On Super Bowl Sunday, members of SPSE South Houston, SPSE The Woodlands, and other Houston-area teams met for Mass at the co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. More than 500 men and women who belong to religious orders throughout the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston were there to renew their vows. After Mass, the teams met for lunch, discussed SPSE in the Houston area, and then took new members out for some practical training.

The first person they spoke with, a Sikh, talked of similarities between the Sikh religion and Catholicism. He also mentioned growing up in India in a place close to the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s order. He spoke fondly of their witnessing the Faith to him previously. The team had just seen and spoken with some of the MC Sisters at the Mass earlier that day, and SPSE South Houston has a particular devotion to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. They have found her prayers beneficial.

Another man visiting the team had grown up attending Catholic school and had a strongly Catholic grandmother. He responded to the SPSE sign, took a Rosary, and said he thought it was “a sign” that the team was there. He seemed discouraged with the current state of the many non-Catholic Christian churches he had been attending. The evangelists encouraged him to go to Mass and to try the Catholic Church.

The last person the team spoke with gave his name as “Billy.” He walked up as they were packing up, and he had many questions about religion, history, and the Catholic Church — especially about sin. At one point, he motioned to the evangelist he was speaking with that he should speak more privately for the next part of the conversation. After others had stepped away, the two went on to talk of sexual sins. Billy was not Catholic, and so the evangelist explained to him the difference between mortal and venial sin, and how having sex with anyone who isn’t your wife, and all self-abuse, are forms of adultery. Billy asked us to pray for him.

Awesome job, Houston area teams! Keep up the good work.