Invitation and Encounter: Evangelising through the Sacraments

"Sacramentalised, but not evangelised" is a phrase often used by those in the Church involved in pastoral outreach and evangelisation efforts. While the phrase gets at a truth -- many Catholics who have received the sacraments are still in desperate need of evangelization -- it is theologically and spiritually imprecise. The problem is not that people have "only" received their sacraments, but that we do not fully understand the evangelising work of the sacraments themselves. In Invitation and Encounter: Evangelising Through the Sacraments, theologian, author, and speaker Timothy P. O'Malley shows how the sacraments, as efficacious signs, are Christ working in the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. This book presents a pastoral introduction to sacramental theology from the standpoint of evangelisation. How do sacraments evangelise? How do sacraments both heal and divinise those who receive them? Invitation and Encounter introduces the major terms and ideas of sacramental theology and helps the reader recognise how the sacramental life is integral to evangelisation. By evangelising through the sacraments, the goal of the New Evangelisation is fulfilled, building up the Body of Christ with more Catholics who are sacramentalised and evangelised. About the Author: Timothy P. O'Malley is director of McGrath Online and the academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy. He is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches and researches in the areas of liturgical-sacramental theology, catechesis, and spirituality.

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