Catholicism: The Solitary Faith

[TrueLight]

I’m hoping everyone can read this without getting defensive.

Everytime I read about so-called Cafeteria or liberal Catholics, someone says it is because of poor catechesis.

What should be done about that?

Sometimes I feel that Catholicism is a very solitary faith. Why do I say that?

You go to mass, you come home.

– It is not standard to have coffee hours and other opportunities for fellowship.
– The homilies are not sermons and are very, very basic so in fact you rarely learn anything you didn’t already know. You have to do a lot of self study.
– How do you learn what you believe? Sure there is a catechism, but what group opportunities are there to go more deeply into the faith and scripture?
How are the people being spiritually fed outside of the mass? Any suggestions?

Everyone is not like the folks on CAF, who visit Catholic forums and read online Vatican documents.

Yes, there is the Church . Where do you learn what the Church believes without reading long, dry text translated from the latin. Why is there not more teaching during homilies?

The other day I was thinking what would happen if one my kids became interested in Catholicism, specifically the one that is close to college age. Would I want her to convert before going to college?

I don’t think so. She would be lost with any support.

 

[pablope]

I’m hoping everyone can read this without getting defensive.

Everytime I read about so-called Cafeteria or liberal Catholics, someone says it is because of poor catechesis.

What should be done about that?

Sometimes I feel that Catholicism is a very solitary faith. Why do I say that?

You go to mass, you come home.

– It is not standard to have coffee hours and other opportunities for fellowship.
– The homilies are not sermons and are very, very basic so in fact you rarely learn anything you didn’t already know. You have to do a lot of self study.
– How do you learn what you believe? Sure there is a catechism, but what group opportunities are there to go more deeply into the faith and scripture?
How are the people being spiritually fed outside of the mass? Any suggestions?

Everyone is not like the folks on CAF, who visit Catholic forums and read online Vatican documents.

Yes, there is the Church . Where do you learn what the Church believes without reading long, dry text translated from the latin. Why is there not more teaching during homilies?

The other day I was thinking what would happen if one my kids became interested in Catholicism, specifically the one that is close to college age. Would I want her to convert before going to college?

I don’t think so. She would be lost with any support.

Check this group out…they should be able to direct you to a new york contact…

It has something for you and your kids…It is a catholic lay group:

cfc–usa.com/v1.2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=55

 

[puzzleannie]

I’m hoping everyone can read this without getting defensive.

Everytime I read about so-called Cafeteria or liberal Catholics, someone says it is because of poor catechesis.

What should be done about that?

if you are not happy about the state of catechesis for children and adults in your parish, get involved. Prepare yourself with knowledge, and spiritually, and volunteer to teach. If you don’t get involved in some way, at least marginally, then you don’t care enough about it to complain.

Sometimes I feel that Catholicism is a very solitary faith. Why do I say that?

You go to mass, you come home.

you are talking about a subjective personal feeling, not everyone limits their faith life to Mass. In my last 3 parishes over 300 of 1000 adults were involved in some ministry or apostolate, the rest were either too old or infirm, or tied down with young children to do more than support by prayer or financially, but even they evangelize through contact with those they meet day to day.

–

It is not standard to have coffee hours and other opportunities for fellowship.

It is almost Catholic folklore to have coffee and donuts, if you want it at your parish, start it.

–

The homilies are not sermons and are very, very basic so in fact you rarely learn anything you didn’t already know. You have to do a lot of self study.

Homilies are not supposed to be sermons, they are supposed to help you relate the readings to your own life. Yes you have to do a lot of self study, that is called being an adult Catholic. Do you not have to work to learn more on your job or other areas of life?

–

How do you learn what you believe? Sure there is a catechism, but what group opportunities are there to go more deeply into the faith and scripture?
How are the people being spiritually fed outside of the mass? Any suggestions?

Every parish and diocese I have ever been in has multiple opportunties. Where have you looked? including on-line. Catholic.net has an excellent on-line catechism course.

E

veryone is not like the folks on CAF, who visit Catholic forums and read online Vatican documents.

Yes, there is the Church . Where do you learn what the Church believes without reading long, dry text translated from the latin. Why is there not more teaching during homilies?

Nothing is stopping your or any other Catholic from reading well-written books by terrific Catholic authors, or going online to find the same. I have not read a church document in Latin in over 40 years. They are all translated into many languages, try the VAtican website.

