Video: Catholics Take to D.C. Streets to Share the Light of Christ

After celebrating the vigil Mass, Cardinal Wuerl stood outside on the cathedral’s steps and blessed the volunteer missionaries before they went out to “experience the joy of inviting someone else into God’s loving embrace,” he said. They then walked to Metro exits, stood on street corners or simply roamed Dupont Circle, beckoning passersby to pray for peace in the world and in their lives. They met a Serbian bouncer, girls heading to clubs, and a rabbi and his wife. Many walked past, but others came to the cathedral, offered prayers in the streets or instead asked the street missionaries to pray for them. In between trips into the city, the missionaries including seminarians, students from George Washington University, and young adults from local parishes, drank hot chocolate to keep warm 

Several members of the Order of Preachers, more commonly known as Dominican friars, were in their element street preaching, even in the cold. “Every couple of months we go out, sing songs, talk to people, hand out prayer cards, (and) pray with people, which is a beautiful thing,” said Dominican Brother Gabriel, Though everyday evangelization is “at the center of what it mean to be Christian,” said Brother Gabriel, extraordinary events like Light the City allow passersby to light candle and pray, or even not pray. “It’s really about the freedom of the individual to meet the Lord in his own way and to provide that opportunity for that to happen,” he said.​