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       We Christians need to rediscover ways to evangelize, to learn the Lord’s way of  winning people back to Him.  Evangelism is a deliberate attempt to bring people to Christ  by befriending them.  As soon as some hear this, they might wonder, “Can that be right? Should we befriend people just to bring them to Jesus?”  Absolutely!!  The greatest reason to befriend someone is Jesus Christ.  The greatest gift we can give a friend is Jesus Christ.  If we are truly someone’s friend, we want what is best for him or her.   What can be better for any man, woman or child on earth than to come to know and to love Jesus Christ?

      It may seem like it will take an eternity to help some people accept the gift of Jesus but, as true  disciples of Jesus, we  need to be alert from the beginning that this service demands a lot of time and prayer.  We need to spend more time with people, to pray for each other and to share our lives and our Catholic faith with them. To help to bring them into a personal relationship with Jesus, we must be willing to invest time and prayer. This can be difficult, because we all have a full schedule.

     Yet this can be done by working on natural contacts like family members and neighbors. We normally have many natural opportunities to talk with them and build better relationships. The same is true of  people at work whom we see on a regular basis. Other natural places for building relationships and for sharing our faith are at our children’s teen centers, at Senior Citizens’ Centers, etc.

      People who are new to our community – neighborhood, workplace, or school – are often looking for a sense of belonging.  We ought to use these natural opportunities to befriend them with the clear purpose of bringing them into a deeper relationship with Jesus. 

      Alertness to evangelistic opportunities requires that we become good listeners as well as good conversationalists.  We want to avoid thinking about our message and what we are going to say next so much that we don’t hear the other person and come to understand him or her.  We need to develop a sensitivity that  enables us to sense where people are in the Lord so that we can help them move on in their faith. 

      Our goal ought to be to build a relationship that will bring another person to a mature faith in Jesus.  To the realization of this goal, we have the Church opened every day, as well as our First Friday Adoration and having the Blessed Sacrament placed on the altar in Church every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon from 1 to 4pm and Thursdays evenings from 7-9 pm. 

      Perhaps the remaining days of June, dedicated to the Sacred of Heart of Jesus and perhaps the remainder of this summer could be a time for all of us to do more evangelizing and more praying for our  parish.  Remember you don’t have to say everything the first time you meet.  You do need, however, to invest your time.  You need to listen to pray more.  You need to help bring another person back to Jesus.