Bishop-Martyr Nykolai (Nicholas) Charnetsky and the Twenty-Seven Other New Blesseds of the Church of Rus’-Ukraine Beatified in 2001; Our Venerable Father Samson, Host of Strangers (527-65)
Apostles’ Fast. Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read
Ephesians 6:10-17; Luke 21:12-19
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Dear brothers and sisters, today as we reflect on this passage from the Gospel of Luke in the context of the Feast of New Holy Martyrs of Ukraine, we are once again reminded and encouraged by our Lord to use every moment, circumstance, relationship, challenge and trial as an opportunity to testify to Him who was incarnate, suffered, died and rose on the third day so that we can have true life to its fullest.
When a moment comes when we think this would be a good time to bring up Jesus and faith into a conversation but something pulls us back. And that something is very often fear of not being able or fitting to preach the good news of the Gospel or the fear that it will be misunderstood or rejected. Today Jesus wants to extinguish that fear in our hearts by assuring that He will give “words and a wisdom” that nobody will be able to withstand or contradict.
Let us open our heart to New Evangelization and never avoid a missionary opportunity. Evangelizing is not just limited to religious communities or organizations centred on the Church. It doesn’t matter what you do in life–you are still called to evangelize. This has always been true, ever since Jesus sent out His first Apostles. The blessing of the New Evangelization is that it opens up even more doors for the ways we can evangelize. There are truly no limits. The New Evangelization encourages you to use the gifts God has given you to glorify Him and bring others to Him. If we desire to “gain our souls” we are to use the arts, technology, social media, and other means to glorify God and spread the Gospel message to places it might otherwise be difficult to reach.