Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A Good Resource for Returnees

I was so easily led astray when I left the Catholic Church. There were plenty of people who were quite sure that they knew the Catholic Church and they were sure it was backward, and anti-biblical. Of course I didn't get a great biblical education growing up, so I assumed their statements were true. I admit at that time in my life I did not want to hear both sides of the story.


When I returned to the church after about 25 years away, I began to read the wonderful Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is such a magnificent document! I grew up with the old Baltimore Catechism, but this new Catechism is so comprehensive and speaks very clearly to the many issues which confront the modern Catholic today. Everytime I pick up the catechism I always say, "I wish I had this document years ago!" It is true. I may have had some difficulty in accepting some of the statements in it in my early 20's, but it is such an honest, straight-forward document. I also think that in my maturity, I gained a more intense respect for the Church's bravery to stand up as a beacon in the midst of a dark, immoral world.


Perhaps we can begin to discuss the many themes of our culture today and what our Church has to say about it.


God Bless!
Jim

3 comments:

John said...

My wife and I are reading parts of the Catechism for Advent — ie, the parts directly applicable to the Advent season. We love the book.

Jim said...

I think thate there is such a great richness in Catechism. You just provided me with another way to get the most out of it. I truly hope you and your wife are finding the Advent material to be ablessing on your spiritual journey.


Let me know what kinds of insight you are getting. There is so much t be mined from that book. By the way, I love reading your blog. I am blessed by it!

John said...

My wife and I both come from totally non-Catholic “past lives,” which means even with our later study of the Bible, it was from a Protestant aspect. And, for us, that meant that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not a major topic. When we read and study now, much of the “new” ideas are about Mary. During Advent this was especially true and — for one of the interesting insights we gained — we liked paragraph 506 of the 900-page Catechism stating that “Mary was a virgin because her virginity is the sign of her faith ‘unadulterated by any doubt,’ and of her undivided gift of herself to God’s will.”