I’ve known many good priests who pray for and work at evangelizing, but the best example I can think of is one priest who never missed a chance to do what he could to encourage conversions. If he saw a stranger in his church, he made sure he spoke with that person, and learned what he could to see where he might be needed. One woman who converted from Buddism, told me, “Whenever I came to the chapel, he was always there to talk to me.” I could only smile, knowing the zeal of this priest for evangelizing. He accompanied one young man to a seminary to plead his cause when other seminaries
rejected the young man. After Mass, he would always stand at the door and greet each student as they left the church. In other words, he made his presence and interest known. He was always about the business of bringing God’s people to Him.
Well, I don’t know if my parish is exemplary, we are big and do a lot, but our Pastor has placed a high priority on evangelization and there is now an Evangelization Commission with a seat on parish council. We are part of a program with another parish for reaching inactive Catholics, he has paid for us to attend an evangelization training conference, and is footing the bill for Matthew Kelly to come and speak one evening in April at no cost to people attending. He has stated that evangelization should be a primary goal.
We also have some other projects in the planning stages, such as parenting sessions to help parents raise their children in the faith, and something for Advent, and a Community Meal program. But we are new and just getting our feet wet.
In fact, I would appreciate some ideas from forum members.
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