It’s hard for me to even put into words the spiritual riches wrought for me by Catholicism. I have trouble even contemplating the depths of the treasures I have available to me and which I have only begin to mine. In addition to the vast expanse of knowledge from saints of times past and of Holy Mother Church, there have been some additions to my day-to-day life of which I am so surprised but grateful for.

There is community in Catholicism. Those of us who strive to be devout and true believers naturally attract one another, I believe. Whether you find like souls on Twitter, at Daily Mass or in Eucharistic Adoration, they are there if you keep your eye out. Be open to communicating, listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and get involved where you feel called. You will find them.

Here are just a few of the immense spiritual riches I’ve found in Catholicism that I feel so blessed to know:

Spiritual Bouquets – I’ve recently started working with a group of Catholic communication professionals — after a great gift of grace from our Mother Mary. They introduced the idea of a spiritual bouquet to me. When it’s an important day for someone — say a birthday, anniversary or something for which they need prayers — instead of offering them “physical” gifts, offer them “spiritual” gifts. Recently, this group put together a “spiritual bouquet” for someone’s birthday and each member offered up items like: a novena in their name, daily mass communion, a rosary or a series of rosaries, time spent in Eucharistic Adoration in front of our Lord, etc. Together these constituted the bouquet and were presented to this individual as their gift. Have you ever heard of anything so lovely? I am so touched and pleased at this thought of being able to support someone spiritually. Beautiful!

Prayer Groups – I’ve also found my way into a prayer group for moms with a devotion to Mary. Each day one of the members sends an email with a thought for the day, along with a link to that day’s novena prayer, and encouragement to fast if able, pray a daily rosary, offer up daily communion, etc. — all for the intention of an increase in holiness of all the families in the group. One of the members pointed out that our Mother Mary said in a vision that when praying together, the whole group merits from all the prayers. So if six rosaries are prayed you benefit from all six, not just the one you said. How blessed! If you’d be interested in joining, shoot me an email at lyn AT catholicnewbie.com and I’ll hook you up :)!

Bathing Your Work in Prayer – Another new one to me is to surround your work with prayer — whatever kind of work it may be. It can all be offered up to the Lord or Mother Mary for our gain or another soul’s gain. Ask for prayer from other Catholics when you are undergoing a particularly difficult day, pray for your fellow workers (especially for ones who would never expect it!), say a prayer before beginning work, as well as at lunch and on conclusion of the day. Sending an important email? Pray a Hail Mary and ask Mary to give you the words our Lord would have you say. You won’t believe how much more blessed your day will be and how much more smoothly it will go.

Pray for Someone You Do Not Know – Pick someone you may not personally know (pick their name out of a phone book) or choose a distant member of your family. Pray for them daily. It’s wonderful to know you are helping someone without the pride that comes along with them knowing about it. It feels so good to help other souls!

Total Consecration to Mary – I’m also doing my Total Consecration to Mary (read more here) and there are something like 1500 people going through it with me from across the world. I found this group after learning about it on the radio and am being led by Catholic author, speaker and podcaster Gary Zimak. Rather than stumbling through this alone, it’s wonderful to know so many other people are going through it with me. We may not talk or even know each other, but just the spiritual support of praying for one another is enough to lift me up.

What spiritual riches have you found in Catholicism? Please share!

From the beginning, purgatory was one of the Catholic teachings that I had a hard time getting my head around. I had always been taught – if you believe in Jesus you go to heaven. So this was a new concept. No one wants to think they have to suffer again after death, right?

I’ve talked with one of my priests about it, heard about it in RCIA (Catholic preparation class), read about it and studied it, but today I finally GOT it and I have to thank the wonderful Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J. He addressed the issue for a caller to Catholic Radio Indy this afternoon and all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly came together for me, making it crystal clear.

I’ve been reading a lot about redemptive suffering, or the idea of letting your suffering “work” and have benefit for other souls, and recently blogged about it. Purgatory is entirely tied to this and I had missed it.

