Tom's

"Christian Awareness" Talk

The following is a talk given by Tom to a group of men at St. John the Evangelist (Yardley, PA) as part of the

Christ Renews His Parish (currently called “Welcome” by Dynamic Catholic) retreat weekend in the fall of 2016.

This talk will also be published in Tom’s first book I Went on a Retreat 365 Days in a Row! sometime in 2024.

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My Witness Talk on

“Christian Awareness”

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When our “Christ Renews His Parish” (CRHP) group got together in the Spring of 2015 to determine which Witness Theme I was going to take, I sat in silence and prayed that it would be Christian Awareness. I did not say anything else to anyone about which theme I would like to take. I said to myself that it would be okay if someone else took this theme, and I would take any of the other remaining themes. I just sat there, waited, and prayed. I sat there listening to what each member of our group was saying about which theme they felt would work best for himself. After everyone had their Witness Theme, it was my turn. I was given the theme Christian Awareness. I really felt the Holy Spirit was alive and with us in the meeting room that night, just like He is right now.

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You may be sitting there and thinking to yourself, “What is Christian Awareness?” I felt I had a pretty good idea about what it is when the Holy Spirit gave me this Witness Theme several months ago. I have learned so much more about Christian Awareness from that day until today. Before I tell you about myself in terms of my Christian faith, let me briefly go over how various people define Christian Awareness.

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Before I did a Google search of Christian Awareness on the Internet, I tried my best with defining it myself. Believe me, this took some time to come up with on my own. Also, my definition may be different than yours or someone else’s. Before I read my definition, please take 30 seconds to form your own definition and then write your definition on paper. Ask yourself, “What is Christian Awareness?”

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My definition goes something like this: “Christian Awareness is when a person consciously looks to see where he or she can act in a Christ-like manner toward some other person on a daily basis.”

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“Christian Awareness is when a person consciously looks to see where he or she can act in a Christ-like manner toward some other person on a daily basis.”

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Let’s put it this way. It is tough to come up with a definition on our own so that it makes sense to others when they read it or we say it to them. Let’s take a look at other definitions about Christian Awareness that others have come up with.

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1)Norman P. Spotts mentions the Four “be’s” of Christian Awareness, which come from II Peter Chapter 3:

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• “’Beloved … BE mindful’ (3:1,2): Be mindful of ‘the words which were spoken before’ that is, keep in your minds God’s word. … Don’t forget the word of God.”
• “’Beloved … BE not ignorant’ (3:8). … The believer should not be ignorant of the Lord’s timetable (3:8); the Lord’s salvation (3:9); nor the Day of the Lord (3:10-13).”
• “’Beloved … BE diligent’ (3:14): Diligence should be found in our upward look (3:14): our outward conduct (3:14); and our daily witnessing (3:15).”
• “’Beloved … BEware’ (3:17): … The Christian who is not alert to the errors of the wicked is in constant danger of falling away. On the negative side, ‘Beware!’ On the positive side, ‘be ye holy’ (I Peter 1:16);”

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(Repeat the Four “be’s” from above.)

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2)When you visit openbible.info on the Internet and type Christian Awareness into the search box, it lists a number of different Bible passages that relate to this topic. Two of these are a few of my favorites:

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• John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
• John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

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3)The EWTN Faith section online says the following: “Christian Awareness involves making observations about things around us, judging how those things are ordered and, ultimately, taking necessary action when our judgment tells us that something needs to be reordered to God.” For example, suppose you become aware of the fact that a store just a few blocks away from your church started selling pornography. That is your observation. What judgments can you make about this? Is this well-ordered? Will people be tempted in ways that will negatively affect their relationship with God and others? What action can be taken to order this situation in terms of our faith and what we believe?

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Christian Awareness comes down to three things.

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Observation, Judgment, Action

Observation, Judgment, Action

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After hearing about how Christian Awareness is defined by others, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

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My name is Tom Burke. I have been a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist since September 2001. I am married. I have a beautiful wife, Barb, whom I have been married to for 23 years. I have been teaching high school mathematics for 26 years (9 at The Hun School of Princeton and 17 years at PHS). Barb was a Stay-at-Home Mom until our youngest child was in school full-time. Now, she works as a nurse with Premier Urgent Care. We have four wonderful children – Christina is 20 years old and studying nursing at the University of Delaware, Sarah is 18 years old and she in her first year at BCCC, Mary is 13 years old and an 8th grader at Pennwood Middle School, and Thomas is 11 years old and a 6th grader at Pennwood also.

