From the mouths of babes
My seven-year-old daughter recently received her first Holy Communion. Our next door neighbor, a fallen-away Catholic who loves to joke with us about “Catholic stuff,” came over to congratulate her as we were playing in the yard. 

“So! You may now officially snack in church!” he teased. We smiled because we can appreciate his humor. “But — they didn’t let you drink from the cup, did they?”

“No,” my daughter replied, “but on special occasions they do, and if they do, I could.” 

“Outrageous!” said the neighbor. “How in the world can the Church justify that they encourage underage drinking?” 

Megan gave him a puzzled look and simply said, “It’s not wine.” 

She evangelizes better than her mother. 
Lori Cassidy, Evansville, Indiana

Electronic missionaries using their "Net" to be fishers of men
An average day skimming though the posts in the Usenet groups such as alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic will find letters with titles such as these:

“Are Catholics Christians?”
“Bible — as proof?”
“Abortion and the death penalty”
“Canonize who?"
“Did Jesus die on a cross?”
“Does the RCC pray to idols?”
“Holy Spirit, the Teacher of truth”
“Why would these men die for Jesus?”
“How do you pray the Rosary?”

It’s an odd conglomeration of letters from Fundamentalists, atheists, the odd Jehovah’s Witness and yes, even a few Catholics trying to communicate the very real experiences of their faith.

I post as “Luminaria” and read through the “threads” (as letters and their replies are called) every day, if I can. I skip posts obviously designed just to get a rise out of folks. I occasionally throw out bits of humor, news reports from Zenit or other news sources having to do with the Church and Christianity in general, and answer doctrinal questions from the Bible, the Catechism and various other sources as relevant. I try to stay calm with the shriekers, to understand that there are real live people on the other side of this screen, and to offer a prayer and a cyber-shoulder when I can. 

I pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide my responses. Sometimes I fail miserably: It’s easy to lose your temper in such a forum. It gets easier, though, as time goes on, and you can see the “spark of the Divine” shining through in even the most argumentative letter. 

In the last month, I have had a friendly exchange with a self-avowed atheist about miracles. I have been invited to have coffee with a vehement advocate of “abortion rights” — who knows that I am vehemently “pro-life”! I have had two women write to me of their abortion experiences. And one, perhaps the most touching of all, wrote to me and told me that simply watching me write with such gentleness to folks moved her to get back in touch with Christ, the Church and her faith. After reading something I wrote about the sacrament of Marriage, she’d called her parish priest to share with him how she’d not been to Mass in more than ten years and wanted to come back. Now she is receiving the Eucharist again every week! 

I have always said I write for the “invisible audience.” On Usenet, for every person who writes a letter, there are literally hundreds that “lurk,” reading all these letters and never saying a word. But they read. They think. The words hit them and sometimes hit them hard.

I spend a couple hours each evening, after my son is in bed, when the house is quiet, writing to Usenet, to several different groups. I’m talking to all kinds of people, but mostly, writing to that invisible audience. I knew the words were “going out there,” but I was just awed and completely humbled when the letters started coming in to my private mailbox, telling these stories of faith:

• The woman whose sister had an abortion fifteen years ago and knows her sister is still grieving, who now has a way to comfort her because I wrote about Project Rachel and the Pope’s words to women who have had abortions.
• Writing to a fundamentalist Protest-ant Christian about infant baptism, and finding that in discussing sacramental grace, another lurker had been inspired to call his local parish and inquire about taking RCIA classes. He’s “always been curious” about Catholicism, and now he wants to take the leap.
• A pagan who wants to talk about what we Catholics understand Communion to be.
• A woman who had apparently been reading my “stuff” for a while, who wrote to me in her desperation because her sixteen-year-old daughter is pregnant. She’s looking “for information,” but even more, she’s looking just for someone to be kind. So we pray together now.

This interest-turned-hobby-turned-ministry has forced me not only to change my style of communication, but to research a wide variety of topics. Through the constant hammering from the nay-sayers, doubters, and just plain curious, I have been driven, more and more, to investigate the nuts and bolts of my own Catholic doctrine!

That’s what it’s all about out there on the Net. You just never know who’s watching, who’s listening. And when you least expect it, the Holy Spirit just swoops in and uses your words to touch someone’s heart. 
Lisa Alekna a.k.a. Luminaria, via email (of course!)

Knock, knock. Who's there?
I live in Utah and I work with Mormons at my job. In fact, the Mormon missionaries came calling within a week of the arrival of last month’s Envoy Magazine.

Here is a summary of what happened.

1. When they introduced themselves as “Elders” such and such, I asked them what their first names were. This is important because they want to teach you about their faith as an authority figure. Putting the conversation on a personal basis helped to defuse that authority.

2. To disrupt their prepared script, I asked them to tell me about themselves and their conversion story. Doing this gave me an opening to discuss my own conversion and the Catholic faith.

3. I discussed with them what happens in a Catholic Mass — specifically, how the bread and wine, when consecrated, become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. They told me they use water because there is no proof there was wine at the Last Supper. They believe that the bread and water are symbols.

4. I shared with them how the Catholic Church is the only Church in existence that was started by Jesus Christ. 

5. During the discussion, I asked to borrow their King James Bible. I quoted to them Matthew 16:17-19. I explained how Simon’s name was changed to Peter, which means “Rock,” and how the keys of the kingdom were given to St. Peter by Christ. I also noted how the gates of hell would not prevail against Christ’s church. I stated that, according to Mormon beliefs, the gates of hell did prevail against Christ’s Church. There was no response. However, they told me that for Mormons, “Rock” in this text means simply “revelation.” Concerning the keys, Mormons believe that the keys were given to Joseph Smith from Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

6. I told them I had heard that Mormons have three levels of afterlife. They would not volunteer any information, so I started naming the levels. I could not name all three, but when I got stuck, they finished the names of them for me. 

This prompted my next question, which was for them to clarify the differences between the three levels. They said that it depends on what you do. I asked for further clarification and they would not tell me anything. I told them I had heard that, in the Celestial level of Mormon afterlife, each man would become a god over his own planet with his wife and spirit children. The response was, “Yes, men can eternally progress.” 

Then I borrowed their King James Bible and quoted from Isaiah chapters 43 through 46. These chapters clarify how there is only one God and there is no other like him. The missionary volunteered the comment that the “gods” of the planets were not the same as “God the Father.” I asked what was the difference between “Big God” and “Little Gods.” They did not know.

7. We did discuss the Bible. I gave the Mormons the history of how the Bible was formed and then posed the question: “Why do the Mormons accept the authority of the Catholic Church concerning the Word of God, but reject the Catholic Church?” They thought I raised a good point, but they did not have an answer to the question.

Over all, the discussion was not confrontational, and I am praying the Mormons will reflect seriously on the issues I raised.
Chris Protzman, Ogdan, Utah

Send your random access encounters to, “Random Access,” Envoy Magazine, P.O. Box 640, Granville, OH 43023; or e-mail them to editor@envoymagazine.com. 

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