"Apologetics Resources"

JMJ.       Well, I guess I've procrastinated long enough.  Actually, I do it on purpose--I'm curious as to just how long my one loyal reader can go without seeing something new!  She has the patience of Job.  Not to mention that she's incredibly loyal and cute. 

Okay, dear lady.  Here goes.  I'd like to preface my small list by saying that it is very difficult to compile a list of resources since everyone is coming from a different place and with different knowledge and needs.  Be that as it may, accept the following for what it is--my humble suggestions.

First, one needs a love for our Church.  Apologetics requires a lot of research and can be kinda time-consuming so there has to be a lot of motivation.  One also needs an intense need to spread the Truth of our Church.  I can honestly say that finding Jesus Christ in the one Church that He created has been the most important thing that's ever happened to me.  I feel like a blind person who's miraculously been given sight.  There's a whole new world to be discovered.  Just make sure that what you do is done for our Lord, His Mother, and for the benefir of the one you're sharing the faith with.  (I know--I ended a sentence with a preposition.  Tough.)

One has also to be continually learning.  But it doesn't have to be work!  Don't ever let it become work. And don't feel you have to do a lot of memorisation.  Okay.  You need a copy of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.  Even before a Bible.  One of the greatest things about the Catholic Mass is that so much of the Bible is read to us in the course of three years.  No matter how good your Catholic education was, though, you will always need a reference that can refresh your memory quickly and easily about what the Church teaches.  The folks you meet often have very distorted ideas of what Catholics believe and this is the resource you need to set them straight.  As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "Millions of people in America hate what they think Catholic Church  believes but not fifty would hate what She really believes."  (Or words to that effect.)

Another book I've found incredibly helpful is Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism.  It contains several chapters on prominent anti-Catholic notables and the works they've used to attack the Catholic Church.  These are followed by several chapters which deal briefly with various subjects which separate Catholics from Protestants and how to answer those objections they bring up.  DON'T FORGET: you don't have to do it all.  All we have to do is plant a seed and let the Holy Ghost do the watering.  Usually we won't know the outcome of the evangelisation that we do but occasionally the Lord gives us a peek at the good that we've done.  I told a woman I'd worked with for years that I had joined the Catholic Church.  (This was back in 1999.)  Being a good Southern belle she was Protestant but said she'd been looking at the Catholic Church.  We talked about a few items but I ended up giving her a Rosary, telling her that it's a great prayer and one which many Protestants are beginning to embrace.  I'd completely forgotten this whole episode when she came up to me 6 or 7 years later and told me she joined RCIA and would be coming into the Church at Easter.  She said that the Rosary I gave her had been a big turning point for her. 

Now, I'm not saying this to toot my own horn but as an example of how we don't have to bear the whole burden.  Let Heaven help, ok?  Another written publication--or set, really--is the work of Jim Burnham and Steve Wood called Beginning Apologetics.  There are ten booklets in the set and they deal with a number of specific topics and several with specific religions.  They contain a lot of Biblical texts and are easy to follow and to refer to.  They are highly recommended, even for one who is not a novice!

Become familiar with a group called Lighthouse Catholic Media.  They specialise in low-cost MP3 downloads and CD's by a plethora of famous and familiar speakers on a plethora of topics.  (Don't you just love the word "plethora?")  Two titles I especially like are "7 Reasons to Be Catholic" by Peter Kreeft (a convert) and "Why I'm Catholic When I Could Be Anything Else" by Patrick Madrid (a cradle Catholic.)  Anything by Scott Hahn is fantastic.  He's forgotten more about the Catholic Church than most folks know.  Before coming into the Church Scott spent a lot of time with then Monsignor (now Bishop) Fabian Bruskewitz for counseling.  When Scott asked him if he would have to go through RCIA since Easter was two weeks away, Bishop Bruskewitz answered, "You could TEACH RCIA."  Get his conversion story.

This brings to mind something that you can mention to your contacts.  The Coming Home Network, founded by Marcus Grodi (himself a Protestant pastor and convert to Catholicism) has helped around six hundred Protestant ministers come into the Church, almost all of them giving up their sole source of livelihood and support of their families in order to follow Christ's call to come home.  Must mean there's really something to Catholicism, eh?

I can't stress the use of common sense enough.  It usually doesn't even require the memorisation of verses!  How neat is that?  For instance, if a fundamentalist calls the Catholic Church the "Whore of Babylon" (a favourite of theirs) ask why She's produced so many saints then.  Another example?  If someone gets in your face and insists his or her church is the true Church mention that the Catholic Church teaches the same doctrines now that She taught two hundred years ago.  Two hundred years ago the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mormons, and the Christian Scientists didn't even exist.  Five hundred years ago, we taught the same thing we teach now and NONE of the Protestant churches existed!

A couple of final hints.  You can either try to learn a smattering about a lot of different subjects or you can pick one doctrine, for example, the true presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and learn a whole lot about it.  You'll find that apologetics is a lot like Lay's potato chips--you keep wanting more.  Oh, and YOU pick the topic under discussion, don't let your friend do it.  That way you can talk about what you know the most about.  Finally, point out that if they find that the Catholic Church got it right in one doctrine, the chances are real good that they got it ALL right.  Give the glory to God and give your friend your love and send them on their way with a CD to listen to or a brochure or book to read.  It's fantastic When you find that you've been allowed by God to participate in the salvation of souls.  They don't need us but it's great to feel wanted.  Amen.