Catholic and Confident (eBook)

Simple Steps to Share Your Faith

Henry Libersat (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
112 Seiten
Servant (Verlag)
978-1-63582-476-6 (ISBN)

Catholic and Confident is designed to help Catholics embrace their call to spread the message of salvation to everyone in their lives. Providing references from various popes and the Second Vatican Council, this book shows the need for laypeople to evangelize and affirms their unique place in the world to do so. Real-life examples of Catholics who are living their call combined with practical suggestions make this a valuable resource. Readers will find a new vitality of faith, a greater understanding of God's presence in their lives, and the peace that comes from living and sharing confidently as God calls them to do.

CHAPTER THREE

Knowing

Jesus

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

—John 14:9

How do we respond to the great gift of salvation? How do we grow in holiness and become the kind of Christians whom Jesus wants us to be and the Church needs us to be?

To know the Lord and to follow him faithfully requires effort. To achieve this goal, we commit ourselves to prayer, Scripture, worship, and life in community with our fellow Catholics and religious leaders. Such a commitment involves time, reflection, and formation on our part as individual disciples who are part of the worshiping and ministering Church.

Let’s reflect on prayer, Scripture, worship, and community.

PRAYER

Step back a bit and examine your understanding of prayer. Does your way of praying help you to sense God’s presence? Do formal prayers, such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary, involve your mind, heart, and soul, or are they just so much rote with a lot of distractions? Do you pray spontaneously? Do you have conversations with God?

Formal prayer is good. But when you pray formal prayers, think about what you are saying and reflect on the words and their meaning. St. Augustine said that there is no prayer on earth that cannot be found in the Lord’s Prayer.6 So let’s take a moment to consider it.

Our Father,…

How dare I call you Father—you who are without beginning or end, totally holy, love itself? For I am a mere mortal, weak and sinful. Yes, I dare—because Jesus has taught me to so address you. Even more, he called you Abba, that endearing name we know as Daddy.

You are my Father: You give me life; you hold me in being and call me, in Jesus, to eternal life. Yes, Father! Abba!

who art in heaven,…

Lord, I long to be with you in heaven. My heart and soul yearn for the everlasting glory, peace, and joy of heaven.

But to arrive at this blessed state, I must first die. I am afraid to die. My entire being rebels at the thought of total dissolution. And yet I know I will not ever cease to exist. You created me to live forever. And so I shall.

And while I live on this earth, I live in you—and you are heaven: You are glory and peace and joy. You are love. At this moment and at every moment when I live in you, I already experience heaven.

hallowed be thy name.

When I say “God” or “Lord,” even when I say “Jesus,” I speak a mystery I cannot fathom, of a being I can never fully know or comprehend. Yet, my Lord and God, you call me your child, your disciple. I dare to call you by name because you, in great love and benevolence, have called me into an unimaginable intimacy. So I name you “Lord,” “God,” and “Father” and seek ever more to understand your holiness, majesty, mercy, and justice.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In your will, Lord Father, is all that is good. Living as you want me to live is where your kingdom begins in and for me. If I accept Jesus as my own personal Savior—as the Way, the Truth, and the Life—I begin to get a glimpse of what is at last to come.

Help me, Lord, to make heaven “happen” now in my own life, so others may see your goodness. Help me to live a life so full of grace and obedience to you that I can become a beacon of hope, a sign of peace, and a gift of love to everyone in my life—to help heal this world so torn by hatred, greed, and disbelief.

Give us this day our daily bread,…

Your Word, O God, nourishes my mind and soul and brings light into the darkness of my understanding. Your gift of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist is the most precious of all food. When I receive him, Father, I receive your mercy and forgiveness, your holiness and your call to live a life of faith. You fill me so I may become “food” for others by the witness of my life of faith.

Help me, Most Holy Trinity, to share with others the truth and glory of this Eucharist, this holy nourishment you so generously offer to all who believe and come to it in faith. And, Father, I thank you for all you give me and my loved ones—food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and all other things necessary for our life on earth.

… and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, …

Lord Jesus, you saved us by your death. You chose the cross so we could begin to understand the love that you, the Father, and the Holy Spirit have for us. Your death could have been enough for our redemption, but you spoke those immortal words that both teach us and free us from fear and despair: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus, you gave us a sobering truth. We will be forgiven only if we forgive. How can that be? Could it be that forgiveness is the greatest and irrefutable sign of love? If I refuse to forgive, I do not love as you love, as you commanded me to love: “Love one another as I love you” ( John 15:12).

… and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Surely, Lord, you do not lead us into spiritual danger. But it comes. You permit it. It’s part of the price we pay for original sin, and it’s the battlefield on which our love for you is so often sorely tested. Satan hates you and us—and he is always trying to make us love ourselves and things more than we love you.

Lord, you stand ready to help us choose grace over sin. I know how strong temptations can be. I have sinned over and over again—failed to love my enemies, to help others when I could have, to keep my mind free of inane distractions and even potentially disastrous ones. So, Father, through the precious blood of Jesus, save me. Deliver me from sin because of your love.

Save us all, Lord; save us all!

Amen!

So be it! Amen!

Try this type of reflection with other formal prayers of the Church— the Hail Mary and the Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition. Don’t forget the importance of the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.

TALKING TO GOD

You can also pray spontaneously, in your own words. Have a conversation with God. Talk to him as you would a friend—for he is the best friend you will ever have.

Personal, spontaneous prayer helps you develop honesty with God. It enables you to let off steam as well as praise God. The secret is to be yourself. God knows you, and you cannot shock him. According to one frequently told anecdote, St. Teresa of Avila actually complained to God one day after she fell in the mud: “If this is how you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few.”

God knows all your regrets, hopes, secrets, and sins. And he loves you not in spite of all that but simply because he loves you. His love is like a mother’s love, which never stops no matter how her child disappoints her. As God said through the prophet Isaiah:

Can a mother forget her infant,

be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

I will never forget you.

See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name.

(Isaiah 49:15–16)

Don’t forget to listen in prayer. God speaks to you in those precious moments when you put aside all your druthers and needs, when you stop telling God how to answer your prayers. When you listen calmly and intently to God’s word for you, you will discover that peace that you once thought beyond your reach. You will come to realize just how close God is to you and how intimately he wants to relate to you.

Permit a personal example. In 1959, I was invited to work full-time for the Catholic paper in the diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. I had no experience in journalism. In Texas, when Peg and I were first married, I drove a garbage truck, built fences, and read and repaired water meters. In Louisiana, I worked with the highway department as an engineer’s aide supervising roadway construction.

Now, concerning this new job—with a wife, three children, and another on the way—I had a lot to think about. Just about everyone— uncles, aunts, friends, and even our pastor—discouraged me from taking it. But years before I had made a vow to Our Lady that if our one-year-old son survived a serious illness, I would return to the sacraments and someday, if God wanted, would work for the Church. My son survived, and here I was.

I didn’t really understand the wonder and gift of...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	24.1.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	1-63582-476-1 / 1635824761
ISBN-13	978-1-63582-476-6 / 9781635824766

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