Hello, World Wide Web! This is my first post! Can you believe it? So let me introduce myself. My name is MRose. I am a junior in high school and I am 16 years old. I AM A CATHOLIC AND (Let's get this straight) A CHRISTIAN!!!! Because CATHOLICS ARE CHRISTIANS... and I'm proud of it. My goal in writing this is not international recognition or my own movie (Julie and Julia,) but to inform and learn.
God has a plan for each of us and I think this may be the first step towards my vocation (my calling.) Last year (2010) God gave me so many blessings... It was a good year and I thank Him for that, but now I think He wants me to grow in my faith. Why else would He introduce people into my life that don't respect Catholics or hate them or misunderstand them? The problem is, I am still a baby in my faith. How am I to refute the misconceptions my friends and the world have about Catholicism if I don't know the answers myself? Thus the blog.
The Lenten season starts on March 9th this year. Now, for those who don't know, Lent is practiced by the Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Protestant denominations of Christianity. It is the tradition of preparing for Christ's Resurrection on Easter. But is is more than that. Lent is a yearly renewing of the baptismal commitment (not the actual baptism itself...) in our hearts. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday. It is a 40 day challenge during which these Christians commonly "give something up" such as candy or cussing. (You can also add something to your daily routine such as prayer or giving at least one compliment a day.) It's not just giving "something" up, however, it is about giving up a sin. According to http://www.catholic.org/, "The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever..... Our journey through these forty days should be a movement ever closer to Christ and to the way of life he has exemplified for us."
Fasting, Prayer, and Alms Giving are the " 3 pillars of Lent." These "pillars" are supposed to bring us back to God after our wandering throughout the past year. And those are the basics of Lent...This year, along with giving up desserts and some bad habits, I have decided to add a challenge- to grow in my faith- as God seems to want me to do. Of course, I could simply learn on my own, but I have a couple of friends who have confronted me about Catholicism as of late and I wanted to share my findings with them. : )
So, this is my 40 day challenge: every day of Lent, I will post a common misconception of the Catholic Church or something I might not quite understand and attempt to give the truth. I am warning you now; this may go further than the 40 days, but it is a start. This will help me learn, while allowing others to learn with me.
These will be my main sources: http://www.catholic.org/, my Priest, Father Phillip, Why Do Catholics Genuflect? And Answers to Other Puzzling Questions About the Catholic Church by Al Kresta and of course the Holy Bible (Mine is the New Revised Standard Version.)
Wish me luck, and God Bless,
MRose
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