Begin at Home
Someone once said: “Charity begins at home.” So does evangelization. Husbands and wives should help each other to take their faith seriously and grow in it. Parents are the first to help their children open their minds and hearts to Jesus by teaching them how to pray and giving
them their first religion lessons. How important for the family to practice their faith, especially by participating in the Sunday Eucharist.
So we were invited to a dinner at 6:00 o'clock in Sharp Hall as a "Thank You" to those of us that are in one of the many ministries at St. Vincent de Paul. As we entered the hall we were all registered and were given a wrist band, I thought father McCaffrey was going to give us unlimited beer thus the wrist band but no, it was actually a numbered band that later would be used for a prize raffle. Well one can only wish, ja ja and I don't even drink.
Upon entering the hall I noticed how much work had been put into this event. All the tables and chairs were nicely covered with table cloth and matching chair covers. A nice center piece with two candles and disposable cups with a bottle of coke on each table. Also I noticed that our peers, all those that organized this event dressed the part as professional waiters. It was a very nice touch. Each person had their assigned tables and they did a fantastic job first at making sure we all had bottled water and later in serving us first the salad, then the main course. We were on our own to go get the dessert as they had a huge dessert table set up as well.
I wanted to take many pictures of the event but my camera's battery died after the third or fourth image. Well no problem I'll use my camcorder which also captures images, wrong, Mr. Joe Cool forgot to reload the memory card in the camcorder so, needless to say I could not take any more pictures.
Serve your parish as a Eucharistic minister, lector, choir member, altar server, usher, etc.
A musical group that plays and sings charismatic music played for our listening enjoyment then Father McCaffrey introduced our new priest and welcomed him into our parish. After an opening prayer our waiters began bringing the food. They did an awesome job and we all enjoyed the food.
Then the prize giving started, it was fun as it was done in a white elephant fashion. There were a little bit over 35 presents given away and those that were lucky to have their number called were having fun at stealing the gifts from those that were hiding theirs instead of raising it up.
Help Someone in Need
It is important to see Jesus in the poor. When faith is put into action by serving those in need, faith comes alive and has the power to attract others. Evangelizers don’t just write checks but reach out to the sick, the homebound, the troubled, the homeless, the hungry, and the imprisoned. When others see this “hands on” service to the poor, they will take the faith more seriously.
Once the presents were finished it was time to have them opened by the winners, that also took a little while as there were many, finally they were done and now it was time for a DJ to start playing the music. The tables would be moved out of the way so that those that desired to dance could do so.
As a last surprise which I did not wait for a mariachi came in to play some music and to entertain those that remained there. It was a fun time in celebration with our peers from all the other masses both English and Spanish and I don't think anybody that attended had a bad time.
Pray
Prayer is what drives evangelization. Prayer is something we can all do – any time, any place. We can pray for ourselves and for others. And certainly, almost everyone, even the most hardened unbeliever, appreciates prayers in time of need.
I am happy to report that in about two weeks I will be celebrating my second anniversary as a choir boy and I am loving it more and more.
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