The Holy Spirit gives us joy. And He is joy. Joy is the gift in which all the other gifts are included. It is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with ourselves, that which can only come from being in harmony with God and with his creation. It belongs to the nature of joy to be radiant; it must communicate itself. The missionary spirit of the Church is none other than the impulse to communicate the joy which has been given.
~Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas Address to the Roman Curia, 2008
Wondering where the new evangelization is? Here in our little midwest town, we are witnessing the new evangelization through an amazing group of Catholic missionaries, known as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).
Here in our town, Christ has brought the Catholic faith alive for college students across campus and across our community through the efforts of the FOCUS missionaries here. There are between 60 - 80 college students who attend daily Mass at the Newman Center. These students are reverent and love tradition. They are on fire for their faith and are are an inspiration to people in our family and families across the community. The FOCUS missionaries and their student disciples are living the sacramental life without fear and bringing the light of Christ to the darkness of our times.
At our university campus, we have four FOCUS missionaries (two women and two men) who have given their lives radically to Christ and His Holy Church. They disciple students to lead Bible studies and various community activities that evangelize to the Truth of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church. We are currently supporting two FOCUS missionary families in the United States by giving on a monthly basis, specifically for these two families. There are hundreds of FOCUS missionaries across the country (and now internationally!) that raise their own money for support of their mission work. If you are interested in finding a missionary to support with a one-time or an ongoing gift, go check them out at FOCUSonline.org. This has been the best investment we have ever made, both for the growth we have experienced in our own faith and for the fruit we have seen by Christ's work through FOCUS.
If you have any questions, or would like to know the names of some specific missionaries we know personally that you can support, send me an email at intheirhearts@gmail.com
Thank you, Kathryn - it's great to hear about young people with a vibrant faith! Gives me great hope for the future! I'll check out the site right now!
ReplyDeleteReading AJs blog about being a FOCUS missionary is very inspiring. You can find him joining in Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival at RAnn's blog, This That and the Other Thing most Sundays. I'd never heard of FOCUS before and think it is really great.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteMary, the FOCUS missionaries are so inspirational and give us great hope for the future as well!
ReplyDeleteBarb, I will have to go and check out AJs blog! I have been meaning to join Sunday Snippets for awhile.... I am currently trying to limit online time during Advent, so after Christmas I'll go check it out. Thanks :)
Thank you Judy for commenting! I could write and write about the FOCUS missionaries :)
May you all have a Blessed Advent!