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I would like to talk to you about my life, but I am going to divide it into three parts. The first part will be from October 1966 until September 2001. The second part is from September 2001 until October 2015. The third part is from October 2015 until the Lord, Our God, takes me from this life to live with Him eternally … I hope and pray.

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Part One

October 1966 – September 2001

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• I am a Cradle Catholic.
• My Parents are Catholic.
• Our Family attended Mass every Sunday.
• My Family was very involved with CYO (basketball, bowling), July 4th Parish Picnic, May Procession, Hot Dog Day once a month, BINGO, and many other parish activities.
• I attended St. Mary of the Assumption in Manayunk, Philadelphia (1st Grade to 8th Grade).
• I attended St. Joe’s Prep my freshman and sophomore years in high school; I transferred to the William Penn Charter School for several reasons – sports, no driver’s license, academics.

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During this time I felt as though I was “in tune” with my faith. I attended Mass every Sunday. I received the Sacraments of Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. I attended a Catholic retreat once a year with my dad and brother, Scott, at the St. Alphonsus Retreat House in the Poconos. I went on this retreat starting at a very young age all the way up until I was a senior in high school. I remember that my prayer life during this time period included various times during each Mass I attended, grace before meals, and bedtime prayers at night. I did all of these things in terms of my faith. Thinking back on these times – from the time I was born in 1966 until I graduated from high school in 1985 – I felt as though I was a good Catholic and a good Christian, but there was something that was missing. I was doing all of these things, but did it involve Christian Awareness?

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After graduating from high school in 1985, I went off to Dickinson College in Carlisle for four years to study mathematics. While I was at Dickinson, I attended Mass every Sunday on campus along with approximately several hundred other college students. I did not do too much in terms of living my faith until the last two years of college. I decided to participate in the Big/Little Program on campus. This is where a college student is placed with a very young boy or girl from Carlisle. The children in the program have little in terms of food, clothing and shelter. They usually do not have an adult in their lives who can act as their mentor, friend, or parent. I picked up Erik once a week to bring him to campus. When we were there, we hung out in my dormitory room, we played on campus, and we ate together in the cafeteria. I was a Big Brother and father-figure to Erik. I may not have thought this way at the time, but The Lord Our God was definitely working through me to reach out to Erik in many positive ways.

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After graduating from college, it was off to work full-time. I started as a high school mathematics teacher at The Hun School of Princeton. I worked there from 1990 to 1999. During my years at The Hun School, I felt as though it was my responsibility as an adult to teach my students mathematics so that they could learn, do well academically, and move on to work on being successful in life after high school and/or college. Looking back on this experience, I feel that I was their teacher, but I was not there to be a person they could look up to in terms of my Christian Faith and theirs, if they had any faith in God at all.

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Outside of the classroom I felt as though I was being a very good person in terms of living my faith. I did not really think about it as Christian Awareness. I just thought about it as doing something that is right. It is always good to reach out and help others.

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First, I was the teacher supervisor of the Bible Club. Our club had about a dozen students attend once a week after school. We studied John’s Gospel for several years.

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Second, I took it upon myself to reach out to a husband and wife in the Princeton area. The husband and wife are both totally blind. I visited this couple once each week to help them with groceries, walking in the neighborhood, cleaning, and organizing things in their home.

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Third, I reached out to an elderly man in the Princeton area who was confined to his trailer home. I visited with Ray once a week to just hang out and “shoot the breeze.” It was always fun to go there … not just to visit, but to hear him say “Hey Tommmmyyyy!” when I arrived. He always enjoyed when I visited. I truly enjoyed hanging out with Ray.

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While working in Princeton, NJ from 1990 to 1995, these are some of the things that I did to reach out and help others. I continued working at The Hun School when Barb and I moved to Fairless Hills in 1995. I made the commute from Fairless Hills to Princeton every day to teach for four more years.

