Where to start?

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Mist

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Hello,

I am new to this forum and new to God. I am curious as to where to start in being a Catholic.
Books and listening material. Anything really. Pardon my short post.

Thank you very much for your help.
 
Welcome Home!!! Deo Gratias!

First step, if you are “new to God” is to make sure you get “right” with the local Church.

Are you baptized, confirmed, etc.?

If not, here is what you do…

Find a good local Catholic Church, introduce yourself to the priest, and ask him about coming into the faith. Don’t just go to any Church. Make sure the priest is reverent and teaches what Rome teaches.

Second, learn your faith.

Best places to start:
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Reasons to Believe” by Dr. Scott Hahn

Of course, get a good Bible and start reading!

I recommend for those new to the faith the New Catholic Answer Bible. The inserts are AWESOME and will explain key issues.

Also, and this may seem like its out of left-field, I recommend “Lit” by Mary Karr.

These are good places to start.

After this I would read great Catholic authors.

I recommend:

G.K. Chesterton
Hilaire Belloc
Flannery O’Connor

There are lifetimes of reading to do. Read the FAITHFULLY Catholic authors.

And welcome home!
 
Why thank you for the reply. I am baptized. That is it however.
I recently found God from listening to my friend speak about him and the history of Christianity. I am sorry if I am a little foggy on an details.

Thanks again for the response.
 
Mist said:
Hello,

I am new to this forum and new to God. I am curious as to where to start in being a Catholic.
Books and listening material. Anything really. Pardon my short post.

Thank you very much for your help.
Click to expand...
Welcome Home :clapping:

You have begun a long and joyous journey.
Cathguy has given you good advise.
I will just add - Pray. This is perhaps the most critical part as you begin your journey.
Pray for guidance, and Pray for patience - Patience because there is a lot to learn about as you come into the Church.
Go to mass regularly even though you cannot receive communion yet.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Peace
James
 
Hi, I actually had these same questions about a two weeks ago and can tell you what did and is currently working for me.

What really benefited me was calling the local Catholic church and speaking to someone about the main issues I had on my mind and finding out information about when services were (and what they were) and what I could do to get involved. I personally found calling first was great because I was hesitant not knowing what to expect from a service. A 30 min phone call took a lot of false suspicions off my mind about how scary Mass would be. I went to my 2nd Mass today and now feel silly over all the doubts I initially had.

Second thing that got me started… after the service, I walked up to a random person at the door, explained I wanted to just learn more and how to start. He set me up with a sponsor within the hour who will be my contact point as I gather information. Everyone was very direct that they wouldn’t try to force me and was I welcome to take as long as I wanted to learn about the faith and didn’t have to make any commitment right then. Even though I don’t like programs with “sponsors” or “mentors” usually, this has really worked out so far. I like the fact that there is no pressure and feel more comfortable exploring the faith than I ever thought I would be. Its very refreshing… the first religious people that have ever encouraged me to ask questions.

Third, I found a lot of reading specific to people converting to Catholicism. My current favorite blogger is at www.conversiondiary.com and details a woman who converted from Atheism to Catholicism back in 2007 and has kept her posts through the process. I find this helpful, because 90% of the questions I have, she did to… and she details where she went to get answers and what they are. I find the conversion first-hand experiences the most useful to me because they usually ask the questions that seem (at this stage) to be the most relevant.

I’m two weeks in and would tell anyone just starting to explore this faith to keep going. I’m sure there are more experienced people that can tell you its worth it, but from the perspective of someone living through the exploration stage right now too (I don’t have hindsight vision), its already brought me immense hope.
 
Chris1112 said:
Hi, I actually had these same questions about a two weeks ago and can tell you what did and is currently working for me.

What really benefited me was calling the local Catholic church and speaking to someone about the main issues I had on my mind and finding out information about when services were (and what they were) and what I could do to get involved. I personally found calling first was great because I was hesitant not knowing what to expect from a service. A 30 min phone call took a lot of false suspicions off my mind about how scary Mass would be. I went to my 2nd Mass today and now feel silly over all the doubts I initially had.

Second thing that got me started… after the service, I walked up to a random person at the door, explained I wanted to just learn more and how to start. He set me up with a sponsor within the hour who will be my contact point as I gather information. Everyone was very direct that they wouldn’t try to force me and was I welcome to take as long as I wanted to learn about the faith and didn’t have to make any commitment right then. Even though I don’t like programs with “sponsors” or “mentors” usually, this has really worked out so far. I like the fact that there is no pressure and feel more comfortable exploring the faith than I ever thought I would be. Its very refreshing… the first religious people that have ever encouraged me to ask questions.

