By Emilie Ng
STEPHANIE Cross was standing in St Peter’s Square when she struck up a conversation with a man who loathed the Catholic Church.
It was a typical scene for the 21-year-old who last week finished nine months of mission training at an international school based in Rome.
“I explained what we did, and he said he was against the Catholic faith and wouldn’t share much,” Steph said.
“The only thing I could do is just be joyful, smile and really listen to what he had to say.”
Leaning on the Emmanuel School of Mission’s studies on evangelisation, Steph prayed to the Holy Spirit.
The prayer moved Steph to hand the man a passage from Scripture, which he placed in his pocket before walking away.
Moments later, this man returned with a burning question.
“He was running after me, and he said, ‘What is this? Why did you give me this?’” Steph said.
“He said, ‘You have no idea how much this Word of God has changed my life’.”
Steph offered to pray with this man from St Peter’s Square, and he humbly and willingly bowed his head.
Speaking to absolute strangers like the man on holidays was a weekly occurrence for Steph and her fellow missionaries at the Emmanuel School of Mission.
The school is run by members of an international public association of the faithful, Emmanuel Community, founded in France, and offers students spiritual, academic, community and mission formation.
Steph was the sole Australian among 16 young people who travelled from 12 different countries to be in Rome for the school.
All students attend daily Mass and pray in Adoration for one hour each day, join in praise and worship, and attend between three to six hours of study, ranging from classes on Scripture, moral theology and the sacraments, to evangelisation and marriage.
Outside of the school, students also travel for missions throughout Rome and overseas, the recent group visiting Poland and the United States.
Steph said the school had not only helped improve her knowledge of the Catholic faith, but also explained the secret to evangelisation.
“The thing I’ve learnt mostly at the school is to be joyful Catholics because that is so attractive,” she said.
“We’ve had people say that it was our joy that made people want to talk to us.”
Steph said joy was “forgetting myself” and being the person whom God created.
“The more I would forget about myself, the more I was being an example of joy to others,” she said. “Joy also comes from prayer, and I found that by praying a lot, you receive so much from the Lord, and you just receive so much joy that you have to give that to others.
“It overflows from you.”
While Steph’s journey as a student at the school is over, her love for community life has just begun.
On June 14, Steph and five other young people took their first step as new members of the Emmanuel Community.
When Steph returns to her Sunshine Coast home next month, she plans to move to Melbourne to continue her commitment to the community and complete her primary education degree.
She encouraged other young Australians to apply for this “fantastic” experience of faith in action.
The Emmanuel School of Mission is taking applications for the next program beginning on October 1, 2015.
Apply at www.esm-rome.com or visit the ESM Rome official Facebook page for more details.
The international Emmanuel Community which runs the Emmanuel School of Mission in Rome is a separate organisation from the Emmanuel Community in Brisbane.
