Stuck in Evaluation

by David Lins  |  03/15/2020  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

It’s a little-known fact that between having served on the National Evangelization Teams (a Catholic Missionary organization) and working in parishes full-time for over twenty years, I’ve helped facilitate or coordinate over 300 retreats for teens and/or adults.

I have to tell you, something horrible happens when you’ve done anything that often. It becomes more and more difficult to enter into the experience of the retreat, and easier to make a habit of constant evaluation.

Here is a simple way to explain it: the Canadian figure skating judge can never experience the Olympics like we can.

This is tragic.

Without realizing it, my takeaways from a retreat have become focused on if there was an appropriate mix of accessibility and depth. Were the lines for the bathrooms too long? How was the food at lunch? And the list goes on.

When we get too stuck in evaluation, we lose our ability to actually hear what God was trying to say to us.

It might be a retreat, Mass, or personal evangelization.

How many of us leave Mass and immediately turn to a friend or family member and talk about how the homily went on too long? Or how great this particular homily was? How the music wasn’t to our taste? Or how moving it was? How many people were talking? Or who left after the Eucharist? We should be sharing what God was saying.

It even happens when we judge how other people try to spread the Faith. She is too pushy. He is too friendly. She is too pious. He shares too many personal stories. (Guilty.)

Maybe we should all focus on spreading the Catholic Faith with the unique gifts and talents God has given us?

When it comes to retreats, Mass, or evangelization, let’s put down our Olympic scorecards and get on the ice. That is what God made us for.

I pray that during our upcoming parish mission (Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday of this week at 6:30PM each night), we all enter into what the Lord wants to say to us through Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.

Questions? Comments? Email David at dlins@oloj.org.

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