My Catholic Journey

My Catholic Journey

I maybe the person who could bag most number of awards for the poor-foundation-on-something. I got plenty of stories of this kind, religion is one of them. I was born in a family of Catholics. I never understood what religion was all about more so was faith. Furthermore, I got no idea that there were also other religion aside from it and even aside from being a Christian. “Following blindly” if I can use that.  Catholics, my family, to me (before) were blind followers. No one (at least in my family) could explain why us Catholic Christians has statues in our church, why we believe in Mama Mary, the saints etc.

During my teenage years, I welcomed every invitation from other religions, that’s my effort to understand details that were vague to me. I am a regular Catholic. By regular I meant, I’m a regular churchgoer and that’s just about it. I thought I’m doing things fine. I even “stayed” for couple of years in the Baptist faith before I found out the truth about Catholic religion.

Now that Paulo and I were planning to homeschool Elijah and hopefully other additional children that will be entrusted to us by God, two concerns got me. First, the cliché homeschooling issue, how can our children’s socialization be addressed and; Lastly, how will I satisfy their “WH” questions, especially the whys, when I myself don’t have a good foundation on this? I remembered what the speaker shared on one of the homeschooling seminars I have attended, “Playgroups and religious communities can help if socialization is your issue”, she said.

And so, I searched on the internet who is to reach or is in charged of the Couples For Christ here in Pasig. I was directed to the CFC website with the list of contact person for every city and town here in the Philippines. I called the number provided and he invited us to observe the community before we attend the CLS or Christian Life Seminar.

The Couples for Christ (abbreviated as CFC) is an international Catholic lay ecclesial movement whose goal is to renew and strengthen Christian values. It is one of 122 International Associations of the Faithful. The organization is affiliated with the Vatican recognition from the Pontifical Council for the Laity. It is led by an International Council, which operates in the Philippines under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and can report directly to the Vatican. The community is made up of family ministries, social arms, and a pro-life ministry. 

CLS is a weekly seminar series which usually spans 9 weeks or sessions. It serves as the primary Evangelization approach, a core activity of CFC members.  Wikipedia

We finished the seminar happy and revived.

During the CLS we were baptized with the Holy Spirit and from that day on, we felt His presence in our home through our renewed life, new perspective. Our God really is an awesome God! We joined the CFC community because of two skin-deep reasons. Yet He blessed us more than we desired and deserved. We praise Him for His faithfulness. We were in awe realizing how unfaithful and slack we are with Him. That’s why from that day forward, Paulo and I vowed to seek His Kingdom first, put Him as our priority. After all, we owe everything we have and we are to Him. His love and grace is so overwhelming. He is too generous. He is faithful and able. He deserves all the glory and praise. May His name be praised.

Through the CFC community, we are showered with added spiritual nourishment. Needless to say, we believers of Christ shouldn’t limit ourselves to that. Let’s read our Bible regularly and finish it to fully discover the truth it has. We may also do supplemental readings and dig deeper to uncover the lies in the history that was introduced to us. Try researching about the Catholic faith, how it was said to be the ONE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. There were too many resources published by Catholic Apologists and videos available to enhance our apologetics–which I wasn’t aware of before, I thought only Protestants exerted so much effort on apologetics and catechism.

None of the conversion testimonies you’re about to read is like another. These people come from different backgrounds. They’re scholars, pastors, teachers, preacher, and writers. They have different personalities. They followed different roads to Rome. Yet the title of this book, Surprised by Truth, sums up every one of these stories, because each relates the earnest quests of persons seeking the whole truth about Christ, and each describes the surprise discovery that the truth of Christ, and each describes the surprise discovery that truth of Christ—in Scripture, history, and logic—lies in the Catholic Church.

Scott Hahn, Suprised by Truth (Foreword)

Catholic Apologists such as:

John Martignoni
Stephen K. Ray aka Steve Ray
Patrick Madrid
Scott Hahn
These books helped us:

 

The Philippines is a country very dear to God and our Blessed Mother. We are a people who are naturally religious in orientation and this has been a great blessing to us as a people. Yet despite our faith which is many centuries old, there seems to be some form of blockage to the blessings and graces as well as the protection of God.

Pagan practices:

Albularyo
Mangtatawas
Manghuhula
Mangkukulam

and the list goes on.

…we hurt God so much because although we are Catholics, we continually go against the first commandment.

Fr. Jose Francisco C. Syquia

 

I hope this link would help:

Why Catholic 101 by Father Matt Hartley

 

This is very important:

Catholics believe in the Holy Scripture PLUS the Holy Traditions.

Here’s a link that helped me on this.

We should not forget to pray and ask guidance and wisdom as we sail along this journey called life. We must educate ourselves with everything about the Holy Scripture and more so that we can stand firmly to what we believe in and not just believing in something because greater number of people said it is the truth. Let’s read about our faith so that we can evangelize effectively.

It has always been my prayer to be a vessel of God’s blessing to others. Paulo and I realized that it’s nice to study apologetics and be ready to defend the Catholic faith. However, to evangelize effectively in a way that most people will understand especially the youth, we have to be involved in catechism. With that we hope to at least give back to God for all the blessings he’s showering us.

From our family to yours, by God’s grace, may you continue to grow in virtue and holiness in the name of Jesus Christ.

God bless!