Singer-songwriter Audrey Assad seeks to bring a message of Pope Francis about building bridges to the music business. "Paul is a pontifex, a builder of bridges," the Pope Francis said at a Mass May 8. "He doesn't want to become a builder of walls. ... This is the attitude of Paul in Athens: Build a bridge to their heart, in order then to take another step and announce Jesus Christ. As a musician, a unique way I live that out, being Catholic in an industry full of evangelicals and Protestants," Assad said, is to "establish bridges ... (to) be Catholic in the presence of people (who have) never encountered a Catholic before." A New Jersey native, Assad grew up in a Christian Plymouth Brethren home and never encountered a Catholic until she was 21. Then she met a high school student who changed her life. A Catholic involved in LifeTeen ministries, he knew his faith really well, and he "asked me questions that challenged my faith," Assad recalled. She said she was already considering entering the Catholic Church because she liked the reverence and the incense, but that his words really challenged her to come to a deeper understanding of her faith. She became a Catholic in 2007, realizing that the "sacraments were real and I needed them, and that the only place to really get them was in a Catholic Church," she told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview.

The Holy Spirit made it possible for everyone to hear the apostles in their own language on Pentecost, uniting people who were divided, Pope Francis said, calling on Christians to witness to the faith in a way that reconciles and is forgiving. "We should all ask ourselves: ‘how do I let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit so that my witness of faith is one of unity and communion? Do I bring the message of reconciliation and love that is the Gospel to the places where I live?’” the Pope recently said. The descent of the Holy Spirit undid “the dispersion of peoples and the confusion of tongues” that began with the Tower of Babel, the Pope noted, explaining that the men of the time acted with “arrogance and pride” in wanting to build the tower on their “own strength, and without God.” Pope Francis address to the crowd of around 50,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square was dedicated to examining the phrase from the Creed, “We believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” The talk was part of an ongoing series of reflections during the Year of Faith on the Creed that was started by Benedict XVI. The pontiff stated that the previous line of the Creed on the Holy Spirit has “a deep connection” to the mission and characteristics of the Church that he dwelt on today. The Holy Spirit “gives life to the Church, guides her steps. Without the presence and the incessant action of the Holy Spirit, the Church could not live and could not accomplish the task that the Risen Jesus has entrusted her: to go and make disciples of all nations,” the Pope explained. For that reason, he focused his reflection on three ways that the anointing of the Holy Spirit changes people, marks the Church and prepares it to evangelize. “Sometimes it seems that what happened at Babel is repeated today; divisions, the inability to understand each other, rivalry, envy, selfishness,” the Holy Father observed. So he asked the crowd to think about the questions, “What do I do with my life? Do I bring unity? Or do I divide with gossip and envy? Bringing the Gospel means we in the first place must live reconciliation, forgiveness, peace, unity, love that the Holy Spirit gives us. Let us remember the words of Jesus: ‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,’” the Pope said, quoting John 4. The second way the Spirit prepares believers to share the Gospel is by instilling courage in them, he told the crowd. “Here is another effect of the Holy Spirit: Courage! – the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel of Jesus to all, with self-confidence (parrhesia), in a loud voice, in every time and in every place,” he said. “And this happens even today for the Church and for each of us,” Pope Francis insisted, urging people, “never be closed to this action! Because evangelizing, announcing Jesus, evangelizing brings us joy! It energizes us. Being closed up within ourselves brings bitterness. Proclaiming the joy and hope that the Lord brings to world lifts us up!” the Pope proclaimed. But all of this is not possible without a “faithful and intense relationship with God,” the pontiff said as he moved into his third point. “I will only mention a third element, but it is particularly important: a new evangelization, a Church that evangelizes must always start from prayer, from asking, like the Apostles in the Upper Room, for the fire of the Holy Spirit. “Without prayer our actions become empty and our proclamation soulless; it is not animated by the Spirit,” he stressed. Pope Francis encouraged Christians to entrust themselves to the Holy Spirit because he “enables us to live and bear witness to our faith, and enlighten the hearts of those we meet.” He finished his thoughts on the connection between the Church and the Holy Spirit by recalling Benedict XVI’s statement that the Church today “especially feels the wind of the Holy Spirit that helps us, shows us the right path, and so, with new enthusiasm, we are on our journey and we thank the Lord.” At the end of the audience the Pope also offered a special message the Catholic in China, who will celebrate the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on May 24. May they proclaim Christ “dead and risen, with humility and joy; be faithful to his Church and the Successor of Peter; and live their everyday lives in service to their country and their fellow citizens in a manner consistent with the faith they profess,” he said.