Third, I found a lot of reading specific to people converting to Catholicism. My current favorite blogger is at www.conversiondiary.com and details a woman who converted from Atheism to Catholicism back in 2007 and has kept her posts through the process. I find this helpful, because 90% of the questions I have, she did to… and she details where she went to get answers and what they are. I find the conversion first-hand experiences the most useful to me because they usually ask the questions that seem (at this stage) to be the most relevant.

I’m two weeks in and would tell anyone just starting to explore this faith to keep going. I’m sure there are more experienced people that can tell you its worth it, but from the perspective of someone living through the exploration stage right now too (I don’t have hindsight vision), its already brought me immense hope.
Click to expand...
Well - You may not generally care for programs with “sponsors” but I don’t think we could ask for a better “sponsor” for Mist.

Welcome to the journey.

Peace
James
 
When I went through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the late 1990’s, one thing that was a big help to me was listening to EWTN on shortwave radio (the radio call sign was WEWN).

They have quit broadcasting to North America on shortwave radio, but you can listen to their programs over the internet. Their main page is here: ewtn.com.

Of all of the programs I listened to on EWTN, the one that is run by the owners of this website, Catholic Answers, was the most helpful. The program is called “Catholic Answers Live.” The program runs for an hour, and they usually discuss a topic with an expert for the first 30 minutes, and then take questions from listeners for the last 30 minutes.

Another help to me was a book publishing company called TAN Books (tanbooks.com/).

They specialize in reprinting books that were published before the Second Vatican Council, and their books are inexpensive. I recommend that you start with their booklets, and that you read some of the saints’ stories offered in this collection. If you click the link above, the link for the booklets is on the left side of the page. Those that are priced $1.50 to $3.00 are paperbacks that generally are 4" x 6" in size, and have stapled spines.

I do not recommend getting a missal (sometimes called a “missalette”) at the moment because a new translation of the missal for use in English-speaking countries is coming out. According to my most recent diocesan newspaper, which arrived on February 19th, they hope to start using the new missal at the beginning of Advent 2011 (which would be the first Sunday of Advent in this calendar year, 2010).

I do, however, recommend that you get a missal at some point, and that you get one that has the weekday readings as well as the Sunday readings because it gives you a way of reading through Scripture according to the seasons of the Church (Advent, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time).

A good all-in-one missal for use in the United States is published by Our Sunday Visitor. It is called the Daily Roman Missal, and it has introductory/explanatory sections taken from the Catechism as well as the 3-year cycle of readings for Sundays, and the 2-year cycle of readings for weekdays. It might seem expensive ($80 the last time I looked), but if you bought the full set in a version such as the St. Joseph version, you would end up paying about the same amount of money, and you would not have the convenience of having everything in one, relatively small book (about 5" x 7"). (I think the header on your post said you are in Canada, but that information isn’t available on this reply page. If you are in Canada, please ask your parish priest about where you could find the Canadian Church’s edition of the English missal.)

I hope I have been able to help you, and welcome to the Church! She is a treasure chest, and you will have a lot of fun exploring all that She has to offer!

Michelle
 
May I ask any specific titles (Apologetics and Theology of course) that I should read, a list if you will. Readings that any good Christian and Catholic would and should read?

Also for the Bible, what is a decent copy to read. Is there any one in particular or is this a issue much debated amongst us?

Thank you again for your time and help.
 
Hi Mist,

The first two Catholic books I read were books I and III of a 4-volume set by Fr. John Laux called A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies. They were originally published in 1928, and the copies I have were printed in 1990 by TAN Books. I found them at a university bookstore, and they got me so excited about the Catholic Church that I ran out and bought a copy of the new Catechism (and read it).

Book I is Chief Truths of the Faith: Creation, Original Sin, Christ, Faith, Grace Eternal Life, Etc., and book II is Catholic Morality: Sin, Virtue, Conscience, Duties to God, Neighbor, Etc.

I looked on TAN Books’ website this evening, and unfortunately, both of these books are out of stock at the moment.

For an example of the type of material contained in these books, however, here is a portion of chapter 5, section 6, page 89 of Chief Truths of the Faith:

"6. The Good Angels Love Us. – The Good Angels love us because they love God. They protect us in soul and body, pray for us and exhort us to do good. St. Paul calls them ‘ministering spirits sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation’ (Heb. 1,4). ‘When thou didst pray with tears, …I offered thy prayer to the Lord,’ the Angel Raphael said to Tobias (12,12).

