A great time to be Catholic

From Envoy Magazine, Alumni of Belmont Abbey College

You’ve heard the famous saying: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
 If ever there were a time when this truth was plainly evident, it is right now. 

Let’s take stock of the situation we’re in. Planet earth and its inhabitants are going through some pretty rough times. Our problems range from famine, religious persecutions, war, rampant illegal drug use, broken families, the murder of millions of unborn children each year, strife, pornography, drunkenness, cloning, racial hatred, terrorism, godlessness, blasphemies, weather-related catastrophes, widespread sexual immorality, despair, suicide, a spirit of revenge, and the looming threat of nuclear annihilation (did I miss anything?). 

And amidst all this social upheaval, we see the rise of popular, charismatic politicians who charm the masses with bland, sugar-coated platitudes even as they ardently promote abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and other wickedness. Our world is spinning ever more out of control into the abyss of sin and alienation from the God Who loves us. 

That’s the bad news.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to redeem and save us. He established the Catholic Church as the visible means of grace and healing for those who will accept His grace.
The really interesting part is that you have been called by Christ to bring the Good News of His grace and forgiveness to a seriously hurting world. Are you up for it?

This is a great time to be Catholic! We have so many opportunities for grace, for speaking the truth in love. Countless martyrs before us, who loved God so much that they willingly sacrificed everything in their love for the truth — show that, as Christ promised, “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

This special report on courageous Christianity will show you practical ways you can shine the light of Christ’s truth more brightly in the gathering darkness of the culture of death. You’ll discover powerful examples of courageous believers who chose to proclaim the truth, regardless of the cost. Like they did, you too
can overcome temptations to make excuses for remaining silent, especially when you know you should speak out. 

You’ll learn why, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:37, those who stand up for the truth “conquer overwhelmingly” because of Christ within them, no matter what obstacles or persecutions they may face.
If you are feeling discouraged, take heart. Don’t grow weary of fighting the good fight. Remember what St. John said: “You are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). 

Test your Catholic theological knowledge quotient — or TKQ — with this 15-question test

from osv.com

Last fall, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put out a U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey in which atheists did better than Christians in answering some basic questions about such matters as, “Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the exodus from Egypt?” (In case you were wondering, the correct answer was “Charlton Heston.” And if you believe that, odds are you are Christian and not an atheist — at least according to the Pew poll.)

The reason atheists did better is that, being at war with all mankind about the thing that matters to it most, they oppose all theists and are wary of the whole broad spectrum of religious belief (though with a particular focus on Christ, to be sure). Christians, in contrast, can hold up their end when talking about Christianity, but have never boned up on Jewish, Mormon, Islamic or Hindu teachings since, well, they’re Christian.

Anyway, not to be outdone by our atheist crosstown rivals, I thought it would be a good thing to offer our own quiz and see if we can’t increase our batting average with a second try. However, since OSV’s readers are largely Catholic, I thought we should focus on our knowledge of the Catholic faith and not spend time on Mormonism, Shinto, ancestor worship, Zoroastrianism, or the Seventh Seed in the Spirit Peculiar Baptists. After all, it’s best to have one’s own house in order before minding others’.

Accordingly, give this quiz a shot and see what your Catholic theological knowledge quotient (TKQ) is! A link to all the answers is at the end of the questions.

Catholic TKQ test

Circle the letter or letters that best fit the question, then click link below to see the correct answers.

1. According to Scripture, the universe was created

A. because God was lonely and needed somebody to talk to.

B. from nothing by the word of God.

C. because God needed a laboratory in which to learn new things.

D. by Stephen Hawking.


Click here to go to the other 14 questions and the answers

The Beauty of Our Catholic Faith

from CatholicMom.com

The more I learn about my Catholic faith, the more I love it. It’s so simple really; we complicate it. It’s so meaningful really; we misinterpret it. It’s so rich really; we snub it. It’s so beautiful really; we ignore it.

At the hairdresser’s this morning three of us carried on a conversation about what has happened in the Church’s past and what is going on in the Church’s present and what we see as the Church’s future. None of us are theologians or have master degrees in religion. Two of us teach CCD. The third was an elderly woman in her eighties who has seen and knows far more than either my hairdresser or I.

But we all agreed with the obvious; there is a lost generation of Catholics out there. They are our neighbors, our friends, our family; they are the parents of today. Following in their stead, is the next generation. We are all called to the table yet so many fail to accept the invitation.

I am often oblivious to the obvious and I was a self-professed Catholic teenager at one time which allows me some compassion for the students who come down the corridors of our CCD building. That’s where my relationship with my own children (of staggering ages) comes in. I give a measure of clearance to all the questioning teenagers who come through our religious ed program because I know their questions. And I know there is not always an answer. But years have passed and my life is very different today then it was when I was a Catholic teenager. I am now a Catholic wife and mother. I now see how rich and beautiful the Catholic faith is and it stuns me that other parents are blinded to the obvious. There is so much to learn, to unwrap, to embrace. I am the blind-leading–the-blind.

I’m thinking though, shouldn’t we try to revive our Catholic faith? Our Catholic identity? Shouldn’t we be passionate about defining our religion and keeping our eyes open wide for all the beauty and possibilities therein? By definition the term “religion” means a lifestyle of faith. Most of us define our religion by the faith lifestyle our family raised us in or by what the current culture is following, but a lifestyle of faith should go deeper than that. A lifestyle of faith defines who we are in heart, mind, and soul.

So how did we end up with a lost generation of Catholics?

I think it’s safe (though cautious) to say that after Vatican II most parents stopped living the Catholic lifestyle. It was considered dowdy and old-fashion. We were liberated. We were “in the know.” Out with the old, in with the new, became an understood mantra. We left our traditions camped outside our lives and shunned anything that chanted Catholic. We were no longer sure what or who we were supposed to look like, act like, and be like as Catholics. We closed our doors on past notions, lifelines that had withstood the lashes of change through so many years. It is only natural that the only connection we made with the Catholic lifestyle was that of sitting in church for an hour on Sunday making chapels of our fingers and palms. We didn’t understand why we were there or what we were doing there. If that wasn’t enough, we were subjected to another hour of CCD classes. Not all classes were dull and monotonous but most of us had our share of watered-down Catholicism.

Though Vatican II opened many closed doors to the Catholic laity and actually invited us into a fuller communion with the Mass, lots got thrown out the back door that shouldn’t have been thrown out. Gone was the mystery, the traditions, the age-old devotions which formed the connections—like rosary beads—between generations. Religion became something to do only in church on Sunday and something to share only in CCD on Wednesday nights.

We need to look back at those devotions and traditions, upon which the Catholic faith tucks and hems its teachings inside of. Catholic author Leisa Anslinger recently told several religious education directors, “Tradition is the passing on of sacred truth.” It is also the passing on of the sacred trust. Tradition, truth, and trust are what define a Catholic lifestyle. Without traditions we lose that personal connection with our faith. We lose our relationships with those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. We lose our identity and become yet another lost generation.

Don’t we want our children to know what a Catholic lifestyle truly looks like? If we don’t keep it alive and burning within our homes, it will surely pass away and become the stuff of legend.

With this in mind, let’s look at the traditions and devotions that make our Catholic faith so fragrant and meaningful if only we reach out and embrace them, beginning inside our homes, our domestic churches. As Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof tells his audicence, “Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years.” The best way to go back to finding this balance is to start with the Church’s liturgical year which conveniently begins anew on November 28th, the First Sunday of Advent.

h/t Cay Gibson