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During my 5 years of being in Princeton, I attended Mass every Sunday at St. Paul’s. When we moved to Fairless Hills, I attended Mass each Sunday at St. Frances Cabrini from 1995 to 2000. Attending Mass is something I had done when I was very young. It is something that I always did with my family. I do not remember much about the times from 1990 until 2000 in terms of what I heard during the sermons. I feel that I did not take the time during this time period, mainly in Mass, to figure out what I should be doing in terms of my faith once I left the church on a given Sunday. I do not think that I consciously said to myself during Mass or after Mass ended, “How can I be Christ-like today? How am I going to live my life today the way that Christ did when He was on this Earth?” Christian Awareness is something that I had never heard of before.

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In June 2000, Barb, Christina, our older daughter, and Sarah, our younger daughter, moved to Makefield Road Village, just less than one mile from St. John the Evangelist. Our family continued attending Mass at St. Frances Cabrini in Fairless Hills for up to one year, but we decided that it would be better to join St. John’s. So, we became parishioners at St. John’s in 2001. This is where things seemed to become different in terms of my faith. I cannot pinpoint one certain thing that occurred, but I know that it was the beginning of much deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. It was the beginning of my becoming more aware of Christian Awareness.

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If you have been paying attention very closely, I mentioned that I was going to tell you about three parts of my life. I just talked about the first part, October 1966 to September 2001. I now want to talk to you about the second part. But before I do that, I want to show you a video of something on YouTube.com. I will preface this video by saying that what you are about to see is an introduction of a person. The introduction is given by Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey introduces a person whom I look up to as an inspiration in terms of how I should act towards others on a daily basis. This person is one who really defines what Christian Awareness is all about.

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(After showing video clip)

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I have watched this “Introduction of Jesus Christ” many times during the last several years. Mr. Harvey does an awesome job of introducing Jesus Christ in such a way that shows that Jesus is the most important person to ever walk the face of the Earth. At this point in my life, Jesus Christ is my focus. There are many other areas of my life that are very important also. These include my family, my “self,” and my career. Devoting myself to Jesus Christ today, tomorrow, and every day for the rest of my life is something that I want to do.

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Part 2

September 2001 – October 2015

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During the last 14 years, I have learned so much about my faith. I was not that involved with much at St. John’s in the beginning, mainly because we were new to the parish. I just wanted to see what parish life was all about. I was asked to go on the Malvern Retreat in Malvern, PA several times, but I said “no” each time. To this day I am grateful and thankful to Don Hertkorn that he was persistent, in a nice way, with trying to get me to attend a retreat. I did not join the Men’s Faith Sharing Group that meets two times each month on Saturday mornings right away, but there were several men at St. John’s who asked me several times over a period of time to see if I wanted to join them on these Saturdays to talk about our faith, to read the Gospel, and to talk about how to live our lives the way that Jesus did. Going on a Malvern Retreat once each year brought me back to my young days when I attended retreats with my dad and brother at St. Alphonsus Retreat House. Attending the Men’s Faith Sharing Group on Saturdays twice each month helped me to learn more about my faith, and how to live out my faith.

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The Malvern Retreat and Men’s Faith Sharing Group started during my first several years at St. John’s. The next thing that occurred at St. John’s was RENEW, which started in 2003 and finished in 2005. Talk about sharing your faith with others! Barb and I attended a church service along with approximately 100 parishioners. This service was the beginning of the RENEW program at St. John’s. After the church service, we walked from the church, each person holding a lit candle, to the school cafeteria. We randomly sat at tables in the cafeteria. Little did I know that this one little event would change my faith life in a significant way! The people we randomly sat with ended up becoming some of our best friends at St. John’s. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The Holy Spirit working through us? I think so. We formed a RENEW group that evening, and that group became one of many faith groups that I have been a part of at St. John’s. This group started in 2003 and lasted for about 7 years. Also, the people I met that night are my friends forever!

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Everything I just told you was just the beginning of my Christian Awareness. For the past twelve years I have been a true Disciple of Jesus Christ. Don’t get me wrong. I am a sinner, and I ask God for His forgiveness when I sin. But, my faith journey during this time has helped me develop my relationship with Jesus Christ. It has helped me to see through a different set of lenses when it comes to my faith and reaching out to others. Let me explain what I mean by this.

