Gaithersburg, MD. Joanne reports on one of the special blessings of evangelization, an enthusiastic convert!
We met Cristina on the street, a single mother of three. She was very sweet and spoke with us at length until we felt a bond between us all. She then agreed to come to the new small group which had begun the previous week. I can’t describe the thrill we experienced to see her walk through the door on the appointed day. During the evening’s discussion she pointed at me, smiling, and said: “She was out fishing and she caught me. I’ve been away from the Church twenty years and she’s bringing me back. I’m a lost sheep.” It’s your prayers & support that enable me to work with Cristina & others like her, souls who need someone to just reach out. In the picture is Cristina and SPSE team member Tom.
Praised be Jesus Christ! The Holy Spirit prepares the way before us with gifts of grace, according to His will. For us, then, success comes mostly from just being there to “catch” those whom the Holy Spirit has prepared for catching. Being there to find those ready to be found. It is God’s work, not ours. Will you join us in doing God’s work?
I am working on my street ministry and would love any suggestions as well as materials that could help me to get started as it is brand new.
Dear Mr. Hornbacher,
A suggestion is that you replace your phrase that Jesus is “fully divine and fully human” with (one may say) the more accurate phrase that Jesus is a Divine Person, Who assumed a human nature, and thus is truly human.
I am concerned that Muslims might agree with your phrase – although their idea of Jesus is radically non-Catholic. The Koran teaches that God, Mary and Jesus form their “blessed trinity;” and that Jesus was born through relations of God with Mary.
Catholics must be clear that Jesus is not a human person, but a Divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). At the same time, Jesus is truly human in that he assumed a human nature.
From this it follows that Mary is the Mother of God because she is the mother of a Person, not the mother of a nature, as the Church Fathers have taught us, through the Holy Spirit.
Are you working in a team, Rebecca? You may all find resources to start the street ministry.