“That everyone has a Guardian Angel has never been defined by the Church, but has always been accepted as true. Our belief is based on the words of Christ: ‘See that you despise not one of these little ones, for…their Angels in Heaven always see the face of My Father who is in Heaven’ (Matt. 18,10).”

My third Catholic book is for devotional reading, but one can learn a lot of doctrine from it, and it contains numerous Biblical references.

The book is called My Imitation of Christ, and it is the version of Thomas A Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ which was published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood in 1954. It is 3.5" x 5", and it has a durable, flexible cover. It also features a large number of engravings that are similar to the work of the famous 19th century Bible illustrator, Gustave Dore.

It is available from the Leaflet Missal Company in St. Paul, Minnesota for $9.95. The address of the web page for the book is too long for me to post, but the main page is leafletonline.com/catalog/Default.aspx?, and the item number for the book is 05240.

Finally, I recommend that you get a Douay-Rheims Bible, and I recommend it for two reasons. First, the Catholic Church has only one official Bible, the Vulgate, which is in Latin, and the Douay-Rheims is the only translation of this Bible into the English language. Second, the only Bibles that I have been able to use to defend Catholic teaching are the Douay-Rheims, and the King James “Authorized” Version. I have discovered that modern translations employ “clarifications” that make it difficult or impossible to defend Catholic doctrines.

For example, Protestants like to use Matthew 1:25, “And he knew her not till she brought forth her first born son,” as one proof that St. Joseph and Mary had marital relations. 2 Samuel 6:23 says that David’s wife Michol (or “Michal”) had no children until the day she died, but 2 Samuel 21:8 says that she had 5 sons “whom she bore to Hadriel” (DRV), or “whom she brought up for Adriel” (KJV).

Based on this wording, and using the Protestant interpretation of what “until” means, one must conclude that Michol had 5 sons after she died.

The mystery is solved by looking at 1 Samuel 18:9, which identifies Hadriel (or “Adriel”) as the husband of Michol’s sister, Merob (or “Merab”). Michol’s 5 sons are actually her 5 nephews. This supports the Catholic Church’s contention that Matthew 1:25 does not mean that St. Joseph and Mary had relations after Jesus was born, and that the people identified later as his “brothers and sisters” are actually his cousins.

Unfortunately, the New American Bible changes the word “sons” (which is the Hebrew word “ben”) in 2 Samuel 21:8 to “nephews.” This is a false rendering of the text (“ben” means “son”), and it makes it impossible to use that Bible to defend Our Lady’s perpetual virginity.

I know this is a long post, but I thought it was necessary for me to explain all of these things.

Michelle
 
Mist said:
Hello,

I am new to this forum and new to God. I am curious as to where to start in being a Catholic.
Books and listening material. Anything really. Pardon my short post.

Thank you very much for your help.
Click to expand...
There is a book called Catholicism for Dummies that you might find helpful. It is written by Fr. John Trigilio and Rev. Kenneth Brighenti. Don’t mix it up, howerver with a book called The Idiot’s Guide to Catholicism. I think that Catholicism for Dummies is a good start for the basics, and then you can move on from there. You will get solid information from it. It can be found at most major bookstores, ordered online, or may even be at your public library.
 
You have gotten some really good suggestions. When you have read a number of them, if you want to find out more, I suggest the three volumes of *Radio Replies, *which you can also get at TAN books, but they are online here. I really like these books because they go more deeply into the questions and also I feel very smart after reading them 😉

Convert stories are also great 🙂

Catholics generally read stories about saints and some spiritual reading as well. A good one for the latter is Saint Francis de Sales’ *Introduction to the Devout Life, *which I have even seen at Barnes and Noble, and can be found online in both text and MP3 audio here. (This is a Protestant site with a few good Catholic authors)
 
Mist said:
Hello,

I am new to this forum and new to God. I am curious as to where to start in being a Catholic.
Books and listening material. Anything really. Pardon my short post.

Thank you very much for your help.
Click to expand...
Hey Mist!

Thank you for your post! 👍

Now there’s a place where someone can find some cool “starter stuff”! And I’d like to thank everyone else for their contributions. It might just save someone else years of reading through Christian histories, Church Fathers etc. Now, don’t get me wrong, they should still do that. It just might get them in the Church faster!
 
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