Preaching the Cross
Welcome to Real Presence on the Streets!
This is our first newsletter sharing the stories of our missionaries doing street evangelization on the Northside of Milwaukee, sharing prayer intentions of those who are growing closer to Christ through our ministry and encouragement to continue the work of salvation of souls.
In this newsletter
Preaching the Cross
Stories from the street
Prayer Intentions
Preaching the Cross
In our world, many are suffering and think that their suffering is something that should keep them away from church because they see Christianity as a feel-good religion for happy people. Many don’t fit that description and so they don’t come. They think they have to be happy and in a good place to come to church. There is good news for those suffering. Jesus Christ suffered greatly for love of them and is their savior. He wants us to offer up our suffering and unite that suffering to His on the cross. Our neighborhood is rampant with alcoholism, drug addiction, broken families and many more vices. Many people when we first meet them, feel they are too broken for church and say, “I will come when I am in the right state of mind” basically they are saying they need to be free of their sin before coming and be in a good mood so that they can fit in with the happy Christians. We need to dispel the lie that church is for perfect people. None of us are perfect! Church is for all people because we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy. People should be able to connect with God in all states whether happy, sad, angry, tired or many others. When we say you have to look one way to be Christian, we lose many people who are in the pains of life. Praying the Liturgy of the Hours daily in the church helps with this because we are praying with the psalms that span the whole range of human emotions and someone can connect with it no matter where they are at. We should be joyful from our faith, but it is very dangerous for us to act as if we are perfect and everything is good all the time. When we hide our own struggles, we hide the cross that we Christians need to take up daily. People outside the church face the cross and deny it with their sins, but people inside the church also deny the cross when we hide our sins and try to make Christianity a feel-good religion. If the cross is absent, then those in their suffering are unable to see that Jesus is their savior and their need to encounter him in his crucified state. As missionaries we preach Christ crucified. Every Friday at 3 p.m. we walk the streets of our neighborhood carrying a large cross reenacting the stations of the cross and inviting people to pray each station with us. We approach groups or individuals saying, “Jesus died for love of you.” This public witness allows us to preach the gospel to many people where they are at and let them know that Christ comes to them in their suffering and wants them to unite themselves to Him through His Church. We have seen that this is what people are looking for. Christ comes to us in our brokenness and gives us a way out! Every week people’s lives are touched and they share with us how they need to come back to prayer. A few weeks ago, we met an agnostic landlord of the neighborhood right after the tenth station where Jesus is stripped of his garments. He was surprised and at first since he knows the neighborhood thought that I was stripped of garments because of some drug related outburst. When we talked with him, we shared that Christ was stripped of his garments on his way to be crucified and that we were doing the “Way of the Cross” to show people how much God loves them. Christ would be humiliated and torn down to the lowest point to die with thieves and murderers so he could save sinners. We too in imitation of Christ would be humiliated in public to show others God’s love for them. He told us that he has never seen Christians live out their faith in such a real way that they would willingly take up the cross and lower themselves to that of the lowest in his mind like the drug addicts, and practice what they preach. He shared that seeing us was an impactful moment for him and the religion he wrote off as not worth his time may deserve a second look.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18,23-24)
Stories From the Street
Listen to a podcast interview with one of our missionaries, Griffin
Prayer Intentions
We would encourage our readers to pray for those who we have been working with in our outreach ministry. There is much fruit happening at St. Rose of Lima and we need your prayers!
Please keep those who have expressed interest in becoming Catholic and those in RCIA in prayer
Marcus, Romie, Vera, Jeffrey, Deborah, Mario, Vygar, Taylor, Sharon
Please keep those who are fallen away Catholics that have expressed desire to come back to confession and church in prayer
Julian, Wayne, Dave, Jeff, Christine, Kris
Please keep those who have recently come back to church after encouragement from missionaries in prayer
Steven, Allen, Jodee
About the Missionaries of the Real Presence
The Missionaries of the Real Presence are a group of lay men who live in common at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Parish in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are dedicated to prayer through daily recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours in the church open to the public, Evangelization to the neighborhoods surrounding our parish and assisting in parish ministries.
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