What Is a Missionary Disciple?

At the National Catholic Teachers Association convention next year, I will be speaking on prayer. The organizers asked me to rework my talk’s title and description to reflect the theme “missionary disciples.” In doing research, I discovered that Pope Francis used this term in his encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel,” and this year our […]

Evangelizing: Mary, Me, and My Family

Before Mary’s month of May ends, I thought I’d better put up at least one post devoted to her. Let’s focus on Mary as an evangelizer, someone who proclaimed the Gospel, the good news of the Savior. Mary was actually the first one evangelized. She was the first to hear the news and from the […]

Speaking Up for Jesus’ Sake

The oft-quoted advice of St. Francis is “Preach and if necessary use words.”  Sometimes words are very necessary, but we are reluctant to use them. The first time I was invited to speak to catechists at a national convention, I didn’t think I could do it. As an extreme introvert, I needed time to ponder […]

The New Evangelization

At a recent reunion I learned that a classmate from the Catholic school I attended had become a Jehovah’s Witness. Two people came knocking on her door, and she listened to them. Her conversion raised two questions for me: 1) How could she give up the beliefs, the rich traditions, and sacramental benefits of the […]