Having knocked on doors somewhere between every day and every week since 2016 (minus my two years with the Carthusian Monks), I have had many unexpected and even seemingly uneventful encounters.

Here are a couple of those encounters.

“I got your letter, and you inspired me to come back….”

In 2017, I was knocking on doors in Dodge City, Kansas, when I encountered a woman we may call Rebecca. 

She didn’t seem too excited to speak with me at first, but when I asked her how I could pray for her, she seemed so troubled that she could barely speak. 

This caught me off guard, and I could tell she was really suffering. I later learned that she considered herself Catholic, though she hadn’t been to church for a while. 

As I was leaving, she surprised me by telling me that I had made her day. 

I didn’t expect to see her again, but I did, inside the Dodge City Cathedral two weeks later. That day, while I was busy greeting people before Mass, I heard a quiet voice behind me say, “I was having a bad week…” and as I turned around, she continued, saying, “I was having a bad week when you stopped by my house, but you inspired me to come back.”

The letter I sent her was the following:

Dear _______,

Thank you for the gift of your time and kindness during my visit on Saturday. 

You are truly in my prayers, especially for (prayer intention), and it was also a pleasure to meet you!  It’s true that before the world was made, God looked forward to the day you would walk the Earth, as He says: 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jer 1:5), and so I thank Him for the gift of you! 

Thanks again for your kindness, and please let me know if there is anything else I can pray for!

Sincerely,

Austin

“I see the value in community….”

Recently, I was out knocking on doors during my lunch break. A woman answered the door. When I asked her how I could pray for her, she told me she was raised Anglican but no longer subscribed to any particular church.

So I asked her, “What do you think about it all…religion in general?”

She told me she saw the value in having a community. She and her husband have a 6-year-old child, and it seemed like because of that, she desired to get to know other young parents with whom she could share life.

I told her about my local Catholic parish a couple blocks from her house and also mentioned that I would send her a letter if she had any other questions for me.

Based on that encounter and others I have had, my local parish decided to start an open door “Faith & Fellowship” every Wednesday at 7 pm at our Church.  The purpose of it is not only to help our own parish grow in community but also to serve as a place for our non-Catholic neighbors to get to know the parish.

“I used to make fun of this stuff..”

Back in 2017 when I was knocking on doors around the seminary, I ran into a gentleman we shall call Curtis. I first saw him walking his dog around one of those neighborhoods, but I eventually found myself at his door as well.

When I knocked on his door, he was surprised that I wasn’t there to sell him something or advocate for a particular political party, but that I was just there for him—-to pray for him.

He was a large and intimidating man, but he told me that he was actually trying to figure out how to pray himself. He had always wanted to be baptized but never knew how or where.

I recommended that he attend the “Alpha” series at the Catholic Church just down the road from him and see what happens…

He attended the group that Wednesday and then entered RCIA afterward. He and I then began to meet regularly on the weekends to discuss the Bible. At one of those meetings, he said, “You know, I used to make fun of this kind of stuff….but I just didn’t know.”

“I think I can make the 7:30 A.M..”

On another recent occasion, I had almost finished my regular sixty minutes of knocking on doors and praying for people when I reached the end of the street I intended to cover.

The door I knocked on was the home of a fallen-away Catholic (as far as I could tell). She had recently encountered incredible adversity in her personal relationships, so she seemed more interested in religion than previously.

I prayed for her and gave what little advice I could on her particular situation. 

She then asked me what parish I was from.  I told her I was from the parish a couple of blocks from her house. She asked me when the Sunday Mass times were and said she’d try and make the 7:30 AM Mass.

I hope to see her there to help facilitate her entrance into the parish as well.

Catholic Neighborhood Evangelization: The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, neighborhood evangelization is heartbreakingly simple and rare among our Catholic parishes. 

The Catholic Faith is true and attractive on its own. People often don’t need to be persuaded but simply invited. However, “how can men preach unless they are first sent?” (Rm. 10:13-15).

So let us pray, you and I, that our Lord might raise up new and plentiful laborers to enter into His harvest.

When it comes to door-to-door evangelization, I believe this phrase from G.K. Chesterton rings especially true:

“…it has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.“

Learn More About Catholic Evangelization: Sent

Sent Evangelization, introduces a way to evangelize that may be both unfamiliar and uncomfortable to Catholics: visiting door-to-door.  The Sent method of evangelization trains and mobilizes laity to reach souls in the community who may be tough for Catholic pastors to reach.  Based on baptismal identity and focused on charity, Sent enables parishes to fully understand their mission fulfilling the three mandates of the Great Commission: Sanctify, Teach, and Shepherd.  Sent Evangelization Founder Austin Habash explains the method of knocking on doors (and hearts) in a seven-part course now available on Formed, the Augustine Institute’s on-demand streaming platform.

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