www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Are you a convert or revert? If so, how were you evangelized?

This is something that has been on my mind, as I've been a part of several parishes and none of them have had much in the way of effective evangelization. I'm curious as to how people are actually evangelized and where the sources of evangelization are taking place in the Church today.

For my part, I was raised a Latin Catholic, fell away from faithful practice of the faith in my 20s, and eventually was led back to the sacrament of Reconciliation by the YouTube combination of Bishop Barron, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, and Matt Fradd. Through different avenues, this group of men inspired me to put what I believed into practice, and God blessed me with a tremendous experience of grace in my first confession after years. Through this experience of finally living the faith authentically I eventually discovered that many of my prior difficulties were not with the faith itself, but with the particular emphasis of the Latin rite, and I have since become a parishioner at a beautiful Ruthenian church and felt at home immediately, both in the liturgy and in the spiritual practices of the east.

I grew up as a pagan. My parents were both lapsed Ukrainian Catholics. My father was deep into the new age and the occult and often shared his books with me.

Nobody evangelized me directly - or maybe it is better to say, lots of people did in little ways. I tried to kill myself when I was 18, and woke up to St. John Paul II was speaking on tv. I forget what he said, exactly, but at the time it touched me deeply.

Later, I remember my first year Philosophy professor telling us he grew up Catholic but "got better." He introduced me to St. Augustine, and I remember reading his prayer, "late have I loved thee," and wanting that same love so badly. From there, I read a lot.

In my second year of university, I had Roman Catholic roommates and started attending Mass with them. Before long, I was in the RCIA program. I was baptized, confirmed, and received my first communion at the Easter Vigil of 2004.

After school, I moved back to northern Ontario and started attending the Latin church here. Eventually, I met others who knew my family and got on the list to know when Msgr was coming to the Ukrainian church.

Later, we met another priest. He was living in the bush and helping with the chapel some people from Toronto were building in the bush. We began having Divine Liturgy every week. There was a language barrier, but he introduced me to the Jesus Prayer, and gradually I fell in love with my Ukrainian Catholic heritage.

Thanks for sharing, and your story of waking up to St John Paul II speaking is moving. I also read that prayer by St. Augustine, as well as "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you", not knowing where it actually came from. Later I picked up a copy of his Confessions at random and there it is on page 1. Hit me like a brick.

I realize now how much wished I had someone in my life who I could have asked during this time. The priests I encountered were nice but not all that helpful, if I'm honest. One thing I've been trying to do consciously is to live my faith in some visible way, so that should anyone I come across also be wrestling with things like this internally or is even just curious about Christianity, they know that I'm approachable.

I think there are a lot of ways to evangelize.

Some years ago, we were all talking about how to save our church, and I couldn't make the meeting about it so I wrote a letter. It was full of the zeal that sometimes still pops up, heaven help me, and I wrote about how we had a lot to offer and needed to start inviting people
to church. We needed converts.

The next thing I knew, our priest was presenting me with a list of all the fallen away Ukrainians and a new job.

I would like to say that I was on fire with the Holy Spirit, and got our church full again, but it was more complicated than that.

God has used me to help a few souls into the church over the years. I didn't do anything special for it, just lived my
faith the best I could and lived it openly.

I think, when we really make our lives a living Gospel, it draws people in.

I have a long way to go, but I try. It is
the best witnessing I know how to do.

Joseph, I am sorry the priests you met haven't been very helpful. I was lucky when I was first baptized, and a priest took me under his wing.

Then I moved north, and had much less luck. But we can still do our best. Pray and study, and work out our salvation.

there's a saying about one lost sheep . . .

If only that one lost sheep was enough to stop our church from closing, alas.

"Cry The Gospel with your Life!" wrote Blessed Charles de Foucault. It's The best way to Evangelize...

I am a convert to Catholicism. In fact, to Christianity. I am canonically a Latin, but, I have the utmost respect for the Christian east. I was first invited to an Eastern Catholic liturgy by the Late Fr. Deacon Robert Pride, of St. Ignatios of Antioch Melkite Catholic church, whilst in line for confession.