J
JKirkLVNV
Guest
My mother, lapsed Southern Baptist, asked me a question today in an email. We’d been talking about something and I said something about “the road to Christ’s presence,” ie, the path of faith, the narrow way, etc. She emailed me back: “How do I get on the path to His Presence?” This is what I emailed her back. This was what I viscerally felt and I probably could have put it better. I would like your comments and I ask your prayers for my mother. She has talked before about taking instruction to enter the Church (in the letter, “Bobo” is her mother, my saintly, deceased grandmother). So pray, please.
“On the road”- Mama, you’re the best woman I’ve ever known. I mean that, I loved Bobo, but I’m not sure what Bobo would have done if she’d been handed what you were handed in terms of a cross. More than likely, she would have done as good a job, but I saw it get handed to you and so you’re all I’ve got to go on. So you should never doubt that with Pop, Bobo, and John Paul II, you’re my hero. But one time, when we were talking aobut spiritual matters, you told me that you had gone cold about this stuff. I guess I would tell you to start by opening your heart to the possibility of God’s Love and Compassion and His Mercy (renting the Passion of the Christ might help, I watch it once a year on Holy Thursday. It may sound simplistic, but movies are an art form and the Church has always used art to teach and instruct, but you know that). And I would be careful where I went for church and for teaching about Him. That’s what worries me, when you tell me you’ve gotten involved with Prestonwood Baptist. I’m sure they’re fine people and I don’t believe that only formal Catholics go to Heaven, but the fact of the matter is that there are things that Protestants teach that were not taught by the Savior and the Apostles (“once saved, always saved” is one, “solo fide” or “faith alone” is another. That doesn’t mean that you can earn your way into heaven, because it’s by grace alone, but faith has to mean more than fiduciary trust, more than “I trust Jesus to get me in,” though that is obviously initially apparent or one wouldn’t be a Christian in the first place. Faith has to be operative in order to, well, “operate,” to do what it’s supposed to do, which IS to save us). For 1500 years, the Church essentially believed as had been handed down from the Apostles to the Patristic Fathers. Cardinal Newman (an Anglican who converted to Catholicism at the age of 44 said,“To become steeped in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” ). Read. Read the New Testament, esp. the Gospels. Read the Gospels again and again and let them captivate you. Jesus means to do just that, to woo us. If we put ourselves in a position of openess to allowing Him to do that, He most assuredly will do so. Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and be open to the depth of teaching on His Love and Mercy that appear there. Pray, just pray what’s in your heart, in your words. Tell God that you don’t have it in you to pray as you should, the Holy Spirit will pray in you. Ask the Blessed Mother to pray for you. Ask Bobo to pray for you. All of that is a start, esp. the Gospels and the prayer parts. In fact, just do that. I love you so much, Mama. After all you’ve done for us, after the Calvary of being a single mother with three sons (and everyone has a Calvary, but in my book, that’s a pretty big one), I want you to have an eternity of God’s love lavished on you.
JBK
“On the road”- Mama, you’re the best woman I’ve ever known. I mean that, I loved Bobo, but I’m not sure what Bobo would have done if she’d been handed what you were handed in terms of a cross. More than likely, she would have done as good a job, but I saw it get handed to you and so you’re all I’ve got to go on. So you should never doubt that with Pop, Bobo, and John Paul II, you’re my hero. But one time, when we were talking aobut spiritual matters, you told me that you had gone cold about this stuff. I guess I would tell you to start by opening your heart to the possibility of God’s Love and Compassion and His Mercy (renting the Passion of the Christ might help, I watch it once a year on Holy Thursday. It may sound simplistic, but movies are an art form and the Church has always used art to teach and instruct, but you know that). And I would be careful where I went for church and for teaching about Him. That’s what worries me, when you tell me you’ve gotten involved with Prestonwood Baptist. I’m sure they’re fine people and I don’t believe that only formal Catholics go to Heaven, but the fact of the matter is that there are things that Protestants teach that were not taught by the Savior and the Apostles (“once saved, always saved” is one, “solo fide” or “faith alone” is another. That doesn’t mean that you can earn your way into heaven, because it’s by grace alone, but faith has to mean more than fiduciary trust, more than “I trust Jesus to get me in,” though that is obviously initially apparent or one wouldn’t be a Christian in the first place. Faith has to be operative in order to, well, “operate,” to do what it’s supposed to do, which IS to save us). For 1500 years, the Church essentially believed as had been handed down from the Apostles to the Patristic Fathers. Cardinal Newman (an Anglican who converted to Catholicism at the age of 44 said,“To become steeped in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” ). Read. Read the New Testament, esp. the Gospels. Read the Gospels again and again and let them captivate you. Jesus means to do just that, to woo us. If we put ourselves in a position of openess to allowing Him to do that, He most assuredly will do so. Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and be open to the depth of teaching on His Love and Mercy that appear there. Pray, just pray what’s in your heart, in your words. Tell God that you don’t have it in you to pray as you should, the Holy Spirit will pray in you. Ask the Blessed Mother to pray for you. Ask Bobo to pray for you. All of that is a start, esp. the Gospels and the prayer parts. In fact, just do that. I love you so much, Mama. After all you’ve done for us, after the Calvary of being a single mother with three sons (and everyone has a Calvary, but in my book, that’s a pretty big one), I want you to have an eternity of God’s love lavished on you.
JBK
