Lifest Wrap-up

This months newsletter: 

1) Apologies
2) Meeting Reminder
3) Lifest

First, I need to apologize for not being as active on the blog / facebook page as you've come to expect, in the last month.  The reason is the same reason why my typing today may not be the greatest ever:  I'm typing one-handed.  No, I didn't get injure d.  My wife and I had our 7th child on the 4th!  (2 boys, 2 girls 3 in heaven due to miscarriage).  Since then things have kind of been a blur and I've dropped the ball on a few things.  Mom and Baby are doing great.  I haven't paused long enough to figure out how I'm doing.

Reminder that if you're in the area, our monthly meeting is this Saturday the 25th, 8:00 am at the Gehl Center - same building Cathedral Book and Gifts is in, directly behind the Cathedral in Green Bay.  We're starting a chapter by chapter study of The Essential Catholic Survival Guide.  Each chapter is a different tract from Catholic Answers so even if you miss a month you won't be off a chapter or anything.  If you can't make the meetings, you can still follow along with our newsletter and if you don't have the book, you can look up a related article - sometimes the same tract - on Catholic Answers' website:  www.catholic.com.

Lifest was a Holy Spirit filled blast!  Our Apostolate spent seven hours answering questions of Non-Catholics and Catholics alike.  99% of the conversations were positive, genuinely pleasant conversations.  Our Apostolate was invited to a non-denominational bible study to present the Catholic position on the various topics being studied there - the jury's still out on whether we can make it or not.  We even had one person call us the following week with follow-up questions!

There was one woman who was just coming back into Christianity from being nothing for years, due in large part to her daughter attending Lifest the last 4 years.  She was upset and concerned that she had been a bad mom for most of her daughter's life.  We spoke to her about forgiveness, love and mercy.  Plus, we added, she made the decision to send her daughter to Lifest the last four years, leading to her coming with her daughter for one day last year which was the catalyst for her coming back into the faith.

Most of the questions we had are ones we've already gone over in class / newsletters: Prayers to Mary and the Saints, use of statues / art in Catholic Churches, Authority of Scripture (Bible: yes.  Bible ALONE: no), why do we call priests 'Father'.  Etc.

One question we had to look up later was a woman who had been studying with some Seventh Day Adventists.  She posed the question of why do we worship on Sunday when the Ten Commandments state clearly to keep holy the Sabbath.  Why did the Catholic Church change the Sabbath to Sunday?

The quick answer is: The Catholic Church never changed the Sabbath.  Catholicism still teaches that the Sabbath is the day before the Lord's Day (CCC 2175).  What the Catholic Church - and the vast majority of Christians - recognizes is that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament Law and certain aspects of it have been changed (2 Cor 5:17; Heb 7:12 etc).  One aspect is that we, as Christians, are no longer bound by the Sabbath (Col 2:16).  The Sabbath was a mere shadow of what was to come.  What we see in Scripture is the Christians gathering to worship on the Lord's Day, the 1st Day of the week, aka  Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:1-2; Rev 1:10).  Here's a more in depth treatment of this question by one of the top Catholic Apologists out there today, Tim Staples.

One person we'd like you to pray for is a young woman whom we never even got a name.  Every apologist / evangelist messes up from time to time and I must admit that I violated most of the rules for apologetics on this one.  We were having a pleasant conversation with one woman.  During the conversation.  This young woman came up very impassioned that she overheard us saying that works are necessary for salvation.  Taken a bit off guard, I went into defense mode rather than sticking with what I know is best.  We fired bible verses back and forth, bounced to several different topics.  Eventually I was able to start asking her questions like: Where do you find in Scripture that everything needs to be found in Scripture?  After being unable to answer those question, she left, stating in a huff that she was raised Catholic and almost became a nun, but now she's learned the truth.

 It hit me like a ton of bricks as she was walking away: the vast majority of ex-Catholics have walked away because of an intense negative emotional experience, i.e. they were hurt by someone usually in authority.  They then use anti-Catholic apologetics to justify why they left.  I realized if I had had made the defense with reverence and kindness, instead of trying to win, I may have had the opportunity to help bring some healing to a wound.  Please pray for her.

But the day was not summed up by this, but by our last encounter.  The last people to visit our booth was someone I knew: a Protestant apologist I have had several discussions with in the past.  Because we've both recognized each other's love for Jesus Christ we've developed a mutual love and respect for each other, while still not always agreeing.  He came up to us and enthusiastically said, "It's great to see you guys out here spreading the Good News!"  We had a great conversation about things we agree on: pro-life and real marriage.  We directed him to some great resources on both topics.  At the end, I shook his hand and thanked him for thinking of us Catholics as equal Christians - some denominations, usually the most vocal ones, do not believe Catholics are Christians, or if they are, they're some kind of quasi Christians like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.  He stated, "Oh I've run across enough Catholics now to realize the Catholic Church teaches the Gospel."  AMEN!

We're still looking for one or two more people interested in learning more about Street Evangelization.  Praise God we've had a few people courageously step up and express interest.  Is God asking you to step forward?