Sure, and Have You Ever Thought About Being a Catholic?

My Google alerts brought this next post to my attention and then I discovered it belonged to a blogging bishop - Rene Henry Gracida - the bishop emeritus of Corpus Christi (that happenin', evangelizin' town where Fr. Mike is this weekend).

You will love this story of Frank Duff - the Irish founder of the Legion of Mary, a "genius of the apostolate" who received a standing ovation from the world's bishops at the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Gracida writes:

"Now to the point of this post. In Dublin I had the pleasure of meeting and talking at length with Frank Duff, who, please God, will someday be canonized and recognized for the saint that he was. I asked Frank Duff what was the secret of his great success in winning converts to the Church. He replied that every year he spent his summers bicycling through Europe and everywhere he went he engaged people in conversation. After a while he would ask each person if he or she was a Catholic. On being told that they were not, Frank Duff would ask: “Sure, and have you ever thought about being a Catholic?”

Simply asking the question, Frank Duff told me, planted the seed and the Holy Spirit did the rest. Sooner or later that person would ask himself or herself the question, “Why am I not a Catholic?” God’s grace would then do the rest, Frank Duff said."

Imagine - a real live dyed-in-the-wool-Irish!- cradle- Catholic (none of those slippery converts!), asking a relative stranger a question like that!

'Course it probably works best if you have a bit of a brogue.