Why I Write

As I write this we are quickly approaching Holy Week. Lent is one of my favorite times of the year from a spiritual standpoint. We fast from certain things (meat on Fridays and whatever we chose to sacrifice for the season), but we also take on other activities that should edify us spiritually. It should also be a time to reflect on what we do and why we do it. In short, it’s a chance to take an honest look at ourselves and what motivates us in the Lord.

With something between 40 and 50 articles written for this site and 4 or 5 more in the works this is a good time to examine why I do this and also why I write on the subjects and in the style which I do. What am I trying to accomplish here? Most of all, is my heart attitude right in doing this.

Edifying the Church

“Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:7-8)

From the very beginning, with the articles that talk about my life as a cradle Catholic on through my years as an Evangelical Christian and time of ministry there to my reversion to the Church, I have sought to share what I know for the purpose of equipping my brothers and sisters in Christ to be able to give a reason for the faith in which we believe in such a way that it is easily shared with others.

I have avoided dwelling on what is believed by the non-Catholics, although with 35+ years in Apologetics I am more than qualified to do so. A simple analogy I’ve used many times is the example of the FBI. In training their agents to spot counterfeit money they don’t spend one minute inspecting the phony but spend all their time in training learning to recognize “the real thing” so well that they can spot a counterfeit a mile away.

I prefer to focus on what the Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the magisterium says on these matters. In fact, I very heavily focus on the Scripture because that is your primary tool in dealing with your friends and family outside the Church. In being so equipped you will have no trouble recognizing the “real thing” and avoid the pitfalls that Saint Paul talks about in verse 8 above. Those “philosophies” exist, unfortunately, both within the Church as well as without.

“Keep the Cookies On the Lower Shelf”

I have an acquaintance in the field of Apologetics that has a radio program heard every day around North America. Most people who are converts or reverts from Evangelical Christianity probably know of whom I speak. He seeks to do for them much the same as I do here. But one thing I’ve noticed is that he is in love with theological jargon and words that drive most folks to the dictionary. I always joked, “He never likes to use a $.50 word when a $2.00 one will do.”

My goal here is as it was in my Evangelical Christian Apologetics days…to keep it as simple as possible. That’s what the phrase above means. To accomplish this, I try to keep the discussion as simple as possible and the terminology as jargon free as possible…allowing, of course, for the subject matter we are dealing with here. I avoid throwing around words like “justification”, “sanctification” and other theological terms that theologians argue about day in and day out. Again, I don’t really care what the so-called “Protestants” think on those subjects. That’s the counterfeit…not “the real thing”. It’s also over the head of any non-theologians here and especially over the head of most imagined theologians.

Am I Still Motivated?

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

I mentioned before that I have 4 or 5 articles in the works. The truth is that at least 3 of them have been in development for a couple weeks or more. I haven’t been able to bring myself to finish writing them. Every time I start I just feel like I don’t really want to. The verse above kept going through my mind. I’ve worried that maybe I was burned out or that maybe even it was writer’s block. But after writing this bit of self-examination I realize it was just a check in my spirit from the Holy Spirit…sort of a divine “time out”.

I expect that those articles will be finished and submitted in a few days now. I pray that this time of Lent has been as good spiritually for you as it has for us. My wife, Rose, and I thank God for the opportunity to be able to write for you all. God bless you and yours.