Think Catholics Should Know Their Faith Better? DO SOMETHING At Your Parish!

Do you wish that your fellow parishoners (or fallen away relatives) understood the Catholic faith better? Do you want to know more about your own faith? I know that you do because you are reading Catholic365!

So, what can we do? For starters, your parish should be a community of faith, not just a place you go to once a week and don't talk to anybody.

The next time you are on the verge of falling asleep from reading your parish bulletin, think about this: Maybe it's time for you to stop waiting for someone else to invite you to a group at your parish and start one YOURSELF! Yes, YOU!

Ask the Lord in prayer, ask a friend to help, ask a priest to support you, get it in the bulletin, and then YOU can do the inviting!

While there are many important needs for a faith community, there is obviously a lack of accurate knowledge about the faith. To meet this challenge, here are five resources to consider using as content for a monthly discussion group:

1) Scripture studies, an inexhaustible treasure! One study program called The Great Adventure was designed by Jeff Cavins-

http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/

2) The Catechism of the Catholic Church. You don't even need to buy the book, it's all for free online organized by topic, pick a topic you like and print it out!

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm

3) Select an Encyclical to study, which are generally on a particular topic of interest. For instance, the relationship between faith and reason was explored by Pope St. John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical named "Fides et Ratio"

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/all.htm

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

4) Pamphlets or materials from Catholic Answers, organized into various categories here

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/browse/more/all/all

5) Instead of reading, show a video talk from the Institute of Catholic Culture

http://www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/library/

You don't need to be a teacher, you can just be a facilitator. There are so many great resources out there already, we just need to bring them to people!