Advice Needed - How Can I Evangelize as a Teenage Male?

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Hotgoldensun

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Hi all,

First off I would like to mention I am adamant I have a vocation to the Maronite priesthood, and I have many inspirations in the Church. I have very high goals for my earthly life, and I will do the best I can with the help of Christ to achieve them.

My goals consist of this:
  1. Die knowing I did everything to my best ability to love the Church and defend her.
  2. Being a very good priest
  3. Evangelize to all nations
  4. Deepen my love, knowledge, and faith in God as much as I can until my final test arrives
  5. my faith is so deep to the point I would die for it (definitely not achieved yet, but I am doing my best)
  6. Possibly be canonized, but that will be super hard :(.
I am sixteen years old, but there has to be some way I can evangelize. Does an have any advice for me as I continue my journey?

Thanks!
 
Pray that you would be able to discern what the will of the Holy Spirit is in your life.

Maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to be involved with a ministry at your parish. Maybe He wants you to start a ministry. Maybe it’s community service, a Bible study, or something else.

Ephesians 4:11 “And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Edify means to build up. What are your spiritual gifts? What would the be the best way for you to build up the body of Christ? I don’t know anything about you to give you an answer, but pray that the Holy Spirit will answer these questions.

Peace be with you brother 👍
 
Hotgoldensun said:
Hi all,

First off I would like to mention I am adamant I have a vocation to the Maronite priesthood, and I have many inspirations in the Church. I have very high goals for my earthly life, and I will do the best I can with the help of Christ to achieve them.

My goals consist of this:
  1. Die knowing I did everything to my best ability to love the Church and defend her.
  2. Being a very good priest
  3. Evangelize to all nations
  4. Deepen my love, knowledge, and faith in God as much as I can until my final test arrives
  5. my faith is so deep to the point I would die for it (definitely not achieved yet, but I am doing my best)
  6. Possibly be canonized, but that will be super hard :(.
I am sixteen years old, but there has to be some way I can evangelize. Does an have any advice for me as I continue my journey?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
May the SACRED HEART Bless You Brother, Keep doing what You are doing!!

I pray that the SACRED and MERCIFUL HEART of JESUS maes You a Priest and Saint for Our Church!!!
 
God bless your rockin’ heart! (As we say in Youth Group) 😛

Youtube is a great way to pseudoevangelize/evangelize, these days.

Even though she no longer vlogs, SheIsCatholic would always make wonderful videos on the Catholic faith, her experience of it, and other things. Here’re are some of my favorites:
youngcatholic is also another good Cath vlogger, on Youtube. His videos tend to be more brief, playful, educational, and entertaining; great for a youth group. Here’re some of his most memorable ones:
You’ll also find that there’re also many videos on Youtube which are generally entertaining and, just, makes us Catholics look cool. 🙂
Also, there’s this Facebook page which is devoted to Cath teens just posting videos from their vlogs, which I refer to as evangelizing efforts. Haha. 🙂 🤷
Finally, I’d like to inform you that you have great goals ahead of you. But, what really spiked my interest was your third point.
Hotgoldensun said:
  1. Evangelize to all nations
Click to expand...
The reason this spiked my interest is because I have recently been thinking about the “Catholicness” of countries and continents. And, generally, when we think of the Americas, from a demographically religious point of view, the populations in Canada, Latin America, and Caribbean are all in majority Catholic-Christian, yet in the USA and Greenland, Protestantism has seem to have taken over. Fortunately, the USA (though the majority is Protestant), there are still significant Catholic populations.

But, what saddens me is that Greenland, our Icy neighbor to the North is, pretty much 99.9% Protestant! :eek::eek:

They have a small Catholic Church, which is in communion with the Archdiocese of Copenhagen (in Denmark), but only, like, 12 or so Greenlanders assist mass every Sunday!

So, I think it’s great the majority of the Americas is Catholic, and that our Church is growing in the USA, due to immigration. But, I think that you should include Greenland on your checklist, because that nation needs some heavy evangelization efforts, from us Catholics. I’ve even started learning Danish, so I can one day move up there and help the evangelization effort.

Another sad thing, to mention, is that whenever people refer to the Catholic Church, in the Americas, they refer to all the stereotypical Catholic countries (like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, etc…) and countries with significant Catholic populations, like the U.S., but they always forget to include Greenland.

I mean, I know this is a multifaceted issue, since Greenland is still technically under the sovereignty of the Denmark, and because it has a very small Catholic population…but I feel that they are still worth mentioning. 😛

I don’t know. That’s just me, I guess.
 
