In 2023, some friends started a small men's prayer group.  One thing that grew from this group was a desire to fulfill our charge as Catholics to evangelize.  We were, however, unsure what that actually meant and how to do it.  The normal things we heard were to live out our lives for all to see in a way that exemplified our faith life.  This seemed insufficient, but far less difficult than standing on a street corner talking to strangers about Christ. 

 

In 2025, three things occurred to me that came together to inspire this apostolate.  First, I was struck with lung cancer.  As people learned about this, they naturally offered to pray for me. 

For whatever reason, which I still don't quite understand, I asked every one of those folks to think of somebody that they know who doesn't believe or has turned away from God and to pray for them instead.  Over the ensuing months, I probably asked over a hundred people to do this small thing.   

 

The second thing was that I started praying for the Lord to reveal what the purpose he had in mind for me.  The cancer was something that could and should be used for something, but I had no idea what that was. 

This was a different type of praying.  It took a long time. 

 

During this period, while I was trying to figure out how to do His will, I heard something that clarified a great deal for me.  It was a Bishop Robeert Barron homily on YouTube.  He was talking about grace and how it is a gift from God. 

In the homily, he mentioned two things that were new concepts to me.  One, we are all, by virtue of our baptisms, called to be apostles.  Now, "followers" I could wrap my brain around.  Maybe even "disciples".  But to think of myself as an apostle was just too much.  These are the greatest men in our history.  The men Christ Himself trusted to start and grow the church.  His friends.  But Bishop Barron was insistent that just as the twelve were sent out on their mission, we also are sent out.  the other thing he said was that grace is a gift from God, but that gift is not meant only for us.  If we hoard that grace, it stops being grace and becomes sin.  We are meant to become a conduit for that grace and give it to others.  By so doing, we are given more grace.   

We need God's grace for salvation, but we cannot store it up.  The only way to continue to have it is by freely giving it away.  Pretty heady stuff.  I am no theologian.  I'm just some regular guy in Oklahoma.  So it took a couple of weeks of pondering to sink in.  But when it did? Whoa! it was like a thunderbolt. 

 

Maybe God had planted the whole "pray for others who don't believe" thing at the outset so I would have it handy when I needed to figure out what I was supposed to do.  Then, He turned me on to the Bishop Barron Homilies so that eventually, during my time of praying hard to figure out what to do, I catch these two messages.  Suddenly, the ideas were plentiful and clear.  We could take this little thing I'd started asking others to do and turn it into our mission to evangelize, while also acting as conduits for the grace given to us by God.

 

I took these ideas to the men's group and they loved it.  It turns out, we were all already praying for folks in our lives to turn back to God.  I imagine every good catholic is doing the same.  But here was a chance to get extra prayers for these lost souls funneled directly through us and focused directly on them.  One of our members suggested that instead of instituting a "mission", we instead start it as an apostolate. 

I had no idea what that meant exactly.  The difference is that a mission is instituted and managed by the church proper.  An apostolate, on the other hand, is run by lay people who are out in the world where the church cannot always reach.  This appealed to us as a group, so we started the Lost Sheep Apostolate that week. 

Now we want to grow it far and wide so we can reach more and more lost souls.  Imagine how powerful it would be if there were hundreds, or thousands or even millions of people who once a day were offering prayers funneled through you directly at the person you have identified and prayed for to turn their life over to God!  Now THAT is some evangelizing. 

We hope to include you in our group for your added prayers as well as an increase in the souls we are already praying for.  Hopefully, together we can add to the joy in heaven through our actions.