Our Father, Send Us With Your Word

The Lord's Prayer. It's the first prayer we Catholics learned when were little, and the last one that many of our elderly remember even as other memories fade. Next, many of us learned the parts of the Mass and how to respond. Over time, these things can become as second nature as breathing to the point that we don't even think about them. We take our knowledge for granted.

Many older Catholics have told me about how when they were in school, the sisters who staffed the schools drilled the Baltimore Catechism into their heads. By the time I entered elementary school, the sisters were almost gone, replaced by primarily lay teachers. Now, the parochial school I attended is lucky to even have Catholic lay teachers who know their faith well enough to teach it. Most of what I have learned about Catholicism, I learned on my own, and I am an anomaly among my peers. Our faith hasn't been handed to us in a tangible way. Questions aren't answered. Problems aren't solved. When we ask questions, we often get a long, technical explanation that is still very confusing.

We can no longer assume as a Church that people just understand. We can't take our knowledge for granted and just expect others to show up. People want to know why. People want to know what's in religion for them. If we don't tell the truth, others will tell them lies. We have to tell others the truth in a way that they understand, and that way is not the seminary/lay theology degree definition. It needs to be black and white, plain and simple. Clarification comes later in the conversation if it is needed.

If you want a mission statement for my blog, that's it. I want to translate the theology into people's lives and show them why I love Catholicism so that they will hopefully love it too. I invite my fellow Catholics to join me. Like the rain and snow, the Lord's Word has come. Like the Lord's Prayer, it is given to us to be spoken and shared. Let us carry it to the world so it might water and nourish the Earth.