Have you shared your faith today?

[matthew1624]

The more and more I ask God to be His instrument, the more opportunties I get to share the faith. For example, today someone came into my office and point blank asked me what happens inside a catholic church. I explained the liturgy, parts of the mass, and emphasized the core of our worship, the Eucharist. I ended the conversation with an invite to daily mass, which I attend during my lunch hour. She agreed that she would go.

On another occassion, I had someone come into my office again to discuss Our Blessed Mother Mary. We talked about 45 minutes, covering all sorts of topics, and before we finished he interupted me and told me to stop because he was afraid he’d become catholic.

It’s true what scripture says, "…do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. – Matthew 10:19

God Bless…

 

[tkdnick]

THAT IS AWESOME!!!

I have found that the more I study my faith and the faith of others, the more opportunities I have to share my faith. I must say, however, that I have not been as successful as you. It is true that Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will say, but it also says in 1 Peter (I believe) to always be prepared to make an explanation of the faith.

Keep up the great work!!! May we all be so blessed with opportunities to bring people to The Church!

 

[mkw]

I just finished talking with a Baptish Preacher for over an hour this morning. I abmit, he rattled my cage abit. not so much in what he said/didn’t say, just that he knew his way around scripture so well plus what ever scripture I would point to proving the true of the Catholic Faith, he masterfully twisted. None of that surprised me though.

Every (T)radition, his opinion not mine of course, he said was man made and not that of God. Because the exact words, such as the Assumption of Mary can not be found in the bible, its not true. This is when I pointed out the word “Trinity” not being in the bible, his only answer was that it was IMPLIED. DUH!!

This man came to me, not to learn about the faith, but to try and pull me away from the ONLY church Jesus established on earth.

It kinda seems to me that God in putting before me Anti-Catholics as apposed to Non-Catholics. I don’t feel ready for the Anti’s yet, but as always, I trust in God and know/believe that He knows me better than I know me.

That was my sharing of the faith today. I prayed to God before this man showed up, that I would not speak an UN-truth and that my motives for our discussion was NOT for me to win a debate (which i didn’t) but that I would simply share Christs love and His Church, always for His glory and never for me.

If I offended God, may He have mercy on me, and if I acted in a less then Christian way, (and I told the preacher this) that he may also forgive me as that was not my intention.

 

[Chris_W]

The opportunities do abound when we start noticing. I’m not they have necessarily increased as much as I’ve started looking for them. I see more open doors than before, but I attribute it to my newfound eagerness.

BTW: I love the saying.

“God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”

 

[mkw]

I think God held back a little on equiping me for the call. I believe He wanted to show me what true faith and humility is. Oh boy did I learn. But also, I found out where I am lacking in my ability to share the faith in a more articulate manner. what a wonderful teacher we all have.

 

[Malachi4U]

matthew1624:

…On another occassion, I had someone come into my office again to discuss Our Blessed Mother Mary. We talked about 45 minutes, covering all sorts of topics, and before we finished he interupted me and told me to stop because he was afraid he’d become catholic…

Why are so many people afraid to be Catholic? I was too!

The truth is, there is no place I’d rather be then on our side of the Tiber!

 

[mkw]

Must be my day or something. Just got a call from a girlfriend from church confused about John 3:16, or more to the point, the word “believe”. She did not understand what God was talking about when He said this. BTW, she is taking alot of medication for seizures and depression.

I simply told her that God wanted us to believe in His Son Jesus Christ, to know that His Passion-Death-Resurection was done for us, as a complete act of Love. To believe in His love.

Not that ONLY accepting Jesus one time means salvation guarenteed. We still have to run the race to the end, to paraphrase St. John.

Did I tell my friend right?..I think she is going through her own personal Dark Night of the Soul right now, and I don’t want to say anything that might confuse her more.

 

[RNRobert]

This reminds me of something that happened to me recently. I graduated from nursing school last year. While I was going to school (and working 12 hours shifts on the weekend) my faith-life kind of went by the wayside.

However, in the past year I’ve been going to church more or less regularly (as work allows), going to confession, reading the Bible and other spiritual writings, praying the rosary, etc. There’s a fellow who’s also a nurse on my floor, and one day a couple months ago I happened to mention being a lector at my church. He asked me what church I belonged to and told him I was Catholic. He said he was Catholic too, and asked me how well I knew my faith. I told him I had read alot, and tried to know my faith as well as I could. He asked me about the role of thw Virgin Mary, and I believe I gave the example of the Queen Mother in ancient Israel, and since Jesus was the Ultimate King, his Mother is the Ultimate Queen Mother. He was pretty impressed. Turns out his wife is a Pentecostal and he (a cradle Catholic) knew the Catholic Church was the true Church, but didn’t know how to defend it to her. So, since then, we’ve had talks on catholic theology during our breaks and I’ve loaned him many of my apologetics books. He says she’s about 60% convinced (please offer up your prayers that we can convince her of the other 40% ).
I feel humbled that God was able to use my knowledge to help another Catholic, and I pray that he will continue to use me.