Why are we so obsessed with knowing everything? If we hear a little bit of gossip, we clamor to find out more. The advertising world knows this. That is why they release dribbles of information to pique our interest and keep us wanting more. It is also what drives many people to constantly question when Jesus Christ will return to earth. People present themselves as "prophets" to proclaim that they know when the world will end. They tell us that Jesus is coming on a certain date. But the scriptures are very clear on this matter. Jesus himself tells us in Acts of the Apostles 1:6-8, So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sama'ria and to the end of the earth." Now Jesus tells us to have faith and believe without seeing. He told us everything we needed to know to live a good life, filled with His grace given freely. It is nothing we need to earn but it is something we should protect. We should strive to live like Jesus did when he was on earth. That is what we should be focused on. That is the difficult path we are asked to walk. How do we transform this world? By living everyday like Jesus did. We must love each other. We must treat each other with kindness. We must not kill, lie or cheat. It sounds simple but putting it into practice is difficult. There is an interesting book out now called The One. The main premise that the author proposes is to find the one thing you will be good at and focus all of your energies on that one thing. Shouldn't that be living a Christ-like life? It will take all of your effort but the reward is certainly worth it.

Uncertainty over what constitutes coercive “proselytism,” which is barred by military policy, has led to concern and criticism of recent statements by the U.S. Department of Defense. “Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one's beliefs (proselytization),” Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen said May 2. Military commanders take action on complaints of religious harassment “based on the gravity of occurrence on a case by case basis,” he said in a statement. Christensen said the Defense Department works to ensure that service members are free to practice their religion “in a manner that is respectful of other individuals’ rights to follow their own belief systems; and in ways that are conducive to good order and discipline.” The statement comes amid concerns regarding reports claiming that Defense Department policy would put Christians at risk of facing court martial for sharing their religious beliefs. The reports cited department statements banning “proselytism” without defining the term. New 2012 rules from the U.S. Air Force say superiors must avoid “the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion,” USA Today reports. Concerns particularly focused on an April 23 meeting between several military leaders and Mikey Weinstein, president of the New Mexico-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation, who has characterized his opponents in extreme terms. In an April 16 opinion piece published at the Huffington Post, Weinstein said he is fighting “incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters” who force “their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces.” However, despite various media reports, Christensen denied that Weinstein is part of any Defense Department advisory group or a consultant on religious matters. Rather, he said, Weinstein was granted a meeting with certain officers in order “to express his concerns on religious issues in the military.” Still, there are concerns over how differences are determined between acceptable “evangelization” and punishable “proselytization.” These worries are partly sparked by Weinstein’s comments, reported by the Associated Press, that a Christian bumper sticker on an officer’s car or a Bible on an officer’s desk can amount to “pushing this fundamentalist version of Christianity on helpless subordinates.” The Department of Defense declined to offer further comments to CNA on what activities are considered evangelization as compared to proselytization. Former Marine Joe Carter, who is editor for the Alabama-based Gospel Coalition, wondered about this distinction and how strictly the rules would be applied. “We don't want your boss saying you have to go to a Bible study,” he told USA Today. “But what if he just invites you?” Ron Crews, a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel who heads the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, asked that more attention be paid to service members’ rights to share and live their faith. “Saying that a service member cannot speak of his faith is like telling a service member he cannot talk about his spouse or children,” Crews said in a statement on the group’s website. “The Air Force cannot ban personnel from protected religious speech, and I certainly hope that it is willing to listen to the numerous individuals and groups that actually live out and protect military religious liberty, all without demonizing other service members.” Christensen said the Defense Department places “a high value” on the rights of service members to observe their religious tenets, including the right to hold no beliefs. He added that the Defense Department will never “single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution” and makes “reasonable accommodations” for all religions.

Dialogue doesn't work with the devil; the only defense is the word of God, humility and meekness, especially in response to his works of hatred and persecution, Pope Francis said. "Humility and meekness: These are the weapons that the prince of the world, the spirit of the world does not tolerate, because he makes proposals for worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals for riches," he said in his daily morning Mass homily. The pope celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives, with members of the Swiss Guard, including their commander, Col. Daniel Anrig. In his homily, the pope talked about the origin of hatred and how Jesus told his disciples of the spite and persecution awaiting them, as told in the day's reading from chapter 15 of the Gospel according to St. John. "Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecute me, they will also persecute you," he cited from the Gospel.

The biggest threat to the church is worldliness, Pope Francis said in his daily morning Mass homily. A worldly church becomes weak, and while people of faith can look after the church, only God "can look evil in the eye and overpower it," he said April 30. The pope celebrated the Mass with members of the Vatican's investment agency in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. The day's reading from the Gospel of St. John recounts Jesus telling his disciples, "I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming;" but Satan "has no power over me." The pope said, "If we don't want the prince of this world to take the church in his hands, we have to entrust her to the only one who can defeat the prince of this world. Entrusting the church to the Lord is a prayer that makes the church grow" and is an act of faith because "we can do nothing. All of us are poor servants of the church," he said.