Parish schools, CCD programs, RCIA programs, and preaching during worship are all venues of initial evangelization. They can be skeptical of any overt challenge to their indifference, indolence, incomplete views, or mistaken beliefs about the Gospel. New evangelization calls for new evangelizers, one's peers in the laity. The message is timeless, but it needs fresh articulation, and a focus on the receptivity of the audience. In a Dominican parish, the scientific competence of those trained in philosophy and theology combines with a recognition of the Holy Spirit's operation in the souls of all the baptized and confirmed, to create a community of evangelizers each of whom needs to learn, to pray, and to articulate.
Priests learn from the laity challenged to articulate the faith in non-churchy places.
Laity learn from Dominicans steeped in the tradition of St. Thomas, who marvelously used the new learning of his day to present the faith. All, moved to love God because they are ever exploring God's goodness, respond to learning in prayer, and, moved by the experience of love in prayer, grow more curious to know God's goodness. This cycle is Dominican contemplation. Some will find that they are not called to be evangelizers, but their contemplation and intercession are directed toward the fulfillment of the task of evangelization. Others will find that contemplation is the sure basis of their effective evangelization, since only by knowing God and God's people deeply and loving them intensely will they be moved to communicate and be equipped with something to say that will be heard.