Catholic Evangelization is Expensive and hard to get!

[Gabbanelli911]

Why is it that Catholic evangelization is so expensive and sometimes hard to get???!!! I live in a small town with only one Catholic Church. I know that attending mass on Sundays is not about just listening to a good homily, but come on, sometimes that’s the only place where one can get a real explanation about certain Bible passages!

This Sunday, our priest did not give Sunday Mass because of illness, so our Diocese sent a priest who did not speak Spanish (I live in a town where everyone speaks only Spanish), so he read what he could (poor guy), but what was worse, was that he couldn’t speak English either!!! He is from Nigeria. I get discouraged with this, how am I to pay attention when I can’t even understand anything. Our priest is no better, lately he’s been very unmotivated, due to some members in our church who have been trying to get him in trouble with the Diocese, so instead of giving a good sermon and explaining the message of that Sunday’s readings, he tells jokes and makes fun of those people who have been trying to get him in trouble. I go to mass and try to pay as much attention as I can but I come out empty.

I started attending a beautiful Bible Study in a town about 25 miles away from my church but, as if on purpose, my work schedule changed and had to work evenings, so I had to stop attending those classes. The deacon who is in charge of the class has a website where he posts what he taught during the week, but guess what, it is password protected. The reason? So that people who don’t attend don’t get the message of that week’s class. Does that make any sense??? I listen to a very good bible commentary, www.franciscansisters.net, but other than that, I have to look and think outside the box. The Navarre Bible commentary that I have was like a $400 investment (about $40 to $45 per book x 10 books). I’m not complaining about the money, but what if I don’t have it. Jeff Cavins has a very nice Bible study called “The Great Adventure” but that is worth more than $300. Why is it that all these theologians charge so much to teach us???

I know that they have put in so much effort, but then I see other denominations and they have all kinds of resources available and free of charge. In my line of work, I see people all day and inspect their vehicles. I see all kinds of nice literature and they always offer to give me anything I want. Sometimes I’m tempted to grab it so that I can read it and go to their meetings to learn more, but I want to stay in my faith, or what little faith I have.

Sorry, just felt like venting. I feel very frustrated. Then at work, I have a protestant peer who keeps talking to me about salvation without works!!! I wish it could all be that easy!!!

 

[Curundu]

Greetings Gabbanelli911,

Your desire to learn and grow your faith is a good thing. As you have already said, life is not easy for your priest. Please pray for him. Your prayers could sow the seeds of good homilies which you desire. Have you considered approaching your priest for spiritual direction? Perhaps with a one-on-one setting you will get more of what you desire.

Another avenue for learning the faith that can be fun is helping out with your church’s RCIA program which helps train people who want to join the church. Perhaps you would get a chance to learn more yourself as well.

Saludos!
Curundu

 

[John_Martin]

I find that I have to look online for much of what I need, basically because I want to go deeper than what is available at my parish, at least currently.
I go here a lot to read classic Catholic writings ( ccel.org/index/author/A ). There is also NewAdvent.org ( newadvent.org/fathers/ The selection at upper right of screen for type of reading) . Also, the Vatican website has more than you would believe. w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

It is strange that the deacon is password protecting the site. I want people, as many as possible, to see the things I write because the Faith is so good, so delightful.

As for the cost of the books, I paid $160 for my copy of the Summa Theologica of Aquinas (which you can read online for free at ccel or newAdvent, but it is worth every penny and worth more. Jeff Cavin’s Great Adventure bible timeline is where I found I wanted to be Catholic. It is meant to be a group study, with cost being about $35 per person for their student books when I took it, and a shared cost of the video and teacher materials (though our parish paid for that part).

 

[Joe_5859]

If it helps, I got an email just this morning where Ascension Press (publisher of the Great Adventure series among many others) announced a new pricing scheme with significantly lower prices.

It is a balancing act. Creating materials is not free. The cost has to be underwritten somehow. If we insisted only on free resources, we would, ultimately, get what we pay for.

I agree with you that everyone should have access to high quality materials on the Catholic faith regardless of ability to pay. Personally, I think what is necessary is a fundamental paradigm shift in the general Catholic view of stewardship. If every Catholic gave even 3 or 4% of their income (as opposed to the 1% or so right now), then this would be possible. But paradigm shifts are easy to say and hard to do. Truly, the Catholic teaching is already there. It’s simply that most Catholics haven’t bought into it.

