A few months ago, I wrote about our entering into the third year of our National Eucharistic Revival, a year focused on mission. We have reflected on our diocesan / parish mission statement as articulated in our 2017 Fourth Diocesan Synod, and the four pillars of discipleship and stewardship: hospitality, prayer, formation, and service.
As we begin this new calendar year and prepare to shift back into Ordinary Time for a couple of months before Lent, I would like to draw our attention to an initiative that the National Eucharistic Revival team is promoting called Walk with One.
The premise of the initiative is rather simple. It recognizes that the spreading of the Good News, which we call evangelization, typically takes place in one-on-one encounters, encounters that can happen anywhere or at any time. While we should always be prepared to give a witness to our faith (cf. 1 Peter 3:15), we can also be intentional in our efforts to share the Gospel message. This is what the Walk with One initiative invites us to do, to identify just one person with whom we desire to walk toward a deeper relationship with Jesus and His Church.
In last week’s bulletin article, I shared the story of praying for my grandmother, and how this weekend, we would be inviting you to consider the name of somebody whom the Lord has put on your heart to accompany. I realize this might initially sound intimidating, but at this point, all we are asking for is prayer. Most of us are not comfortable inviting somebody to come back to Mass or confession, so this time of prayer has two aims. Obviously, we are praying for the Lord to prepare the hearts of those with whom we desire to journey. But we are also praying for ourselves, that we might have the courage and the conviction to approach them and offer a more explicit invitation to them at some point in the future. That invitation may not be just to come to Mass. It might be inviting them to go to confession with you. It might be more basic, like inviting them to join you for coffee or a meal so that they can share their story. The how is not so important at this point, but our focus is on the who.
As we begin this time of prayer for these individuals, let me caution against a mindset that we can sometimes fall into. We can be tempted to see others as “projects” to work on. Once we get them back to Mass, then our work will have been done. No, we want to see these individuals as people, companions on our journey of faith. We need to love them and be genuinely interested in them. Even if the person does not immediately accept our explicit invitation, we will not cease to be involved in their lives. We want to love them where we find them, hoping that the Lord will move them to a different place, using us as His instruments in bringing about that progress. Regardless of the outcome we hope for, when we sincerely seek to accompany a brother or sister in the Lord, witnessing to our love of the faith, God is glorified, and nothing will have been wasted. God is far more patient and committed to this than we are, and that can be extremely comforting.
As soon as the Lord places an individual on your heart to walk with, first of all from a distance, begin to pray for them each and every day. It could be as simple as adding a fourth Hail Mary to the three Hail Mary’s I’ve encouraged us to say each day for our parish, the clergy of the parish, and ourselves. We might consider spending time in Eucharistic Adoration, offering that time up for them. We might look for a novena to pray for them. It does not need to be complicated, just that we do something each day. Let us also make sure to thank God every day for the good He has planned for us and for them through this commitment to prayer, and whatever concrete actions the Lord may invite us to take in the future.
Father Alford