Stealth Evangelism

We recently spent an evening with a young and very bright "cradle" Catholic blogger we met on the internet! He lives a state away but was visiting the area so we made arrangements to get together. We had a great evening of fellowship and prayed the evening Liturgy of the Hours together. When I mentioned I was having some difficulty learning the Liturgy of the Hours he said, "Wait a minute, I have my book of prayer in the car, we can do it together!" I love the universality of the Church. Here's a Christian brother, whom I've never met except via blogging and is literally on the same page we are on. As a matter of fact, millions of Catholics throughout the world pray the liturgy of the hours so when we pray it, we can be sure we are uniting our prayers with those of millions throughout the world.

In our conversation he mentioned that he attends a weekly bible study at a non-denominational church near his home. He said his goal is to always be able to "provide an answer for the hope that is within him." He doesn't advertise to the group that he is a Catholic believer but doesn't hide it either. Instead he just enjoys being able to give a more Catholic interpretation to Scripture in the hopes that others will see the beauty and truth of Catholic exegesis. I too have found that when you present a Catholic interpretation of Scripture without advertising that it is "Catholic," you can sometimes see the light bulbs "light up." In Haiti, when I was on a medical mission with folks from my previous church, a chat about the importance of works in our salvation based on James and Matt 25 was heartily accepted by 9/10 members on the team. Truth is Truth regardless of where it comes from, but seems easier to embrace when it's from a source that we are not knowingly opposed to.

So who is this Catholic Stealth Evangelist? I can't say, otherwise, I'd blow his cover!