Who Are We?  

At World Youth Day 1993 in Denver, Colorado, our beloved Pope John Paul II said the following:

We are a community of Catholics attempting to help accomplish what Pope John Paul II, in whose name the center was conceived, encouraged us to do in the above exhortation. We are not sure how the world will be evangelized by Mercy, but whenever the word Mercy is used, it is always linked to the Heart of Jesus. Therefore, the center exists to train all those who are interested in Mercy Evangelization.

We are people from all backgrounds, young and less young, with a common goal to learn how to evangelize through Mercy. For instance, a requirement of the training center would be that a candidate would be between the ages of 18 and 98. The exception being a person who has exceptional capacities of Mercy before 18 years of age, or exceptional capacities of locomotion after 98 years of age.

One of the best ways to go Mercy Evangelizing door-to-door is with old great-grandmothers with a cane. Why? A very old lady in France told me, with much emotion, that she could not go evangelizing because she was too old. This particular lady trembled when she spoke.

“Oh, you’re a perfect candidate for Mercy Evangelization. Imagine we take you to a high rise apartment building. The doorman lets us in because we are accompanying an elderly lady. We walk you to the elevator, slowly, since you have a cane and Parkinson’s Disease. You take the elevator by yourself to the tenth floor. Why to the 10th floor? Because you will be tired, and you will not be able to flee out of fear of what might happen when you knock on the first door. You come slowly out of the elevator with your cane. Out of breath, you cross the hall, exhausted already.

Approaching Apt. 1001 with fear and trembling, you knock gently 4 times. Why four times? One for the Father, one for the Son, one for the Holy Spirit, and one for Mary, the Mother of Mercy. No one answers because you did not knock hard enough. That can be forgiven because at your age your knock is a Mercy knock. Rather than flee, you knock again four times a little harder. (Mt. 7:7) A moment later you hear footsteps slightly louder than the beating of your heart.

The door opens. A big, healthy, strong, young man is at the door. Surprised to see an older woman like yourself at his door, his fear of ‘who is at my door?’ is dissipated. He waits for you to speak.

‘Yo…oung mmma..ann, I…I ne…eed a ggla…ass o…of wwwa…ater, ppple…ease.’

Taking your elbow, he invites you in, unafraid that you are going to take advantage of him somehow. His heart is saying,

‘Who is this person? Why is she here? And how did she get here?’

He helps you get to the couch, where you sit down. You hesitantly say to him,

‘I…I hha…ave ssso…omeththi…ing tto…o sssa….ay tto…o yo…ou.’

He says, ‘Wait until I get you a glass of water,’ and he hurries off to the kitchen, leaving you alone, to get you the water. You are now trembling and slowly take out your medicine, and more slowly drink the water the man brought you, while this strong, young man sits on the edge of his seat waiting for you. You set the water down and leaning forward, you say, ever so hesitantly, slowly, and with shaking,

‘I…I ha..ave ssso…omethi…ing to…o ssssa…ay to…o you.’

The young man moves farther forward on his seat, a captive audience, sitting before a very old Mercy evangelizer.

‘Wha…at I ha…ave to sssa…ay to…o yo…ou i…is,’

then you take an even bigger breath, you are almost exhausted. Looking directly into his heart, you articulate, ever so slowly,

‘Je…esus lllo…oves yo…ou.’”

The woman looked at me and said, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to go door-to-door evangelizing.” She was freed from her sense that you have to be a certain age, or have a certain training to do Mercy Evangelization.

So, we are of all ages, from different cultures, often with very little personal experience when we come to the center of Mercy Evangelization. But, like Cecile, who went door-to-door in her wheelchair, we are ready to go door-to-door with what we have; knowing that what we have is the Heart of Jesus in us.

John Paul II, more than telling us all to evangelize, himself being very weak physically, gave us the best example.