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Question

Dear Father, 

I would like to ask you what concrete actions should I take for souls in need who have not yet come to know Jesus. From personal experience, I know that the more I insist with words the more I get the opposite effect. 

My group of friends, with whom I am familiar from a human but not a spiritual point of view, are all atheists, agnostics or lukewarm. 

I would like to know what else, besides praying for their conversion, I could do for them.

I wish to see their conversion before school ends, because with the end of the school year, unfortunately, the close ties I have with them will probably loosen as we grow apart.

I thank you. 

Martin 

Answer from the priest

Dear Martin,

1. The thing you care about the most is the following: how could you obtain the grace of conversion for your fellows, who are mostly atheists, agnostics and lukewarm.

2. Certainly persevering in prayer matters significantly.

The Rosary is a tenacious prayer because by praying it you commit to spend a certain amount of time in prayer.

By doing so you allow Our Lord to make Himself present and to work in your friends’ hearts through the charity that unites you with Christ and with them.

3. This prayer is especially worthy if you pray piously, that is, if you pray it when you are in a state of grace.

And it matters even more if you are humble, addressing the Lord as Abraham used to pray to Him: “See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am only dust and ashes!” (Gen. 18:27).

When praying God, Abraham does not claim any merit or his own loyalty, but simply says to God, “I am dust and ashes,” that is to say, I am nothing.

4. St. Joseph Cafasso, who was a great teacher of moral theology as well as St. John Bosco’s confessor, said that pious, humble and persevering prayer is infallibly impetratory.

Therefore, I urge you to consistently pray the Holy Rosary.

If you have the chance, don’t be satisfied with only praying one a day.

If you want to be an apostle, if you want to convert many, you have to pray persistently.

This is because, as I said, prayer makes Jesus Christ present and active with his saving power in the hearts of your friends.

5. While prayer is indispensable, it is not, however, the only tool. There is another one equally indispensable, and that is sacrifice.

This is why St. Therese of the Child Jesus said, “Ah! it is prayer, it is sacrifice which give me all my strength; these are the invincible weapons which Jesus has given me. They can touch souls much better than words, as I have very frequently experienced” (Story of a Soul, 315).

6. Today marks the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross.

This feast reminds us of the saving power of the cross. It is in the cross that God’s wisdom and power was manifested (cf. 1 Cor. 1:24).

Certainly our sacrifices won’t by themselves convert people.

The One who saves and converts all of us is Jesus Christ only, who, by his passion and death atoned for the sins of all of humanity.

Moreover, he alone has the power to draw everybody to Himself (cf. Jn. 12:32).

However, charity unites us with Christ and with our neighbors, and through our sacrifices, we can distribute the merits of the Lord’s passion and death.

This is what St. Paul means when he says: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church” (Col. 1:24).

7. When speaking with St. Catherine of Siena about our Holy Father Dominic and his friars, the Eternal Father said, “At what table does he (St. Dominic) feed his sons with the light of science? 

At the table of the cross, which is the table of holy desire, when souls are eaten for My honor. 

Dominic does not wish his sons to apply themselves to anything, but remaining at this table, there to seek with the light of science, the glory and praise of My name alone, and the salvation of souls.” (A Treatise on Obedience, 158).

8. A single sacrifice for the conversion of our friends is much wiser than a compelling sermon.

A single sacrifice, united with Christ’s sacrifice, carries with it the power of the Lord’s death and resurrection. This power was manifested through the two earthquakes that accompanied the central events of our redemption.

9. We should not be surprised then that Pius XII said: “This is a deep mystery, and an inexhaustible subject of meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention and on the cooperation of pastors of souls and of the faithful, especially of fathers and mothers, a cooperation which they must offer to our Divine Savior as though they were His associates.” (EE 6, 193)278.

10. Even more explicitly, Our Lady, in the first apparition to the three young shepherds of Fatima, asked: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God to bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” 

“Yes, we are willing,” was their reply. 

“Then, you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.” (Memoirs of Sister Lucia, May 13, p. 162).

11. There you go, I told you everything.

The only thing left to do, and it is the most important, is to put these principles in action.

As I am pleased by your desire to bring your friends to the Lord (St. John Bosco said that this is the truest sign that we are their friends), I wish you to always be generous in the cooperation with Christ.

For this, I bless you in a very special way and will remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo