Dear Sisters and Brothers –
This week we continue our Lenten series “Why I Am Catholic.” As two more of our fellow parishioners share with us this week a bit of how God is working in their lives, we are all invited to notice and articulate for ourselves how God is working in ours. For your convenience, the prompt questions are provided again below.
On another note, more than 200 jackets and coats were collected in our drive the past two weekends! Spearheaded by our high school youth group, Hygiene Heroes in partnership with Simple Needs, your generosity will help warm the bodies and the hearts of some of our sisters and brothers without homes. These will be distributed through affiliated parish ministries, including the Gubbio Project at St. Boniface. Almsgiving is one of the disciplines of Lent. May your living out of Matthew 25 bear fruit in your own life.
Oremus pro invicem,
Fr. Greg
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Read all parishioner essays HERE.
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Reflection Questions: “Why I Am Catholic”
How did you become Catholic?
- If you are a “cradle Catholic”, what was your experience growing up?
- If you were baptized or received into the Church as an adult, why did you convert? What did you find attractive about the Church?
What difference has being a Catholic made in your life?”
How has your Catholic faith been important to you? What, in how you live your life, demonstrates that?
What do you find attractive about Catholicism today?
What about Catholicism do you struggle with today?
What challenges do you face as a Catholic?
- From within yourself or from within the Church?
- From outside yourself or outside the Church?
Why do you choose to remain Catholic today?
- What are the teachings or beliefs that you hold onto because they are helpful?
- Who are the people you hold onto because they inspire you, or teach you, or are helpful in some way?
- What are the traditions or rituals or sacraments that nourish your faith?
- Or, what is it that holds onto you? (Versus you holding onto it.)
How does the Church help you to live the life you want to live or be the person you want to be? Does being Catholic help you to know Jesus more deeply? If so, how?
How do you experience God in or through all or any of the above?
- What is that God like, in your experience? How would you describe that God, either in anthropomorphic terms or in non-anthropomorphic terms?