A friendly conversation about their relationship to Catholicism can make a difference. Three SPSE evangelists from Smyrna, GA, set up recently outside the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Two women who found them were an inactive Catholic (“Lady C”) and a non-Catholic Christian (“Lady P”). They were friends and next-door neighbors.
Lady C first told the team that she objected to Catholics making the worship space beautiful. So SPSE evangelist Peggy explained about the holiness of the Body of Christ. Then she invited both women to come visit. They said they would and Lady C accepted a “Reasons to Return” pamphlet.
The women then told the team they planned to hike 300 miles of the El Camino trail in Spain. Lady P had hiked it once before and especially appreciated a Catholic priest praying for her at the end. Evangelist Clarence asked if she had ever considered becoming Catholic. She hadn’t, so he asked her to compare who founded her church (and when) to the fact that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church. Lady P interrupted to say she saw the doctrines as very similar to what she already knew.
Evangelist Clarence then asked Lady C if she had any difficulties with the Faith. She cited the priest sex-abuse scandal, since she had grown up mistakenly believing that priests were “direct descendants of God”. Clarence then shared with her his own approach to dealing with the sad reality of fallen human nature. “You don’t excuse it,” he said, meaning that sinners need to be held accountable and the innocent protected. “You will never find a church that’s perfect,” for we are all sinners. He went on to explain that the Sacraments are still valid even if a particular priest is immoral. “We need God because of our fallen nature”, he said, and explained the Mass.
This seemed to reawaken a hunger in Lady C for the Sacraments and both women expressed a desire to attend Mass soon. Thank you, Team Smyrna! Please join us in sending up a prayer for each of these two ladies? Don’t you love it when people discover or re-discover the Catholic Church! If you’re not already a member of SPSE, please pray about joining us today.