Hotgoldensun said:
Hi all,

First off I would like to mention I am adamant I have a vocation to the Maronite priesthood, and I have many inspirations in the Church. I have very high goals for my earthly life, and I will do the best I can with the help of Christ to achieve them.

My goals consist of this:
  1. Die knowing I did everything to my best ability to love the Church and defend her.
  2. Being a very good priest
  3. Evangelize to all nations
  4. Deepen my love, knowledge, and faith in God as much as I can until my final test arrives
  5. my faith is so deep to the point I would die for it (definitely not achieved yet, but I am doing my best)
  6. Possibly be canonized, but that will be super hard :(.
I am sixteen years old, but there has to be some way I can evangelize. Does an have any advice for me as I continue my journey?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Listening to the Holy Spirit is the top priority. Make sure that you place His goals for you before your own. Sainthood can pass through the most unlikely channels.

Second advice, if you don’t do it already, praying the rosary daily is a very good idea.
 
Woah, thanks everyone for the numerous amount of replies :).

Also, I will start again to pray the rosary every night, because Our Lady of Fatima recommends us to 🙂

I do have methods of praying, but I struggled staying committed t them :-(, but for some reason today after I prayed in the chapel my adrenaline went super high! I felt enlightened by the Holy Spirit or something. As I type this my eyes are tearing up a little. Normally I go to the chapel everyday during lunch to pray for five to ten minutes. I was not expecting anything special, and as I was walking slowly back to dip my hand in the holy water when leaving I bowed. As I bowed, someone caught my eye. There was no one in the chapel at all! Standing right in front of a banner of Our Lady of Guadeloupe was a female saint. I could not see her face, but she was clothed in dirty white robes with a blue trim. She had a veil on her head, and her hands in prayer. She was facing the Blessed Sacrament. I saw this side of her body, and it was only for half a second. As soon as I saw her I was filled with fear and joy. I instantly looked back up to see if she was there, but all I saw was the banner of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. With my adrenaline skyrocketing and completely mind blank I quietly left the chapel asking myself what I had just seen was real. The background color of Our Lady of Guadeloupe was the same color of the robes the lady was clothed in. I asked myself if my eyes were deceiving me. Halfway to class I realized I left my backpack in the commons, and I was about to start crying tears of joy on top of that because was so astonished. Ever since then I felt insanely devoted to learning more and more about anything related to Christ. I typically look up ewtn videos on YouTube, and I watch random videos of homilies or something. (mostly father match Pacwa who is awesome! Mother Angelica as well) I constantly struggle with masturbation and pornography, and every time I commit the sin I tell myself I will never do it again. But that is it! I cannot never do it again, however, with the help of Jesus I will do my best to never do it again! I feel super happy right now, but I better go get some sleep. I do have a Yotube account called KnowingGodBetter, but I have not uploaded a video in a month or two. I will pot some tomorrow, again thank you all for everything!

P.s. Greenland sounds nice to evangelize 🙂
 
Hotgoldensun said:
Also, I will start again to pray the rosary every night, because Our Lady of Fatima recommends us to 🙂
Click to expand...
Haha, I struggle with that, too. 😛

I guess it’s a teenage-thing.
Hotgoldensun said:
I do have methods of praying, but I struggled staying committed t them :-(, but for some reason today after I prayed in the chapel my adrenaline went super high! I felt enlightened by the Holy Spirit or something. As I type this my eyes are tearing up a little. Normally I go to the chapel everyday during lunch to pray for five to ten minutes. I was not expecting anything special, and as I was walking slowly back to dip my hand in the holy water when leaving I bowed. As I bowed, someone caught my eye. There was no one in the chapel at all! Standing right in front of a banner of Our Lady of Guadeloupe was a female saint. I could not see her face, but she was clothed in dirty white robes with a blue trim. She had a veil on her head, and her hands in prayer. She was facing the Blessed Sacrament. I saw this side of her body, and it was only for half a second. As soon as I saw her I was filled with fear and joy. I instantly looked back up to see if she was there, but all I saw was the banner of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. With my adrenaline skyrocketing and completely mind blank I quietly left the chapel asking myself what I had just seen was real. The background color of Our Lady of Guadeloupe was the same color of the robes the lady was clothed in. I asked myself if my eyes were deceiving me. Halfway to class I realized I left my backpack in the commons, and I was about to start crying tears of joy on top of that because was so astonished. Ever since then I felt insanely devoted to learning more and more about anything related to Christ. I typically look up ewtn videos on YouTube, and I watch random videos of homilies or something. (mostly father match Pacwa who is awesome! Mother Angelica as well) I constantly struggle with masturbation and pornography, and every time I commit the sin I tell myself I will never do it again. But that is it! I cannot never do it again, however, with the help of Jesus I will do my best to never do it again! I feel super happy right now, but I better go get some sleep. I do have a Yotube account called KnowingGodBetter, but I have not uploaded a video in a month or two. I will pot some tomorrow, again thank you all for everything!
Click to expand...
Great testimony.

