Boise, ID
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The following report comes to us from team leader Lucy with our team in Boise, ID:
Many young people seem to be interested in religion again (or interested for the first time) and we try to be a resource for them. A group of three college-aged men (brothers?) stopped: “Jordan”, “Andrew”, and “Matthew”. Jordan admitted to being raised Catholic but now attended a non-Catholic Christian church. They were from a populous State south of here, and visiting because Matthew was transferring to a local university this Fall. Jordan’s mother lives here, and had gotten them all to attend Mass that morning. (May God bless his mom!) The men questioned us about praying to Mary. They had trouble, they said, explaining to others how praying to Mary and the Saints didn’t amount to worshipping them. Lucy untangled for them the confusion over the words “praying to”, the reality of the Communion of Saints, as well as and the power of the prayers of a righteous person. She showed Andrew our “Praying to the Saints” pamphlet, which features “enough Scripture references to form a Bible study”, all of which support the Catholic understanding. He asked for a copy. He and Jordan also each chose a Rosary and accepted the pamphlet on how to pray it, while Matthew waited at a distance. Pray their enthusiasm leads them into a strong and lasting Faith.
A group of four 20-something non-Christians stopped because the man was curious about the Rosary. They told us they were “merely spiritual”. We encouraged them to use the Rosary to meditate on the life of Christ to see how what He did in reality can affect them spiritually. We gave them a Good News/kerygma pamphlet as well, so they could see what Christian spirituality looks like. May their hearts be open to believing in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
A group of teenagers zoomed by on electric scooters. The last teen, a girl, heard our offer of a free Rosary and came back. The others followed and chose Rosaries, too. I talked with the young woman. She was not Christian, but open to learning the prayer. She also accepted a copy of the kerygma.
Three men stopped. They were Catholic and familiar with the Rosary. We set them each up with one and encouraged them to pray it together as a group, and I explained that men praying the Rosary constitutes a powerful spiritual weapon. They agreed the world needs some serious prayer right now, and (I think) agreed to try to pray it together.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Please pray for God to send people to this team with hearts prepared to perceive their need for Our Savior Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church, and that much good fruit for His Kingdom comes from their efforts.