Evangelization: It Starts With Us

It is important to stand up for your faith! Everyone can attest to this statement, but do we really do what we say? Everyone can be faith filled and have the urge to do God's work while they are in the middle of worshiping during church, but it is often a different story once we leave the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

Evangelization is not tolerated today. We are told, "It is okay for you to believe what you want to believe, just don't talk about it to anyone else." We are given the perception that religion is great in church, but we should keep it to ourselves after that.

A work friend of mine was recently in trouble with the law. She was arrested, brought before a judge and was given a 45 day jail sentence as a result of two consecutive drunk-driving charges. Her arrest has caused each of her co-workers to pick up her shifts while she has her paperwork filed and can return to work under Huber Law. As I take each one of her shifts I pray that the Lord can help her to feel His presence as she goes through this very difficult time. Shortly before her incarceration, I had a chance to talk to her. I found out that she is an atheist, but has not always had the lack this lack of faith. I found out that she had regularly attended a Catholic church while she was little, but her parents had ceased to attend and she found what she considered "better" ways to spend her Sundays.

In an attempt to show her that God still exists and is very much a part of her life, I told her that I was attending college seminary after graduation this year and offered to share my faith story with her. I was not trying to brag or show off my strong faith, but I wanted to show her that God has the power to influence our thoughts and decisions if we open up to him. It is my prayer "amid the pots and pans at work", that God continues to open up her heart to Him. Perhaps by some miracle her eyes can open to His love and her faith will be renewed.

Religion is a bigger subject than people think. God needs to be talked about wherever we go. The subject of God should not be stopped once we walk out of the church doors, but it should be carried to all those we come in contact with. Young people of today need to know God and know how much He loves them despite all of their faults and mistakes. This is our job as Christians and Evangelizers. Are we up to the challenge to take the Gospel to the streets?

Feelings

It seems that every time someone looks like they have everything together, does the right thing or seems holy beyond measure, it seems like at that moment that the Devil will come after you hard. He will try to tempt you, try to exploit your weaknesses, trying to get you to let go just once from God and what he wants you to do.

This is something that I'm sure everyone has experienced, and unfortunately its something that I'm going through right now. At this point in my life, I feel under attack, then again doesn't everyone feel this way once in a while? Still, this feeling really bothers me. It bothers me that people look at my blog, write to me asking for advice, telling me that I will make a great priest someday and look at me as someone who is surely on the right path. It bothers me that I write back emails answering questions, counseling fellow friends, trying to give away words of wisdom, all while I struggle with very same things. I feel like a complete hypocrite.

It's easy for me when things are going right to say: "Lord, give me a cross to carry, and let me bring others closer to you and lead by example," but then as soon as a little temptation hits me, I'm done and I give up. On the outside I may look like I persevere through temptation and sin but on the inside when no ones looking over my shoulder, at that moment, that's when I give in to temptation. People tell me that I am strong in my faith, but in honest truth, my faith is weak. The quote, "How do you live your life, when no one is watching?", makes me think of myself every single time.

This may seem like a dark and depressing blog post, probably one that many of you will pass over. Some of you maybe thinking to yourself, "He used to have strong faith, and now it looks like he is no longer faithful to God. He has lost all hope and trust." But isn't this true for all of us? Isn't this something that we all face? Everywhere we look there are distractions, traps, bad decisions and sometimes they do get the best of us, but the challenge is making sure that no matter what we do, no matter how far down in the dark we feel, that we still stretch out our hands toward Jesus and His loving mercy.

Jesus loves us no matter how many bad things we do or say, but its up to us to make an effort towards Him. If we even so much as take a step in God's direction, we know that He will run a million miles to where you stand. We all have ups and downs, we all have difficult challenges that we face, but no matter how many times we fall, no matter how many times we feel worthless and down and covered in sin, we must remember how important it is to get back up and continue on the path to forgiveness. Christ will meet us there, guaranteed.

Holy Hour!!!!!

The other day I was asked to serve at a Holy Hour for Life at my parish. The presider of this Holy Hour was our deacon. Deacon Dave is unique compared other deacons in our Archdiocese because he is deaf. This would be his first ever Holy Hour in which he would be presiding. The day of this service, I was asked to serve at it with Deacon Dave. Being unprepared, I was extremely nervous. To make matters worse, when I got to the church our Director of Liturgy told me that I would need to keep on top of Deacon so that he would know what to do and not get confused. This would mean that I would have to sort of be in charge of the Holy Hour making sure Deacon Dave knew what to say and do. Because of this added pressure I began to get even more nervous. I prayed to God to calm my nerves and to give me the strength to lead Deacon Dave in the right direction.

As the service began, I calmly held the Sacramentary for Deacon Dave and pointed to the opening prayer, but for some reason, Deacon Dave began pointing out a totally different prayer! I still continued to point to the opening prayer until finally Deacon Dave started to recite in sign language, the prayer. After this the rest of the service went smoothly but I was still very nervous. It was hard work helping Deacon Dave during this because I could not truly communicate with him and this made things difficult for me when I was trying to tell him something. Maybe this is a sign that I should learn sign language.

When the Holy Hour ended, I was so relieved. Deacon Dave thanked me over and over for helping him stay on track throughout the service as did the Director of Liturgy. I was very happy that I had done a good job even though I did it on such short notice. It feels good knowing that I had helped someone out. I helped our Director of Liturgy by coming to serve on short notice and I helped Deacon Dave lead a beautiful Holy Hour! Jesus was my source of calm during this service. He seemed to flood me with His peace and I am so glad that He did. I could not have done this without Him.

Jesus takes all of our worries away!

I occasionally altar serve at daily mass on Fridays. I love being able to help the priest and be close to the Blessed Sacrament. I am usually very calm and focused during mass, but today for some reason, I constantly worried about everything during mass. I worried if I had put enough hosts in the bowl for communion, and if I had put enough wine into the pitcher. I was beginning to panic. Then during communion, as my lips touched the cup full of Jesus' blood, I was filled with instant calm! I realized that Jesus was taking all of my troubles and worries away from me! Jesus calms the storms in our lives, and fills us with peace! Thanks be to God!