From February 8-10, 2023, the parishes of Sacred Heart of Jesus/St. Patrick hosted three nights of evangelization talks. Each night there were about 150 people in attendance which exceeded expectations.
The topics were prayer, community, and perseverance.

The first night began with Mass celebrated by Fr. John Martinez,  Pastor of St. Frances de Sales in Abingdon, VA. During the Mass, he expressed his happiness at being able to celebrate Mass in our beautiful church given the fact that he had done his pastoral experience while a seminarian here at Sacred Heart.

After the Mass, Fr. John elaborated on the importance of prayer as a follower and believer of Jesus Christ. He intimated the centrality of prayer in Christian living and the need to always be in communication with God who loves us without end.

He provided participants with various examples of prayer: thanksgiving, petition, supplication, etc., and invited each one of us to become comfortable with one of the prayer styles. As part of his talk, he invited two persons to share their own testimony on the power of prayer in their lives.

On night two, we welcomed Lia Garcia, the Director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Lia gave us an overview of the first Christian communities and some of the challenges they faced in their nascent years. Lia then spoke about the need for strong prayerful Christian communities, highlighting that the first community to which we have an obligation is our family.

She reminded all that Church is not supposed to come between a person and his/her family life. Couples are to dedicate themselves to their family communities before committing themselves to the church community. In a very anecdotal way, she warned us to be mindful as to how we speak to members of the church community because we can attract or repel persons. Our tone and body language sometimes speak louder than our words, and not every response might be appropriate for every situation. We need to be mindful and present to people as we all belong to the community of God.

Our own associate pastor, Fr. Alipio Flores, C.Ss.R, closed the three nights with a lively talk on perseverance. He noted that as believers it is easy to give up, but because we are children of God we should not let go. Prayer is the tool to help us forge ahead despite the many obstacles that we may encounter. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can face any challenge, but we must continue to fight the good fight and trust wholeheartedly in God who loves us unreservedly. Fr Alipio then led the group in a candle lighting ritual, symbolizing that they are the light of the world.

An important feature of each night was the sharing of a meal. Participants were invited to sit and have dinner as a way of building community and getting to know one another. For the Hispanic community, like other cultures, eating is very important. Jesus taught and healed, and did many other things, but he also ate. While people ate, they also shared their experience about what it meant to be Christian.

All the participants received a token for their participation and expressed the desire for upcoming opportunities like these.