Also, it just popped into my head, the topic of pseudoevangelization came up. It’s pretty much evangelizing people implicitly. Teaching them why Catholic Social Teaching is AWESOME, without mentioning any of its ties to the Church or God. It’s way to slowly warm people up, to our beliefs. After some time, you can start using more non-secular language. But, I think you get the point.

In addition, main stream music (whether you like it or not) has started playing more of a role, in teenagers’ lives. If we can use that to our advantage, to evangelize people at an age when they are most susceptible to complex and theological ideas, then I think we should take advantage of it!

For example, I’m sure that you’re familiar with the music genre known as “dubstep,” right? Well, it’s okay if you’re not. 😛
But, it’s a really popular genre among teens, these days, and it seems to be growing. I recently found a song which took a really religious one, and converts it into something much more “modern” and sounds a bit more “dubstep.” I just thought that it was really cool. 👍 And, even a lot of people who aren’t religious, or affiliated with Christianity, liked the song, because of its “dubstep” sound. 🙂

I hope that I can compose similar cool-religious and modern songs, to help the effort for evangelizing our generation 😛

Anyway, here’s the song I was talking about:
I mean, look even an atheist commented on this video saying this:
Congrats! You managed to make an Athist(me) like a song about Jesus! 🙂
Click to expand...
See what I mean!!! We need to use main stream music to our advantage! 😃

Anyway, I wanted to share this satirical video with you. It calls attention to how atheist fundamentalists (yes there are many different types of atheists) try to pervert the application of science, at all times possible, with their metaphysical combat towards theists. At the same time the scientist, with whom the atheist is sitting with, keeps telling the atheist fundamentalist about the awesomeness of science, and even calls the atheist on his b.s. I think that you’ll enjoy it.
Also, since you are looking forward towards your vocation in the clergy, I’d really recommend that you subscribe to (if you haven’t already) wordonfirevideo, which is basically Fr. Robert Barron and his vlogs on the Catholic Church, different philosophies, pop culture, politics, and other things. You’ll learn great things from following him. 👍
Hotgoldensun said:
P.s. Greenland sounds nice to evangelize 🙂
Click to expand...
And, yes Greenland does sounds like a great place to evangelize. It’s a beautiful country with a beautiful indigenous culture and language. 🙂
 
gxensen said:
Haha, I struggle with that, too.

I guess it’s a teenage-thing.

Great testimony.

Also, it just popped into my head, the topic of pseudoevangelization came up. It’s pretty much evangelizing people implicitly. Teaching them why Catholic Social Teaching is AWESOME, without mentioning any of its ties to the Church or God. It’s way to slowly warm people up, to our beliefs. After some time, you can start using more non-secular language. But, I think you get the point.

In addition, main stream music (whether you like it or not) has started playing more of a
role, in teenagers’ lives. If we can use that to our advantage, to evangelize people at an age when they are most susceptible to complex and theological ideas, then I think we should take advantage of it!

For example, I’m sure that you’re familiar with the music genre known as “dubstep,” right? Well, it’s okay if you’re not.
But, it’s a really popular genre among teens, these days, and it seems to be growing. I recently found a song which took a really religious one, and converts it into something much more “modern” and sounds a bit more “dubstep.” I just thought that it was really cool. 👍 And, even a lot of people who aren’t religious, or affiliated with Christianity, liked the song, because of its “dubstep” sound. 🙂

I hope that I can compose similar cool-religious and modern songs, to help the effort for evangelizing our generation 😛

Anyway, here’s the song I was talking about:
I mean, look even an atheist commented on this video saying this:

See what I mean!!! We need to use main stream music to our advantage! 😃

Anyway, I wanted to share this satirical video with you. It calls attention to how atheist fundamentalists (yes there are many different types of atheists) try to pervert the application of science, at all times possible, with their metaphysical combat towards theists. At the same time the scientist, with whom the atheist is sitting with, keeps telling the atheist fundamentalist about the awesomeness of science, and even calls the atheist on his b.s. I think that you’ll enjoy it.
Also, since you are looking forward towards your vocation in the clergy, I’d really recommend that you subscribe to (if you haven’t already) wordonfirevideo, which is
basically Fr. Robert Barron and his vlogs on the Catholic Church, different philosophies, pop culture, politics, and other things. You’ll learn great things from following him. 👍

