Never underestimate the power of an invitation

I incessantly tell congregations never to underestimate the power of an invitation.   By that I mean that people should be inviting to others to go with them to Holy Mass or to church for confession and other events.  Invitations can be grace-filled, pivotal moments.

From an unlikely source I found an interesting story about a movie actor.  It came to my secondary email, sandwiched in between ammo deals and Friday Torah explanations, I think because I signed up for “rewards” for the movie theater down the street (Tuesdays: $5 all movies all day and free popcorn!).

From Movie Guide:

A Stranger Introduced Chris Pratt to Jesus. . . What Happened Next Is Beautiful
The TV star who quickly became one of Hollywood’s most wanted actors due to his breakout success in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and JURASSIC WORLD recently opened up in a Vanity Fair cover story about the moment he turned to Jesus. Pratt frequently tweets Bible verses, and last Easter posted an Instagram picture of him and some buddies building a giant steel cross and mounting it on a hill. Now, Pratt says it all began with a man in Hawaii coming up to him telling him that ‘Jesus told me to talk to you.’

[…]

I would like to invite Mr. Pratt to attend Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. Lepidus says:

    Any recommendations on politely phrasing the invite for non-practicing or former Catholics with respect to coming to Mass but not Communion? It’s easier with born-and-bred non-Catholics who understand that they are not at their own place, but it seems those that were once practicing Catholics think that they had their First Communion when they were kids, they can just pop back in (as one can seen at many marginally Catholic weddings).

  2. un-ionized says:

    Lepidus, I invite them to get into the confession line right after me. I remind them of the rules about taking Communion so there are no unpleasant surprises. They always painfully aware already.

  3. rmichaelj says:

    Un-ionized-

    That is a nice feature of having confessions during mass- one can be in the confession line and be absolved before receiving communion.

  4. un-ionized says:

    Rmichaelj, the parishes where I go have confession before each Mass so we can do it that way.

  5. MacCheese says:

    That’s likely a career limiting move for Mr Pratt.

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