Catholic Doctrine – Santuario de San Antonio Parish

Many of us attend Mass more than once a week, pray the Rosary regularly, and have great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We say many prayers; yet people notice our bad tempers, our sharp tongues, our gloomy or touchy dispositions. What went wrong? Aren’t we supposed to be more holy?

Grace may actually be taking effect on our souls; although we are not aware of it as we appear to have many defects.

It could be that we do not have the right or the best intentions. We pray out of routine that we even forget that God is present while in Mass or in our visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Or we do it for show or out of obligation. Or we pray just to twist God’s arm for what we want, to ask for a litany of requests. The amount of grace that we will receive, therefore, will be little because it will depend on our intentions and dispositions.

It could be that God is giving us abundant graces through these forms of prayers; but we are not cooperating with them because of our pride, sensuality, love of comfort, or laziness. Rather than using the grace to mortify our tongues, we prefer to gossip or to shout at our house helpers. Or we could be in the state of mortal sin; since no matter how many hundreds of rosaries we may say, they do not have value in God’s eyes as we are not in union with Him. This, however, should not discourage us from praying and performing good deeds, because God may decide to pour us with actual graces (those spurts of spiritual energy that can lead us to return to Him through confession).

We have to realize that all prayers and spiritual practice (including reading the Gospels, praying the Angelus, going to confession) are means to help us become saints. They can help us change for the better, in fact, become “perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect” (which is God’s will for us). When we pray, it is important that we always cooperate with His graces by doing good and avoiding evil, by doing His will and not our wills. Thus, “our behavior and our conversation will be such that everyone who sees or hears us can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.” (St. Josemaria Escriva)

(Reference: The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva; “You Can Become a Saint!” By Mary Ann Budnik; “The Faith Explained” by Leo Trese)

WINNING SOULS FOR CHRIST:

How many people (Catholics and non-Catholics) did we bring closer to our faith in 2013? During the past years? During our lifetime? Many of us, Catholics, think that this missionary job belongs to priests and nuns. This, however, is not true.

We have seen and experienced the overly aggressive Protestants trying to win souls to their faith. They have infiltrated Catholic schools and brought thousands of Catholics to their churches. We feel saddened that our daughter does not attend Sunday Mass anymore but enjoys going to some Protestant fellowship, or that a friend threw or burned all the images of Mary and the saints in his home. They may have become better persons; for all religions contain some truth. But we are Catholics. We have been baptized and confirmed. We possess the whole truth of faith: the sacraments, the Scriptures, the Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium . We have the surest means to be saved and to go to heaven; so what is stopping us from spreading our faith?

We may have contributed generously to mission collections, and we may be praying everyday for the missions. These are good and essential acts. Yet they are just a part of our missionary vocation. Some reasons why we are not sharing our faith with others may be due to a mistaken feeling of inferiority. We are afraid that we do not know our religion enough to discuss it with a non-practicing Catholic or a non-Catholic. In this case, we should do something – such as read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” attend catechism classes in order to dispel our ignorance. Our reluctance to share our faith may also stem from human respect. We fear being laughed at or criticized when we mention religion to others.

Two friends from the University of the Philippines were determined to convert one another to their faith. One was a Catholic and one was a Protestant. We would bet that our separated sister won the battle as they have more aggressive tactics to convert people; but with God’s grace, our Catholic sister converted her Protestant friend, who is now actively involved in Catholic apostolic works.

With our ingenuity, we will find many ways to bring non-practicing Catholics or non-Catholics closer to God. We should not be afraid. We will be sharing with them God’s own truth, not our own theory or opinion. We just have to remember that God will be more interested than us in the conversion. And at every step of the way, He will bombard them with abundant graces to bring them closer to Him.

In 2014, let us try our best to win at least one soul for Christ. We can imagine what the kingdom of God will be like if each one of us were to bring just one person closer to God each year.

(Reference: Seventeen Steps to Heaven by Leo Trese)