Have you ever heard a good story teller?  I mean the kind that grabs you from the beginning and holds you throughout and sometimes long after the tale is told.

The Bible has some amazing stories in it.  But there are so few of us laity that can relay the stories in the way that captures the imagination of those around us. Yet, the lessons they teach can provide a great springboard for catechesis.

Do you remember the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:13-32)?  Now picture yourself standing with them.  They are walking along, conversing and debating. 

The story goes that Jesus himself drew near and walked with them. At first, they were prevented from recognizing him. Although they were followers of Christ, they did not see that it was Him.

Jesus asked them “What are you discussing as you walk along?”.  They must have been surprised because they said, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” 

Now a good story teller would weave some interesting questions into the story to draw the listener in.  For example, wouldn’t the followers have seen the marks in Jesus’ hands?  A good story teller will have fun with that. 

But to become a good story teller, we need to really appreciate the Word of God.  We need to soak in the stories. That ties right in with the Bishops plan for evangelization[1].  Objective 93 encourages us to “To foster an appreciation of God’s Word in the lives of all Catholics”. One of the strategies cited states “more frequent individual reading of the Bible among Catholics”.   

Put your creative hat on.  How can we help people to find ways to engage those busy Catholics in more frequent Bible reading so we can bring scripture into our daily lives.   

Beep Beep Beep cshhhhh:  We interrupt this article to bring you a message from the Emergency Evangelization System.   

Nearly everyone in the country has a large object in their homes suitable for evangelizing the youngest to the oldest.  It is called a “refrigerator” and almost everyone goes by it at least once a day. We now resume our regularly scheduled article.”  

I recommend a very simple technique that I will refer to as “refrigerator evangelization”.  Move those magnets you got on that vacation to your local aquarium to the side and make room for some spiritually nourishing bible magnets.  I am sure you can find some at your local Catholic bookstore. If you prefer to make some yourself and have a yearning to let your creative side loose, I recommend making your own.   

Using royalty free images from some clipart/image company, you can create your own designs. There are magnet making companies out on the web that will make the magnets based on your designs.  At the website below, you will see an example of two magnets I made. I made a set of 44. (Note: Make sure you create your own images or purchase royalty free images before creating your  magnets.)     

https://www.theessentialmission.com/Individuals.html 

Create a set of them yourself with favorite bible stories and watch the awareness of Bible stories grow in your very own home.  When someone asks about the story, that is your cue to practice your “story telling”.  Don’t worry if you stumble a bit.  Over time, you will refine that story telling ability!  

Here is another method that I have used in my parish “To foster an appreciation of God’s Word in the lives of all Catholics”. Take a look at Marcus Grodi’s Coming Home Network website where you’ll find a free download entitled “Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year”. 

https://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf 

You can print this out and place a copy on your evangerator… I mean refrigerator.  Make people in your parish aware of this as well. It provides a systematic way to follow a path through the Bible with corresponding readings from the Catechism.  Its handy “check box” allows you to track your progress.  If you forget a day or two, just pick up with the next in the sequence when the time allows.  Although you can print these out for free, I purchased the beautiful brochures for a very reasonable price and put them in an existing brochure stand in my parish.  If you get a group of people doing the same thing, you have the basis for a study group.   

Now that you are equipped to build that Biblical foundation, take one story as a starting point and spend time thinking about it.  Not the whole Bible.  Not a whole book. Just one story. Become an expert. 

Back to our story: So there were those two followers.  They had reached their home and had that awkward moment.  Do they invite this man in for some supper who had shared the greatest scripture study in the history of the world.  What do you do?  Well they decided to invite him in. 

They did not realize it but there was Jesus, the Savior of the world sitting at table with them.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them.  And do you know what happened? 

Well, you’ll just have to read it for yourself!

I first ran across CatholicQuiz.com several weeks ago at a Diocesan Religious Education conference and it was all I could do not to jump out of my seat with excitement. CatholicQuiz.com is an evangelist’s dream. It is an educator’s friend. It is a catechist’s secret weapon. If you are looking for a way to engage young and old alike in an activity that is beneficial to their faith formation, this is it.   

Last weekend, I set up a table at a local conference with a laptop and Internet connection and sat back in awe.  A line had formed of young and old to try their hand at this inviting game.  It was simple. Or so they thought. I challenged them to beat one of the CatholicQuiz.com games (Survival – Level 3 or 4) and win a prize. They didn’t win, but they left smiling.  Most would try multiple times. Two young men (I guess they were about 13 or 14 years old) stayed at it for about an hour. Another vendor shook his head and said, “It looks like you have the popular table.” He was right!         

If you use the USCCB Bishop’s plan for evangelization called Go and Make Disciples (my favorite document on evangelization), CatholicQuiz.com fits in perfectly.   

This family-friendly membership website with interactive games meets the strategy in Objective 126 that calls for “reflection on Catholics’ use of the media in their homes” and “cultivation of … computer, and other technology for communicating the Gospel and Christian values.”  

