We all need to be listened to

by Letters Editor · November 27, 2014

From C Roberts, Cape Town

We all need to play our part in reaching out and evangelising. But how is this done?�It starts at Mass. We are unaware of the problems facing the regulars at Sunday Mass. Week after week we attend Mass and are there with our own silent problems. We pray over problems at home and for our families.

(Image: Ligia Botero)

Within our families there are those who have made their first and last confession, received their first and last Holy Communion, or were confirmed as Catholics and then disappeared.

Some are caught up in substance abuse. When we see them in our homes and wonder how we can bring them back to the Church. We pray and we pray and we pray, but time goes on. They heed other calls.

But they need us. They are on the wrong side and need to be brought back. We are too silent praying. Prayer and action is the required combination.

Here is my proposal, making use of the vast resource of talent and holiness in our retired priests and nuns who would, I am sure, avail themselves in sharing in this project.

The way it might work: People with problems write their troubles on a piece of paper with their name and telephone or cellphone numbers and place these with a donation, for example R10 or R20, in a box at the back of the church. These are collected and sent to the retired priests and nuns, the �Listeners�.

These �Listeners� would then call the people who wrote the notes, and listen to their problems. No criticising, no condemning, no complaining. Just offering a Christ-like open ear.

Maybe we all need a �Listener�. I know do.