By TAMI QUIGLEY Staff writer
“Holiness Revolution” was the theme of the parish mission this Lent at St. John the Baptist, Pottsville.
Dan DeMatte, an international speaker and best-selling Catholic author of “Holiness Revolution” offered the mission talks during the March 24-26 event.
DeMatte spoke about “being transformed into the image of Christ” during the March 26 talk, “The Transformation.”
Themes of the other evenings were “Drop Everything” on March 24 and “The Holiness Revolution” on March 25. Each evening included the mission talk, prayer ministry with adoration, confessions and stations, and fellowship and hospitality.
“I love priests, men and women who are shining examples of God the Father,” DeMatte said.
DeMatte kicked off his talk by saying you have to “sell” religion, and asked Father David Loeper, pastor to “sell” the content of the box to those gathered by answering their descriptive questions about the item. Father Loeper did not know the box contained a roll of toilet paper, but the congregation did as laughter ensued during the exercise.
Afterward, DeMatte took a serious turn, asking, “What does it mean to be holy?” DeMatte said he felt he couldn’t measure up to the saints. But then he realized St. Paul writes to the “saints” of the Church in places such as Corinth.
“St. Paul had the understanding that when we’re baptized we die with Christ and rise with Christ, because we have a new life in Jesus Christ. We don’t identify with a sin nature but instead a son or daughter nature,” DeMatte said.
“We need to start understanding ourselves as God understands us, and see ourselves as God sees us.”
“Holy means to be set apart – that our lives look different than other people’s lives,” he said, referencing Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
“St. Paul says we no longer are citizens of Earth, we are citizens of heaven. If we’re citizens of heaven, we should look like a foreigner here,” DeMatte said.
“Our culture should be the way of life of saints, not of the world.”
DeMatte reminded those gathered of the words of St. Paul in Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
“For St. Paul, to be holy is to become another Christ – start seeing the world from Jesus’ eye view,” said DeMatte.
“Jesus tells us whenever we heal the least of our brothers, we’re healing him.
“Holiness is being transformed to be like Jesus. Pray God reveals to you how he sees a person. I’m so excited God continues to transform my life.”
DeMatte said holiness is about coming to understand who we are as citizens of heaven, and release that grace here on earth.
“God wants to release his glory here on earth,” DeMatte said.
How to be transformed? DeMatte said everyone should write 10 things on who they are as a child of God and then live them. “The sacraments can also transform you – heart, mind and spirit.
“Go to daily Mass to avail yourself of God’s mercy. Grace transforms us, and is promised to us in the sacraments.”
“Be transformed by prayer,” DeMatte said. “In prayer we come to know and hear Jesus’ voice.”
DeMatte starred in A&E’s reality TV show “God or the Girl,” as well as defended the teachings of the Catholic faith on “Larry King Live,” “The View” and the “Today” show.
He is the host of EWTN’s Global Catholic Radio Show called “Encounter.”
DeMatte and his wife live in Ohio with their four children, where he is the founder and executive director of Damascus Catholic Mission Campus, a 500-acre mission campus that ministers to thousands of youth each year through programs like Catholic Youth Summer Camp.
DeMatte has a master of arts degree in evangelization from the Pontifical College Josephinum. He began his ministry serving as a missionary with NET Ministries and has spent over a decade learning and implementing the best approaches in Catholic youth ministry and parish-based evangelization.
