Hi ya'll,

I hope you enjoyed the weather today. We certainly did. Ernesto (better known as Ernie), Mason, and I went out to the Barnyard this morning and set up on our rented table all the Catholic stuff. Rosaries, Miraculous Medals, Crucifixes, Bibles, and other literature on the Catholic faith. After setting up, we blessed ourselves with Holy Water and began with a time of prayer.

At the Barnyard Flea Market, it always takes a little while before the crowds show up, but they sure did. About mid-morning after the chill subsided, there was a constant stream of passersby. Of course, many people took the little cards we like to pass out that have on one side a picture of our crucified savior and on the other a short proclamation of the Gospel. This time though, instead of saying, "God bless you", I was inspired to say, "Repent and believe the Gospel." Just that short phrase seemed to be a shocker for some, but it's true. It's a challenge we too receive daily from our Lord, and is the evangelist's basic message no matter who we are engaging; atheists or pagans, conservatives or liberals, Protestants or even practicing Catholics.

As promised here are some interesting accounts of the more meaningful engagements we had today:

I met a young man who came to our table interested in taking a Rosary as he said the one he had obtained while visiting the Vatican, yes the Vatican, had broken. He also took a "How to Pray the Rosary" pamphlet and informed me that he had traveled there with his family and that his Protestant grandmother was not so happy. Before his younger nephew and grandfather came over, he briefly mentioned he was attending an Orthodox liturgy in Spartanburg. I engaged the nephew and Ernesto continued the conversation with the young man.

His nephew was probably around six. Grandfather was with him. He asked if he could take anything and I suggested a Miraculous Medal. I used the opportunity to ask him a few questions. "Who is Jesus?" The boy said, "The Savior." "That's right" I said, "Now who's image is on this medal?" He said, "Jesus?" "No" I said, "This is actually..." Grandfather pretty much finished it for me, "the Virgin Mary." "Now who is the Virgin Mary?" I asked. "The mother of Jesus", he rightly proclaimed. "And mothers really love their sons and daughters. When we believe in Jesus we become his brothers and sisters, she becomes our mother. She prays for us and because she was so close to Jesus - and Jesus wasn't the only one who performed miracles, but some of those who were close to him also did - when she prays for us sometimes miracles happen. This is the reason we call this the Miraculous Medal, because some people have seen miracles happen with it. You wear it and ask Mary to pray for you, maybe you'll see a miracle, or maybe you can give it to someone else who needs a miracle." I then placed it around his neck. He thanked me with a fist bump and I concluded the conversation after some friendly banter with Grandpa.

Here is an account from Mason of a man we all engaged with friendly debate:

"We met Mario from Yugoslavia who was very much against separate denominations and considered the Catholic Church to be just one more denomination. He believes Christianity should just stick to what is in the Bible, and that any deviation is just for the purpose of gain and the popularity of the leaders. Lengthy conversation ensued, but followed the typical method of protestant discourse wherein every answer provided to a question did not yield discussion about the answer, but rather new unrelated questions…

We told him that the Bible we have today came about from the action of the Catholic Church, but he needed more explanation so we described the canonization of sacred scripture and how a central authority was needed to make those decisions.

We addressed his frustration with denominationalism by first quoting Christ’s great commission, which ends with “teach them to observe ALL that I have commanded.”  So if one scripture says “believe and you shall be saved”, and another scripture says “believe and be baptized”, then we are obliged to believe both, and this is what the Catholic Church professes. And if Jesus says “this IS my body”, not this represents my body, then we are obliged to believe that too.

He scoffed at the idea that the bread is truly the body of Christ, to which we explained that Jesus also spoke of this prior to the last supper when his hearers turned and walked away, but Christ did not try to stop them clarifying that He was only speaking symbolically.

Mario jumped to how he believed that praying to Mary is forbidden by God.  We explained how prayer is separate from worship, and how it’s only asking for another Saint’s intervention, just as if I asked Mario to pray for me in my struggles.

He jumped to Christ being the one mediator between God and man.  We agreed with him wholeheartedly with regards to atonement, but not petition.  He believes that we can pray for one another while we are still alive, but not in praying to the dead. He mentioned the “great chasm” between the rich man and Lazarus. We explained how the rich man was asking Abraham to perform a miraculous action himself.  When we pray to saints in Heaven for their intervention, we are asking them to ask God for His action.

Mario quickly switched to the idea that praying to icons and statues is evil, to which we tried to explain the difference between prayer and worship, and how it’s prayer to whom the image represents, but not the worship of that person.

In the end, he refused to take any literature on any of the subjects discussed.  Sometimes people are not willing to consider the possibility there may be something they do not fully understand.  Wanting to determine truth for oneself is the very problem that causes the many denominations in the world today, and negates the instruction of the great commission from Jesus."

Mason is just giving the basic jist of the convo - but really there was quite a bit of apologetic stuff flying around. I even broke open the Bible and started taking him through some verses. This man mentioned he fled Yugoslavia because of Communism. I believe he was part of a Brethren church. Ernesto had some interesting encounters as well and is much valued for his fluency in Spanish. Here is his account:

”A few Hispanic families or groups stopped at our table with different levels of interest, with one I reached out when they appeared not to have intention to stop, but seemed curious. They all identified as Catholic but with low dedication or interest. When asked the name of their parish they hesitated or didn't know at all. It was sad but hopeful that they would be more open to Jesus and His Church than non- Catholics.

Invariably they took rosaries, miraculous medals and even one Spanish Bible which was accepted with gratitude. I told them how important God is on our lives so we need to talk with Him in prayer, meditate the rosary daily, not just use it for decoration, that wouldn't help us be closer to God.

One of the men said he prayed the rosary every day which surprised me positively, I told him I try also to pray it every day but sometimes I miss.

Conclusively my feeling is that a difficult and hard life and worldly climate strain anybody's piety and overall relationship with our Lord, but the extra effort to overcome that is the path to sainthood.”

Our focus is "Repent and believe the Gospel..." then receive God's grace through the Sacraments and we all know where that happens. I met two ladies who said their father was a Southern Baptist minister. He passed away sometime ago and their mom died very recently. They mentioned that they were very interested in finding a church to attend and I invited them to Prince of Peace, gave them my phone number and email and let them know a little bit about my experience attending Mass when I was first looking into the Catholic Church and that I'd be happy to accompany them when they came. One of them said that she hoped to find a place where she could just worship God, and not feel obligated to endure social pressure. Although we meet a lot of people from either the Greer area or the Spartanburg area, we are hoping to invite those from Greer to come to Prince of Peace.

Our next outing is scheduled for April 19th. Please pray for us and all those we have encountered or will in the future!