IHM Conference Notes - Patrick Madrid - Search & Rescue

He had me at..."was a Latin Mass altar boy."  Ears perked, soft-spot of heart twinged, I am a mom to 3 of those and a wife to one, too.

At the IHM National Catholic Homeschool and Parenting Conference PATRICK MADRID drew a standing room only crowd.  In my 9 years of going to this event it was the most packed I'd seen a conference room.  People lined the walls and sat in the aisles! If his name is unfamiliar to you, read his bio below.  He's a Catholic media star!

When I was coming back to my faith I had been given his amazing book, Surprised By Truth in which converts to the faith tell of how they learned the truth of the Catholic faith.  Also, in Mother of Divine Grace curriculum that book is a part of the high school reading. Patrick Madrid has videos and youtubes and a radio show that I had seen and heard.  On Facebook he is a hoot! So seeing him in person was a treat.  It was one of those moments when you are assured that God made someone to do exactly what they are doing.  With a cool ease, smooth and captivating delivery Mr. Madrid left us wanting more of his advice on apologetics and evangelizing.  His topic was....

Search and Rescue: How You Can Help People Come Home to the Church
This talk explains ten crucial “dos and don’ts” for Catholics who want to share, explain, and defend their Catholic beliefs. With a generous helping of humorous anecdotes, biblical examples, and practical illustrations, this talk equips lay Catholics with the tools they need to help their family, friends, and co-workers come into (or back into) the Catholic Church.

Here are my notes... 

• Learn/teach how to discern truth from error - not many can do so today
• Be WILLING to share the faith, especially as this quiet persecution begins and grows
• He told the story of a woman who entered a random post office and struck up a conversation  with the worker behind the desk, who proceeded to give her a copy of his book. How did he know she was so close to conversion and searching for the truth? HOW CAN ANY OF US KNOW? But we too could have the power to affect a conversion like that, as in this case, it brought this woman to confession and wiped away 20 years of sin! You never know how CLOSE the person you talk to might be.
• Constantly upgrade your knowledge of the Catholic faith.  For many it ends in 8th grade after preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation.
• Become an EMT, knowing your faith is like basic first aid.  It can heal.
• You can't give what you don't have spiritually or intellectually.  You could be anti-evangelizing, turning people away from the faith.
• Let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting. It's not always tidy...don't be impatient for conversion or for it to happen fast.
• Rely on the grace of God.
• Apologetics is not arguing. It's the art of answering questions. It's not defensive and one must control their anger. 
• If someone says show me where it says "this Catholic belief " in the bible answer "Where does the bible require that I prove from the bible?  Show me that scripture?" There is no bible-alone/sola scriptura in the Bible.
• If they say they will only accept a teaching that is found in the Bible... ask where does it say that you must do that... in the Bible?
• 
  

There were more of these, more great and helpful approaches....please consider getting a copy of this talk or his videos/books linked within this post. EACH OF US are called to evangelize.

Mr. Patrick Madrid is the president of the Envoy Institute which, from 1996-2011, published the quarterly Catholic journal, Envoy Magazine. He has authored or edited 20 books on Catholic themes including, Pope Fiction, Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That? and Envoy for Christ: 25 Years as a Catholic Apologist. He edited and co-authored the multi-volume Surprised by Truth series. His total book sales, including foreign-language editions, are approximately 800,000 copies worldwide.
Over the past 27 years, Patrick has published numerous popular articles on Scripture, Church history, patristics, apologetics, and evangelization in various Catholic and Protestant periodicals, and he has contributed scholarly articles on apologetics in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Patrick worked at Catholic Answers for eight years (January 1988 to January 1996), where he served as vice president and helped launch that apostolate’s flagship magazine, This Rock, in January of 1990. During his time at Catholic Answers, he co-authored the booklet Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth, millions of copies of which have been printed (in English, Spanish, Arabic, German, French, Tagalog, and other languages) and distributed around the world.
Patrick is a life-long Catholic, not a convert. By God’s grace, he was raised in the Catholic Faith and has been a practicing Catholic his entire life. Growing up in Southern California, he attended grammar school at the Mission San Juan Capistrano parish school, where for several years he served as an altar boy for the parish’s daily Traditional Latin Mass in the famed Serra Chapel.
Patrick earned a bachelor of science degree in business from the University of Phoenix, as well as a B.Phil. in philosophy and an M.A. in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
He has served as an adjunct professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and is a research fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Studies. He is also an adjunct professor of theology in the Holy Apostles College and Seminary‘s distance graduate theology program.
Patrick hosts the popular “Right Here, Right Now” radio show, Monday through Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm ET. His show is produced by Immaculate Heart Radio and is broadcast on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network of approximately 230 AM & FM stations across the U.S., as well as on Sirius Satellite Radio (channel 130), globally via shortwave, and on the Internet. Patrick is also a frequent guest and occasional guest-host on the “Catholic Answers Live” program.
Patrick and his wife Nancy have been blessed with 11 children and even more grandchildren. Their most important goal as a couple is to hear the Lord Jesus say to them and their children one day, “Well done, good and faithful servants; you have been faithful over a little . . . now enter into the joy of your Master” (Matt. 25:21).