Casting Nets with the Saints. Chris Stewart

them become the Michael Jordan that you want to “Be Like” when it comes to evangelism.

      Secondly, I am convinced that the saints in heaven play a major role in every conversion story. As you share the Gospel with someone, begin to pray for the saints and angels looking over this person to guide and assist your efforts. Many times while engaging a person with the Gospel, a particular saint jumps into my thoughts. Immediately I will begin to ask for that saint’s intercession. I will study that saint’s life to see what could be useful in sharing the Gospel with this particular person. It is amazing how different my evangelization is when this happens. But none of this will be possible if we continue to ignore our heavenly brothers and sisters who want to help our evangelization.

      The fifty-six saints are divided into two parts of this book. The first part is The Seven Pillars of Effective Evangelization. Tony Brandt and I introduced The Seven Pillars in Casting Nets: Grow Your Faith by Sharing Your Faith.⁴ These pillars comprise universal principles necessary for evangelization to produce fruit for any individual, parish, diocese, or institution. They are not steps to evangelization, nor do they constitute a program. Instead they are foundations that methods and programs can be built upon. In that first book we taught the principle of the pillar and then demonstrated it through personal stories from our combined forty-plus years of experience. In this book, the saints demonstrate the pillars.

      In the second part of the book I focus on The Seven Characteristics of an Effective Evangelist. Like the pillars, these characteristics are both universal and necessary. These characteristics are manifested in individuals, but they also are evident in communities that are sharing the Gospel well. To become the best evangelists that we can be, we must work to acquire all seven of them. While the saints whom I cite illustrate one particular characteristic, you can rest assured that they possessed all of them — and that must be our aim as well.

      The work of evangelization is too important not to do it well. Souls are on the line. Let us pray to all the holy men and women who have preceded us to intercede in our efforts of spreading the Gospel, so that the lost will be found, and there will be rejoicing in heaven today (cf. Lk 15:9–10).

       Part One

      The Saints and the Seven Pillars of Effective Evangelization

      Pillar 1

       Prayerful

      Breathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of this air. The spiritual life is fed, nourished, by prayer and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling—prayer—and then exhaling. When we inhale, by prayer, we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit. When exhaling this air, we announce Jesus Christ risen by the same Spirit. No one can live without breathing. It is the same for the Christian: without praise and mission there is no Christian life.

      — Pope Francis ⁵

      When we think of the saints, we imagine them as spiritual giants. Some, like St. Vincent Ferrer, cast their nets far and wide and converted thousands. Some, like St. Boniface and St. Patrick, transformed entire nations from paganism to Catholicism. Others, like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, cast their nets and rescued thousands without setting foot out of their convents. Martyrs, like St. Stephen and St. Ignatius of Antioch, won souls in every land by freely giving up their lives for Christ. As saints cast their nets, they performed wonders. Some, like St. André Bessette, worked miracles; and some, like martyr St. Thomas More, forgave their persecutors.

      But we must remember that the saints, even though they did extraordinary things, were ordinary women and men just like you and me. They were effective evangelizers because they grounded their lives on faithful prayer. They enjoyed a deeply prayerful relationship with Jesus produced by grace. Saints accomplished so much because they knew where the source of their strength lay: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). The axiom “you cannot give what you do not have” fits the saints well. They could give Christ to others because their lives overflowed with him (see Ps 23:5). For two thousand years, the prayer life of saints around the world has been the source of countless conversions. Therefore, if we are going to evangelize well, then our prayer life must become a wellspring overflowing with the life of Christ.

      St. Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419) was a Spanish Dominican. Like many in the Order of Preachers, Vincent overflowed with a talent to communicate the Gospel. As a faithful son of St. Dominic, he did not take his natural gift for granted but prepared himself before every sermon with study and reflective prayer. Before one of his sermons Vincent received word that a prestigious nobleman would be in the congregation. Perhaps because of nerves or anxiety, Vincent spent all his valuable time studying to prepare for the sermon and left no time to pray. When the nobleman heard the sermon, he was unimpressed. By the grace of God, the nobleman came to hear Vincent again, but this time his presence was unknown to the saint. Vincent’s preparation was his normal study and prayer. This time when the prestigious man of the world heard Vincent, he was profoundly moved. When Vincent was told of the two different responses to his preaching, he humbly and truthfully responded, “In the first sermon it was Vincent who preached. In the second sermon, it was Jesus Christ.” You cannot give what you do not have.

      The story of St. Monica praying for her morally lost son, Augustine, has brought hope to parents for many centuries. Monica’s example demonstrates what prayer for conversion must look like—the prayer must have passion, purpose, and perseverance. For seventeen years Monica offered daily prayers to the Lord of Mercy with tears. As St. Ambrose told her, “It is impossible for the son of such tears to perish!” She focused singly on the conversion of her son. St. Augustine described the answer to his mother’s prayers as the Lord “called, shouted and broke through my deafness.” St. Monica could be the patroness of all prayers for the New Evangelization.

      Passion must impel evangelistic prayers for conversion. The word “passion” comes from the Latin passio, which means “to suffer.” If you have family and friends not practicing the faith, which is probably everyone reading this book, have you felt pain and suffering and even cried over their loss of faith? If the answer is “yes,” then let me share some good news … it is precisely in that pain and suffering that we are nearest to the heart of our Savior. As much as you long for them to come to Christ, you can be assured that he wants it even more. As Jesus said to St. Faustina, “The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to Me is prayer for the conversion of sinners.”⁶ So do not shy away from that pain or those tears; instead, let them make your prayers even more passionate.

      A fourth-century Egyptian monk and disciple of St. Pachomius named St. Abraham⁷ (d. 372) was a man whose prayers were full of passion. After the death of his brother, Abraham was put in charge of the care of his niece Mary. With diligence Abraham raised Mary in the faith, but after twenty years her faith lapsed. Mary left Abraham and plunged into a life of sin. (It is amazing how all too familiar this story seems to be today.) For two years straight, Abraham prayed and cried for his niece. His sorrow was turned to joy when he found Mary, and they had a passionate conversation that led to her repentance. Mary returned with her uncle with the grace of not only forgiveness but also the ability to work miracles. She is now recognized as a saint. Let your passion fill your prayers for the lost.

      Evangelistic prayers must have a real purpose. These are not prayers for health or material needs (of course we should pray for these intentions as well), but for the salvation of souls. They are passionate prayers offered for the grace of conversion. This might seem to be a no-brainer, but we must refocus our attention on what is truly important in our works of evangelization. While on earth Jesus did works of mercy, worked miracles, and taught often, but what was his mission? Jesus came to establish the kingdom of heaven. He came for the salvation of souls. If we are his disciples, then his purpose is our purpose. Our prayers should reflect this mission as well. Jesus told St. Faustina, “Call upon My mercy on behalf of sinners;