In all honesty, these study programs are really geared more towards parish use rather than individual use. Not that people cannot use them on their own to great benefit (they can). But part of the cost includes the license to play these things in Church venues. Individual DVDs cost far less, but they are for home use only. If you want to play them in a public setting, you’d have to pay for the license to do so. And that would generally put them in the same ball park price-wise as these study sets (and that is comparing one movie to an entire study set).

I always advise people to try to make these into parish offerings. Talk to your pastor. Tell him you want to start a Bible study and all you need from him is to buy the DVDs and let you use some space in the parish to show the videos. Or you might even contact your diocesan office and see if they have a lending library with some of these materials.

All that said, there actually are loads of free Catholic materials on the web. John mentioned some of them. This very website (Catholic Answers) is another one. Though they do have lots of materials they sell, they also have loads of articles and videos that are viewable for free. There really is a lot.

Matthew Kelly is actually giving away his newest program – Decision Point. It’s a Confirmation prep program, but would actually be beneficial for most Catholics apart from that. Matthew Kelly is able to do this because he’s a big name and he can attract lots of money in donations to underwrite the costs. Most Catholic apostolates don’t have that same luxury.

 

[Stephen_says]

this sunday, our priest did not give sunday mass because of illness, so our diocese sent a priest who did not speak spanish (i live in a town where everyone speaks only spanish), so he read what he could (poor guy), but what was worse, was that he couldn’t speak english either!!! He is from nigeria. I get discouraged with this, how am i to pay attention when i can’t even understand anything. Our priest is no better, lately he’s been very unmotivated, due to some members in our church who have been trying to get him in trouble with the diocese, so instead of giving a good sermon and explaining the message of that sunday’s readings, he tells jokes and makes fun of those people who have been trying to get him in trouble. I go to mass and try to pay as much attention as i can but i come out empty.

Pray for vocations!

 

[kerkvliet]

This is a great website where you can learn all about our Catholic faith in video presentations. Our parish uses the program and we can access it with passwords given to us by our church. If your church doesn’t have it, encourage them to get it. Otherwise I think you have to buy the DVDs. But there are sample videos that you can look at.

symboloncatholic.org/

 

[patmiron]

Why is it that Catholic evangelization is so expensive and sometimes hard to get???!!! I live in a small town with only one Catholic Church. I know that attending mass on Sundays is not about just listening to a good homily, but come on, sometimes that’s the only place where one can get a real explanation about certain Bible passages!

This Sunday, our priest did not give Sunday Mass because of illness, so our Diocese sent a priest who did not speak Spanish (I live in a town where everyone speaks only Spanish), so he read what he could (poor guy), but what was worse, was that he couldn’t speak English either!!! He is from Nigeria. I get discouraged with this, how am I to pay attention when I can’t even understand anything. Our priest is no better, lately he’s been very unmotivated, due to some members in our church who have been trying to get him in trouble with the Diocese, so instead of giving a good sermon and explaining the message of that Sunday’s readings, he tells jokes and makes fun of those people who have been trying to get him in trouble. I go to mass and try to pay as much attention as I can but I come out empty.

Please my friend, read my private message to you,

God Bless you, and thanks for asking,

Pat Miron

I started attending a beautiful Bible Study in a town about 25 miles away from my church but, as if on purpose, my work schedule changed and had to work evenings, so I had to stop attending those classes. The deacon who is in charge of the class has a website where he posts what he taught during the week, but guess what, it is password protected. The reason? So that people who don’t attend don’t get the message of that week’s class. Does that make any sense??? I listen to a very good bible commentary, www.franciscansisters.net, but other than that, I have to look and think outside the box. The Navarre Bible commentary that I have was like a $400 investment (about $40 to $45 per book x 10 books). I’m not complaining about the money, but what if I don’t have it. Jeff Cavins has a very nice Bible study called “The Great Adventure” but that is worth more than $300. Why is it that all these theologians charge so much to teach us???

I know that they have put in so much effort, but then I see other denominations and they have all kinds of resources available and free of charge. In my line of work, I see people all day and inspect their vehicles. I see all kinds of nice literature and they always offer to give me anything I want. Sometimes I’m tempted to grab it so that I can read it and go to their meetings to learn more, but I want to stay in my faith, or what little faith I have.

Sorry, just felt like venting. I feel very frustrated. Then at work, I have a protestant peer who keeps talking to me about salvation without works!!! I wish it could all be that easy!!!