![]() Thanks to God's grace and many good friends, mentors, and books, I began to sense that there was something deeper behind the various doctrines, rituals, and hierarchies of the Church. Over time, the faith started to come together for me. I also began to have a lot of questions: Is all this Catholic stuff really true? What about the other religions in the world? Does it actually matter whether I'm Catholic? And then there were all those moral issues about life, sex, and marriage: Shouldn't each individual be able to make up his own morality? Why can't we just love people and get along? I still went through the motions in my faith, but God was not really the priority in my life. But as I entered my adult years, many other things captured my attention more: striving for success, making money, having friends, having fun. I grew up Catholic, believed in God, showed up at Mass on Sundays, and in general wanted to be a "good person". But many practicing Catholics admit that they have almost zero understanding as to how it all fits together and what difference it makes for their lives. We might have heard there were twelve apostles, Ten Commandments, seven sacraments and three Persons of the Trinity. ![]() And the fact of the matter is many of us who grew up Catholic don't always see our faith this way either. This, quite frankly, is not the impression the average person out in the world has about the Catholic faith. A large number probably would focus on controversial moral issues of our day: "The Catholic church is against abortion, against contraception and against gay marriage."įew, however, would get to the heart of the Gospel and say, "The Catholic Church stands for the God who is madly in love with you, who has a plan for you and wants you to be happy - the God who even sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you, who wants to forgive you and help you in your life and who, most of all, wants an intimate, personal relationship with you so that you can be with him forever in heaven." Others might mention the pope or the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some people might talk about the rituals of the Catholic faith. If you were to walk into a coffee shop and randomly ask people, "What does the Catholic Church stand for?," what kind of responses do you think you would receive? ![]() The following is a short excerpt from my newest book, Love Unveiled, which is based on the Symbolon film series. And it's helping many adult Catholics rediscover not just what we do and believe as Catholics - but why. It's helping parents form their children. The series is inspiring many non-Catholics to convert. It's produced by the Augustine Institute and is being used in almost 5,000 parishes around the world for RCIA, adult faith formation, family faith formation and small groups. Symbolon: The Catholic Faith Explained is a walk through the Catholic faith that is culturally relevant and engages the critical issues of our time. This is what the Symbolon film documentary on the Catholic faith seeks to accomplish. So when we are evangelizing and catechizing, we must address what he called the powerful "anti-evangelization" that people face every day. John Paul II emphasized that when we pass on the faith - whether in the parish or in the home - we must be aware of the cultural influences on that life of faith. The people we love and serve are constantly exposed to alternative views of life, love, and happiness - views that shape their hearts and minds in ways that hinder their faith from growing and even threatens, at times, to choke the life of faith. We are not passing on the faith in a cultural vacuum. If people learn there are 12 apostles, 10 commandments and 7 sacraments, but don't know how to engage these and other issues, they will have a difficult time withstanding the allurements, pressures, and mindset of the secular world in which they live and breathe every day. ![]()
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