The Way of the Prodigal: There Are Some of You Who Do Not Believe
How to keep faith alive: Will they get on the Ark? Will they accept their inheritance?
Believers come to St. Patrick Catholic Church monthly praying “to call home the stray,” the non-practicing.
They pray every second Saturday, asking “to comfort the frightened, and to bind up the wounded.” Some join a grandparents’ ministry. Others agree to private acts of fasting and almsgiving in the name of their “lost sheep.”
Together, they pray aloud:
“I ask you to bring (they then recite names quietly) back to the practice of Faith, and to remove all obstacles that prevent them from receiving your abundant mercy, which flow sacramentally though the heart of your holy Church.”
Other churches have their own St. Monica Ministries recalling how Monica prayed for her son St. Augustine of Hippo for decades until he totally changed his ways. His books are considered some of the most inspiring in Christianity.
As many Christians leave their churches…
- While 87 percent of Americans believe in God, just 47 percent (a record low) were members of a church, synagogue, or mosque in 2020.
