is perched on. It serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelization-2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was already a little tipsy when I started this conversation with Andre Regnier. That didn’t make it any easier. Marcel Lejeune and I had already indulged in\u00a0a few beers at the social before we went over to Damon\u2019s, a sports bar at the bottom of the hill Franciscan University is perched on. It serves […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\"},\"headline\":\"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\"},\"wordCount\":945,\"commentCount\":34,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Evangelization\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"description\":\"The Intersection of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Faith.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\",\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marc Cardaronella\"},\"description\":\"I'm passionate about the most effective ways to transmit the Catholic Faith and spread the Gospel to the world. Join me? You can find me on Facebook, Twitter for the catechetical ramblings of the day.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/author\/marccard\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella","og_description":"I was already a little tipsy when I started this conversation with Andre Regnier. That didn’t make it any easier. Marcel Lejeune and I had already indulged in\u00a0a few beers at the social before we went over to Damon\u2019s, a sports bar at the bottom of the hill Franciscan University is perched on. It serves […]","og_url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/","og_site_name":"Marc Cardaronella","article_published_time":"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Marc Cardaronella","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Marc Cardaronella","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/"},"author":{"name":"Marc Cardaronella","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094"},"headline":"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus","datePublished":"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/"},"wordCount":945,"commentCount":34,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg","articleSection":["Evangelization"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/","url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/","name":"How to Know You Have a Relationship with Jesus - Marc Cardaronella","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-28T04:45:16+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-10T21:08:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/know-relationship-jesus\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/commit-relationship-jesus.jpg","width":700,"height":400},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/","name":"Marc Cardaronella","description":"The Intersection of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Faith.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094","name":"Marc Cardaronella","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Marc Cardaronella"},"description":"I'm passionate about the most effective ways to transmit the Catholic Faith and spread the Gospel to the world. Join me? You can find me on Facebook, Twitter for the catechetical ramblings of the day.","sameAs":["http:\/\/marccardaronella.com"],"url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/author\/marccard\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5464"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6087,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5464\/revisions\/6087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}