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.

2) 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 I stumbled on Catholic radio just after joining the Church, I felt like I had happened upon a gold mine that somehow I’d missed along my RCIA journey. With an ever-continuing thirst for knowledge about the Catholic faith, this was the perfect way to continue to try and satiate it when I was in the car driving kids to school, running errands or heading to a business meeting.

The three programs I have listed below were absolutely critical on my journey in the Catholic faith and have helped to fan the flame and continually inspire a greater love for our Lord and our faith day by day.

All of these shows are on EWTN Catholic Radio. You can visit this link to find a local station in your area or if you’re lucky enough to have Sirius/XM Radio, just turn to channel 130.

Teresa Tomeo with EWTN’s Doug Keck

1) Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo, Weekdays at 9 a.m. ET – This was the first program I happened upon because it runs during school drop off time. Teresa Tomeo is a former news anchor, who disgusted with the media’s one-sided coverage moved into the Catholic world to share her talents. I adore this show and have ended up doing some work for her after I sent her an email! Teresa brings you the day’s news from a Catholic perspective; has on all sorts of interesting guests, many of whom are authors who inspired many of the books and prayer activities I subsequently engaged in; discusses the latest from Pope Francis, Rome and the Vatican; and is like listening to your best girlfriend on the radio. You will laugh with her, cry with her and no doubt grow in your love of your faith. Listen to past shows.

2) Catholic Answers Live, Weekdays 6-8 p.m. ET – This is THE show if you have questions about the Catholic faith. The format of this show allows anyone to call in and ask questions around the day’s topic or sometimes they’ll open it to any topic. Just by listening you will learn SO much and hear other people ask the questions you’re too afraid to ask. I ALMOST got on one time to ask where the notion of Mary being the dispenser of all graces comes from but they ran out of time :). The hosts of this show are down-to-earth, funny and appealing especially to young people. Visit Catholic.com for more about the show, to listen to past shows and for countless other resources.

3) EWTN Open Line, Weekdays 3 p.m. ET – This is similar in format to Catholic Answers, but a little more traditional (ie less funny and quirky as is Catholic Answers). It also allows you to call in during the show to ask your most burning questions about the Catholic faith. You’ll often hear non-Catholics call in to argue or better understand the faith — all great opportunities to increase your knowledge and learn how to answer these types of questions yourself. There are rotating “experts” who answer questions, and while all are great, I especially love Father Mitch Pacwa. He has a unique ability to easily explain the most difficult of topics in a way anyone can understand. He finally helped me understand purgatory after listening to his explanation on Open Line. You can listen to past shows online here.

You can also download all of these to iTunes and listen on your iPod when cleaning, exercising, walking the dog, etc.!

Do you listen to Catholic radio? Have you ever heard any of these shows? Which Catholic radio shows are your favorites?

I hope you’ll tune the dial to Catholic Radio and give it a try! It’s a great way to boost your Catholic faith during a time you’d otherwise be doing nothing but driving. Enjoy!

Did you know there’s quite a lot of amazing Catholic books, tools and more that are waiting for you to order them at either no cost or for a very small shipping fee or donation? These are amazing tools that just might be what you need to light the spark in your faith if it’s started to dim or to make it burn even brighter.

I’ve stumbled across many of these over the last few years and here are some of my absolute favorites. Go order them for yourselves right now!

1) Rediscovering Catholicism – Matthew Kelly and his DynamicCatholic.com organization offer tons of free books and resources on their website. But my favorite is his original book on Catholicism, Rediscovering Catholicism. This is what helped me early on understand Catholicism and its relevance in light of our society today. EVERYONE should read this book. It will bring your faith to life for you! Order here + $5.95 shipping & handling.

2) The Rosary and Divine Chaplet on CD – The easiest way to start praying the rosary is to order this CD and stick it in your car. Pray whenever you have quiet drive time. If you don’t yet know how to pray the rosary, this is the easiest way to learn. They pray it for you and you can either just listen to them or repeat back as you begin to learn the prayers. Order it here for just a $1 donation. Here are more ideas for fitting the rosary into your busy day.

3) Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary materials – Read my blog on Total Consecration (a process I highly recommend) and if you decide you feel called to make this commitment to Mary, order free materials to help you through process from MyConsecration.org. This practice, made popular by St. Louis de Monfort and Pope John Paul II, can be completed in several ways. If you’re interested in the more classic, prayer-filled preparation from St. Louis de Monfort, order those materials free here. If you’re interested in a more modern interpretation and requires less time, order 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley for free.

4) Flame of Love – Similar to St. Faustina’s visions of Jesus and subsequent diary, Flame of Love written by Elizabeth Kindelmann shares messages she says she received between 1961 and 1982 from both Jesus and Marty. They are similar to those of St. Faustina and other approved Marian messages  around the world. Order your free copy of her book. At the National Congress of The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary movement in Budapest, Hungary, June 6, 2009, Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop President of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary and President, Council of Episcopal Conferences in Europe, gave the text his Imprimatur.

5) Mass Journal – Another great free tool offered by DynamicCatholic.com is a mass journal. Bring this notebook with you to mass and write down any messages from God or thoughts that occur to you during mass, so you don’t forget. Order here + $5.95 shipping & handling.

6) The Conversion of Scott Hahn CD – I recently heard a fellow parishoner, who was a lifelong Protestant, mention this CD as key to her understanding and ultimate conversion to Catholicism. Hahn is a wonderful writer who helps explain the Catholic faith in his many books. He is a former Protestant minister turned Catholic convert. Order for just a $1 donation.

7) St. Therese Novena Prayer Card – Many Catholics have a devotion to the “Little Flower,” St. Therese of Lisieux (my confirmation saint, whom I adore). It is said if you pray her novena for a specific intention, she will send you a sign in the form of a rose. I’ve received my rose (read about my signs from St. Therese)! See if you get yours. Simply order this free St. Therese Novena Prayer Card from the Society of the Little Flower. You can also order prayer cards, even ones touched to a relic, for $.55 or less.

8) Prayer Process Cards – This is a wonderful exercise suggested by Matthew Kelly that you strive to complete daily. It encourages you to prayerfully consider your day from what messages God was speaking to you to what you could have done better to thanking God and praying for others. These cards are a simple reminder of the process to keep by your bedside, on your side table, in your prayer area or wherever. They send 20 at a time with $5.95 shipping & handling, so share with your friends!

Having arrived at the ripe old age of 40 :), I’m taking a serious look at my life and how I might make the best of my earthly life in my remaining years. God has led me to several interesting books, all of which encourage you to focus your time on what is most effective and eliminate all the rest.

This is the 80/20 rule, which says that 20% of causes result in 80% of your results. It has been proven time and again and was originally proposed by the economist Vilfredo Pareto. It applies in all areas of your life and effectively says 20% of the things you are doing are causing 80% of your results, so eliminate the other 80% of causes/tasks/customers, etc. This results is huge time savings that you can then put toward accomplishing other goals be it: traveling the world, volunteering, homeschooling your kids, reading more books, praying, spending time in adoration, starting a nonprofit, write on your blog more (me!)…you get the idea.

In the book “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less,” by Richard Koch, he says many people have attempted to explain why this theory holds true. It was once thought that God and everything in the universe was very logical and linear: a+b=c, but this doesn’t jive with why the 80/20 principle works. At the end of the 20th century, scientists proposed “chaos theory.” Things are not so nice and tidy and easily traced to a singular cause in the universe it turns out, but somehow there is still an organizing “force”. He says:

“Yet chaos theory, despite its name, does not say that everything is a hopeless and incomprehensible mess. Rather, there is a self-organizing logic lurking behind the disorder, a predictable nonlinearity–something which economist Paul Krugman has called ‘spooky,’ ‘eerie’ and ‘terrifyingly exact.’ The logic is more difficult to describe than to detect and is not totally dissimilar to the recurrence of a theme in a piece of music. Certain characteristic patterns recur, but with infinite and unpredictable variety.”

I found that to be a fascinating paragraph, because doesn’t that just sum up God, the Almighty Father, perfectly? Of course, he can at once be singularly chaotic but utterly perfect. Everything may seem chaotic in the universe, yet it all works together perfectly just the way it should. The “force” behind it all? Sounds like God to me :).

If you’re interested in the 80/20 Principle and studying how to eliminate the most ineffective parts of your life to free up 80% of your time, here are the books I highly recommend (all should be available at your library if you don’t want to purchase):

• The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
• The One Thing by Gary Keller
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

I am already incorporating these principles into my life and in just one week, the results were amazing. This is life-changing stuff!