Crying Infant

So I was sitting in the chapel waiting for RCIA class to start and it was perfectly peaceful. It was a time of Eucharistic Adoration (Eucharistic Adoration is the worship of Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist. In the many Churches that have this adoration, the Eucharist is displayed in a special holder called a monstrance, and people come to pray and worship Jesus continually throughout the day) So there are about five other people sitting quietly in the chapel.

Then walks in a young father with a child. The child was in a stroller and couldn't have been older than eighteen months. The father kneeled before the monstrance out of reverence and proceeded to the back of the chapel. Then all the sudden I hear the child half crying, half yelling "DADA, DADA, DADA" the yelling definitely broke the peaceful silence. Typically I would've been annoyed but this time was different.The Spirit impressed on me that's what our Heavenly Father wants from us in prayer, to approach him in total dependence as his sons and daughters. How awesome is the grace of God that he can use a crying infant to teach us about His love!

Matthew 18:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 19:14 "Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Tradition

Saint Maria Goretti's, Arlington TX

 I used to think that tradition in a religious sense was a bad thing. The Catholic Church has opened my eyes to see that's not the case. In RCIA class this week we learned how the Church views Holy Scripture and sacred tradition as two sources of truth flowing together to teach the truths of the Christian faith. According to the document, Dei Verbum produced by the Church during the Second Vatican Council regarding Sacred Tradition;

"Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence."

So this sacred tradition is claimed by the Church to have originated with Jesus who passed on the teachings to his disciples who in turned passed it down to their disciples, all the way down to the present day. We have writings that date back 2000 years  from the original apostles and their disciples. In all my time going to Christian private school and attending church I never heard about the early apostolic church fathers, who were some of the first disciples of the apostles. Some of the notable church fathers were Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Irenaeus of Lyon. When I started to read the writings of these godly men I was surprised, more like shocked, to realize that their theology was very very Catholic, much more Catholic than Southern Baptist! These men were taught by the APOSTLES OF JESUS! These men wrote on topics such as baptismal regeneration, the real presence of Christ in Lord's Supper, the sacraments, the primacy of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), and many other doctrines. Check out this timeline!








Check out some of these quotes:

 “They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again.”—St. Ignatius of AntiochLetter to the Smyrnaeans, 7:1, AD 107

 “We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.”—St. Justin MartyrFirst Apology 66, A.D. 151

 “Ignatius… to the church also which holds the presidency in the place of the country of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and, because you hold the presidency in love, named after Christ and named after the Father.”—St. Ignatius of AntiochLetter to the Romans, 1:1, A.D. 110

 “It is possible, then, for every Church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times… But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the Churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition.”—St. IrenaeusAgainst Heresies, 3, 3, 1-2, c. AD 190

I encourage you to read the writings of the early church fathers, you can read some of their works here. The question that confronted me when I started to read the fathers is, what I'm I going to do with this information? Will I accept what the earliest disciples of the Apostles taught in regards to doctrine or will I accept my own interpretation of the scriptures? I'm on a journey pursuing the truth and truth is a person, Jesus Christ. I feel blessed that the Lord has me on this journey after Him.


God Bless,


James

Blessed Weekend

 

It was a great weekend with a lot of football watching and a lot of Mass attending! I attended Mass at Saint Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth on Saturday morning. The Bishop of Fort Worth, Michael Olson presided over the Mass, check out Bishop Olson's bio here. After the Mass, the Archdiocese of Fort Worth invited Dr. Scott Hahn to give two talks on evangelization and the mercy of God. I was grateful for the opportunity to see Dr. Hahn in person; he is the man that the Lord used in my life to make me start really considering the claims of the Catholic Church. Here is another link to a video where Dr. Hahn discusses his journey home to the Catholic Church, check it out here. 

Dr. Hahn gave a great talk on evangelism. Two things that resonated with me from the first talk, is that to successfully evangelize it comes down to friendship and joy. Friendship is the method that Jesus used to evangelize and disciple the apostles, the men who later would turn the whole world upside-down! Jesus befriended these men and lived life with them for three years. It shows the importance of the friendships that the Lord has blessed us with and not to take them for granted. The second takeaway was the importance of showing our joy. It sounds simplistic but if we want our friends, co-workers and family to come to the faith we have to show them we actually enjoy following Christ. I'm praying that the Lord helps me in this area. Please pray for me! 

The second talk was titled the Father of Mercies. Dr. Hahn recalled when his wife gave birth to their firstborn son and how much intense love welled up within him. God spoke to his spirit at that moment and he realized how much more God truly loves him and all of us. Being a disciple of Jesus requires us to die to self, take up our cross and follow him. This is a lifelong journey in learning how to die to ourselves and follow him. The beauty of the Church is that through the sacraments the Lord dispenses his grace to us which helps us on our journey following after Christ.

 

I'm looking forward to another RCIA class on Wednesday, more posts to come!

 

God Bless,

 

James

Inspiration

I attended Mass this morning at Saint Maria Goretti's in Arlington TX. Just a side note you can attend Mass pretty much every day of the week, how awesome is that? There is a cool website and app that lets you enter your zip code and it will show you where you can celebrate Mass that day, check it out  here. When attending Mass you not only hear the Scriptures preached and expounded but you also celebrate the Lords Supper or what Catholics call it, the Eucharist! If you attend Mass every day you will hear almost the entire Bible preached in 3 years! I've found that attending daily mass is a great way to abide with the Lord and focus each day on what matters and that is eternity! If you've never been to a Catholic Mass, I encourage you to check one out sometime!

