MyFaithJourney

I'm 9 months into this resurgence of my Christian, Catholic faith. My faith walk in this time hasn't been a straight line, necessarily. I've made adjustments along the way, most recently setting aside my Catechism until I finish my study of the Gospel of St. Mark. When I finish, I plan to finish the Catechism, which I'm about 2/3 through. Mark has 16 chapters, and I'm presently on Chapter 15, so in about a week, plus or minus, I ought to be finished with it. I've talked on this blog before about my method, so I'll skip over it this morning, except to mention one little tweak I've made. It's taken me a little while to embrace the New Catholic Bible translation. I'm finding the New Catholic Bible to be very readable, it had words of Jesus in red, which I love, and the footnotes are different from those in my other translations. Using the New Catholic Bible isn't changing the rest of my Bible study routine, it's just adding one extra reading...

Shame on me, I didn't know what SSPX was. I'd started seeing a bunch of fuss about something called SSPX, so I did a little digging. I recognize what I'm about to say will rankle some readers. I'll preface by saying, I only know what I've been able to learn in a couple of days. I'm not a Church historian, scholar, or official. I'm just a guy. SSPX stands for the Society of Saint Pius X. I did know of a group of Catholics who want a return to the Latin Mass. But I guess there's more to it than this. I am not going to dissect it or debate it; this is just my reaction to what I've learned. In addition to a return to the Latin Mass, this group rejects other aspects of Vatican II, especially the Council's efforts at ecumenism. I've given each some thought, and here goes. Sorry if you don't agree. Lucky for you, I'm not in any position of authority. First, the Latin Mass. When I was a kid in the '60s, I was an altar boy. I was in the fi...

Hello friends. I'm here approaching a Bible study crossroad. I'm 3/4 through the Gospel of St. Mark. I can't tell you how meaningful and enriching I'm finding this time spent diving into God's Word. I spent about a month and a half studying the Gospel of St. Matthew. With life's interruptions, especially our amazing trip to Italy, it's going to take a full 2 months to complete Mark, which is about 1/3 shorter, in terms of chapters and pages, than Matthew. That's okay. A typical run through includes first, reading one chapter of the Gospel in my Ascension Press Great Adventure Note Taking Bible. Things that strike my heart or mind or just plain old curiosity will sometimes cause me to highlight a passage or snippet of one. Or, it might make me flip to some other book in the Bible to see how the passage I'm reading interrelates with that other book or passage. Usually, when I do this, I make notes in the margin in one place or in the other. Once I fini...

My spiritual revival is just over 9 months in now. Before I go on, as a refresher, I have always been Catholic. I have always been a Christian. Regardless of my active or inactive status in practicing or embracing my faith, those two things are a given. It started last September, this beautiful revival of faith in my life, with me happening upon the story of a young woman named Justine Donahue on YouTube. Why YouTube's algorithm decided to put her story before me, I can only describe as "a God thing." By the time I was done watching, I was back. Period. I didn't know how my return would manifest itself, but I knew I was back. Justine Donahue Conversion Story Last evening, while Caroline was washing up, as I sometimes do, I watched a couple of videos on YouTube. Since last September, I've created a channel on there where I watch inspirational "church" stuff. I watched a bit of one, and of another, not finding a lot that really kept my interest. Then I cli...

I'll probably ruffle some feathers here. If I do, it's not intentional. I know it might, though, because it's bound to strike some people in an emotional way. I can't help with that, except to pray that my words are well-chosen and not in the way of confrontation, and as such not to cause anyone to feel defensive or challenged. In this post I only challenge you in this way: can you be openminded enough to try to understand? That's all. Us Catholics, we do not claim to be the only path to Heaven. We don't claim sole proprietorship on entry. I've written and said so before, but I am reiterating here, for this purpose only. If you are what I would call a "Bible believing Christian," a non-Catholic, Protestant of nearly any denomination (maybe there is one or some this wouldn't apply to, I don't know), and you believe that Jesus died for our sins and that Jesus is the Son in the triune God we call the Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit...