Habit one: Pray!

Sunday's Gospel said, "At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit."

This pericope from Sunday's Gospel selection shows Christ's plan for Evangelization. It is not just some sort of haphazard, shoot from the hip program where he wanders about aimlessly. Rather the Lord had a plan to visit specific cities at specific times. And, in order to prepare for his visit, he sent an entourage ahead of him. Their goal was to scout out the scene and to prepare and arrange all the necessities for his visit.

Now these lead teams, these evangelizers, received basic instructions from the Lord on how to effectively evangelize. These basic instructions are also for us who have received the mandate as Christians to evangelize.

The Scriptures say, "The harvest is rich but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." Therefore before any work is to be done there must be prayer. Before we ventured with 24 of our students to the Life Teen Conference there was prayer. Many parents, teachers, students and friends were praying for us while we were there. Each day the Marianist Community made a special intention at Mass for the Life Teen Conference. In fact, before any effective evangelizing there must be prayer. It is with prayer that we are sent, not by man, but by God.  So step one for effective evangelization is to have a praying community asking for laborers. Habit one: Pray!

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 Pray for the Canonization of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

"In the ordinary design of Divine Providence the works of God will be opposed, attacked, and assaulted on all sides. Do we not, both you and I, deserve chastisement from the great Master whom we serve? Let us be submissive and adore his designs. Let us profit by it all. If the good Master is satisfied with us, we should also be satisfied with him."

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade