It was a great weekend with a lot of football watching and a lot of Mass attending! I attended Mass at Saint Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth on Saturday morning. The Bishop of Fort Worth, Michael Olson presided over the Mass, check out Bishop Olson's bio here. After the Mass, the Archdiocese of Fort Worth invited Dr. Scott Hahn to give two talks on evangelization and the mercy of God. I was grateful for the opportunity to see Dr. Hahn in person; he is the man that the Lord used in my life to make me start really considering the claims of the Catholic Church. Here is another link to a video where Dr. Hahn discusses his journey home to the Catholic Church, check it out here.
Dr. Hahn gave a great talk on evangelism. Two things that resonated with me from the first talk, is that to successfully evangelize it comes down to friendship and joy. Friendship is the method that Jesus used to evangelize and disciple the apostles, the men who later would turn the whole world upside-down! Jesus befriended these men and lived life with them for three years. It shows the importance of the friendships that the Lord has blessed us with and not to take them for granted. The second takeaway was the importance of showing our joy. It sounds simplistic but if we want our friends, co-workers and family to come to the faith we have to show them we actually enjoy following Christ. I'm praying that the Lord helps me in this area. Please pray for me!
The second talk was titled the Father of Mercies. Dr. Hahn recalled when his wife gave birth to their firstborn son and how much intense love welled up within him. God spoke to his spirit at that moment and he realized how much more God truly loves him and all of us. Being a disciple of Jesus requires us to die to self, take up our cross and follow him. This is a lifelong journey in learning how to die to ourselves and follow him. The beauty of the Church is that through the sacraments the Lord dispenses his grace to us which helps us on our journey following after Christ.
I'm looking forward to another RCIA class on Wednesday, more posts to come!
God Bless,
James
