A Reporter For The Lord & A Lesson from Lectio In Evangelization: By: C.C.

"That's your job and my job, to give reports about Jesus. To share an account of our own meeting with the Lord....it's for us to spread the word of the mercy of the Lord, of His presence, and of our own experiences of Christ's presence in our Lives...we are to be reporters of the Lord." (Cardinal Collins)

    I am often invited by a dear friend of mine to attend Lectio Divina led by Cardinal Collins at St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto. However, sadly I have not yet been available to attend. I have thus become rather grateful for these evenings being recorded and made available online so that I can 'keep up with Cardinal' and bring these meditations into my home and into the solitude of prayer. His most recent Lectio Divina offered some rather important sentiments about the idea of evangelization and our duty as Catholics, and followers of Christ to report the Good News to others.

    Evangelization is unsuccessful if it is rooted solely in what we can do, what we can accomplish, or in the ministries we seek to establish. We are not to simply conjure up the means to share the Lord, but are called to invite God into our hearts more deeply and allow Him, by our surrender to share Himself reflected through our deeds and the witness of our life. Evangelization is much less we and much more Christ. We can fail by making a god out of serving God and in this our service to Him is ineffective and misguided. We are able to succeed when we think less of how to share Christ and spend more time with Christ in prayer. By prayer we come to see and recognize the ways that we are individually called to share the Gospel and the reason for our hope. In prayer we can incline our ear to the Lord's voice and allow Him to tell us how we are to serve; how our Lord's given gifts and graces can glorify Him in our life.

   As Cardinal Collins shared, "we are to be reporters of the Lord". To understand more deeply what this means I found it fitting to familiarize myself with the qualities of a good reporter and was pleased to come across a list of 18 essential qualities that a good reporter should have. I have chosen to highlight only some of these qualities and relate it to evangelization. I thank Cardinal Collins for the inspiration!

1 ) Credibility is something that every good reporter should have. In other words, a reporter must exhibit characters and behaviors that make him or her to be believed and trusted by people.

 Credibility and trust are important if we are to be good reporters of Christ. If we desire to share the joy of our Lord and the Truth of His message, we must not invite people to believe in us, but to deepen their recognition of Christ in us by our works and by our virtue. 
  To be a good reporter for the Lord requires us to exude the characteristics of the Gospel. The power of a strong witness to inspire others goes beyond what can be taught in books. It is a personal, genuine, and authentic account. To be credible in evangelization is to surrender oneself completely to the Lord, so that the trust and credibility we may acquire from others only serves to glorify and proclaim the truth of our Lord and the reason for our faith.

2)A good reporter should be courageous and confident. Without courage and confidence it is difficult for a person to be a good reporter. Timidity on the part of any reporter will get them nowhere.

A good reporter for Jesus is courageous and confident. It is important that this courage is grounded in God's providence and not in our own over-zealous desire. Timidity may have no part in the life of a reporter, however humility is an important virtue in the life of a reporter for the Lord. We must work to have a courageous confidence in Christ and for Christ. 

A good reporter should be able to gather facts in a very careful and accurate way.

When reporting on things of the Lord and sharing with others, it is important to know the 'facts', and to take time to learn and familiarize oneself with the Church teachings. We must pay careful attention with great responsibility to the message we are giving to others and ensure that our reports stem from sound teaching of the Catholic church and not our own opinions. 

Must be good at asking the right questions at the right time.

Good reporters need to ask questions to gain more information. If we are to be credible, courageous, and well informed we must know when to ask for guidance and clarity on anything we may be unsure about. We can present our questions to the Lord in prayer and entrust them also to those we deem to be sound teachers of the faith and of our Lord. The more informed we are the better we are able to deliver and share the message of faith effectively. 

A reporter should be a good team player and be capable of working with other reporters.

Unity is an important aspect of successful evangelization. To be successful we must work well with others to help us foster and grow in our faith. If we are incapable of working with others then we really need to call into question who our work is truly about. We must remain focused on the divine Person we are serving, recognizing in others the way that our Lord makes Himself visible to us.

A good reporter should be able to take corrections and criticisms in the course of performing their job.

We must remain humble. If we are to be corrected and critiqued let us allow these moments to lead us toward a deepening of prayer, growth, and preparation.


Let us take the time to listen to our Lord. Spending time before Him to know how we are called to serve Him, and what type of reporter we are called to be.  (CC)

"Christ draws people to Him and we as His disciples need to draw people to us, and through us to Him"(Cardinal Collins)