But getting back to this morning, during the Mass the Priest mentioned that today, September 9th is the day in the Churches calendar that we celebrate the life of Saint Peter Claver. The priest mentioned how much this saint has meant to his faith and how he feels a special connection with this saint. He went on to explain how this priest from Spain travelled to Columbia in the 1600's as a missionary. While in Columbia he was shocked at the cruelty of the slavery that was practiced. The slaves that were brought from Africa were treated so poorly that he was moved with compassion to spend the rest of his life ministering and caring for the needs of the slaves. It is said that he personally baptized over 300,000 slaves in Columbia during his ministry. When a wealthy plantation owner would invite him over they would offer for him to sleep in the main house but he would refuse, stating that he preferred to sleep in the slave quarters with the slaves. You can read more about Saint Peter Claver here. 

Saint Peter Claver had a deep faith and love for Jesus that made him love and treat the slaves as if they were Christ himself. He understood that by loving the least, he was loving Christ. I pray that Jesus would grace me with that kind of faith and love. The Church teaches that I can also ask Saint Peter Claver himself to pray for me to the Lord. It would be like me asking a brother or sister here on earth to pray for me when I have a prayer request, well as Christians we don't believe that death is final, we believe that our spirits live on and that the saints are in heaven in the presence of all mighty God and that they can and do bring our prayers before the Lord. Check out this passage is Revelation chapter 5 verse 8  "the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" For more information on the intercession of saints check out this website. 

 As believers in Christ, we are all one big universal family. This extends to not only believers that are living but also those that have gone to glory. We are all called to pray, love, and care for one another. We are Christ's Mystical Body here on earth! What a blessing it is to be part of this universal family. This family has members from all different denominations, cultures, ethnicities, socioeconomic background, political parties, etc. etc. etc. I'm truly grateful that the Lord has opened my eyes to see the beauty of his church, may we all strive to build it up and care for one another.

God Bless,

James

Thoughts on RCIA

The first session of RCIA went great! There were around 30-40 people in attendance. The people came from all different backgrounds and cultures. There were a handful of couples there as well as many singles. I would say half the class had a protestant background while the other half were cradle Catholics wanting to return to the Church. I was surprised to find out that RCIA is an 8-9 month process of spiritual discipleship and discernment. This is a lot different than the churches I've attended in the past. In the previous churches I was a part of the discipleship process to become a member consisted of a one day class and an interview with a pastor. I really appreciate the length the church goes through to make sure new members thoroughly understand the faith.

The RCIA leader at St. Patrick's is Jason Whitehead. He seems like a passionate lover of Jesus and the Catholic Church. Jason shared a little bit of his testimony with the group and I was surprised to find out we have a lot of similarities in our background. He grew up Southern Baptist and went to a Baptist college and eventually became a Baptist preacher. Through reading the Church Fathers (click the link to read more about the  Church Fathers). He discovered that the earliest disciples of the Apostles were Catholic as Catholic gets in their theology, ecclesiology, and orthopraxy. Reading the Fathers has also helped me in my journey toward the Catholic Church. One of the major topics that all the early Fathers agreed upon and taught was the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist (Click the link to read more about the Eucharist). I was always taught that Jesus' words in John 6 and at the last supper were to be taken symbolically and metaphorically. That started to make me think, if the first disciples of the Apostles writing in the late 100's AD and early 200's AD taught and believed Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist, why don't I believe that? 

Jason closed the night by teaching on the concept of Love and how Agape Love is a verb, not a noun or adjective. That love is the end and goal of the Christian life. That God is Love. He focused a lot on grace as well. He talked about how God is Trinity. That heaven is more than just a get out of hell card, that Heaven is all about the Beatific Vision, which is beholding God face to face. That's what life is all about right? To know Jesus and see him Face to Face one day! I'm looking forward to next week!

God Bless,

James

A Unexpected Journey

Well, where to start... First off I would say I would've never imagined that I would be seriously considering joining the Catholic Church if you would've asked me a couple years ago. My life with God started May 19th, 2007 when I had an incredible encounter with the living God. He overwhelmed me with His love and grace and I've been changed/born again ever since. Since my encounter with God back in 2007, I've visited many different churches, from Presbyterian to Baptist and almost every denomination in-between. One Church I never thought about joining was the Catholic Church.

The Lord started seriously opening my eyes and heart to the Catholic Church about a year and a half ago. While driving to San Antonio to meet my missionary girlfriend at the time, I was looking for a Christian podcast to listen to and I came across a message by a Pastor named Scott Hahn. In his message, he describes his journey into the Catholic Church. He was a well-known Presbyterian pastor and studying for his Ph.D. in theology when the Lord started drawing him into the Catholic Church. While listening to this podcast, I was shocked and surprised... I never heard of a protestant theologian joining the Catholic Church, it sounds funny to say that but I had never heard of such a thing. That podcast made me start thinking about the roots of my Christian faith and I started asking questions about what I believe and WHY I believe it.

There are countless other instances that I can see that the Lord was leading me toward Catholicism. I hope to use this blog to share and chronicle my journey into the Catholic Church. The journey officially starts tonight, when I attend my first RCIA class at Saint Patricks  Cathedral in Fort Worth Texas. RCIA stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. The class is a process developed by the Catholic Church for prospective converts to Catholicism who are above the age of infant baptism. Candidates are gradually introduced to aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices with the ultimate goal of joining the Church.

 I would appreciate your prayers during this time of discernment. I'm seeking the Lords will and asking for his guidance, I'm reminded of the verse in Proverbs, 16:9 "In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps."

Check out the video Scott Hahn's testimony: https://youtu.be/YW-qX6DgcPw


God Bless,


James