Why not explicitly ask the Holy
Spirit every day to make you an
evangelist? I have found this prayer
to always bear fruit: “Holy Spirit,
please make me an evangelist.
Jesus, please send me people.”
One day, after praying this prayer,
I met a man who was looking for
cans in the garbage. We began
to talk. Within three minutes,
he sincerely asked, and intently
listened to, what the Catholic faith
believed about the Eucharist. He
was raised Catholic but was away
from the faith and didn’t know what
the Eucharist is.
By God’s grace, he seemed truly
intent at the end of the conversation
to head back to church on the
coming Sunday. Jesus truly meets us
where we’re at—and wants to meet
others where they are through us.
4
Missionary Disciples: “No Longer I”
Prior to being named the Archbishop of
Guam, Archbishop Michael Byrnes served
as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of
Detroit. In a talk given at the Lay Ecclesial
Convocation in Detroit in the fall of 2016,
Archbishop Byrnes spoke that learning
to become an “everyday evangelist” is like
learning how to fish—there’s going to be
some awkward moments.
Regaling the audience with hilarious
stories of his own fishing woes on an Alas-
kan fishing trip, the Archbishop brought
home a clear point in his talk that makes
all of the awkward moments totally worth
the effort. Archbishop Byrnes said, “Jesus
wants to encounter the people around you
through you.”
Ponder those words for a few moments.
They are truly life-changing if we take them
to heart.
How would you respond if Jesus ap-
peared and spoke right to you: “I want to
live through you today.” And yet, this is
our reality as disciples of Jesus! We truly
share in the life of Jesus. As St. Paul famous-
ly expressed it, “Yet I live, no longer I, but
Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
It is through cultivating our intimate
union with Jesus that evangelization (an-
nouncing the Good News of God’s love
made present to us in the person of Jesus)
begins to flow forth with delight, for we are
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Spring 2017
“Please Make
Me an Evangelist”
missionary disciple is the daily renewal that
comes with giving your whole heart (which
is to say your whole life) to Jesus without
any compromises. Let us beg for the grace
to do this in all authenticity every day. If
we do so, we can be sure we’ll be bearing
the fruit of joy in the Lord that is both the
Father’s glory and some of the most potent
evangelization bait he provides!
I’ll never forget a dear cashier at the gro-
cery store saying, “Well you’re in a good
mood today,” and then rejoicing when I
told her the reason why was Jesus. Giving
your whole heart to Jesus every day al-
lows us to experience what Pope Francis
expressed in the introduction to The Joy of
the Gospel, “With Christ joy is constantly
born anew.” A heart wholly given over to
God is a cheerful heart, and as the Book
of Proverbs tells us, “A glad heart lights up
the face” (Prv 15:13a). That’s not just a nice
countenance the Word of God is talking
about, that’s the Light of the World.
sharing in the will of Jesus and the love of
his Sacred Heart that desires the salvation
of all. As Pope Francis puts it, “In union
with Jesus, we seek what he seeks and we
love what he loves, in the end, what we
are seeking is the glory of the Father” (EG,
no. 267). The reality of what God revealed
through St. Paul (that Jesus lives in his dis-
ciples) is brought about in us through the
gift of the Holy Spirit given at baptism.
As the Church teaches us, “The One
whom the Father has sent into our hearts,
the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. Consub-
stantial [meaning one with and of the same
substance] with the Father and the Son, the
Spirit is inseparable from them, in both
the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of
love for the world” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, no. 689).
How to Keep the Fervor
In The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis
emphasizes that it is the Holy Spirit who
continues to shape our lives as missionary