And, yes Greenland does sounds like a great place to evangelize. It’s a beautiful country with a beautiful indigenous culture and language. 🙂
Click to expand...
I have heard of dub step. Unfortunately, I really do not like it. I enjoy instrumental music, but I do not know the genre. I will be sure to view that video. I should start my list of places to evangelize soon ;). I will start to do vlogs on oneof my YouTube channels again. Thanks for your advice, and I will do my best to spread the glory of God :).
 
gxensen said:
And, yes Greenland does sounds like a great place to evangelize. It’s a beautiful country with a beautiful indigenous culture and language. 🙂
Click to expand...
I’ll be honest, I found myself rolling my eyes when you were going on about evangelism in Greenland.

Then I realized that I have a similar near obsession with evangelism in Mongolia. I could go on about it, but if I wanted to condense the background/ need in Mongolia, here goes:
-20 years ago there were thought to be absolutely no Christians left in Mongolia, after the decades of state atheism under the influence of the Soviet Union.
-Today there are some 60,000 Christians in Mongolia, only 1,000 of which are Catholic. And many of these are not native Mongolians. There are around 350 native Mongolians who are Catholic, out of a population of around 3 million people.
-Mongolia at least on paper has freedom of religion, and certainly is infinitely more friendly to the Catholic Church than China is.
-Overall, the Church there is doing a lot with surprisingly little. They run a hospital, multiple orphanages, a technical school, etc. They have 1 Bishop, 5 parishes, and around 60 missionaries.

However, I won’t start brushing up on Mongolian unless I think I might actually visit there. More power to you on Greenland though 👍

God Bless
 
Semper_Zelare said:
I’ll be honest, I found myself rolling my eyes when you were going on about evangelism in Greenland.

Then I realized that I have a similar near obsession with evangelism in Mongolia. I could go on about it, but if I wanted to condense the background/ need in Mongolia, here goes:
-20 years ago there were thought to be absolutely no Christians left in Mongolia, after the decades of state atheism under the influence of the Soviet Union.
-Today there are some 60,000 Christians in Mongolia, only 1,000 of which are Catholic. And many of these are not native Mongolians. There are around 350 native Mongolians who are Catholic, out of a population of around 3 million people.
-Mongolia at least on paper has freedom of religion, and certainly is infinitely more friendly to the Catholic Church than China is.
-Overall, the Church there is doing a lot with surprisingly little. They run a hospital, multiple orphanages, a technical school, etc. They have 1 Bishop, 5 parishes, and around 60 missionaries.

However, I won’t start brushing up on Mongolian unless I think I might actually visit there. More power to you on Greenland though 👍

God Bless
Click to expand...
Mongolia sounds like it definitely needs some evangelizing. I will also write that on my future list. Are there many nomads in Mongolia? I remember hearing facts about the nation.

A bit random, but since we are talking about Mongolia I have never researched China if it needs evangelizing. Considering they are most likely massively buddhism they may need it. Japan is one of my two favorite nations, and Christianity there is only 1% of the population I think.

Off to eat dinner.

Happy Saint Nicholas day everyone! :heaven:
 
Hotgoldensun said:
Mongolia sounds like it definitely needs some evangelizing. I will also write that on my future list. Are there many nomads in Mongolia? I remember hearing facts about the nation.

A bit random, but since we are talking about Mongolia I have never researched China if it needs evangelizing. Considering they are most likely massively buddhism they may need it. Japan is one of my two favorite nations, and Christianity there is only 1% of the population I think.

Off to eat dinner.

Happy Saint Nicholas day everyone! :heaven:
Click to expand...
LOL, well reading your post, I’m laughing at myself. Because, I know about the state of the Church in all of these countries, bc I make it a point to know something about places I pray for. It’s funny bc that knowledge always seems useless to me, except when conversations like these occur :D.

Anyways, yes, much of the Mongolian population is nomadic (at least during the summer months). And then there are literally tent cities that emerge during winter which are all the nomads coming to live near the cities during the harsh weather.

The Cathedral in Mongolia is actually circular… the architecture is based on the traditional yurts that people live in there. You can imagine the immense challenges in evangelizing and ministering to nomadic or semi-nomadic Mongolians. I can only imagine a priest on an ATV with a portable Mass kit in the back driving into a yurt village.

As for China, they are very oppressive. Some priests face going to “re-education classes”, which is Chinese propaganda. China is the only country which has a state-sponsored Catholic Church. And you’ll see news every now and then whenever this group tries to act like its independent from the Vatican. Ultimately, it wants priests to teach Catholicism blended with Chinese nationalism. So, there are many Catholics and Christians who meet in secret in China. [And when I say many, there are millions of Christians in China, despite all the persecution].

