Fr. Peter on Modern Missions
Generation Z is the new horizon of young adults today. The term was first coined in a 1994 book about Clinton’s presidency, predicting: “they will be like steerage passengers on the Titanic, trapped in the watery bowels of a sinking ‘unsinkable ship’” (H. S. Thompson). Born after 1996, the iGeneration, Gen. Z, is reported to spend 9 hours a day online. 52% believe gender is based on a person’s preference. 78% believe in God, but only 41% attend regular church services. The religious landscape that once emphasized sacrifice and suffering now emphasizes therapy and entitlement. We blinked and we found ourselves in a world of mud-flinging, radical ideologies, and technologies advancing faster than anyone can keep up.
To be Christian is to be a missionary. The Church’s vocation in the first century is no different than its vocation in the 21st. Every spirit of Christianity that is not mission-minded, is not Christian. St. John Chrysostom put it bluntly, “I don’t believe in the salvation of anyone who is not concerned with the salvation of others.” A contemporary priest in our Archdiocese put it in sharper words:
Whatever terms we give people, Generation Z, millennials, baby boomers, or the like, everyone is a person desperately in need of God. The people around us are starved for truth and sanity, and we owe it to them.
**We are pleased to include writings from modern American Monasteries from time to time as well as our traditional Elders**