Dear Pappy, The solution is simple; it\u2019s called \u201cthe personal touch.\u201d\u00a0 Our Lord used it, the Apostles used it, and if you want to be more effective in apostolic work, you better use it too.\u00a0 Fliers, guest speakers, activities, articles \u2013 all these things are necessary tools to defend and disseminate Christian truth, but to bring people into a living relationship with Christ and his Church, you need to surround all such generalized outreaches with person-to-person contact.\u00a0 You have to get to know these people, let them get to know you, and invite them into friendship with Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Faith is a matter of the heart, and you only reach the heart one-on-one.\u00a0 Today\u2019s saint understood that. He was a monk in the Egyptian deserts, a disciple of the great St Anthony.\u00a0 After learning the spiritual life he was raised to a bishopric in southern Egypt.\u00a0 During the last Christian persecutions (under the Emperor Maximinus) those who adhered publicly to the true faith were often mutilated instead of martyred.\u00a0 Bishop Paphnutius was one of these: they gauged out his right eye, severed his Achilles tendon, and carted him off to work in the mines.\u00a0 When the persecution ended, these faithful Christians were dubbed \u201cconfessors\u201d for having confessed their faith even in the face of such costly consequences.\u00a0 He returned to his flock and lived as a model pastor, defending true doctrine again when the Arian heresy broke out. At the first ecumenical Council (at Nicea in 325), he played a major and memorable role.\u00a0 Later, at another Council that met to address Arianism, he saw a fellow confessor (Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem) sitting among the heretical bishops.\u00a0 His heart was almost broken to see someone who had already suffered so much for the true faith forsaking it.\u00a0 Paphnutius approached Maximus, took him by the hand and led him outside of the council chambers, where he warmly but urgently appealed to the prelate to return to the fullness of the true faith.\u00a0 Maximus was so moved that when they returned to the council he stayed by Paphnutius\u2019 side and sat with the Catholic bishops, and from then on he always upheld the Catholic faith. Where public, general appeals make no impression, the personal touch can reach the heart.\u00a0 If you add that to your program of evangelization, you\u2019ll turn the campus upside down before midterms. Sincerely, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Pappy, The solution is simple; it\u2019s called \u201cthe personal touch.\u201d\u00a0 Our Lord used it, the Apostles used it, and if you want to be more effective in apostolic work, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n