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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ROSWELL—Parishioners from St. Andrew’s Church and
members of Regnum Christi are taking the Jubilee Year’s theme literally.
On Saturday, March 25, 40 missionaries knocked on 250 doors of St.
Andrew’s parishioners’ homes, personifying the Jubilee theme of
“Open Wide the Doors to Christ.” And they weren’t selling
cookies.
An activity organized by the Youth for the Third Millennium and
Missionary Family for the Third Millennium Apostolates, the mission’s goal
is to respond to Pope John Paul II’s call for evangelization in the new
millennium.
Tom Hoover, a member of Regnum Christi, the lay movement of the
Legionaries of Christ religious order, and a parishioner of St. Andrew’s,
organized the mission.
“The need is very strong in our own house (of worship) to
ignite the faith of fellow Catholics,” he said.
Father Paul Reynolds, pastor, gave the group a list of names of
parishioners that might benefit in some way from a visit by the missionaries.
After Mass and a blessing from Father Reynolds, missionaries were sent with
parish bulletins, a Lenten schedule, adult enrichment information, a booklet on
the Catholic faith called “Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth,” and
audio tapes about Scott Hahn, a former self-professed anti-Catholic who now
teaches Catholic theology, and his journey of conversion to the Catholic
Church.
A door is a symbol of many things. An open door may be seen as a
new opportunity, a symbol of hope. But a closed door may symbolize rejection or
an end. The missionaries, however, saw it as a challenge.
Sent out in 15 teams, many made up of families, the missionaries
set out to make the Catholic faith come alive to those who had possibly been
away.
Pete Lichtenwalner, a member of Regnum Christi, participated in a
similar mission last year, where he and others knocked on doors of homes, not
knowing whether or not the residents were Catholics. Although this mission, in
which the residents were registered parishioners of St. Andrew’s, was a
bit less intimidating, Lichtenwalner still leaned on the Holy Spirit.
“We always make a point to pray before going up to a
door,” he said. “Although I was kind of nervous, it’s amazing
the way the Holy Spirit works.”
Lichtenwalner was not alone. Many of the missionaries expressed
their gratitude to the Holy Spirit. Many also shared stories of their
experience in evangelization.
Susan Peace, a missionary who visited homes with her husband, Jim,
told the story of one home where the parishioner had moved to another
subdivision. The new homeowner was Methodist, but Peace and her husband left
the materials with the woman, who was receptive to the missionaries.
“We parted smiling,” she said. “Maybe this lady was
in need of these materials more than the intended. Only God knows, and we
didn’t want to miss an opportunity to spread the faith or even the
understanding of our faith.”
Each team would invite the homeowners to a holy hour later that
evening, or ask the residents for prayer petitions to bring to the holy hour.
In some cases, the missionaries would actually pray with the homeowners. At the
holy hour, the missionaries prayed for those they had met, and several of the
people that they spoke with attended.
“It was exciting to have the assurance that God would do the
rest,” Peace said. “It also was for me a concrete example of what we
call ‘corresponding’ to God’s grace. By his grace, we were able
to be on the mission and be his hands and voice. I really knew I was
cooperating in God’s work and it was about bringing him to others.”
Hoover said that of the 250 doors that were knocked on, 132
homeowners were there. If the homeowner was not there, the missionaries left
the information on the doorstep.
Father Reynolds said that his hope was that the missionaries would
be “spiritually helpful to (the parishioners) and that they would invite
people who were not practicing to active participation.”
He said that the fruits of the mission have been very positive and
he also commented on the faith of the missionaries.
“They were very anxious to share their gifts with other
people and they were motivated to share the blessings of the Catholic faith
with others,” Father Reynolds said. “These are people with a very,
very deep love for the Catholic faith.”
Hoover pointed out that this was “how the Catholic faith
started. The apostles would go from town to town.” He said that his fellow
missionaries inspired him.
“I have been blown away by the charity of the other
missionaries, especially the families, and the charity of Christ that flows
through these people,” he said. “You know that can’t be human.
It’s supernatural. What would motivate someone to do that except for the
Holy Spirit? It strengthens my own faith to see that.”
Lichtenwalner said that there were a variety of responses from the
homeowners. Some were immediately surprised that Catholics were participating
in this type of evangelization and for some, he said, it “made their day
that somebody from their church would come and invite them back.”
“I never thought I could have done this kind of thing,”
Lichtenwalner said. “The key is just getting out there and trying it once.
You realize that you can’t do it on your own, that you really need to
trust in the Holy Spirit.”
The missionaries spent two hours in the morning knocking on doors
and then two hours in the afternoon. Lichtenwalner said this experience has
helped him to learn the necessity of sharing his faith.
“Getting out there and talking to people about Christ helps
you not only to trust in the Holy Spirit, but it helps you get over that
attitude of wanting to be private about your faith,” he said.
Hoover said that he would like to help other parishes start this
type of evangelization because he knows that this is work that is pleasing to
God.
“It reinforced to me that there is a great need in the church
today to bring the love of Christ to those who need him the most—to go
right to their homes and make a visit on his behalf, to extend an
invitation,” he said. “More often than not, the people that we
visited were just waiting for an invitation or waiting for a reason to go back
to Mass and to ignite their faith.”
“That’s what I really took from the mission,” he
continued. “This is a very important thing to do, it’s an easy thing
to do and it’s going to have an impact on people’s lives.”
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