by JonMarc Grodi. I am a young husband, father, and professional. These vocations are my primary responsibilities and necessarily must take some degree of precedent over other things in my life. God is NOT calling me to leave my wife, abandon my children, or stop fulfilling my role in providing for them. Even with the accomplishment of some possible good in mind — even a very good “good” — I can be sure that God is not calling me to act wrongly as a means of attaining that good.
Mother Teresa once said, “Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself.” This reflects a favorite verse of St. Teresa of Avila: “I will
In my 16 years as a Catholic, I have come to understand these words with an increasing appreciation of their wisdom and truth. Often wise priests console their penitents in the confessional to commit the past to God’s mercy, knowing that we cannot change what has already taken place. When we muse over our past sins or failures, such wise confessors encourage us to let go of our past and place it into the merciful hands of God.
“Most clergy converts remember and cherish the moment of their ordination, but, now as Catholics and no longer non-Catholic ministers, they sometimes wonder what, if anything, that ‘laying on of hands’ meant? Those who ordained us may not have had any sacramental apostolic authority to do so, yet the vows of our own hearts to serve Him were authentic and real.” Former Presbyterian pastor Marcus Grodi reflects on the way in which clergy converts must “seek ways to support their families through non-Church employment, and yet never give up their ‘call to ministry.’”
I read more on the histories of various denominations and competing theologies and, in the process, my eyes were opened to the fundamental fallacy of the doctrine of sola scriptura, the idea that the Bible alone is the sole authority for Christian belief. As I later discovered, so many people who end up becoming Catholic realized that the belief that all Christian teachings must be found in the Bible is not itself taught in the Bible!
At the beginning of the Easter Vigil twice we heard this strange outburst:
“O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam
which gained for us
so great a Redeemer!”
The joy of these words is surprising, since we’re accustomed to think of Adam and Eve’s sin as a great tragedy.
Does God have one right choice for me in each decision I make?
When we pray for wisdom to discern God’s will when it comes to choosing a mate, a career, a job change, a move, a home, a school, a friend, a vacation, how to spend money, or any other choice, big or little, whenever there are two or more different paths opening up before us and we have to choose, does God always will one of those paths for us? If so, how do we discern it?
How does one determine truth? This was the core of my own journey to the Church, and though I won’t repeat the details here, I must admit this journey, for
Through the years Christians have striven to draw closer to God through fasting and works of penance.
To provide reference information to those who have questions about these practices, the Coming Home Network International has compiled a list of Catholic resources.
The Hail Mary, traditionally known as the Ave Maria, is a Biblical prayer. In the first half, the words are directly from the Gospel of St. Luke, while the second half reflects what this could mean to us, praying Christians in the Body of Christ, pondering these things in our hearts.
The account of the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she is to be the mother of our Savior is familiar to all Christians. We find here the first elements of the Ave Maria. The angel’s words are “Hail, O favored one,” (Luke 1:28 RSV), or as Jerome translated it in his 4th century Latin edition, “full of grace.”
Marcus welcomes good friend Dr. Thomas Howard, former Evangelical fundamentalist and, later, Episcopalian. Dr. Howard became Catholic at the age of 50. Marcus and Dr. Howard enjoy discussing poetry and
Marcus Grodi welcomes former Fundamentalist David Currie to Deep in Scripture in order to discuss 2 Thessalonians 3: 13.
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
