Where was I???

So, the reason I haven't had a chance to post more here is because I had a very interesting week elsewhere online.  Most of my free time was spent in debate on a social networking site with a Christian Fundamentalist.  Although I found myself at times infuriated with the nonsense this gentleman was “teaching” his friends about Catholicism by his attempt to expose me on his profile page, this experience wound up a blessing for me.  Is it me, or are the MOST angry Christians former Catholics?  This gentleman met me by trying to convert me while I was saying the rosary online!  (If you haven’t tried this by the way, check out my link here for “Come Pray the Rosary” my favorite site for this…I LOVE it).  This site has an “intentions” tab.  People can add their prayer intentions here, real time…well this individual thought it a good idea to mock & ridicule people while they PRAYED THE ROSARY about their devotion to Mary.  He kept requesting if we wanted to learn more, to follow him back to his social networking page so he could share with us his brand of personal salvation.  Under a false name (which I found dubious from the get go) I followed him back to his page, originally to give him a piece of my mind about harassing people while they prayed.  I don’t have a problem with people wanting to evangelize…I GET that, I really do,  but right in the middle of a meditative prayer?  REALLY?  It’s simple marketing 101, if you want people to “buy what your selling” a good place to start is not by patronizing, mocking, or ridiculing the individual you’d like to have buy from you. So I told him as much. Through our private messages back & forth he went on to tell me that it was his duty as a REAL Christian to be a “hammer” because that is what it takes for most people to come authentically to Christ…to be hammered with the TRUTH, he eventually dropped much of his adversarial tone and shared with me that he left the Catholic faith when, sadly, his first wife died of cancer.  He explained that the people in his parish and sadly his pastor treated him & his family terribly during and after his wife’s sickness that he left the Church because he knew then, that the Catholic Church was all about money, lies and just plain evil because no one of God could have ever acted as these people did.  So when he found his current faith (non-denominational, anti-religion group), he was reborn in Christ and has made it his mission to “remove the scales” from other lost people ESPECIALLY Catholics.  My heart really went out to this guy.  So we “friended” one another on this social site to be able to keep up with each other. I really paid him no mind for awhile until I saw his status this past Sunday change to say in all caps “HEY CATHOLICS, I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU, YOU SERVED ROME WELL TODAY BUT YOU DID NOT SERVE GOD.”  Me & my big mouth!  I could NOT let this kind of comment go unchallenged.  I responded by asking “Is this because Catholics are anti-God?” and this began nearly a full week of him battering me with sarcastic and loaded questions about the tenets of the Catholic faith. His attempt was to lead me into answering his questions and in doing this, I would expose our faith as a cult, filled with parlor tricks, idolatry, pedophiles and anti-Semites.  At times his rants were nothing short of the fantastic.  I believe I responded calmly, respectfully (although at times THAT was difficult) with some fabulous, authentically Catholic resources at hand that I thought you may all appreciate:

1)  A WONDERFUL study Bible which I find INVALUABLE in navigating through the complex books of the Bible. The one I read is called “The Catholic Bible: Personal Study Edition, New American Bible, 2^nd Edition”  2) “The Essential Catholic Survival Guide” by the staff of “Catholic Answers.”  “Catholic Answers” is a quarterly periodical I subscribe to which is a TREMENDOUS Apologetic resource I cannot live without 3) The “Catholic Answers” website http://www.catholic.com/.  This is the sister to the periodical and in a click just a world of knowledge at your fingertips and 4) my newest gem that I came across during this process this week http://www.catholicbible101.com/.  What a GREAT, easy to understand site chockfull of just about anything you need to know about our beautiful faith.  Sadly, my new Fundamentalist “friend”….”DE-friended me” this week! As he bid me “adieu” he said he would pray for me to come to the understanding of my faults and ways and find my way to Christ.  I responded by telling him my door was always open to become “friends” again. 

