Blacksburg, VA
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The following report comes to us from team leader Zach with our team in New River Valley, VA:
em·ber
/ˈembər/
noun
1. a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire.
I’m not sure what I was thinking, scheduling an outing for a Friday afternoon, 1-3pm, during Spring Break in a college town. Blacksburg had very limited pedestrian traffic, but several hundred cars drove through Main St. I suspect our presence, and our “Prayer Station” and “Catholic Truth” signs, performed some evangelization by themselves. A parishioner we know and love said “hi” to us from her car :). We had two comical interactions, wherein one passerby said “no thank you… I’m protestant,” and another said “no thank you…”, walked about 10 feet, then turned around and said “I’m an atheist!” It is always interesting when people with strong beliefs feel the need to voice them as some sort of counter to our offer. But I suppose that is what we do as evangelists, voicing Jesus to counter the dismal narratives of today, so I guess that makes us interesting too.
Carter and I passed out four rosaries in all. Two rosaries to a pair of people from Wytheville (another small town in VA); one rosary to a young woman in passing who said she was a Christian; and one rosary to a young man who is or was Hindu, but is interested in Christianity. We were able to share the Kerygma and pray over the last guy! We almost missed him, as we were just about to pack up. It always seems to happen that way…
We were happy to evangelize on an Ember Day. While the “Ember” in “Ember Day” does not etymologically get its name from the word “ember” as we know it — (it is actually from the Old English “ymbren”, meaning “recurring” and referring to the 12 days of Catholic seasonal prayer, fasting, and abstinence that is at least a 1500-year-old tradition and potentially has apostolic origins) — we felt like Embers on the street. We were a humble unit in a fairly inactive place, but we were still on fire with love and the desire to share God with others, so like embers, with a little Wind, we had the potential to spread our fire and proliferate.I pray that, through the intercessions of SS. Dominic and Francis, we may all become embers for Christ. The dry kindling within our neighbors is desperate for a spark, and it only takes one or two to set the world on fire anew.
Praised be Jesus Christ!