My Wesleyan Home – Home

~day 65: mary, mother of God~


Image by theroamincatholic
As a convert to the Christian faith, and especially as one from an atheist background, I’d like to give some advice to my Christian brethren…please don’t ever expect to convert anyone by talking to them about Jesus Christ. Trying to persuade people to believe in God with words is like telling someone ‘I love you,’ but always being too busy to spend time with them. It’s simple: none of us are ‘responsible’ for converting anyone, the Holy Spirit always does that work from within the person. But as Christians, we do have a responsibility to make it easier for people to unlatch the doors of their souls, so that the Spirit can enter therein. The Christians who did this for me were mostly, nameless, anonymous, and people I never met. I watched them, I beheld their lives and knew, I wanted to live a life like that. A Christian life ought to be a light that shines so beautifully, the observer is led to wonder…what makes this flame keep burning, and what fuel makes it to shine so brightly?

The best evangelical tool we have is love; the action of love, showing people that you care and want to take care of them. I know that many people will respond to this love on your part by asking, ‘why?’ Why do you care about me? This is the point at which we point the finger at God, the God whose face is Jesus Christ.

Mary is our prime example of a great evangelist. She has helped to convert countless souls down the ages, and yet she is one of the quietest figures in the Gospels. What we see in her are tender actions and the beauty of God emanating from within her.

I am thinking about mission and evangelisation today because today we are making rosaries to donate to an online shop in support of the Mary Mother of God mission. This mission operates in Vladivostock, East Russia, and its primary function is to re-evangelise this area which was formerly a mainstay of the Roman Catholic church in Russia. Before the Bolshevik revolution, this small area in primarly Orthodox Russia was home to a strong Roman Catholic community: there were schools, churches and hospitals, all run by religious. After the communists came in, these institutions were torn down, and a genocide cleared out the Russians, Lithuanians and Germans living there. Amusement parks were built on top of the mass graves.

Atheism, so strongly tied to communism, has reigned in Russia for several generations now. Although there are still many faithful Orthodox Christians and those of other denominations, practicing Christians (those that attend church outside Easter or Christmas) account for less than 1% of the population.

The challenge of the Mary Mother of God mission is not simply to re-introduce the Catholic faith. Its purpose is to let God back into the lives of the people, not only to give them a notion of a loving God…but of any God at all.

The mission also runs pro-life centers that provide care for babies and mothers who have opted not to have an abortion. Orphanages are run on a ‘Grandma’ programme that helps get volunteers in to interact with children who have had no previous nurturing.

I feel the mission is aptly named, since their primary way of evangelising is very similar to the way in which Mary has always evangelised: simply to be there, to care, to pray, to love.

Find out more about the Vladivostock Mission:

www.vladmission.org/aboutus/aboutus.htm

Tags: 'Day, 'God, Mary, mother
Filed under: Christian Life