Over the past few weeks, I've seen a number of images circulating on social media. A baby dolphin, a 1901 photograph of a family with 18 children, two little boys of different races enjoying friendship: nothing controversial.

The response to these images is almost universally positive. That's because the images are created to be universally appealing.

The problem is that these images aren't real. They are created by AI.

Flawless vs. real

What's the big deal? More and more people are becoming unable to tell the difference between what is real and what isn't.

Even worse, we seem to be developing a preference for flawless and beautiful images over messy and imperfect reality.

I'm grateful that God does not.

At the end of June, the church commemorates her two most influential (and flawed) leaders: Sts. Peter and Paul.

The irony of a shared feast day shouldn't be lost on us. Despite the similarity of how their lives ended, both Peter and Paul had their issues.

Simon walked on water, but then sank. He proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God, then cautioned him against going to Jerusalem.

Swearing he would remain loyal even if no one else did, within hours, Peter denied Jesus not once, but three times.

He was anything but the "rock" Jesus had called him to be — not exactly a firm foundation on which to build the church.

In his zeal for Jewish law, Saul orchestrated the stoning of Stephen.

He was ambitious and intent on rooting out members of this dangerous new Messianic cult.

He was a man with a mission, en route to Damascus to arrest wayward Jews and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.

That was interrupted when Jesus appeared to him.

Poor Ananias must have been terrified when God sent him to minister to Saul. It's no wonder Paul was not readily trusted by those who were following the way.

These two men could not have been more different from each other.

Simon was not well educated, and Saul was a scholar who had studied under one of the most esteemed rabbis in Jerusalem.

Simon was brash and impetuous, often jumping into things mouth first.

Saul was calculating and deliberative, carefully planning his next move.

Simon lived in Galilee, a crossroad of cultural and religious diversity. Saul grew up in Tarsus, exposed to the full force of Greek learning and achievement and its effect on Jewish thought.

Simon and Saul also came to faith in Christ in entirely different ways.

Simon's discipleship grew organically and over time. He became "Peter" slowly.

In contrast, Saul was struck blind by an unexpected mystical encounter (see image). When he regained his sight, he was "Paul," suddenly part of a community he had considered heretical. Read more

• Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is an author, singer-songwriter, and lay evangelist. A 1983 convert to the Catholic faith, Jaymie is a wife and mother of eight.

So says research expert George Barna (pictured), founder and former owner of The Barna Group, a market research firm that studies Americans' religious beliefs and behaviours.

Barna lists two other big issues for the Church today: the steady decrease in a biblical worldview and the dwindling concern for spiritual formation.

Negative trends

Over the last few decades, Barna has observed negative trends increasingly permeating Western Christianity.

"People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric" he says.

"Families have invested less of their time and energy in spiritual growth, particularly of their children.

"The media now influences the Church more than the Church influences the media, or the culture for that matter. The Christian Body tends to get off-track, arguing about a lot of things that really don't matter."

Decline in discipleship

The decline in Jesus's mission of discipleship and a lack of solid, biblical training from seminaries is a trend that troubles Barna.

Metrics which churches use to gauge success — attendance, fundraising and infrastructure — have little to do with Jesus's mission he says.

"Jesus didn't die for any of that. So we're measuring the wrong stuff and, consequently, we get the wrong outcomes."

He also thinks seminaries lead local churches into thinking that they're actually training and providing qualifications to individuals God has called to be leaders.

They unwittingly set young ministry leaders up for failure, he claims.

What to do now

Barna advocates for a radical return to biblical roots - which would mean rethinking the modern Church structure.

The institutional Church as we've created it is man-made. It's not in the Scriptures he says.

He is urging believers to invest in children rather than buildings. "They're the future of the Church."

"We need to go back and recognise it starts with families; parents have the primary responsibility ... local churches need to support parents in that endeavour.

"If we do that, we'll be able to grow the three percent of adults who are disciples in America today to a larger proportion."

The rise of AI

Barna is concerned about the potential negative impact artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the Church.

"As the Body of Christ, we've got to be very suspicious of and careful about anything that even labels itself 'artificial'.

