Are You Ready to Be a Daily Missionary Disciple?

Posted on October 12, 2021 by the Bouchers

“Jesus asks us all, and you as well, to be missionary disciples. Are you ready?” asked Pope Francis during the church’s annual celebration of October as Mission Month. “We pray that every baptized person may be engaged in evangelization, available to the mission, by being witnesses of a life that has the flavor of the Gospel… It’s enough to be available to answer his call and to live united to the Lord in the most common daily things — work, meeting other people, our daily duties, the chance events of each day — allowing ourselves to be guided always by the Holy Spirit.”

Do you know that World Mission Sunday is Oct. 24, 2021? Are you ready? Not necessarily to embrace the foreign missions, or become a priest, deacon or religious. For most of us, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist is all we need to get started. Then we must add a comprehensive, ever-evolving understanding of ourselves as missionaries. Bishop Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, puts it this way, “The minute you walk outside of your church on Sunday you’re in mission territory.” So, for many of us, even getting up out of bed, willing to serve our families, co-workers is a starting point. Next comes an awareness that the more than 80% of baptized Catholics are not regular Mass-goers, not to mention, others who are disconnected from any religious support or community.  This majority of people can be called, “religious wanderers.” Bishop Robert J. McManus, of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, writes, “The ministry of a missionary disciple is to search out these wanderers, and, once found, introduce them to the person of Jesus, the message of his Gospel, and the teachings of his Church.” (Catechist magazine, April-May, 2018)

Here are eight practices for growing as daily missionary disciples:

  • Praise and thank God frequently throughout the day for the many gifts you have (and that others also experience—health, possessions, education, friends, jobs, homes, loved ones, etc.
  • Watch for the Holy Spirit’s prompting to speak to others. You might start each day with this simple prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit, grant me the courage to listen to others, to hear what they are going through and to help lift the burdens that they bear. If it be your will, use me to help them.”
  • Embrace the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as doorways that give meaning to daily sorrows and joys, losses and gains, emptiness and abundance.
  • Strive to become a humble disciple of Jesus Christ. Neither boast of successes, drown in failures, or blame others for their problems. When you see someone who has lost his or her way, recall these words, “There but for the grace of God go I.” (Saint Philip Neri)
  • Learn to practice detachment from material possessions. These are gifts from God our Father, given to be shared with the needy. We do not have absolute ownership of anything.
  • Serve in the face of every kind of poverty; physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. This includes the struggles of the aged, homeless, despairing, and the food insecure, especially among your acquaintances, friends, and relatives.
  • Be prepared to speak about God when the opportunity arises. You might briefly share how (your faith in) Jesus Christ has helped you with a similar struggle. “I felt that way when…. And I became hopeful as I realized that God……”
  • Accept disappointment with patience and courage. Do not dwell in the darkness of a friend’s negative response. “If disappointed, don’t say hard things. Only think a little, and try to remember that God will bring about what is best in God’s own time.” (St. Mary MacKillop)
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Evangelizing Wisdoms Born of the Tragedy on 9/11

Posted on September 10, 2021 by the Bouchers

[John writes] On the morning of September 11, 2001, I stood at an office window in Plainfield, NJ, with tears in my eyes and fear in my heart.  From there, I could see the World Trade Center Towers burning, exploding, collapsing. Eight members of our office staff were on planes departing from NYC. Were any of them on the plane that struck the Twin Towers? We did not know.  Was this a single terrorist attack or an act of war? How would this horror touch our families and loved ones? It was a terrible, overwhelming day for us, for our whole country, and a shock to the world. For weeks, the air around the NYC area had a smoldering heaviness. It stank of a caustic mix of jet fuel, vaporized buildings, and even incinerated human flesh.

This tragedy had a massive effect on the hearts and souls of many. Some people turned to God in prayer. Crowds appeared in parks and intersections, praying the “Our Father,” and singing songs like “Amazing Grace.” Catholic Churches in the North East corridor of the USA were packed with people, alone and in groups.  My wife, Therese, was drawn into intercessory prayer: during the attack, for the people trying to escape and for our son-in-law who was in the area: later, for those suffering from PTSD.

As a speaker, I received a staggering number of requests for a workshop entitled, “Walking with Jesus in Great Suffering.”  As someone in ministry, I met with dozens of people drowning in grief. By the Holy Spirit’s power was I able to share ways that the Gospel message brings meaning, especially as we join ourselves to the grief, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Seven lessons about Catholic evangelization emerged:

