Catherine Stewart - How to Become a Heroic Catholic

Catholics by Conviction

The age of casual Catholicism is over; the age of heroic Catholicism has begun. We can no longer be Catholics by accident but instead we must be Catholics by conviction.

-Fr. Terrence Henry, TOR,

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Fr. Terrence Henry is right. Theres no time to be casual in our Catholicism. We must be heroic in our faith! We (Catholics) need to be filled with our faith, fully immersed in it, ready to show the world what it truly means to be Catholic in todays society. In order to do that we must be confident in what we believe. We must know all of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our beliefs. These facts will be questioned and they will be twisted...which is why we must know the Truth.

We cant be Catholic only when it is convenient. We cant be Catholic only when the world says its okay. We have to be Catholic because it is who we are. I dont know about you, but my faith is my life. My schedule every week is configured around Mass on Sunday. I spend time studying our faith; youd be likely to catch me reading in my room from either St. Thomass Summa Theologica, or the Catechism or one of the many apologetics books that my mom has. I realize that this not typical though. Its countercultural. People arent likely to support it. This is the reason why we have to be that much more solid in our beliefs; so we can keep our beliefs throughout our life and not be led astray by what seems cool or popular, but rather stay rooted in our faith.

God calls each of us to be His ambassador and to spread His word. We are all charged with the command of spreading the Gospel and teaching those who know not Truth. This means we have to actually talk about our faith. Its easy to sit back and not let faith be a big part of your life. Its easy to leave it to other people. But thats not what were called to do. Were called to learn about our faith so we may teach others.

Im always surprised, and not in a good way, by the lack of people who really know what their Faith is about. Too many are simply Catholic because their families are. No. We must be Catholic because it is Truth. To know Truth we have to first know the basics of defending it ourselves. To do that we have to learn about not only what we believe, but why we believe it.

We have to be heroic Catholics. Why do I say that? Because look at the heroes in the world. From the Knights who went on the Crusades, to the Apostles who risked everything to spread Catholicism, to even people like the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson River a few years ago.

What do all those people have in common? They are heroes. What made them heroes? They were prepared to do whatever it takes to do what they knew was right. Knights would spend their lives training. The Apostles were taught by Jesus himself. The pilot was prepared to do emergency landings, even though he probably never thought he would have to. Just as they were prepared, so must we be. We can be heroes, too. Maybe not in the same sense as they were, but to even just one person we may be the one they need to hear the word of Christ from. And that simple action is amazing. How do we become heroic in our faith? We prepare. How do we prepare? We learn. We pray. We take the time to understand and find the answers to questions that we have. We can be like the knights or the Apostles or the many other heroes we hear about every day. By the time you finish reading this book, youll be on your way to becoming a heroic Catholic.

Everything in our beautiful faith has both Biblical and Traditional backing. From the reason we believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist down to why we call Priests Father. You can find information on the reasons behind our beliefs easily if you know where to look in the Bible, and as we will see in the Traditions from the Early Church Fathers.

To get the most out of this book, I really do suggest that you have at least a copy of the Bible or the Catechism. Ill quote most things, but there will be references to these books thatll give extra information. (And, youll need those eventually anyway. There are even online versions. Ill provide the websites in the back of the book)

Ill tell you right now that there is going to be lots more information available on the topics I cover. With most of them Ill just scratch the surface and give basic Biblical backing and context. If I was to go into great detail and long explanations, itd take more books than I could write.

One of the things I love about our Faith is that the more I learn, the less I find I really know. When youre young, you might learn that there are 7 Sacraments. When youre a bit older, you learn what they each mean. As you get older still, you learn that they have so much more significance than we ever can imagine. Every word Jesus spoke, every miracle He performed, every time He did anything, it meant much, much more than we can even comprehend. It is the same with the Early Church: if you look at how they did things and what they knew, all of it is truly awesome.

The roots of Catholicism as the one, true, Church of Christ run deeper than anything. We have the fullness of faith. We have the Truth of Christ. We are His people. And that, yall, is why it is important to be educated and know why we believe in the Eucharist, why we believe in both faith and works, why we honor the Saints and honor Mary...they all have more meaning than you know right now.

Then, once you know the basics of defending Catholicism, Ill teach you how to use this information. The point of this book is to give you the confidence you need to be able to talk about faith with your friends. Be proud of your faith! Dont hide your faith under a basket! If youre scared that your friends wont like it or will leave you, remember that Jesus told us that we would be persecuted! Matthew 5:11 says, Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. If we are scared, we should turn to Him. We will have hardships...but we get a reward in Heaven that is equal to none.

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words,

I would look for the Church which the world hated.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

He would look for the Church that the world hated. I think that speaks volumes. We must be Catholics by Conviction. We must be ready to be hated by the world. We must be ready to spread the Word of God to all those who we know. To be true ambassadors for Christ, we must defend His teachings. But first we have to know why its right.