This Holy Week, thousands of missionaries will carry out Christ's message.

México, March 23, 2006 (Good News). As the ball sailed over the fence, one of the soccer players dashed off the field to find it among the surrounding trees and brush. As he stumbled through the undergrowth, suddenly he stopped short as he came upon a small cabin! Why hadn’t he seen it before?

The soccer player was an ordinary young man who had signed-on to spend Holy Week as a missionary in the remote village of Chilapa, Mexico. At the moment, though, he was in the middle of an exciting soccer game: missionaries vs. locals.

This newly found house took him by surprise; they had visited every house… but he hadn’t seen this cabin before. “Did we miss this house? What should I do?” he wondered to himself. If he decided to visit the residents, he might lose out on the end of the intense soccer game.

Once he had launched the ball back onto the field, he set off for the cabin determined not to leave a single home un-evangelized. As he entered, he was met with the groans of a 103-year-old man lying on his death bed. Immediately the young missionary took off running to the nearby church, where

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the priest accompanying the group was hearing confessions.

Upon arriving at the cabin, no sooner was the priest able to administer the last sacraments than the man passed away. Thanks to Christ and his sacraments, this man, though 103 years old, left the world with the smile and peace of a child.

This story might seem a bit dramatic, but 70,000 other missionaries had similar experiences evangelizing Mexico last year during Holy Week. They brought Christ to those in need of him.

In 2004, the same event was organized in the United States by Youth for the Third Millennium. Missionaries went door-to-door in Atlanta and Sacramento, while last year the missions grew and 2000 people went door-to-door in four different cities.

They prayed with people and invited them to special Holy Week services at their parish. Not only were there dramatic testimonies of people who had long been away from their faith, but the missionaries, both families and individuals, experienced that spiritual spark that comes from sharing the faith with others.

As they prepare for mission this year in Atlanta, Sacramento, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Calgary, and Quebec City, organizers and missionaries are getting ready for the biggest and best missions yet.

What are the missions all about? Why spend Holy Week visiting houses and sharing the faith with others? In the homily of his inauguration Mass, Pope Benedict XVI offers us the answer: “And the Church is young…The Church is alive and we are seeing it: we are experiencing the joy that the Risen Lord

	Missionaries visit parishioners to offer prayers for their intentions.

promised his followers. The Church is alive – she is alive because Christ is alive, because he is truly risen.”

This Holy Week, thousands of missionaries will carry this message to all those they encounter – Christ is alive and so is his Church! If you want to be a part of this life, all you have to do is click, www.ytm.org.

- Sources Buenas Noticias (5 March 2006), Fr. Juan Pablo Ledesma, L.C. & www.ytm.org