Mark 16:15 ....“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation."
I had thought about writing a book and I still may do that someday. However, for now, I plan to focus on booklets that are around 64 pages in length that can be read in about an hour or maybe 2 hours for people that read slow like me.
The title that I came up with for my first booklet is: "Go Into All The World: Loving, Living, Sharing, Inviting, Praying"
Evangelization is not only something Catholics need to be doing to help bring others to Christ, but by loving, living, sharing, inviting and praying, our own lives are more enriched. Evangelization can also be about encouraging others who are weak in their faith. The devil is the winner when Catholics are NOT strong in their faith.
Loving - We are commanded by Christ to love others. Paul talks about love in I Corinthians 13 and the chapter closes out with verse 13 "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." If we love Christ, we'll want to live for him. If we love others, we'll want to help them.
Living - We have to live out our faith daily. It's not just checking off Sunday Mass attendance. Some people look through human eyes at all the things faithful Catholics do and see much of it as unnecessary or just too much to do and remember. For me, I found living out life as a Catholic to be appealing and beneficial. Although I can and do pray in other places, I love being able to go in a church during the week and pray. I love being able to attend daily mass on a fairly regular basis ( wish I could go everyday ). I love praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, going to adoration and more. I love LIVING out my Catholic faith because it truly does help me be a better Christian.
Sharing - If we love Christ, love others and live out our faith, we will want to share our faith with others. Sharing doesn't mean standing on the street corner with a mega phone. Sharing can be as simple as having coffee with someone and sharing what God has done in your life or sharing something that the Priest said in Sunday's homily or sharing something about a book that you are reading or have read. Sharing is caring. Sharing is planting seeds. The Holy Spirit is the one that works on the individual, but it's our job to share.
Inviting - If we share our faith, it's only natural that we invite someone to Mass or Men's Group or a retreat or a conference or some other activity that may even just be a fish fry. The individual may not accept the invitation, but the invitation should at least be extended. It also doesn't mean that you have to call the same person every Saturday and say "I wanted to invite you to church again this Sunday. I know that I've called you the last 25 Saturday's and I'm not giving up." It's true that we shouldn't give up, but I think there has to be a balance. Sadly, I made it to age 50+ and had never been invited to a Catholic service or anything Catholic that I can remember nor had I ever had a Catholic share their faith with me. The extent of it was pretty much "I'm a Catholic" and left at that. Is it really that much harder to say "I'm Catholic...and would you like to attend ______ with me?"
Praying - Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." At the end of the day, we can love others who may not love us back, we can live our faith daily, we can share our faith whether anyone truly listens or not, we can invite someone to Mass or another function whether they accept or not, but there is always, always, always, prayer. Our prayer can be that God send someone into ______'s ( insert name ) life that may be able to connect with them in ways that I cannot. Our prayer can be empty me of me Lord and fill me with more of you. Prayer changes things.