"... I just encourage genuine leaders to be very cautious about inviting any of that into our lives and ... then influence other people's lives."

Parents should check AI and media to ensure they aligns with biblical values before allowing their children to access them, he says.

Take the initiative

Finding ways to reverse negative trends and revitalise discipleship is critical says Barna.

If we don't look for such ways, the elites in our culture will have the opportunity to shut down spiritual freedom, he adds.

This is our moment. "We either will put up or shut up. And I would suggest that we put up."

Source

• Christian Post

Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz said this to a conference of religious formation directors in Rome last week, according to an article in the National Catholic Reporter.

"Do not distance yourself from the great lines of the Second Vatican Council," said the cardinal, who is prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

"In fact, those that are distancing themselves from the council to make another path are killing themselves - sooner or later, they will die," he said.

"They will not have sense. They will be outside the Church.

"We need to build, using the Gospel and the council as a departure point."

Cardinal Braz de Aviz told the formation directors that they must know that the needs of people considering religious life in today's age "are not the same" as when the founders of their orders first received their charisms.

"These contexts have changed," the cardinal said.

"And the council reminds us that consecrated life must be Christian discipleship . . . must be discipleship of the founders that we remember, but also must be open to the culture of the present moment.

"When we look only to the past and are not perceiving this moment that we are passing through, we run the risk of not being understood," he continued.

"Also, [we risk] having [kept] inside ourselves a unique treasure like the consecrated life."

Developing his thoughts later on the role of discernment in community life, Braz de Aviz told the formation directors: "We must not be closed to new things."

"God is not static," the cardinal said.

"God is always new movement - of light, of heat, of demonstration. He speaks in every time to men and women with the true language of that time."

The Rome conference was one of several events the Vatican congregations will hold to mark the Year of Consecrated Life.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CathNews USA

Following his elevation to cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, a position he held until 2002, when he became the first African Cardinal to head a Vatican office, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (2002-08).

His biography, God's Invisible Hand, was published by Ignatius Press, as were his books The Layperson's Distinctive Role, and Meeting Jesus and Following Him.

Cardinal Arinze's most recent book, also published by Ignatius Press, is Radical Discipleship: Consecrated Life and the Call to Holiness (2015), released in conjunction with the Year of Consecrated Life, which began on November 30, 2014 and will conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016.

Cardinal Arinze corresponded this past week with Catholic World Report about the meaning and uniqueness of consecrated life, the roots and development of consecrated life, and some of the challenges facing embracing and living the consecrated life today.

CWR: In the Introduction to Radical Discipleship, you focus on how discipleship consists of accepting Jesus invitation, "Follow me." In what unique ways is the consecrate life an embrace of the call to radical discipleship?

Cardinal Arinze: The consecrated life is an embracing of the call to radical discipleship, the call to follow Christ in a radical way, because the consecrated person takes the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The life of Jesus was a model of the three virtues lived to an extraordinary degree of commitment. All followers of Christ are indeed called to live three three virtues, but not in the same way. Consecrated people live the three virtues as vows binding them for their whole lives. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: St Thomas Province of the Claretians

A theologian of our time tells us that "our dialogue with God is of a precarious nature; it is really just compensating for our lack of deeper communication and understanding with God. If we had never sinned, then loving God and responding to God's words would be something natural for us."

It is precisely after that original sin is committed that God asks the question, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). And so begins the history of this dialogue we call prayer. In prayer God makes it possible for us to draw close to God once again, for it is God who asks for us, it is God who calls out to us. We have seen in earlier reflections that this drawing close can happen only by way of the flesh: the Good Samaritan "approached" the beaten man (Luke 10:29-37), and the very Word of God drew close to us by "becoming flesh" (John 1:14).

When the Word of God draws close to us, we see the essence of obedience. The letter to the Philippians says, "Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).

The letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 to show how this same obedience applies also to the incarnation: "Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)" (Heb. 10:7). This is the obedience of Abraham's "Here I am!" (Gen. 22:1-3), which reaches its culmination in the cry of Jesus in Gethsemane: "Yet, not what I want, but what you want" (Mark 14:36). Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic
• Image: VEYO