The other day I was thinking what would happen if one my kids became interested in Catholicism, specifically the one that is close to college age. Would I want her to convert before going to college?

I don’t think so. She would be lost with any support.

if she is converting to Catholicism she will be given a sponsor throughout that process, part of which is integrating her into parish and church life. How active she chooses to be will be up to her.

you can make all the excuses you want but if you want to learn, you will learn–starting here at CA, check out the homepage. If not, not. If you want to do active ministry or apostolate, you will search out those opportunities in your parish or diocese. If not, not. If you want to grow closer with Christ through prayer, fasting and works of mercy, you will. If not, not.

 

[TrueLight]

Check this group out…they should be able to direct you to a new york contact…

It has something for you and your kids…It is a catholic lay group:

cfc–usa.com/v1.2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=55

This looks great Thanks. I am particularly interested in the camps.

Is this a Catholic organization?

 

[TrueLight]

if you are not happy about the state of catechesis for children and adults in your parish, get involved. Prepare yourself with knowledge, and spiritually, and volunteer to teach. If you don’t get involved in some way, at least marginally, then you don’t care enough about it to complain.

you are talking about a subjective personal feeling, not everyone limits their faith life to Mass. In my last 3 parishes over 300 of 1000 adults were involved in some ministry or apostolate, the rest were either too old or infirm, or tied down with young children to do more than support by prayer or financially, but even they evangelize through contact with those they meet day to day.

Maybe so. When I complained to a friend of mine about the lack of fellowship and doesn’t she feel strange not interacting really outside the mass? She said Catholics are not like protestants and the mass is everything. That’s all she needs.

– Homilies are not supposed to be sermons, they are supposed to help you relate the readings to your own life. Yes you have to do a lot of self study, that is called being an adult Catholic. Do you not have to work to learn more on your job or other areas of life?

Okay, homilies are not supposed to be Sermons. When does one get the sermon equivalent? The homilies I have heard have basically been summaries of the readings.

– Every parish and diocese I have ever been in has multiple opportunties. Where have you looked? including on-line.

Church bulletins?

you can make all the excuses you want but if you want to learn, you will learn–starting here at CA, check out the homepage. If not, not. If you want to do active ministry or apostolate, you will search out those opportunities in your parish or diocese. If not, not. If you want to grow closer with Christ through prayer, fasting and works of mercy, you will. If not, not.

I’m speaking in general about what I have seen. I am an internet freak and a knowledge addict and I have no problem reading by browsing different sites.

However, there is a problem whether one wants to admit it. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people who don’t understand their faith.

 

[pablope]

This looks great Thanks. I am particularly interested in the camps.

Is this a Catholic organization?

Yes, but will consider others of different religions. I have been to one of the youth camps, just observing. I was amazed at the faith of the youth, it was led and handled by the youth leaders, with some parental guidance.

 

[TrueLight]

Yes, but will consider others of different religions. I have been to one of the youth camps, just observing. I was amazed at the faith of the youth, it was led and handled by the youth leaders, with some parental guidance.

Great! I’m definitely going to see if they have programs/chapters in NYC

 

[baltobetsy]

The headquarters of Opus Dei in the United States is in New York City. There should be a large number of formation activities available to you. Check out the website and click on the contact link at the very top of the page to send an email. If you ask, you will receive information about the center nearest you and the activities available for men, women and youth. The formation you receive will be of the absolute highest quality and faithfulness to the magisterium. In addition, you can receive spiritual guidance and attend retreats, days of recollection, etc., to help you come closer to God.

 

[TrueLight]

The headquarters of Opus Dei in the United States is in New York City. There should be a large number of formation activities available to you. Check out the website and click on the contact link at the very top of the page to send an email. If you ask, you will receive information about the center nearest you and the activities available for men, women and youth. The formation you receive will be of the absolute highest quality and faithfulness to the magisterium. In addition, you can receive spiritual guidance and attend retreats, days of recollection, etc., to help you come closer to God.

Awesome! Thanks.

 

[baltobetsy]

Awesome! Thanks.

You’re welcome. If you contact them and still have questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[WantingUnity]

Depending on where you are, there are also some Catholic groups on campuses including FOCUS. If your child were to convert, that would be a great place to be encouraged by other faithful Catholic youth in college.

