My topic for this afternoon was assigned.

I didn't pick it, but I'm very happy to do it.

And it's parish evangelization with the engaged.

One verse that comes to my mind is Acts 244. And it's just the first half of that verse. And it says,

And all who believed were together. Now that's part of a larger passage, of course. Acts 242 follows Peter's preaching on Pentecost when

3,000 were converted by his preaching. I don't know if it was an expository preaching.

I have to first find what expository means.

I don't even know if I do that, but if Peter did it, then he certainly won those converts.

But that longer verse, right before it, says that because of Peter's preaching and his direction to them to repent and to believe in the gospel. Acts 242 says, they held steadfastly to the

apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. And then just a

little bit further on, it says, And all who believed were together.

I think that any topic like this in evangelization of the engaged,

it has to have that as its context,

that we're welcoming these young people who are preparing for marriage into something far greater

than themselves, but also into something that is a mystery, something, as Father Newman pointed

out, that has to be revealed to us. That's what we're offering them. But it's not just a piece of it. It's the entirety of the

gospel. And so that's why Acts 242 reminds us that it's not just about the Apostles' teaching and

no fellowship or breaking of the bread but no prayers. It has to be all of it together. The Apostles' teaching,

the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayer. And those four things, actually,

when I came upon that verse years ago, for the first time, I thought, well, rather narcissistically,

which I think often, I discovered the secret of the

catechism, because those are the four pots.

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