 

[puzzleannie]

I am curious where you work that this type of non-work-related conversation can take place on the clock, You did not say this was during coffee or lunch break, in the parking lot after work, or pertained in some way to the job at hand. Of course a brief casual conversation or answer to a direct question would be in order, but a long apologetics discourse that detracts from your job duties would be problematic to me, were I your supervisor. If Catholics are free to use work time to proselytize, why aren’t protestants, scientologists, adventists, JWs, athiests, pro-choicers or anybody else?

 

[mayra_hart]

here in killeen texas is really hard to share your faith. everybody here are baptist and fundamentalist. there is only one catholic church. and i already got my self in warm waters with my neighbor a baptist during a bible study. so i step out. if they question me i will defend it that as much as i can do. bless you all

 

[RNRobert]

puzzleannie:

I am curious where you work that this type of non-work-related conversation can take place on the clock, You did not say this was during coffee or lunch break, in the parking lot after work, or pertained in some way to the job at hand. Of course a brief casual conversation or answer to a direct question would be in order, but a long apologetics discourse that detracts from your job duties would be problematic to me, were I your supervisor. If Catholics are free to use work time to proselytize, why aren’t protestants, scientologists, adventists, JWs, athiests, pro-choicers or anybody else?

RNRobert:

So, since then, we’ve had talks on catholic theology during our breaks

These talks have also occured before work, and after work while walking to the parking lot.

 

[matthew1624]

puzzleannie:

I am curious where you work that this type of non-work-related conversation can take place on the clock, You did not say this was during coffee or lunch break, in the parking lot after work, or pertained in some way to the job at hand. Of course a brief casual conversation or answer to a direct question would be in order, but a long apologetics discourse that detracts from your job duties would be problematic to me, were I your supervisor. If Catholics are free to use work time to proselytize, why aren’t protestants, scientologists, adventists, JWs, athiests, pro-choicers or anybody else?

I work at a place where employees spend this same amount of time (if not more) during work hours to talk about sports, stocks, gossip, etc., etc. so I have no problem with using this time talking about my faith. It doesn’t happen often. My employer/boss is quite aware of my faith and has actually come into my office to speak about faith related topics as well. I hope this answers your question.

God Bless…

 

[matthew1624]

mkw:

It kinda seems to me that God in putting before me Anti-Catholics as apposed to Non-Catholics. I don’t feel ready for the Anti’s yet, but as always, I trust in God and know/believe that He knows me better than I know me.

I think we basically have to trust in God more than our own abilities. For quite a while this was happening to me but I later realized that the more I encountered these sorts, the more I learned about my faith. I’d have to say that their attacks have really helped me grow in my faith. There are times however that I wished I had a brother named Aaron (LOL) but God has really taught me to rely on Him more than on my speaking abilities or lack thereof.

God Bless…

 

[matthew1624]

RNRobert:

I feel humbled that God was able to use my knowledge to help another Catholic, and I pray that he will continue to use me.

Amen! Good job RNRobert! I think our evangelization efforts need to be within the Catholic church as well. May God continue to use all of us to build up the kingdom.

God Bless…

 

[Cosmo]

I can’t say I’ve got any such faith to share myself, however, my most recent encounter with faith was a girl standing on my college campus with a large sign reading “Hell Awaits You!”, shouting to passers-by generally condescending remarks.

She received more than her fair share of nasty looks, but no one forced her to leave - there’s free speech for you.

 

[Toni]

I am truly blessed because everyday in everyway I get to share my faith with students from grade K through 5 and I absolutely love it. This week we are doing a living Rosary presentation the Glorious mysteries, and we have a Pilgrim Virgin traveling to every home in the school for October, so we are constantly sharing our faith and I really feel blessed to be able to be a part of it all.

 

[sparkle]

I find it so utterly awesome that the word “Mass” in Latin literally means Mission. And as we were told in RCIA last nite, the Mass really begins with the end of the Mass, when we Christians are sent into the world to DO Christ’s Mission, whatever He has for US–you and me. THINK of this. This is completely amazing==what a challenge. THIS is what our faith is truly about.

YES, let’s share our Faith every day!!!