Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A Modern Day Apostle

"Go and proclaim the good news of the Gospel."

And with that, our priest made the sign of the cross in ashes on my forehead.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, the archbishop there asked his followers to "Unleash the Gospel".  He urged them to move from just maintaining the status quo to spreading God's word.  
  
They are lovely phrases, especially this time of year.  But what does all of that look like, exactly?  

I have one example from my own church.  

Last weekend I was chatting with an elderly man after mass.  He told me that during the week, he sat next to a young woman on a bench in town, and invited her to come to church with him.  

She accepted.

He was coming back to a mass later that day to meet her, and no doubt encourage her to do it again the following week.

When I asked him what made him take action, he turned and said "I just let the Lord work through me."

I then noticed he was holding three large jugs of water.

"Thirsty?", I questioned.

"No, this is holy water.  I am taking it with me to bless those I come across."

"How long will that last, 6 months?", I asked curiously.

"Maybe until next week," he smiled, "If I'm lucky."

He is truly a modern day apostle, and is a wonderful inspiration for me (and hopefully you!) this Holy season.

A Blessed Lent to you and your families.



4 comments:

Victor S E Moubarak said...

There are so many ways to proclaim the Good News, if only we try.

Writing your Blog for instance. We never know who might visit our Blogs and not comment. To many, our words may be for them their "gospel" which leads them to find out and learn more about Christ.

Doing the Sign of the Cross before eating, especially in public in a resturant, for instance, is another way of proclaiming.

Thank you so much Michael for your good works in proclaiming the Good News.

God bless.

Shirley said...

What an inspiring fellow! Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to talk religion to others- there's that look of scorn and condescension that is so discouraging- but I find that as I grow older it just doesn't matter any more.

Michael said...

Victor, you raise a really good point. We never know how our actions might affect people. Thank you for sharing that, and for the kind words.

Shirley, he certainly is inspiring! Thanks for sharing your thoughts - they help a lot!

God Bless you both!

Mary N. said...

Michael, I would love to be like this man! I'm not though - I can't see myself doing these things! Yet :)