Terry Barber speaks in Tooele

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Terry Barber, co-host of the Terry & Jesse Show on Immaculate Heart Radio, speaks at St. Marguerite Parish in Tooele on Oct. 21.

SALT LAKE CITY — Terry Barber, co-host with Jesse Romero of the Terry & Jesse Show on Immaculate Heart radio, presented three talks at St. Marguerite Parish on Oct. 21.

Barber, who also founded Saint Joseph Communications and is a founding board member of Lighthouse Catholic Media, gave hints on how to evangelize and how to share their personal testimony, and also spoke about Our Lady of Fatima. More than 100 people attended his three-hour presentation.

Father Ken Vialpando, pastor of St. Marguerite Parish, said he invited Barber to Tooele because the speaker has a strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and a powerful message to share about the apparitions.

Having met Barber at the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference years ago, and being a frequent listener of his radio show, Fr. Vialpando said he is impressed with “his unshakable faith and his willingness to profess his love for God wherever he goes.”

In his presentation, Barber gave what he called the 10 Commandments of Evangelization, such as “Thou shalt be prepared.” He illustrated his points with stories, like that of a 15-year-old boy who thanked him because the boy, who had read one of Barber’s books, was able to defend his Catholic faith while at camp. When teased because as a Catholic “you worship statues,” the boy used Barber’s example and asked the others whether they carry photos of loved ones, and then asked if they worshipped those photos; in the same way, he explained, statues in Catholic churches are commemorations, not idols to be worshiped.

Speaking about Our Lady of Fatima, Barber said the message from the apparitions is that “Sin leads to unhappiness. Stop sinning, repent of your sins and you will enjoy God’s blessing in time and eternity.”

Living the Fatima message is humanly impossible in today’s culture, Barber said, so “we must cultivate the daily habit of spending as much time as we can before the Eucharist in prayer, because that is where we are going to receive the great graces, because it’s Christ on earth.”

He also encouraged those present to pray with their guardian angel, and gave an example of a prayer he frequently says: “I give you thanks almighty, all-merciful and all-loving God, for all the blessings that I have received from thy bounty through Christ our Lord.”

In his final talk, Barber gave tips on how those present could share their personal testimony as a way of evangelizing. Among the hints were to avoid complex terminology such as the hypostatic union, and to speak confidently but not in a confrontational manner.

“It’s my hope that people will walk away from this conference with a greater appreciation for the miracles that took place at Fatima and for the messages that Our Blessed Mother gave to the three children regarding prayer and repentance,” said Fr. Vialpando, adding that he also hopes that the tools Barber gave for how to share the faith will give people the strength and courage to evangelize whenever the opportunity arises.

Fr. Vialpando said he plans to have similar presentations in English and Spanish every year.