At my parish there are opportunities to be involved in the Bible in 90 days and Catholic Biblical School. Both are time commitments that were just too much for me this year with many other things going on in my life including RCIA, but I hope within the next year or two to try one or the other. Also, I will try to get involved in service opportunities very quickly now that RCIA is over and I will be confirmed in the Church tomorrow. I want to build more relationships in the church to really feel connected as well as doing my part to share in our Lord’s mission.

 

[TrueLight]

Depending on where you are, there are also some Catholic groups on campuses including FOCUS. If your child were to convert, that would be a great place to be encouraged by other faithful Catholic youth in college.

At my parish there are opportunities to be involved in the Bible in 90 days and Catholic Biblical School. Both are time commitments that were just too much for me this year with many other things going on in my life including RCIA, but I hope within the next year or two to try one or the other. Also, I will try to get involved in service opportunities very quickly now that RCIA is over and I will be confirmed in the Church tomorrow. I want to build more relationships in the church to really feel connected as well as doing my part to share in our Lord’s mission.

Congratulations on your upcoming confirmation!

 

[valentino]

There are some very good audio tapes one can get at the library which can deepen your knowledge of Catholism.You can do you’re work at home and put on a tape.

 

[Like]

Depending on where you are, there are also some Catholic groups on campuses including FOCUS. If your child were to convert, that would be a great place to be encouraged by other faithful Catholic youth in college.

At my parish there are opportunities to be involved in the Bible in 90 days and Catholic Biblical School. Both are time commitments that were just too much for me this year with many other things going on in my life including RCIA, but I hope within the next year or two to try one or the other. Also, I will try to get involved in service opportunities very quickly now that RCIA is over and** I will be confirmed in the Church tomorrow.** I want to build more relationships in the church to really feel connected as well as doing my part to share in our Lord’s mission.

Congratulations! Welcome home!

 

[hxcCatholic413]

I’m hoping everyone can read this without getting defensive.

Everytime I read about so-called Cafeteria or liberal Catholics, someone says it is because of poor catechesis.

What should be done about that?

Sometimes I feel that Catholicism is a very solitary faith. Why do I say that?

**There’s really no such thing as the above^^ you mentioned. People that refer to those terms are misguided and don’t realize there are multiple ways to finding God and his love w/o being as “hardcore” as them.
**
You go to mass, you come home.

– It is not standard to have coffee hours and other opportunities for fellowship.
– The homilies are not sermons and are very, very basic so in fact you rarely learn anything you didn’t already know. You have to do a lot of self study.
– How do you learn what you believe? Sure there is a catechism, but what group opportunities are there to go more deeply into the faith and scripture?
How are the people being spiritually fed outside of the mass? Any suggestions?

Find a good parish the above^^ can be addressed depending on how active your parish is

Everyone is not like the folks on CAF, who visit Catholic forums and read online Vatican documents.

Yes, there is the Church . Where do you learn what the Church believes without reading long, dry text translated from the latin. Why is there not more teaching during homilies?

perhaps attend a Bible Study, but it all depends on the gifts of the priest

The other day I was thinking what would happen if one my kids became interested in Catholicism, specifically the one that is close to college age. Would I want her to convert before going to college?

I don’t think so. She would be lost with any support.

As St. Francis said “preach the Gospel by your actions and if you have to use words” Hope this helps! God Bless!

 

[TrueLight]

if you are not happy about the state of catechesis for children and adults in your parish, get involved. Prepare yourself with knowledge, and spiritually, and volunteer to teach. If you don’t get involved in some way, at least marginally, then you don’t care enough about it to complain.

I meant to respond to this.

You better believe that not only am I going to prepare myself to teach, I’m going to make it a point to set up, if the parish allows, a hospitality ministry where people are made to feel welcome and where there are opportunities to meet people afterward.

Having been in Protestant denominations, the difference in community in the parishes versus the Protestant churches is glaring. I am convinced that is one reason why so many are marginally Catholic.

Even though I appreciate all the links and I am going to check them out, one should also have the same type of support in the parish.

There is aTLM I attend at a parish that is described as a commuter parish. Everyone attends then goes home. Today, I’m going to try a new parish which I have heard has more of a sense of community. A friend of mine attended the TLM Easter vigil there and she recommended it to me. They went out to eat after the vigil. Awesome!

 

[laszlo]

The intellect, learning, knowledge is just a part of our personality, and in any way our faith is above our intellect, we cannot comprehend the mysteries.