Japan is the opposite. There’s no persecution anymore, but still Christianity is very small (and it could be dwindling). It’s a very secular nation, and for whatever reason most people are not interested in Christianity.

The real success story in Asia right now is South Korea. I believe in our lifetimes South Korea will join the Philippines as a nation with a majority of Christians. There’s a lot of good news coming out of South Korea. Here’s an article titled “South Korea, the Asian Tiger of the Church”

chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350223?eng=y
 
Semper_Zelare said:
LOL, well reading your post, I’m laughing at myself. Because, I know about the state of the Church in all of these countries, bc I make it a point to know something about places I pray for. It’s funny bc that knowledge always seems useless to me, except when conversations like these occur :D.

Anyways, yes, much of the Mongolian population is nomadic (at least during the summer months). And then there are literally tent cities that emerge during winter which are all the nomads coming to live near the cities during the harsh weather.

The Cathedral in Mongolia is actually circular… the architecture is based on the traditional yurts that people live in there. You can imagine the immense challenges in evangelizing and ministering to nomadic or semi-nomadic Mongolians. I can only imagine a priest on an ATV with a portable Mass kit in the back driving into a yurt village.

As for China, they are very oppressive. Some priests face going to “re-education classes”, which is Chinese propaganda. China is the only country which has a state-sponsored Catholic Church. And you’ll see news every now and then whenever this group tries to act like its independent from the Vatican. Ultimately, it wants priests to teach Catholicism blended with Chinese nationalism. So, there are many Catholics and Christians who meet in secret in China. [And when I say many, there are millions of Christians in China, despite all the persecution].

Japan is the opposite. There’s no persecution anymore, but still Christianity is very small (and it could be dwindling). It’s a very secular nation, and for whatever reason most people are not interested in Christianity.

The real success story in Asia right now is South Korea. I believe in our lifetimes South Korea will join the Philippines as a nation with a majority of Christians. There’s a lot of good news coming out of South Korea. Here’s an article titled “South Korea, the Asian Tiger of the Church”

chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350223?eng=y
Click to expand...
Never would I think South Korea would have so many converts, and that the Churches in the East are spreading so fast! The article mentions that in the West the Church may seem like it’s weakining, but it is the complete opposite. Thank you for sharing this article.
 
Hotgoldensun said:
Hi all,

First off I would like to mention I am adamant I have a vocation to the Maronite priesthood, and I have many inspirations in the Church. I have very high goals for my earthly life, and I will do the best I can with the help of Christ to achieve them.

My goals consist of this:
  1. Die knowing I did everything to my best ability to love the Church and defend her.
  2. Being a very good priest
  3. Evangelize to all nations
  4. Deepen my love, knowledge, and faith in God as much as I can until my final test arrives
  5. **my faith is so deep to the point I would die for it **(definitely not achieved yet, but I am doing my best)
  6. Possibly be canonized, but that will be super hard :(.
I am sixteen years old, but there has to be some way I can evangelize. Does an have any advice for me as I continue my journey?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
ah yes but can you move mountains?
if you cannot, then your faith is still very small
don’t let this discourage you, but remember that everything good you do is only because God gifts you the grace to do so. Im sure you know this, but take away that grace and you change completely
 
Continue to live your faith to the best of your ability. There is truth to the adage that actions speak louder than words and that we need to “walk the walk before you talk the talk.”
St. Francis is credited with saying “Preach always and if necessary use words.”
Cursillo speaks of Piety, Study, and Action.
Piety is the continued development of your prayer life. It is what we do each day in order to spend time with God, to further develop that relationship.
Study is the time we spend learning as much about our Faith as possible. You can begin now to read the spiritual classics. You don’t need to read the books in one setting. You may find, as I did, that you get more out of them and remember more by reading a chapter a day. The Office of Readings, from the Liturgy of the Hours, includes a scriptural reading and a non-scriptural reading for each day. Since my one volume Christian Prayer did not have a copy of the daily non-scriptural reading, I substituted a book such as Story of a Soul or the Confessions of St. Augustine and read a chapter a day until the book was completed. Or you could just find books to read about the various saints. The better you know your faith, the more prepared you will be to answer questions when asked.
People will be drawn to you as you live out your faith, action. They will challenge that faith and ask you questions.
Your pastor should be able to recommend a good spiritual advisor to keep you on the path to which you think you are called.

What I was going to say before I started typing was treat everybody you meet with respect. Exhibiting common courtesies will go a long way toward people listening to what you have to say. Always be the gentlemen.
 
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