Assertions of the Faith

What the Church Actually Teaches...

In our time protestants, secular media, and/or atheists like to make a "straw man" of the Catholic faith. They misinterpret and then misrepresent the assertions of the Catholic faith by saying "the Church teaches (insert here any eccentric claim)", however, this is unjust and improper argumentation, which is usually what causes it to be inaccurate. If one is to really prove another wrong they restate their opponent's view to better understand their opponent's perspective and thereby are free to argue against their opponent with accuracy and skill. Here are some principle sources for doing so:

What we do believe? Why do we believe it?

These are the single two most important, inevitable, and unavoidable questions in anyone's life. No matter how we decide to live, if we believe anything or nothing, we answer these questions. Logically, it is best to make our decisions as seductively and not inductively as possible if we are to truly know what we think we do (epistemological systems result from what one believes constitues safe conclusions). This is to say if we do not thoroughly inform our beliefs, only will we struggle to defend them, but most critically we will not understand why we believe them ourselves. Here are some resources to help you know what Catholics actually believe and will arm you against what some think we believe and possibly even what uninformed Catholics think we believe.

Every Person is Religious insofar as Narrative thought is common to all. 

Compare the Christian Narrative with the World's

How We Celebrate our Faith?

One of the clearest differences between sects of religions and religions is how we worship or engage with our beliefs. For most religions, there are principal engagements such as fasting, good works, pilgrimages, etc. For the Catholic Church, Christians are most Christ-like upon/immediately after receiving sacraments and principally the Eucharist. These sacraments all find their origin in Scripture and these moments were assimilated in Apostolic Tradition and passed down and developed ever since The Father and The Son sent the Spirit to dwell in the hearts of the Apostles. Our faith is ceremoniously encountered at every mass, the principal celebration of our faith. Moreover, it is intimately laden with what we believe and why we believe it.

Find more throughout the "Assertions of the Faith" pages and subpages.

What does life in Christ ask of us?

In every belief system, some generally agree with beliefs but fail to put them into practice or consider them to every logical derivative. Ad contra to these individuals Saints are individuals whom the Church believes are in heaven, followed the tenets of faith to their conclusions, and lived exemplary Christian lives on Earth. Were they sinners? Absolutely! However, we do not worship them. We neither admire them nor seek their intercession for their supposed perfection on Earth, but rather for their example in manner and intensity with which they endeavored to follow Christ, and thus find in their hearts a love for God which they wouldn't trade for the world. G.K. Chesterton once said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." Are we all sinners? Yes. Still, as much as it is fundamentally good to pursue perfection and full communion, the Christian life is ultimately rooted in love, and thus all Christian moral thought is categorized into two main areas:

In both of these efforts, the Christian lives their beliefs not just in principle moments nor just conceptually as if it were only an abstract, intra-mental reality not correlated to something exterior to one's mind. On the contrary, it should invade every aspect of one's life, as love does.

Begin our Life in Christ Study

What does it take to become a spouse of God?

"This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer." CCC 2558

We come to know God, we celebrated what we know, we are living it, and behold now we are to become it. Now we must "pray" and enter ever more deeply into a relationship with Him Who First loved us, "while we were still sinners". The gift of self in this relationship is fundamental, since He has loved us giving it all up for just us, we are called to do likewise. Let love given match the love received.  Prayer is first an exchange between strangers, then friends, and then spouses. It begins first restrained by ourselves to words, then a change of life, and then ultimately a gift of persons. Receiving Christ's love and returning that love, when it is easy and blissful, and when it is difficult and filled with suffering.

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