M. D. Forrest - Chats With Converts: A Complete Explanation and Proof of Catholic Belief

Chats with
Converts

Complete Explanation
and Proof of Catholic
Belief

REV. M. D. Forrest,
M.S.C .

IMPRIMATUR:

N. T. Gilroy Archbishop of Sydney

Copyright 1943 by Radio Replies Press, Inc.

Copyright 1978 by TAN Books

ISBN: 0-89555-069-5

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-56979

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1978

Dedication

To St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower, styled by Pope Pius XI as "my guiding star" and "the child beloved of the world," whose virginal heart ever glowed with living zeal for souls, who expressed the ardent wish to "spend her heaven in doing good on earth," these Chats with Prospective Converts are humbly, gratefully, and lovingly dedicated.

NEW COMPANION BOOK FOR RADIO REPLIES

CHATS WITH CONVERTS

COMPLETE EXPLANATION AND PROOF OF CATHOLIC BELIEF

By

REV. M. D. FORREST, M.S.C.

of Croydon, Victoria, Australia

A COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH

Each of the thirty chapters is written in the form of a chat with a prospective convert. An explanation and a proof of the chief doctrines of the Catholic Religion are fully given in language suited to the average person. The following titles of the respective chapters show how complete is the course of instruction: Existence of God, Faith and Revelation, Reliability of the Gospels, Divinity of Christ, the True Church, the Primacy of Peter, the Papacy, Sources of Revelation, Catholic and Protestant Rule of Faith, Bible Alone and Private Judgment, Original Sin and Redemption, Grace and the Sacraments, the Real Presence, Sacrifice, the Mass, Ceremonies of the Mass, Priests' Power of Forgiveness, Confession, Indulgences, Sacrament of Matrimony, Impediments to Marriage, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, Purgatory, Profession of Faith and Reception into the Church .This book may be used also in high schools as a MANUAL OF APOLOGETICS and will be of great assistance in STUDY CLUBS.

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD

These "Chats with Converts" have already appeared as a series of articles in the "New Zealand Tablet," and the Sydney "Catholic Weekly," and are now published in book form with permission of the management of those excellent journals.

My purpose in publishing this book is to furnish instructors with a Manual for Converts; but I hope that the work will be of some help also to Study Clubs and to the senior pupils of our schools in their study of Apologetics.

In writing these articles, I had in mind a course of instructions extending over a period of about six months, with one lesson a week; or of three months, with two talks a week. Though I am of opinion that this should be the normal course of preparation for a convert, I am aware that at times converts have to be instructed and received within a shorter period. In the latter case the instructor should either choose what he considers the more important subjects or condense and summarize the matter of each chapter.

I wish to place on record my grateful appreciation of the many kind messages of encouragement and approval received from readers, clerical and lay, while the series was appearing in the two Catholic papers mentioned, and to express my sincerest gratitude to His Grace, the Archbishop of Sydney, for graciously and gracefully writing the Foreword.

Through the great courtesy, unflagging zeal, and efficient management of the nationally known Rev. Charles M. Carty, I now have the pleasure of presenting this new edition to the American public.

M. D. FORREST, M. S. C.,
Sacred Heart Monastery,
Croydon, Victoria, Australia.

FOREWORD

As you would that men should do to you,
do you also to them in like manner .

T HUS spoke the Divine Teacher. The lesson was for men of the twentieth century as for those of the first: for you, and me, as for the Jews of old.

If you were bewildered and vainly sought for the path that would lead to your destination, you would be grateful for the guidance of anyone who, knowing the way, shared his knowledge of it with you.

The articles written in this book by Father M. D. Forrest, M.S.C., will assist every Catholic layman to be such a guide, warning of danger and indicating safety.

Just as eternity is of greater importance than time, the soul of greater importance than the body, so is it more important to warn men of dangers to salvation than of dangers to life, more charitable to indicate the path to Heaven than to any destination here below.

Nearly all have friends and acquaintances who are journeying along the road of life without ever thinking seriously of the eternity that awaits them.

The safe road through life: the road to Heaven along which every earthly pilgrim (and each of us is only that) may travel if he so desires, was indicated by Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is indicated today by the Church which Christ Himself established for that purpose.

To tell men who do not know it of the existence of that safe and sure path to Heaven, to show them how to reach and traverse it, is the apostolate, the honorable apostolate, every Catholic layman may exercise.

These Chats of Father Forrest, himself an apostolic Priest remarkable for his learning and zeal, will assist laymen to understand more clearly how precious is the treasure of which they are custodians; will assist and encourage them to share with others God's greatest gift to man, the True Faith.

N. T. GILROY,

Archbishop of Sydney.

IMPRIMATUR: N. T. GILROY. Archiepiscopus Sydneyensis.

The Preface by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, D.D., to the Third Volume of Radio Replies brought so many favorable letters from converts to our office that we are reprinting the same message because of its merit and popularity as a Preface to this companion book to the three volumes of Radio Replies by Fathers Rumble and Carty.

PREFACE

O NCE there were lost islands, but most of them have been found; once there were lost causes, but many of them have been retrieved; but there is one lost art that has not been definitely recovered, and without which no civilization can long survive, and that is the art of controversy. The hardest thing to find in the world today is an argument. Because so few are thinking, naturally there are found but few to argue. Prejudice there is in abundance and sentiment too, for these things are born of enthusiasms without the pain of labor. Thinking, on the contrary, is a difficult task; it is the hardest work a man can dothat is perhaps why so few indulge in it. Thought-saving devices have been invented that rival labor-saving devices in their ingenuity. Fine-sounding phrases like "Life is bigger than logic," or "Progress is the spirit of the age," go rattling by us like express trains, carrying the burden of those who are too lazy to think for themselves.

Not even philosophers argue today; they only explain away. A book full of bad logic, advocating all manner of moral laxity, is not refuted by critics; it is merely called "bold, honest, and fearless." Even those periodicals which pride themselves upon their open-mindedness on all questions are far from practicing the lost art of controversy. Their pages contain no controversies, but only presentations of points of view; these never rise to the level of abstract thought in which argument clashes with argument like steel with steel, but rather they content themselves with the personal reflections of one who has lost his faith, writing against the sanctity of marriage, and of another who has kept his faith, writing in favor of it. Both sides are shooting off firecrackers, making all the noise of an intellectual warfare and creating the illusion of conflict, but it is only a sham battle in which there are no casualties; there are plenty of explosions, but never an exploded argument.

Next page