I've been on both ends of this experience-the receiving and the giving. I remember when I first came to the United States from a warm climate. It was cold and I had no overcoat. How grateful I was to that servant of Christ, Melvin Wampler, who took off his coat and placed it on my shoulders. He went without so that I could be warm. In a similar manner I have often endeavored to do this for others. Believe me, however, there is more joy in giving and going without, than receiving and possessing.

John Eudes was born in Normandy, France, in 1601. He was the oldest son of a farmer. Even as a child, he tried to copy the example of Jesus in the way he treated his family, friends and neighbors. When he was only nine, another boy slapped his face. John felt himself becoming angry. Then he remembered Jesus' words in the Gospel: to turn the other cheek. So he did.

John's parents wanted him to marry and have a family. He gently but firmly convinced them that he had a priestly call. He joined the congregation of the Oratory and studied for the priesthood. After John was a priest, the plague hit Normandy. It brought terrible suffering and death. Father Eudes volunteered to help the sick, caring for both their souls and bodies. Later, he became a popular preacher of missions in parishes. In fact, during his lifetime he preached 110 missions. St. John is responsible for the establishment of important religious congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and the Good Shepherd nuns. Father Eudes also started the Congregation of Jesus and Mary for priests. This congregation was dedicated to training young men to become good parish priests.

St. John was very devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Holy Heart of Mary. He wrote a book about these devotions. John became sick after he preached an outdoor mission in very cold weather. He never fully recovered. John died in 1680. He was proclaimed "blessed" by Pope St. Pius X in 1908. This pope called John Eudes the apostle of devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

Reflection:  "Preachers beat the bushes. Confessors catch the birds!" - St. John Eudes

A young man named John saw some ragged boys and invited them to Sunday school. One boy said he would go, but he had no coat. John gave him his coat and went in with him. Years afterward, a teacher of a Bible class told the story. A man in his class said, "I was that boy, and Dr. John G. Patton, one of the most famous missionaries of the ages, gave me his coat."

O let me shed a little light

On someone's path I pray;

I'd like to be a messenger

Of happiness today!

It may be just a phone call,

A smile, or a prayer,

Or a long neglected letter

Would lift the edge of care.

I want to spread some happiness

In what I say or do,

Make life a little sweeter

For someone else! Don't you?

Took the time to go see someone who lives alone?

Wrote a letter to someone who crossed your mind?

Read the Bible to someone too ill to read for themselves?

Encouraged someone who was having a hard time being a Christian?

Prayed earnestly for someone who was faltering?

Tried to have a Bible study with someone you knew was lost?

Told a teenager that you were proud of his efforts to live for the Lord?

Spent more time on your knees praying than on the telephone talking?

EVERY CHRISTIAN CAN DO SOMETHING TO ENCOURAGE SOMEONE ELSE!

A secretary on the job is engulfed in problems. Her husband left her; a son is in rebellion; she can barely make ends meet. She cries out for help. We don't hear.

A fellow employee is overwhelmed by the complexity of overcoming his chronic drinking problem. He longs for a friend. We're deaf to his cries.

The owner of the gas station where we've traded for years has just lost his wife. His eyes echo his loneliness. We don't see.

A wife would love to share with us the trauma and trivia of her day-just to have a listening ear. Our ears are closed.

And as the "perfect" ending to such a self-centered day, we hurry to the church building and get our weekly door-knocking assignment as we hasten to engage a cold prospect in an ambiguous process which we have labeled evangelism.

Does that approach make sense? It seems to me it is time we acknowledged the fact that a good translation of the Great Commission has it reading: "As you are going into all the world...."

You see, we are in such a hurry to "go!" that we miss the very ones whom God brings into our path-"as we are going." May God awaken us to the realization that true evangelism is loving the world the way God loves it; allowing our hearts to be broken by the things that break God's heart; acknowledging that there is no dichotomy between "evangelism" and "benevolence"-that true evangelism begins with Mat_10:42 : "And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you, he will certainly not lose his reward."