Prayer and Evangelization - New Evangelizers

I don’t know what you spend your days doing, but my job is to draw (though sometimes I feel like I am trying to lure) people to the Church.  I have passion and am very dedicated to what I do and believe it is where I belong.

But often this evangelization gets tiring because there is a slow or no response.  And while I understand it’s in God’s time, not mine and that patience is necessary, I sometimes get frustrated.

So what can I do?

I pray!  I try to follow the axiom, “Pray as if it all depends on God and work as if it all depends on you.”  (St. Augustine)  I pray different prayers at different times in addition to trying to meditate a few times a week.  Currently, I pray a rosary on the way to work, the Divine Mercy Chaplet at night, and Prayer to Our Lady Untier of Knots (read a brief history here) for the various intentions that are on our prayer board and evangelization efforts.

The key to the praying is to ask God what plan he has in mind, not jumping to asking him to bless the plan we came up with on our own.  That is why the meditation or contemplation or sitting in the presence of God is so important.

If I spend all my time in prayer talking, when do I listen?  Being silent is very difficult for me; I love to talk and tell people what I think.  God is no exception.

Another of my favorite prayers is this one from St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Suscipe:

Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding and my will. All that I have and cherish you have given me. I surrender it all to be guided to your will. Your love and your grace are wealth enough for me. Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more. Amen.

That prayer helps me focus on the fact that it is not about me, it’s about God.  Evangelizing and not seeing immediate results does the same thing for me.

Copyright © 2013, Deanna Bartalini

I re-posted this because it still is this way!

Deanna Bartalini

Deanna G. Bartalini, is a Catholic writer, speaker, and educator. She serves on the retreat team at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center. Deanna loves teaching about Catholicism and how it fits into our daily lives. She writes at DeannaBartalini.com, serves as the editor of the NewEvangelizers.com blog, and is a contributor there as well as at AmazingCatechists.com. Deanna contributed to A Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion published by Ave Maris Press. She is the author of “Invite the Holy Spirit into Your Life: Growing in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control” published by Our Sunday Visitor. Deanna is available to lead retreats and speak at catechist and ministry events.