'We were born' for mission and rescuing others, speaker tells crowd

MONROE — What do Rosa Parks, Dorothy Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pope St. John Paul II, Chuck Colson and St. Joan of Arc all have in common?

They were agents for positive change in a broken and troubled world, said Father John Riccardo, a motivational speaker and missionary priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit who urged "building a fire in Monroe" at the Monroe Knights of Columbus hall Monday night. About 300 attended.

Riccardo is executive director and founder of Acts XXIX, a Catholic apostolate begun in 2019 and based in Detroit. Joining him was his ministry leadership team that has visited all 50 states in the U.S. plus at least 25 countries to equip clergy and lay leaders with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in a compelling and attractive way. He spoke about faith, evangelization and ways of engagement on the final night of Project Rescue, a seven-week video series offered by the Monroe Family of Parishes that began in January.

Riccardo, 58, was the focus of video talks each night on the mission on the church and its people. He said nothing good happens "without the Holy Spirit." He prayed with the audience to "build a fire in Monroe" to draw "countless people" to God.

The project compels both members and non-members of the church to mobilize and get involved in Christ's mission for humanity in a hurting world, he said.

He said many people have stopped going to church and are losing the will to live. To counter this trend, the project advocates for a spirit-filled response to rescue others, he told the crowed at the hall.

Previous Coverage: 200 attending evangelization series

"We live in a horribly broken world, in the new Great Depression of mental health, where people have been abandoned, given up, rejected and thrown out," he said. "We were born for this. God is calling each of us into mission with unshakeable hope and confidence in him. We just have to ask God for the grace to be overwhelmed ... and be agents of restoration, healing and reconciliation. We desperately need this now."

He said anyone can be an agent for change. He said sharing the gospel has six forms: non-violent sabotage and resistance, re-creation, restoration, reconciliation, healing and being ambassadors for Christ.

"Jesus came to rescue you and me, (but) He rescued us not from the world, but for the world," he said during his one-hour address Monday. "Faith enables a person to see. Faith is God's work in me to which I respond. But how can people believe in God if they don't know him?"

He said people are "hungry for truly good news" and for an understanding of the mission God has entrusted to each person. Citing Scripture (Matthew 5:14-15), he said "You are the light of the world. He calls you and me to engage in a great campaign of sabotage (and war). Your weapons are mercy and forgiveness. We need confidence and his heart to engage."

At a retreat held Sunday at St. Charles Catholic Church, Newport, dozens of participants — with their eyes closed — took part in a reflective encounter with the Holy Spirit to experience peace and comfort in order to bring hope and healing to suffering people who have little or no faith. This task is "all the more urgent with every passing day," Riccardo noted.

"We have two missions — internal and external," Riccardo said. Internal is seeking holiness "within ourselves to bend back the works of the enemy (the devil)." External is to evangelize and "recreate the world to make it more human. We don't love each other and instead demonize each other."

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Riccardo offers a podcast every Monday on faith and mission. Joe Boggs and Elliot Alfredson, co-coordinators for the series, said next year organizers are eyeing a similar rescue project to be held in small groups and homes.

"We're in a great mission and need to keep it going," Alfredson said.

More information about Riccardo and Acts 29 can be found at info@actsxxix.org or actsxxix.org.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: 'We were born' for mission and rescuing others, speaker tells crowd