  • Suffering brings us face-to-face with the truth that our lives are ultimately not under our control. It is an illusion for us to imagine that we are the masters of our own reality. God is God, and we are not.
  • When we suffer, we have the opportunity to grow in compassion and in empathy those who are weighed down by excruciating pain. Our hard hearts can be pried open by the Holy Spirit. Jesus can heal us, giving us hearts of flesh and gentleness, to replace our hearts of stone.
  • Suffering is an opportunity to turn to God for help, a prompting to deeper intercessory prayer for those who are suffering. A kind of prayer that goes beyond words and into tears, groans, music, or charismatic tongues.
  • Our prayerful response can be an inspiration to others in agony. A study called, “Faith Development in the Adult Life Cycle,” concludes that if someone who is suffering is supported by friends who believe in God, they move closer to God. If their friends are unbelievers, they tend to move away from God.
  • Suffering can open our ears to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who from the Cross joins us in our suffering, as the Great Evangelizer.
  • Offering to pray aloud with someone who is suffering is an act of evangelization. the Holy Spirit can help us put his or her needs and emotions into God’s presence.
  • Jesus invites us to offer our presence and love to those who are suffering. It is an act of evangelizing mercy. Jesus can empower us to embrace what Pope Francis calls the “art of accompaniment.” “Someone good at such accompaniment does not give in to frustrations or fears. He or she invites others to let them­selves be healed, to take up their mat, embrace the cross, leave all behind and go forth ever anew to proclaim the Gospel” (The Joy of the Gospel, 172).

The tragedy of 9/11 rocked the world, but in many ways, it was a dress rehearsal for future, worldwide tragedies like the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions have suffered and died from this illness. Millions have been traumatized by the more than 650,000 deaths in the USA alone. This disease touches all of us, offering another opportunity to reach out to, walk with, and evangelize those around us who need Jesus Christ, the healer of all suffering hearts, the Savior sent by our Father-God.

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Evangelizing Moments: Big and Small

Posted on August 11, 2021 by the Bouchers

photo by Hans Moerman

July 17 marked the 25th anniversary of TWA Flight 800’s explosion and crash during takeoff. Wreckage plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Center Moriches, New York, on the south shore of Long Island. All 230 people on board were killed.

In the days that followed, more than 5,000 family members, federal investigators, and news reporters descended on this town of 6,000 residents. And today, there are memorials and plaques at the Smith Point and Center Moriches beaches dedicated to those who died in the crash. But there are unseen, spiritual consequences, also, that remain in people’s lives.

St. John the Evangelist Parish in Center Moriches was at the heart of this tragedy. Six members of the parish were on the plane. The pastor, Fr. Jim, quickly opened the church and school buildings for whatever relief services were needed. He celebrated Mass every day to comfort workers and victims’ families during this terrible time. Parts of Fr. Jim’s daily homilies were featured each night on national news broadcasts. He often spoke about the cross of Jesus as the only way to make sense of such suffering.

Parishioners stepped forward in large numbers to serve investigators, media and families in any way they could. A few months later, at an evangelistic Ash Wednesday service, parents of a young woman who had died in the crash spoke about the hope they felt in Jesus Christ, through Fr. Jim and the people of St. John’s.  Fr. Jim also spoke later, “This is the worst of times for our parish! It is one of the most difficult situations I have ever faced. Yet I realized something while I was praying–that maybe this is one of those ‘evangelizing moments’ we learned about. Maybe this is a moment rich with opportunities to evangelize people to Jesus Christ and to him crucified!”

Yes. This was a big “evangelizing moment.” But within the parish’s response were hundreds of small acts of faith and love. And, yes. Even today, there are still more moments presented to all of us in everyday life, if we pay attention to the Holy Spirit working in, around, and among us. Some opportunities are hidden in small and large tragedies, others present themselves as opportunities for small acts of kindness.

For example, a close friend, named Norman, headed off for a routine appointment with his neurologist, even though he felt dizzy and was experiencing low blood pressure. During the visit, Norman asked the nurse to check his pressure again. She took it a few times; then told his wife to take him to the Emergency Department immediately! Half a dozen tests later, he was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of A-fib and heart failure.

During Norman’s echocardiogram, the technician, Sally, asked him what he did for a living. He explained that he was retired, but volunteered to help Catholics learn how to evangelize inactive Catholics and the unchurched. At the end of the test, Sally explained that she was a convert to Catholicism and had wondered why Catholics weren’t more active in sharing their faith. During their conversation Sally took notes, especially about the website www.catholicevangelizer.com  and the Facebook page, “Holy Spirit Calling.” Norman left on a gurney, rejoicing over this small “evangelizing moment” and the grace to share faith and his excitement about evangelization.

Later, during Norman’s hospital stay, he asked a nurse about her decision to become a medical professional. She explained that her Catholic upbringing in her home country had led her to give her life to serve as a nurse. “But during the pandemic, I have been so sad that I could not go to Mass.” She asked what parish Norman belonged to. So, he shared what he liked about his parish and invited her to come to Mass there.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops summarize this awareness of “evangelizing moments” in their document, Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States, “Each individual Catholic is to look at his or her everyday life from the viewpoint of evangelization. Take note of the many opportunities to support another’s faith, to share faith, and to help build up Jesus’ kingdom in our homes and workplaces, among our neighbors and friends.”

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