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What to do When you Disagree with a Catholic Teaching

As a newbie to Catholicism or as someone exploring the faith, you will likely find one or more teachings that you just can’t get your head around — or flat out disagree with. Oftentimes, these are teachings like the saints, Mary, purgatory or contraception. Don’t worry about this; you are not alone! Most of us struggle with multiple teachings as we learn more about the faith.

Here are some suggestions to help you if you find yourself stuck in this situation:

1) Keep searching – Read, read and read some more. Listen to Catholic radio and watch EWTN. Look it up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Find Bible verses about the issue. Ask your RCIA leader or another Catholic well educated in the faith. Keep reading different explanations and really delve deeply into the whys of the teaching, and I promise, you will find one an explanation eventually that makes sense to you. I found that every issue I did not understand I eventually came to terms with. Several issues for me included contraception and purgatory.

Gifts of the Visitation, Ave Maria Press, Denise Bossert2) Write a petition – I just finished reading “Gifts of the Visitation” by Denise Bossert (Ave Maria Press, 2015), a convert to Catholicism, who explores the Visitation (when Mary and Elizabeth meet and John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb) in detail and shares along the way her conversion to the faith. The daughter of a Protestant minister, she felt called to Catholicism after her father’s death, but especially struggled with the Church’s teaching on Mary’s Immaculate Conception. This teaching is that Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb free from original sin.

After many attempts to understand this teaching, her RCIA leader advised her to write a petition to Mary, asking her to show Denise the truth. What a wonderful idea! Here’s what she wrote:

Mary, if you are as the Catholic Church says, and if you love me, please answer this petition. I want someone to communicate with me by your inspiration. Mary, I want the message to come from you to the ears of one who could know no other way. Please choose someone who, for me, would represent the universal Catholic Church. Then I will know I am right where I am supposed to be and that the Church’s teachings are all correct, terra firma, especially the teachings about you. Please answer my petition before the end of the year–I know, that’s just two weeks.

Thinking it unlikely she would receive a response, she was surprised that the day after she wrote the petition, she received a letter from a woman she had written to after seeing her on EWTN’s The Journey Home. The letter, dated Dec. 8 had hand written beside it “The Feast of the Immaculate Conception.” That was her answer.

While God sends me these types of messages and reassurances quite often — now that I’m looking for them! — I too had a WOW moment after praying to my confirmation saint, St. Therese of Lisieux, for a specific intention. Known for sending roses as signs, as soon as I woke up the next morning and stumbled outside to pick up my paper, I opened it to find giant picture of a rose across the whole paper and a story about decorating your home with roses. Thanks St. Therese!

How did you come to terms with a Catholic teaching you were struggling with?

 

When Others Cause you to Suffer…

Divine Mercy - St Faustina

Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, 1934

Have someone in your life who causes you to suffer that you feel no love for, yet you help them anyway? This wonderful passage from the Diary of St. Faustina is for you. Thanks to FlockNote’s free Divine Mercy Daily for sharing this morning:

 

During Holy Mass, I saw Jesus stretched out on the Cross, and He said to me, *My pupil, have great love for those who cause you suffering. Do good to those who hate you. I answered, “O my Master, You see very well that I feel no love for them, and that troubles me.” Jesus answered, It is not always within your power to control your feelings. You will recognize that you have love if, after having experienced annoyance and contradiction, you do not lose your peace, but pray for those who have made you suffer and wish them well (Diary, 1628).

*Note: The bolded portions are Jesus speaking.

Christmas Gift Alert: Book Offers Daily Reflections on the Saints

Lives of the Saints Christmas GiftYikes! Christmas is seven weeks away! I was abruptly reminded that the holidays are on their way as my family and I made our very first Advent Wreath with other families at our parish over the weekend. We have a few weeks until Advent begins, but we all know how fast that time flies this time of year.

I recently came across what I thought would be a great Christmas gift for any Catholic this year. The saints were, and still are, one of the most intriguing aspects of Catholicism for me as I was drawn to the Church. I love how the saints are sinful humans, just like us, who overcame their sinfulness to live a life of holiness. If they did it, we can do it!

To learn more about the saints, I would search for books that delved more deeply in the life of a particular saint that caught my attention at mass, RCIA or in another of my studies. I also made use of the saint of day feature on my favorite free Catholic app Laudate. But that feature and most of the other online resources I found about the saints were fairly academic, full of dates and fairly difficult to relate to. It was a bit like reading a history book ;-).

I could handle that, but I wanted my kids to know the amazing lives led by the saints, as well, so I found a few books geared toward kids at the local Catholic book store. However, those felt pretty stodgy to me too — not something kids could relate to, at least not in the year 2014 :).

Recently, I requested a review copy of Lessons from the Lives of the Saints: Daily Reflections for Growth in Holiness by Father Joseph Esper (Basilica Press, $12.95) to see if perhaps it offered a more relatable perspective for Catholic newbies — and kids. It does!

The book is set up as a series of daily readings and focuses on the saint whose feast day is celebrated on that date. Fr. Esper’s look at the saint is a much more personal and readable description of the lives of these saints and their key virtues. He also offers some helpful information, as appropriate, about the Church’s teachings as they relate to these saints, such as explaining purgatory on All Souls Day.

At the end of each saint description, he offers lessons to learn from these saints — a wonderful thing to share with children. For example, for St. Teresa of Avila, he writes that having a lively personality isn’t an impediment to holiness, and for St. Therese of Lisieux, he offers that we don’t have to do great things to glorify God, but rather can do so through living our daily routine faithfully and lovingly.

These are quick reads that you can complete each morning before beginning your day, at lunch or before you drift off to sleep. Keep these virtues in mind and see if you can imitate that saint’s virtue even if for one day. I highly recommend reading it as a family each evening and discussing what we could do in our own lives to live more like these saints in heaven.

Do you have a favorite saint? Please share and tell us why!

Note: This book was provided to me at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

Another Miracle Moment with St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese of LisieuxSt. Therese of Lisieux, the “little flower,” is my confirmation saint and I am much devoted to her! Through PrayMoreNovenas.com, I’ve been praying a novena to her leading up to her feast day Wednesday, October 1.

It’s said that when praying a novena to St. Therese, you should look for roses as signs. Those were her favorite flower and she is often associated with them. I have very special intentions for this novena, so I was hoping for another such sign. You can read my past signs and experiences with St. Therese here.

Tonight, I dropped my kiddos off at their religious education classes at our parish for the first time this school year and returned to pick them up 45 minutes later. I walked to the end of the hall to wait for my youngest. As I stood there waiting at the very end, I looked up and literally right in front of me was a large St. Therese statue that I have never noticed before. I had no idea our parish had a statue of my saint until she was right on top of me last night! In the statue she is carrying a large bouquet of roses.

I consider that my novena sign that she is praying for me. I highly encourage you to pray to St. Therese! She is a gentle, lovely, powerful saint whose prayers are heard by God and who is much devoted to our Blessed Mother. Remember her on her feast day this Wednesday. Pray for us, St. Therese!