Making Disciples — St. Paul’s way

   There is a certain chain of “sub shops” which orginated in New Jersey, and when you go into one of these shops, and order your sub, you can simply say, “Make it ‘Mike’s way’”

   This apostolate was purposely launched on June 29th, 2008, the beginning of the “Year of St. Paul” called for by Pope Benedict XVI. It is St. Paul who, in word and deed, provides the best example of the eternal impact that one man’s life can have on the life of another.  

   On his second missionary journey, St. Paul takes the young man Timothy under his wing (Acts 16), and from that time on Timothy goes everywhere with him, being taught the doctrines of the Faith, being trained in the work of the ministry, being shaped by the daily disciplines of the Christian life. St. Paul pours his life into Timothy, reproducing himself spiritually into the young man of God. By doing so, St. Paul raises up another co-laborer in the Gospel; Timothy will ultimately serve as bishop of the Church in Ephesus.

   Jesus said, “Go… make disciples…”; the  Apostle Paul shows us that one-to-one mentoring is how disciples are made. So… where’s your “man”, your “woman”?  Where is that person, whom God has brought across your path and into your life, who is willing to give the time, take on the discipline, and grow into the man or woman of God that He has called them to be? Where’s your “Timothy”? Find one, and go make a disciple, “Paul’s way”

 

“I Stand By the Door”

By Samuel Moor Shoemaker

[Excerpts]

 

I stand by the door.

I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.

The door is the most important door in the world —

It is the door through which men walk when they find God.

There’s no use my going way inside and staying there,

When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,

Crave to know where the door is.

And all that so many ever find

Is only the wall where a door ought to be.

They creep along the wall like blind men,

With outstretched, groping hands.

Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,

Yet they never find it…

So, I stand by the door.

 

The most important thing in the world

Is for men to find that door — the door to God.

The most important thing any man can do

Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,

And put it on the latch — the latch that only clicks

And opens to the man’s own touch.

Men die outside that door, as starving beggers die

On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter –

Die for want of what is within their grasp.

They live, on the other side of it — live because they have not found it.

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,

And open it, and walk in, and find Him…

So I stand by the door…

…

 

You can go in too deeply, and stay too long,

And forget the people outside the door.

As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,

Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,

But not so far from men as not to hear them,

And remember they are there, too.

Where? Outside the door –

Thousands of them, millions of there.

But — more important for me —

One of them, two of them, ten of them,

Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.

So I shall stand by the door and wait

For those who seek it.

“I had rather be a door-keeper….”

So I stand by the door.

 

 

 

[Note: Sam Shoemaker, DD, STD (1893-1963), was an Episcopal priest who was instrumental in the Oxford Group and founding principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Sam Moor Shoemaker was the rector of the Calvary Church in New York City, which was the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group. Bill Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings at the Calvary Church and Sam was instrumental in assisting Bill Wilson with the writing of the book Alcoholics Anonymous ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As St. Francis said…

“Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”