This Lent take the first steps to ‘Walk With One’ in the Campaign of Mercy
Laura Keener
Editor
With the announcement of the Campaign of Mercy last June, Bishop John Iffert is inviting the people of the Diocese of Covington to prayerfully consider a work of mercy and to engage in service to others, allowing that service to deepen their faith life and to draw them closer to Christ.
In support of the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger has been highlighting a spiritual or corporal work of mercy and a person, parish ministry or local social service that embodies that work. The goal of the Campaign of Mercy is to evangelize through that work of service inviting someone — a family member, friend or acquaintance — to join you in that service work and through that relationship grow in faith.
With the onset of Lent, the Messenger is pausing its series on the works of mercy and turning attention to the foundational aspect of the Campaign of Mercy — personal and intercessory prayer. Lent is a penitential season of the Church that invites its members to a deepening of faith through the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger invites readers on a Lenten journey to Walk With One.
At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Congress last July, the U.S. bishops launched a national evangelization initiative entitled “Walk With One.”
“As we prayed, we realized that perhaps the profundity is found in the simplicity,” said Kris Frank, vice president of Growth and Marking for the National Eucharistic Congress, about the Walk With One Campaign. “That if one person can just reach out to one other person, that’s where we could see great results. That’s where we could see change really start to take root as the revival takes root in each one of us.”
Walk With One and the Campaign of Mercy dovetail perfectly. Both start by developing or increasing a personal relationship with the Lord through prayer. Both invite the Holy Spirit to lead to the person God has in mind for you to journey with. And both encourage daily intercessory prayer for the person so that their heart and mind will be open to Lord.
“When we’ve encountered Jesus, that changes us,” said Tanner Kalina, project manager, National Eucharistic Congress. “The Eucharist is not our private possession. The Eucharist longs to be shared with others and Jesus desires to do that through us.”
Resources developed by Eucharistic Congress organizers for the Walk With One campaign offer a four-step process: identify someone in a spirit of humility; intercede for that person in communion with the Holy Spirit; connect in Eucharistic friendship and invite that person on a path most suitable for him or her. With the help of the National Eucharistic Congress team, each of these four steps will be explored throughout the weeks of Lent, in print, on the web and the diocese’s YouTube page.
“The Church’s invitation for us to Walk With One is not an invitation for us to add one more task to do, it’s actually an invitation for us to step into the fullness of the Christian life by walking with someone and inviting them into different stages of the spiritual journey,” said Mr. Kalina. “We actually become more alive and closer to Jesus. It is about getting us to be a Eucharistic people, a people who are really living the fullness of the Christian life and, therefore, tasting the abundance and joy of the Christian life.”
The Messenger’s Lenten feature will be available online at covdio.org/messenger. For additional Walk With One resources from the National Eucharistic Congress visit eucharisticrevival.org/walk-with-one.