So here goes, a Catholic Newbie’s take on purgatory:

When Christ died on the cross for us, he did so to “take away the sins of the world.” But unlike Protestant churches who believe that once you “accept” Christ that your sins are “poof” entirely forgiven and that you go to heaven if you believe and are sorry for your sins, the Catholic church believes that the taking away of those sins might hurt a little and that there’s more work involved to get there.

When we enter heaven we will be in the presence of a “perfect” Father (to whom we are to model in His “perfection”), and therefore we must be perfect. How could we sully the presence of God with our fallen nature, our shameful thoughts, our bad deeds, our angry words — whether committed in the past or present and forgiven or not.

We do go to confession to be “forgiven” of these sins, but that does not entirely remove their effects. If we have gossiped about someone, the damage we did, even though we are sorry, may be unable to be corrected. We may still harbour anger toward someone even if we are sorry and even if we desire not to.

So we must be “purified” to perfection before we go to heaven — either here or in purgatory.

This is where redemptive suffering comes in. Some humans have purified themselves on earth, many of the saints! This involves suffering, just as we would suffer in purgatory. So many great people endure great suffering. Wonder why? Because they are being purified for heaven. Like Saint Therese of Lisieux who made every tiny act of sacrifice a work for God and dear Elisabeth Leseur who deeply suffered physically and who offered it all to God.

Christ suffered GREATLY on the cross. Why should we not suffer along with him to get to the wonderful reward he purchased for us by his death? I for one think it’s worth it!

The good news is, guys, that we GET to go to heaven. Before Christ, we could not get there at all no matter what we did. Now, we can work to get there through some suffering. That means suffering is GOOD. Christ made it good!

I think we can also offer up our suffering to purify other souls — both here and in heaven. We can ask to whom that suffering be applied or we can give it to the immense wisdom of our mother Mary or her son Jesus and let them distribute the good works where they know best.

I’d love some comments or questions on this topic. Please pipe in!

Since I’ve begun my journey toward Catholicism, a stumbling block for me has been feeling distant from Jesus. When I examine where that comes from, I think it has to do with several factors: one, it’s hard for me to believe Jesus, son of God, would want to take time for me. Also, when I read the Bible, I don’t know if it’s just me, but in the Gospel when he speaks he sounds very serious and strict, not terribly warm. Yet, we hear Jesus described as tender and loving and compassionate, which certainly we do see by his acts.

Now, I’m a writer and I know it can be difficult, if not impossible, to properly convey tone of voice and the way something is said without actually hearing it (think of the many emails we’ve all taken the wrong way :)). So I try to look at those words as more just an attempt to capture as correctly as possible what Jesus said rather than convey the emotion along with it. I feel most connected to Jesus when he was a vulnerable baby, a happy child and I’m starting to see this is OK. Jesus was all these things (baby, child, young man, grown man) and they are as much him as the Jesus of later years.

I’m reading The Story of a Soul by St. Therese de Lisieux, who declared herself Therese of the Child Jesus due to a special devotion she felt to Jesus in this part of his life. She often references her connection to the child of Jesus and his unique feelings and desires as a baby and young boy. She has also shown me what a wonderful relationship with Jesus looks like. She is so very devoted to him and full of love, more than you can imagine. She’s started to crack the walls of that love for me by showing it to me so brilliantly and I’m beginning to feel it for myself.

By spending a weekly Holy Hour with the Blessed Sacrament, I hope that too will bring me into closer communion with Jesus. After all, as with any relationship, you have to spend some time together to get to know one another :). I’m also hopeful that once I can receive the Eucharist (less than 40 days away!), that will also bring me into closer communion with our Beloved.

I also find comfort in St. Therese when she talks about many periods of darkness that she experienced throughout her life when she felt separated from the Lord. So if even a saint can experience a distance, there is hope for me yet. I suppose that much like it’s hard to know what “full” feels like unless you’ve been “hungry,” perhaps we must experience separation to know and appreciate full communion.

How has your relationship with Jesus developed?