Persuading was required to get my mom on board with permitting me to write a column about her influence on my faith life. 

“That’s very sweet,” she said, “but please don’t.”

My response: “Well, you brought this on yourself for inspiring me, better than anyone I know, to follow Jesus!

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She chuckled and graciously came around. 

In truth, the intent of this new series of columns transcends accounts of people who have drawn me closer to The Lord. My central aim is to highlight and celebrate Catholics who I believe exemplify particular admirable traits that we should all strive to adopt and practice daily to bring forth a dynamic and long-lasting New Evangelization. 

Throughout my 33 years as her son, I have come to recognize and admire my mother, Denise Amundson, as a seeker of God in the truest sense. She endeavours to grow more in wisdom and reverence of our Almighty Father every day that ends in y without fail. 

She prays, reads Scripture, attends Mass daily and volunteers for ministries. She devotes a significant portion of her time online to watching thought-provoking Catholic content, listening to Christian music, and researching new devotions and practices that could deepen her prayer life. 

My mom and I are also spiritually enriched by the iron-sharpens-iron dynamic of many of our phone calls and face-to-face conversations. 

One thing about me: I don’t mind small talk, but I feel at my most energized and authentic when I am talking about life’s big questions. I am so blessed that my mother has a similar boundless enthusiasm for discussing how God is present in the world today, how we are potentially being called, how Satan operates, and the importance of being transformed by the Bible. 

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We’re probably one of the very few mother-and-son pairings who have exchanged views about the nature and role of Mary hundreds of times over the past five years alone. 

Simply put, she aspires to live up to what The Lord charges us to do in Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:13, and in countless other verses, which is “to seek the Lord with all your heart and soul.” 

She also aims to honour St. Paul’s call to action in Romans 12:2, my favourite verse of Scripture: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Unfortunately, we all know many who join us in the congregation at Mass on Sunday who placed their relationship with God on autopilot mode many years ago. After receiving a solid enough baseline of knowledge about their faith in their younger years, they simply don’t feel the need to probe any deeper. They barely listen to the homily; they never talk about their faith outside the nave of a church, and they treat their Bible like a neglected museum artifact.

Nowhere in the patrimony of the Catholic Church or in the thousands of pages that make up the Old and New Testament do we Christians receive any sort of approval to remain in stasis with our faith or to become “stuck in our ways” as we age. That mindset is utter nonsense. We must vigorously seek greater communion with God to avoid being tempted by the “prince of the world,” the devil.

I don’t recall any exact discussion where my Mom outright told me I needed to not take what I am presented with – even from so-called experts – as gospel, but upon reflection, I must have inherited my deep-seated instinct to seek out my own answers and connect the dots from her. 

What a tremendous blessing. Once you deeply explore and study how God worked His will before, during and after the Earthly years of Jesus, you begin to put the pieces together how God is working His will today, and oftentimes through the people you would least suspect. You also begin to understand the reasons why God allows certain tragic events to unfold and why He intervenes in other circumstances. 

From my perspective, after I took time and effort to know Him, the great gift God has bestowed on me, my Mom and countless others is the ability to react to many events in this world from a 30,000 ft view. Being accorded a richer snapshot of the grand design has given me the gift of a certain amount of serenity in a world where we are often directed to be fearful and anxious.   

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I am so grateful that this seeker trait of my mother was passed down to me. I believe we must all dare to go deeper if we want to see this world become beautiful again. However, it is not the only quality we need to treasure to bring forth a new, life-affirming evangelization. 

Other essential characteristics will be explored in upcoming columns.