When we die, Jesus Christ will not ask us, how much did we understood from the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation the Church. He knows, that our understanding in imperfect, flawed any way.

Neither is being Catholic the membership of a strong cohesive Christin community. ‘I believe’, not ‘We belive’. God created as primarily as individuals, and we shall find Him and serve Him as individuals, everyone in hus/her own position and way. The Judaism was primarily a community religion, we Christians are individuals and belong to a community only secondarily through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ.

Naturaly this does not mean that the understanding and the community are not important, but those are not the only important things. Christ expects whole life.

 

[Cat]

Truelight, I feel where you’re at. I am also a convert from Protestantism.

I’m fortunate that in our parish and in our diocese, there are plenty of opportunities for Catholics of all ages to become catechized.

This is happening because the bishop encourage the laypeople to step up and do the work. There is a Ministry Formation program in our diocese that trains laypeople to do ministry. It’s a two-year course, and there are continuing ed courses that they take. From what I understand, it’s quite rigorous.

I actually think this approach is so much better than what I experienced in evangelical Protestantism. In these churches and denominations, a teacher taught because he or she had an outgoing, assertive personality, and therefore ascended to the position of “teacher” rather quickly.

The problem was that many of these “teachers” actually were very poorly grounded in their faith, or very poorly educated. They were great teachers, but they really didn’t teach much. This is especially true in recent decades.

I’ve met so many Protestants in recent years who have an extremely limited knowledge of theology. They have expertise on a few parts of the Bible, and often have entire books of the Bible memorized and can spit out verses quicker than most of us think.

But they really have no clue about basic theology. It’s kind of frightening.

As a result, many of the teaching opportunities that are available in Protestant churches and para-church organizations are about “life.” E.g., almost every Protestant church has a Sunday school class about “Building Good Marriages” or “Building Good Families.”

Now this is important stuff! But so much of what is taught in these classes is fluff–fun to know and fun to talk about. I think these types of classes would be great community-builders in Catholic parishes and I wish that they would be offered. I think a lot of Catholics looking for these types of classes attend the Protestant Bible studies and home cell groups so that they can learn this stuff, and that’s too bad.

But in the Protestant churches, there don’t seem to be a lot of classes about “The Theology of Salvation–How Exactly Are We Saved.” or “Sanctification–How We Become More Like Christ.”

Yes, there are plenty of Protestant Bible studies, but these days many of them are led by a facilitator, and there is no actual teaching, just discussion. Everyone’s opinion about a passage is allowed, and there is no “right answer.”

This kind of stuff is dangerous. It leads to heretical teachings and opinions.

Anyway, I agree with others that if we want more classes and teaching times, we need to step up. But don’t be surprised if you discover that in your diocese, you might not be allowed to just “start a class” without going through some extensive formation classes first. I think that’s great because it grounds you well in your faith and stops someone from becoming a teacher simply because they have an engaging salesperson’s personality and they’re good at public presentations.

 

[TrueLight]

The intellect, learning, knowledge is just a part of our personality, and in any way our faith is above our intellect, we cannot comprehend the mysteries.

When we die, Jesus Christ will not ask us, how much did we understood from the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation the Church. He knows, that our understanding in imperfect, flawed any way.

Neither is being Catholic the membership of a strong cohesive Christin community. ‘I believe’, not ‘We belive’. God created as primarily as individuals, and we shall find Him and serve Him as individuals, everyone in hus/her own position and way. The Judaism was primarily a community religion, we Christians are individuals and belong to a community only secondarily through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ.

Naturaly this does not mean that the understanding and the community are not important, but those are not the only important things. Christ expects whole life.

But being Christian is also part of being a community. From the beginning, the Christians went out to preach but also came together again to break bread.

And in heaven, we are not going to be living in little hermit shacks. We are going to be worshipping God together.

 

[TrueLight]

Anyway, I agree with others that if we want more classes and teaching times, we need to step up. But don’t be surprised if you discover that in your diocese, you might not be allowed to just “start a class” without going through some extensive formation classes first. I think that’s great because it grounds you well in your faith and stops someone from becoming a teacher simply because they have an engaging salesperson’s personality and they’re good at public presentations.

Gotcha. I certainly would not want to lead anyone astray.

And to be honest, I more rather one-on-one than leading a class. However, if God calls me to that and there is a need, I’ll be there.