Although my new friend-de-friend, was once Catholic, it sounds as if he either FORGOT the tenets of his faith or possibly never knew them to begin with.  His understanding (& probably all of his friends who were reading our thread) of the Catholic faith was so misguided, so inaccurate that it was fairy tale-ish.  My new friend was a great student of someone’s.  He had learned all the right talking points & all the right positions to "zing it" to Catholics but his arguments fell apart once the first layer of the onion was peeled.  Folks like this know, unfortunately, that far too often many of us are not in a position to defend the history or accuracy of our own faith.  I am no different!  I didn’t KNOW a lot of this material off the top of my head, I was heavily relying on my resources that I had at my disposal.  We can be a detriment to ourselves and others when we know enough only to be dangerous.  Our faith is so complex (& the more you dig, I promise, the more you will fall in love with its beauty because in finding out the TRUTHS behind the faith…there is NO DOUBT you will further & further become convinced of it’s infallibility if you aren’t already.)  This man kept quoting me “other Catholics” he questioned in the past.  When asked “So, why do Catholic’s believe ABC“, he would wait for the commonly crazy (to him) answer about worshiping the dead (our saints) or raising Mary above God in adoration or using our “magic water” as he called it.  He would wait to publically attack and make a fool of the speaker so they could see the error of their ways, want to leave the faith & further support his convictions. He claims this approach works very well for him and if it DOES, than that is sad indeed. My friend could quote chapter & verse of why HE believed what he did from Bible passages BUT when I responded with Biblical evidence to refute him…he had NO answers for me. Many times, if I went back to his passage he quoted to support his position and actually read the passages before and after his example, the meaning he was attempting to convey was completely lost because the whole piece when taken IN context meant something far different. He at times would get REALLY frustrated with me and would write “LIES!!” or “THIS IS SATAN SPEAKING!!”
One thing I definitely learned from this experience was he was correct in pointing out how so many, American Catholic’s are unable to defend their faith accurately (including myself.)  It’s not for the faint of heart being a Catholic.  We all know the tragedies, scandal, attacks & secularism that Mother Church faces today. We have been warned throughout time how difficult it will be for the Church and Her faithful to remain steadfast.  Presently we find ourselves in yet another dark time. With our priests & religious dwindling and with so many embracing the modernist, altered approach to the faith…who is left to teach us?  Who will be the ones to pass on the true faith to the next generation?  I contend it MUST be us, lay people, though we are.  We MUST take the time to learn our faith so we can, not FIGHT with our fellow Christians about who is right & who is wrong BUT so we can explain & teach them WHY the Catholic faith is the one true faith and how the Church is infallible in Her teachings.
Yes, I got frustrated and angry at times at my new friend because what he was saying was so hateful about another group of Christians (namely US) but I knew it was because he was hurt due to having no idea why his Catholic faith "abandon" him.  I quickly realized that God was asking me to befriend this guy & try to be an example which I think each and everyone of us are called to be every day.  A good friend, just told me that we should never DEFEND our faith because the Catholic Church needs no defense but we should lovingly EXPLAIN our faith & she couldn’t be more correct.  In the acidic environment we live in today towards religious people, I DO find it difficult to let down the walls and embrace people with the understanding that they “know not what they do” and it is MY job (and every Catholic) to lovingly help them understand, because in the end, we are safeguarding their souls, right?  This isn’t for bragging rights or “I’m right & you're wrong & I know everything!”  It because we all want to be together in heaven in the end & what in life is more important than that? 
With all of the materials (especially the internet) that are so readily available (but make sure it is material approved by Rome before you embrace it…there are A LOT of people spreading a brand of THEIR Catholicism which is not in line with Catechism of the Catholic Church.)  Why not try and become a beacon for others?  I PROMISE you, the more you learn, the more you will want to learn AND all of a sudden, the trials of everyday life become something entirely different.  Something to celebrate even.  Someone passed me this GREAT video & thought it applied here.  ENJOY!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk4OCzre_IY&feature=share God bless you & check in soon.