"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
I just finished Timothy Keller’s book, The Reason for God. One of the best parts of the book was where Keller explained grace and why Christianity is different. I just came across this short video where Keller gives a similar presentation:
Your grace that leads this sinner home
From death to life forever
And sings the song of righteousness
By blood and not by merit
Your grace that reaches far and wide
To every tribe and nation
Has called my heart to enter in
The joy of Your salvation
By grace I am redeemed
By grace I am restored
And now I freely walk
Into the arms of Christ my Lord
Your grace that I cannot explain
Not by my earthly wisdom
The Prince of life, without a stain
Was traded for this sinner
Let praise rise up and overflow
My song resound forever
For grace will see me welcomed home
To walk beside my Saviour
Just before Easter, I posted an article written by one of my friends on her one-year anniversary entering the Catholic Church. Now that we reach the end of the Easter Octave, here is another article which she wrote shortly before entering back in 2017…
As the Easter season quickly approaches and thousands of adults around the world prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion), I thought it would be an appropriate time to explain why a person converts to the Catholic Church.
Of course, with hundreds of faith traditions and spiritual experiences, there could be hundreds of reasons, but I want to give you the top seven reasons why I left my life-long Protestant faith to become a member of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church (although that may describe it right there ☺).
1. Silence
I list this reason first because it was one of the first aspects of the Church that drew me in. When I refer to silence, I simultaneously refer to the feeling of peace within a soul. We live in a chaotic world, a world of incessant noise, a world pulling us in so many directions we sometimes don’t know which way is up. These noises and distractions make our souls crazy; our souls are crying out for inner peace, to just slow down and let God fill us in the silence.
When I first began attending Mass about two years ago, this phrase jumped out at me again and again, “Jesus said to his disciples, My peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.” How our souls yearn for this peace! Imagine how different our lives would be if we consistently let God give us His peace. One of the ways Catholics allow Christ to do this is in adoration. To kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and simply allow the silence to infiltrate our whole being is such an incredible gift; to allow the noises and distractions of the world fade away as we worship God in the quiet stillness of the Church. It feeds our hungry souls. And amongst our busy lives, God reminds us: “The Lord will fight for you; you have only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14)
I think St. Augustine perfectly described our yearning for the peace of God when he said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.”
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before a concert and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in ink
– GK Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi
As you take your seat at table, pray… offer thanks to the Giver…remember Him Who supplies you with this gift, to make your heart glad and to comfort your weakness. Has your need for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of your Benefactor pass away too.
As you are putting on your tunic, thank the Giver of it. As you wrap your cloak about yourself, feel yet greater love to God…
Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night and to serve the rest of the needs of life”
– St. Basil
I wanted to write a short follow-up to my post to an article earlier this week: Analysis Paralysis and making the first move. In that post I shared a quotation from the TV show “Person of Interest” about playing the game of chess:
“No one could possibly predict [all the possibilites]… Which means that that first move can be terrifying…there’s a virtually infinite sea of possibilities… But it also means that if you make a mistake, there’s a nearly infinite amount of ways to fix it. So you should simply relax and play.” – Harold Finch
This post was one of my most popular, so thank you to all of you who shared it on Facebook. It’s always great to know that something I’ve written has been of interest and encouragement 🙂
What has prompted this current post is a discussion I saw about the post Reddit. On one of the threads there were concerns that this quotation could simply be an excuse to avoid making careful decisions. I would like to respond to this concern by telling a story from my time at school…
“[R]emember that abortion is shocking in and of itself. We don’t have to run through the streets shouting, ‘Abortion is murder!’ in order to make it shocking. A gracious defender of the pro-life view knows that the facts speak loudly so we don’t have to.”
– Trent Horn, Persuasive Pro Life