In the Gospel of the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time we find ourselves with Andrew and John in front of John the Baptist who says, “Behold, there goes the Lamb of God.” We, like Andrew and John, want to ask, “Where? Please show me!”

I have never seen myself as an evangelist. I feel that my words are not clear enough for others to capture the love given to me by our Lord (and not just to me, but to everyone!). And most times I am at a loss for words until the opportunity passes by. What can I say, or how can I live, so that others may come to know Him? As much as I would like for my friends and family to embrace this awareness of His Love, my timidity, and maybe even sometimes my own doubts, prevent me from really engaging in discussions of this kind.

With all that said, I have never been more moved by anything as I have been by the events of the New York Encounter. I have never talked more about anything to others--everyone!-- as I have about this annual event--my desire is so great for everyone to experience what I have, to come and see what I have seen. I have had no timidity here because I have experienced something for everyone--something so human, so tangible that I know anyone who joins me will also be moved.

What is it, what is the experience of the New York Encounter?

The positivity of life is exposed each year at the New York Encounter by way of music, art, literature, science, economics, stories of lives changed by tragedy and hardship--all shared with a desire to be understood and to understand.

In 2017, I told an old friend from high school about Communion and Liberation and about the New York Encounter-- I tried to get him to come to New York from Maine. I thought I had him convinced of how great it would be! He did not join me then, but started looking up Father Guissani and wanted to know more. We corresponded for a while and, fast forward, we are now married!

We consider the NYE a serious commitment each year. He has been moved to the point of giving books of the Movement as birthday presents to his sons and has proposed, a few times in the last couple years, for at least one of his sons to join us for the NYE. It is like a domino effect or, even more, like fire that catches on and continues…but in a good way.

Whether you find it in the lyrics of Bob Dylan, the art of the Sagrada Familia, the experience of an ex-street gang member, or the words of a mother who lost her child, it is at the New York Encounter that you have the opportunity to hear God speak to you in the personal, but very human, way that only He can touch you.

Jesus said it to Andrew and John, and I believe again to us today, “Come, and you will see!”

Ask someone to join you for this event. Come, and you will see.

Kathy, Belfast, Maine