One of the strategies in Objective 108 encourages families to look for “programs to support parents as the primary sharers of faith with their children.” You can be pretty well assured that when a child misses a question, they are going to turn to the parent and ask “Why.” 

I could cite more objectives and strategies. However, rather than reading more here, you should start playing CatholicQuiz.com.  This is a great way to share the faith.  Now, go and make disciples!  

Be sure to play the two free games: The Saints Are Coming and CatholicQuiz of the Week at https://www.catholicquiz.com/?a_aid=4d7c19079625c

There is no doubt that evangelization can seem daunting. We will be working in a cultural field that makes our goals difficult to achieve.

Many people that you encounter will prefer the stereotypical view of the Church versus the true picture of our faith.  To paraphrase Archbishop Fulton Sheen,  “There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing.”. We have to break through this false understanding.

Then, there is that famous admonition which tells us “never discuss religion or politics”. This masterfully crafted sound bite may be rooted in our relativist society in which the idea that there may be just one truth is intolerable and therefore not even open for discussion. This results in the elimination of civil discourse.  That deprives us of the opportunity to use our God given faculty of reason which is intended for us to seek the truth (or should I say The Truth). It is a rather clever way to remove religious thought from our society.  Who could be behind this, I wonder?

In addition, there are moral issues which make the Good News hard to hear. Once sin takes hold, there is a darkening of the intellect.  As you can imagine, this would make hearing the Gospel difficult.  The deeper the sin, the more difficult it will be to find the truth.

Did I say that evangelization can seem daunting? Perhaps I should say it can be downright intimidating.

That is why we must pray for the grace to evangelize.  In fact, we need to pray unceasingly for the grace to spread the Gospel.  For when we stop praying for this grace, we cease to evangelize.

You may be happy to find out that you do not need to take on the intimidating task of one-on-one dialogue with non-believers in order to evangelize.  The plan [1] allows for many ways to evangelize.  For example, Goal I – To bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others – Objective 97 (To foster an even deeper sense of prayer among our Catholic people) suggests the following strategy:

• Daily schedule of prayer for every Catholic

You see, if you do not pray daily right now, you need to build that habit.  Why?  Because in prayer, we open our hearts to God.  When we are open to God, amazing things can happen.

So if you already pray daily, great!  You are already evangelizing.  If you are not, start today.  There are many great prayers that you may choose. If you would like some help though, here is a simple prayer you can use to get started. It is one that all parishes need parishioners to pray.

Bless our Parish Lord

Protect and preserve our priests and religious. Inspire our leaders to walk in your ways. Touch the hearts of all in our parish family so they may respond to your call. Let our parish be a beacon of light in this community so that all who desire to know you, may find their way to our door.

Welcome to the world of evangelization!

I invite you right here and now to begin evangelizing.  Where do we begin?  We begin in prayer.  Why? We are told by our Bishops in Go and Make Disciples – A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States.

“These goals [of evangelization] are meaningless unless they are steeped in prayer. Without prayer, the Good News of Jesus Christ cannot be understood, spread, or accepted. These goals can be accomplished only by opening our hearts to God, who gives to his children everything they seek, who responds when we knock, and who answers when we persevere in asking.^“

What Goals? There are three goals for our plan of evangelization.

Goal I: To bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others

Goal II: To invite all people in the United States, whatever their social or cultural background, to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ so they may come to join us in the fullness of the Catholic faith, and finally

Goal III: To foster gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, the importance of the family, and the common good of our society, so that our nation may continue to be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ

 

When I think of Goal I, I think of a good friend of mine.  We used to get together for lunch once a week and practice our apologetics. One day he was telling me about his office space.  He was a convert to Catholicism and is on fire with the a burning love for the Faith.  He had a crucifix, Bible and copy of the Liturgy of the Hours at his desk.  He would pause a few minutes during the day to pray or read the Bible.

He was not a person who would corner you and start hurling arguments to convince you about the truths of the faith as you might imagine.  He was a kind and gentle person who would simply live his Faith in those quiet moments that occur during an ordinary day. And it was through his quiet prayer that people would begin to ask him about the faith.  It opened the door to sharing the beauty of our Faith as St. Peter suggested: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence”  (1 Pet 3:15-16)

Goal II is the essence of love of neighbor.  When we invite others to learn more about the Catholic Faith or participate more fully, we are helping them to find the happiness that can only be found through a deep Faith life.   Pope Benedict called evangelization “teaching the art of living”.  That is what our Faith does.  It teaches us how to live. If you had the secret to a happy life, wouldn’t you share it? Guess what…. you have that.

Last, but certainly not least, Goal III seeks to transform society through the saving power of Jesus Christ.  I think all will agree that our world is in desperate need of His transformation.

But this is a tricky one.  You see, when I start talking about evangelizing society, it conjures up the image of door to door evangelists. But before you turn the channel, I encourage you to hang in there.  There are many ways to evangelize our society without knocking on a single door.  (Though I wouldn’t stop you if you were called to that type of evangelization.