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One of the many goals I have in life, and probably one of the most important, is to get to heaven. The way I am going to try and achieve this goal involves several areas:

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First, John 3:16.

Second, ask God for His forgiveness when I sin.

Third, Christian Awareness.

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Let’s go back to the third definition of Christian Awareness that I gave at the beginning of my Witness Talk.

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Observation, Judgment, Action

Observation, Judgment, Action

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In order to devote my life to Jesus Christ, I need to do just that.

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The CRHP handbook discusses Christian Awareness in several ways:

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(Read each of the following twice.)

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First, “Lest this community be seen as one which only serves itself, one who has been served witnesses both

for the community and to personal growth in the Christian Awareness of serving and loving as Jesus did. This is Kingdom living and it calls for an awareness of a new life style.”

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Second, “The hallmark of following Jesus is service: serving him by serving one another in love, and

witnessing this to others by lovingly serving them together.”

  

Third, “I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet.”

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There are a number of different ways I am working on in terms of developing my relationship with Jesus Christ. One of these is Christian Awareness. During my time as a parishioner at St. John’s, I have done this in a number of ways:

• Making soup for Aid for Friends.
• Playing BINGO with the Manor Care residents.
• Cleaning parishioners’ yards in the fall.
• Handing out coats, hats, socks, blankets and food to the homeless.
• Helping a blind person with reading mail and organizing food.
• Serving meals to guests at the Loaves & Fishes Program.
• Delivering food to people at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
• Building gardens, fish traps, and bathrooms on mission trips.

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These are some things I have done during the past 14 years at St. John the Evangelist. I would like to continue to do these, but there are many more things I would like to do. The way that I look at it, I am one of God’s Disciples … a Disciple is a leader … a leader is one who follows Jesus under the guidance of The Holy Spirit. The hallmark of following Jesus is service – serving Him by serving one another in love.

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Let’s take a look at the web site PlannedActsofKindness.com, which was published a few days ago. Here is a sneak preview.

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(Show web site.)

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What inspires me to be a servant of God?

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For me, it is all about living my life as Jesus Christ did. I want to be the one who reaches out to help others in any way that I can from today until the day I die.

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The Bible is God’s Word. It teaches us how to live our lives. It is our Life Manual. There are many passages in the Bible that we can use as examples of Christian Awareness. Two of these are the following:

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Luke 10:25-28 – “There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ He said in reply, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ He replied to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.’”

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Matthew 25: 35-40 – “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

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Christian Awareness is exemplified in the Matthew West song “Do Something,” which gives me the inspiration to reach out to others like Jesus did.

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(Play song for everyone.)

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Part 3

(October 2015 – Not Sure When)

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What does the future hold in store for me in terms of Christian Awareness? Where do I go from here? Well, there are ministries at St. John’s I am involved with right now and I would like to continue with as long as I can.

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CRHP – helping other men grow in their faith with Jesus Christ.

Social Concerns Committee – helping the less fortunate in our area.

Knights of Columbus – feeding and clothing the poor.

Junior CYO Community Service – feeding the poor, reaching out to help others in need, helping the youth with their

                                                            faith through various activities.

El Salvador Mission Trip (August 2016) – building houses in El Salvador with the youth and parents at St. John’s.

Creation Festival (June 2016) – developing one’s relationship with Jesus Christ through music.

Bucks County Food Runners (2015) – picking up food from various food establishments and then taking the food to

                                                                 places that can give it to those in need.are

PlannedActsofKindness.com (2015) – choosing a ministry at the web site and volunteering to help those in need.

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Why I am doing this?

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I want to be that person who other people can come to and find out what they can do in terms of reaching out to help others. I want to be that person who is Christ-like. I want to live my life in a way that is Christ-like to others. I want to be that person who reaches out and helps others in any way that I can. It is my hope that I can continue to build upon what I have done in each of the ministries I have been a part of at St. John’s and other ministries I am involved with outside of St. John’s.

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This is what Christ has taught us when he spoke to his Apostles:

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Matthew 25: 35-40 – “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’”