years of saints who have done it so well. Look to the road map that the saints have laid out for us to effectively engage our culture with the Gospel.
Some may be thinking, “Today’s culture is so radically different from the past. How could learning how a saint shared the Gospel in the thirteenth century add to our efforts in the twenty-first century?” First let us hear how Pope Francis answers the same objection:
We do well to keep in mind the early Christians and our many brothers and sisters throughout history who were filled with joy, unflagging courage and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel. Some people nowadays console themselves by saying that things are not as easy as they used to be, yet we know that the Roman Empire was not conducive to the Gospel message, the struggle for justice, or the defense of human dignity. Every period of history is marked by the presence of human weakness, self-absorption, complacency and selfishness, to say nothing of the concupiscence which preys upon us all…. Let us not say, then, that things are harder today; they are simply different.3
Yes, every point in human history is different. However, human nature never changes. Ways of sinning may change, but sin and the remedy for it remain the same. The Eternal God who transforms the human heart never changes. Therefore, the saints, whether in the last century or the first century, were communicating the Truth that is the “same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8).
Saints shine not just as teachers by example of evangelization but also as participants with us. Our brothers and sisters in heaven are presently interceding for us. They are cheering us on and praying for our salvation. If they are doing this for us, you can also be certain that they are praying for those we are trying to evangelize.
This book presents the wisdom of fifty-six saints and how they evangelized. I encourage you to do two things while you read it. First, think about which saints speak personally to you. Their background, circumstances or personality may remind you of yourself. Follow up with those saints you feel an attraction to. Study them and begin to form a relationship with them in your prayer life. Let those saints become your missionary partners. Let them become the Michael Jordan that you want to “Be Like” when it comes to evangelism.
Secondly, I am convinced that the saints in heaven play a major role in every conversion story. As you share the Gospel with someone, begin to pray for the saints and angels looking over this person to guide and assist your efforts. Many times while engaging a person with the Gospel, a particular saint jumps into my thoughts. Immediately I will begin to ask for that saint’s intercession. I will study that saint’s life to see what could be useful in sharing the Gospel with this particular person. It is amazing how different my evangelization is when this happens. But none of this will be possible if we continue to ignore our heavenly brothers and sisters who want to help our evangelization.
The fifty-six saints are divided into two parts of this book. The first part is The Seven Pillars of Effective Evangelization. Tony Brandt and I introduced The Seven Pillars in Casting Nets: Grow Your Faith by Sharing Your Faith.4 These pillars comprise universal principles necessary for evangelization to produce fruit for any individual, parish, diocese, or institution. They are not steps to evangelization, nor do they constitute a program. Instead they are foundations that methods and programs can be built upon. In that first book we taught the principle of the pillar and then demonstrated it through personal stories from our combined forty-plus years of experience. In this book, the saints demonstrate the pillars.
In the second part of the book I focus on The Seven Characteristics of an Effective Evangelist. Like the pillars, these characteristics are both universal and necessary. These characteristics are manifested in individuals, but they also are evident in communities that are sharing the Gospel well. To become the best evangelists that we can be, we must work to acquire all seven of them. While the saints whom I cite illustrate one particular characteristic, you can rest assured that they possessed all of them — and that must be our aim as well.
The work of evangelization is too important not to do it well. Souls are on the line. Let us pray to all the holy men and women who have preceded us to intercede in our efforts of spreading the Gospel, so that the lost will be found, and there will be rejoicing in heaven today (cf. Lk 15:9–10).
Part One
The Saints and the Seven Pillars of Effective Evangelization
Pillar 1
Prayerful
Breathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of this air. The spiritual life is fed, nourished, by prayer and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling—prayer—and then exhaling. When we inhale, by prayer, we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit. When exhaling this air, we announce Jesus Christ risen by the same Spirit. No one can live without breathing. It is the same for the Christian: without praise and mission there is no Christian life.
— Pope Francis 5
When we think of the saints, we imagine them as spiritual giants. Some, like St. Vincent Ferrer, cast their nets far and wide and converted thousands. Some, like St. Boniface and St. Patrick, transformed entire nations from paganism to Catholicism. Others, like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, cast their nets and rescued thousands without setting foot out of their convents. Martyrs, like St. Stephen and St. Ignatius of Antioch, won souls in every land by freely giving up their lives for Christ. As saints cast their nets, they performed wonders. Some, like St. André Bessette, worked miracles; and some, like martyr St. Thomas More, forgave their persecutors.
But we must remember that the saints, even though they did extraordinary things, were ordinary women and men just like you and me. They were effective evangelizers because they grounded their lives on faithful prayer. They enjoyed a deeply prayerful relationship with Jesus produced by grace. Saints accomplished so much because they knew where the source of their strength lay: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). The axiom “you cannot give what you do not have” fits the saints well. They could give Christ to others because their lives overflowed with him (see Ps 23:5). For two thousand years, the prayer life of saints around the world has been the source of countless conversions. Therefore, if we are going to evangelize well, then our prayer life must become a wellspring overflowing with the life of Christ.
St. Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419) was a Spanish Dominican. Like many in the Order of Preachers, Vincent overflowed with a talent to communicate the Gospel. As a faithful son of St. Dominic, he did not take his natural gift for granted but prepared himself before every sermon with study and reflective prayer. Before one of his sermons Vincent received word that a prestigious nobleman would be in the congregation. Perhaps because of nerves or anxiety, Vincent spent all his valuable time studying to prepare for the sermon and left no time to pray. When the nobleman heard the sermon, he was unimpressed. By the grace of God, the nobleman came to hear Vincent again, but this time his presence was unknown to the saint. Vincent’s preparation was his normal study and prayer. This time when the prestigious man of the world heard Vincent, he was profoundly moved. When Vincent was told of the two different responses to his preaching, he humbly and truthfully responded, “In the first sermon it was Vincent who preached. In the second sermon, it was Jesus Christ.” You cannot give what you do not have.
The story of St. Monica praying for her morally lost son, Augustine, has brought hope to parents for many centuries. Monica’s example demonstrates what prayer for conversion must look like—the prayer must have passion, purpose, and perseverance. For seventeen years Monica offered daily prayers to the Lord of Mercy with tears. As St.
