Yesterday, we at SPSE Cambridge had our May outing. It was a small outing, just me and one other girl. Beforehand, we prayed, asking the Holy Spirit if He wanted to reveal anything to us, like where we should go exactly, or whom we might encounter, or what people would need prayer for. (This was inspired by the street evangelization portion of the documentary Fearless, largely about Encounter Ministries, which some of us in the SPSE Cambridge chapter have watched.)

After leaving some space for silence, my fellow evangelist got the sense in prayer that we should walk down Mount Auburn Street that day. Typically we walk down Mass Ave, which runs parallel-ish to Mount Auburn. Also, typically we do not evangelize while walking; we usually stand somewhere in Harvard Square and wait for people to pass by. We were excited to try something new, especially because we felt the Holy Spirit was calling us to it!

The quarter mile or so that we walked down Mount Auburn yielded not one, not two, but THREE divine appointments!

First, right at the beginning of our walk, we encountered a girl who appeared to be college-aged. We asked her if she wanted a free rosary. She said she actually had been needing a new one. (We didn’t get into it, but perhaps she had lost the previous one, or it had broken?) We didn’t chat much more than this, but it seems that the timing had been just right.

Then right after we’d talked to this girl, a young man approached us and asked if he could have a rosary too. He told us that he is searching right now and that he’s interested in Catholicism and might be Catholic soon. He was Finnish by descent and selected a blue and white rosary because it looked like the Finnish flag. (A fun detail here is that I only grabbed that wad of rosaries from our stash right before I left my apartment, thinking that maybe we could use a few more for the outing. It’s so beautiful how God cares about the small details, such as giving someone a rosary that reminds him of home.) This young man was with a group of other guys (maybe 7 or 8 of them). We learned they were in town as part of a traveling hockey team. We asked the other guys if they also wanted rosaries. A couple more accepted a rosary, and then a couple more. I think we gave a rosary and a pamphlet on how to pray it to all of them, save one or two.

The last encounter we had on Mount Auburn was perhaps one of my favorite encounters we’ve ever had. There was a person sitting alone on a wooden bench along the sidewalk. She didn’t appear to be doing anything–wasn’t even looking at a phone. The perfect person to approach from an evangelist’s perspective, as she did not appear to be busy with something else! We offered a rosary, which she accepted. We got to chatting a bit and eventually asked whether she was Catholic. She told us that she grew up Catholic but has not been to church in 15 years. I asked what holds her back from returning. She revealed that she does not feel like she would fit in if she were to return. My co-evangelist took a risk that paid off and asked whether this was due to an LGBT identity. Our new friend revealed that, yes, this was the case. We assured her that Jesus loves her and that she has a place in the Church. We also apologized for anything that any Catholic may have done in the past that made her feel unwelcome. I think that what stands out most to me from this encounter was the look on her face as we said these things. She went from looking slightly guarded to looking more comfortable, but words really can’t do it justice. I was reminded of our new Holy Father Pope Leo’s call to build bridges. It felt like a little bridge was built on Mount Auburn that day. 🙂 Hopefully (and I pray) that that bridge continues to be reinforced by other positive encounters with Christians, and ultimately paved with the love of Jesus. As we continued to chat, I recalled that a devout Catholic friend of ours has involvement with LGBT ministries in the area. I told her about him and asked if she’d be interested in being connected. She said that she was interested! So we got her email and are putting them in touch!

Please pray for the people we met on Mount Auburn Street, that they would be drawn deeper into the reality of God’s love for them!