Patrick Madrid - Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue

How to Bring Your Family and Friends into or Back into the Catholic Church

Patrick Madrid

Foreword by Scott Hahn

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2001, 2012 Patrick Madrid

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Carolyn McKinney

Cover artwork courtesy of www.istockphoto.com

This 2012 edition of Search and Rescue includes minor updates and revisions to the original edition.

Except where otherwise noted, the scriptural quotations in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright 1965, 1966, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344
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Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Madrid, Patrick, 1960
Search and rescue : how to bring your family and friends into, or back into, the Catholic Church / Patrick Madrid.
p. cm.ISBN 1-928832-27-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Evangelistic work. 2. Catholic Church Membership. I. Title.BX2347.4.M33 2001
248.508822 dc212001020743

Other books by Patrick Madrid:

Surprised by Truth

Surprised by Truth 2

Where Is That in the Bible?

Pope Fiction

Any Friend of GodsIs a Friend of Mine

Envoy for Christ

Answer Me This

Why Is That in Tradition?

To my friend David Hess. We once were blind, but now we see.

Evangelize always. When necessary, use words.

Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

Foreword

Ever since I left the Protestant ministry to come home to the Catholic Church, Ive marveled at how effectively secularism and materialism not to mention tireless missionaries from non-Catholic and non-Christian groups have steadily drawn people out of the Church Jesus founded. Ive also met Catholics who think that evangelization is not really for Catholics; its just a weird custom practiced by Fundamentalists, Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, and other enthusiasts.

Yet Jesus didnt only call others to make disciples of all nations; He called Catholics. Indeed, He called you and me. That means that its time for us to learn how to search for and rescue our family and friends who are outside the Church and free them from the grip of error.

You know, the loss when a soul leaves the Church is incalculable; but great is the rejoicing in Heaven when a sinner repents. You and I need to bring back fallen-away Catholics and to help our Father bring new sheep into His fold. When we do so, we obey His command to make disciples and we show our gratitude to Him for the immeasurable gift of His Church.

In Search and Rescue, Patrick Madrid teaches you the best methods for bringing people into the Catholic Church methods drawn from Scripture, the wisdom of the saints, and plain old common sense.

What I like most about Search and Rescue is that its not merely another arsenal of answers to questions that non-Catholics raise. There are plenty of answer books out there already, and Im grateful for them: they provide a service for Catholics that cant be underestimated.

But theyre not enough!

In Search and Rescue , Patrick provides what many of those books lack: the spiritual elements that must be there if youre ever to win converts to the Faith.

Thats because people cant be won over by intellectual arguments alone. God created us in His image as a marvelous unity of spirit, soul, and body. Our intellect is only one component in our decision-making process. Apostles who have all the answers but do not love often just drive their hearers away from the Church.

When I was a Protestant minister I valued words and the realities they signified, and as a professor of Catholic theology, I still do. But as a husband, a father, and a child of God, I know from long experience that my best sermons are preached, my best lessons are taught, and my best messages are sent with no words at all. Thats why St. Francis of Assisi admonished us to evangelize always. When necessary, use words.

St. Franciss advice may seem paradoxical to you, but it distills the wisdom that the Church and her saints have learned from two thousand years of successful evangelizing. Relying on this principle, the Church swelled from twelve Apostles in Palestine to hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world today.

In Search and Rescue, Patrick Madrid explains for you this basic principle of evangelization and shows you how to make it a part of your daily life. Soon you, too, will be evangelizing effectively your family and friends; when necessary, youll even be using words.

Scott Hahn
Spring 2001

Introduction

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.

Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

For nearly fifteen years now, as a Catholic apologist, Ive traveled the globe preaching the Catholic Faith, in person, on the radio, and on television; Ive engaged in formal debates on the Catholic Church with Protestant ministers in Protestant churches; Ive written many articles and books defending the Faith and explaining why all men and women should be Catholic. Ive been in countless small-group and one-on-one discussions with non-Catholics and former Catholics, trying to convince them to come home to the Catholic Church.

Given that experience, youd think that by now I would have managed to bring all my friends and family members into or back into the Catholic Church.

Not so!

And thats one of my greatest sorrows: although I can draw to Christ the souls of strangers, I sometimes find myself unable even to get a hearing from some of those I love the most.

Im not alone.

In my travels, Ive met thousands of other Catholics in my situation; and its likely that you, too, are numbered among us: heartbroken because someone near and dear to you has left the Church or refuses to consider entering it; a son, a daughter, a coworker, or a close friend.

This book is for you... and for those you love who are outside the Church.

In it, Im going to share with you what Ive learned from my own mistakes and successes, and from those with whom Ive spent long hours discussing this difficult problem: how can those of us who dearly love Christ and His Church bring into the Church those we love most of all?

Regardless of how successful we may be in other areas, I dont think that you and I can turn away from this personal evangelizing task, or leave it to be done by others.

Probably these first paragraphs have brought to your own mind a number of people: perhaps your sister-in-law Jennifer who left the Church last year in anger over a sermon that she thought was too harsh; maybe Bob from the front office who brings up religion in the lunchroom but whom you seem only to drive more deeply into Protestant Fundamentalism; maybe even your husband or wife, to whom you cant be as close as you want because of a difference of religion.

Theres a reason these particular people came to mind: theyve been put into your life by Gods mysterious Providence. From all eternity, He has marked out for you a role to play in His plan of salvation. Regardless of your circumstances in your office, your home, your social circles, or your parish God wants to work through you; He wants you to search out these friends and family members whose souls are in danger because they have drifted or are drifting away from the Catholic Faith; He wants you to be His instrument to rescue them.

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