Now, should a parish adopt these goals?  Consider what the Bishops say. In Go and Make Disciples it says, “every element of the parish must respond to the evangelical imperative—priests and religious, lay persons, staff, ministers, organizations, social clubs, parochial schools, and parish religious education programs. Otherwise, evangelization will be something a few people in the parish see as their ministry—rather than the reason for the parish’s existence and the objective of every ministry in the parish.

“The reason for the parish’s existence”?  Well now… does your parish evangelize?

In many ways, the Bishops of the USCCB gave us the perfect plan when they wrote “Go and Make Disciples”. Why? It is because, there is something in there for everyone.

When I first discovered this document, I was struck by the simplicity of the plan. I happen to be interested in using the media to evangelize. So, I immediately looked for how they incorporated media into the structure. It took about 10 minutes to find it. There it was. Number 126 showed a strategy that said “use of audio, video, and videotapes to communicate the Catholic faith to others”. I was delighted.

But maybe producing media is not your thing. Perhaps you like to teach. Good news on that. You can evangelize through teaching the faith.

Perhaps you don’t see yourself as a catechist. You would rather organize or just participate in prayer devotions. That is evangelization too!

You see, the Bishops have designed a national plan for evangelization that can include every single Catholic. I would challenge any practicing Catholic to spend time in this document and not find something that they would be willing and able to do.

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with this document. It is available to read for free at the USCCB website.

https://www.nccbuscc.org/evangelization/goandmake/

The core of the document established three major goals tied to three levels of evangelization. Goal I shows ways to evangelize at the “individual” level. Goal II highlights ways that we can evangelize at the “community” level. Finally, Goal III encourages us to evangelize at the “society” level.

The beauty is that you can pick whatever level you want. You can evangelize at one or all levels.

Each Goal is broken down into “objectives”. For example, the objective related to my favorite “media” strategy is “126. To involve the Catholic Church, on every level, in the media”. Each objective has simply stated strategies.  So there you have it. It is a shopping list of evangelization strategies. Look down the list. Select your favorite and begin! In the coming months, We will explore some of these objectives and strategies. Please take a moment to email me any methods you have utilized and we can to share ideas. If you prefer, you can enter them at the website: www.TheEssentialMission.com

Let’s Begin!

If you were walking on a path with food in your satchel and came across a starving man, wouldn’t you share what you had? Of course you would. 

Why then do we walk by people every day who are starving for the bread of life and say to ourselves, “I don’t want to offend them by imposing my beliefs on them”.  That would be like passing by the starving man and saying he may not like the taste of my food. 

Evangelization is spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  But what does that mean? Why do we want to spread the Good News? What purpose will it serve?

The textbook answer of course is because our Lord said we should. You remember.  Speaking to His disciples he said “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” That did not just apply to those standing in front of Jesus.  Otherwise the faith would not have lasted beyond their lifetime. It is for all of us. 

The Bishops of the United States point out that evangelization is to lift people from error.  That is for all people.  Remember, we begin by evangelizing ourselves.  We need to be lifted from error as well.  Or at least, I know I do.

 

I know some people who have what might be called low self esteem.  They complain that they are depressed and their life lacks meaning. They just cannot seem to find happiness.   Not surprisingly, they do not have much of a faith life.  For if they knew the grandeur for which they were made, they would be able to attain the happiness which they crave.

God made each of us with a capacity for happiness. That capacity cannot be reached completely without reaching our final destination in Heaven where we will experience unending happiness with God.  However, God gives us some happiness here on earth if we follow the path that He has laid out for us.  That is, we can find happiness if we observe all that He commanded.

An inventor knows how best his or her invention should work. For example, a car will not run correctly if you put honey into the gas tank. As sweet as the liquid may be, the car will not run with that fuel.

God, our Creator gives us the instructions on how best to reach our full capacity for happiness.  We simply need to follow those instructions. 

The Catholic Church gives us those instructions.  She teaches us the way to reach unending happiness in Heaven.  Spreading that Good News has the practical result of people like you and me achieving the greatest possible happiness on earth.  That is attained when we live a life in Christ. It also leads us to our final destination where we will realize the full potential for which God made us.

Pope Benedict XVI expressed the essence of evangelization in beautiful terms.  In his Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers Jubilee of Catechists in December 2000 Pope Benedict XVI said that evangelization is “teaching the art of living” and showing the “path to happiness”.

If we look at evangelization in this way, it ceases to be an intellectual exercise.  It is no longer a academic debate.  It is a personal mission.  It is the essential mission of our lives.

God made us with a capacity for perfect happiness.  He sent his Son to open the Gates of Heaven and teach us how to obtain that happiness.  He commanded us to go and make disciples. 

It is now up to us, to follow the path that will lead to unending happiness. And as we see others on that path who may not know the way, we should help them to find their way as well by teaching them the art of living.  That is evangelization.