On September 25, Fr. Derek Sakowski and his team welcomed us to participate and help present at an Evangelization Retreat at St. Mary’s in Altoona. The evening included prayer, team building, the “10 Great Ways to Share Your Faith” talk given by our Regional Director Dr. Deb McManimon, and practicing our personal testimonies. We concluded the evening with an hour of Eucharistic Adoration, including a meditation and discernment exercise and intercessory prayer. It was a beautiful evening which we hope will encourage many good fruits in our community. Many thanks to Dr. McManimon, Fr. Sakowski, Marianne Callaghan, and Jacqueline Van Hemert, and to those team members who attended.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures forever!” Ps. 118:1

As St. Paul Street Evangelization national transitions to St. Paul Evangelization Institute, our local team has continued its street evangelization efforts and worked to spread the message of the Church’s mission of evangelization. We have also been blessed with several new team members. Praise God!

According to recent statistics, only 3% of Catholics believe that evangelization is important (contrasting dismally with our Protestant and Evangelical counterparts). Yet, we affirm with Pope St. Paul VI that evangelization is the Church’s “deepest identity” and “she exists in order to evangelize.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14) Therefore, educating our Catholic brethren on this mission is rather daunting and slow going at times. Yet “nothing shall be impossible for God” and so we persist with endurance, trusting that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Luke 1:37, Rom 5:5.

Yet, we affirm with Pope St. Paul VI that evangelization is the Church’s “deepest identity” and “she exists in order to evangelize.”

While we were disappointed by the cancellation of one of our planned outings in October, we have continued our evangelization work at St. Francesca Resource Center. We also have a presence at Sojourner House once every 3 months and hope to build on that. Coming up will be Advent efforts in connection with the Bridge to Wonderland Parade and Irvine Park Christmas Village. We hope to include carolers as we did last year. We also plan to be present on a more casual basis at the weekly Goldsmith Catholic Connect group.

The Lord has blessed us with local pastors willing to partner with us to help plant and water the seeds of evangelization in their parishes. In the past month or so, we’ve been welcomed at St. Mary’s Parish in Altoona, Notre Dame Church in Chippewa Falls, and St. Paul’s Parish in Bloomer. In the coming months we have outreach planned at Holy Ghost Parish as well as two Confirmation classes this spring. Many thanks to Fr. Sakowski, Fr. Burish, Fr. Feltes, Fr. Kizewski, and their religious education/family faith coordinators.