Faith and Mission
An Adult Faith Formation program offered by St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Kennesaw, GA. Meets Sunday mornings at 9am.
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Immaculate Conception and Perpetual Virginity
We’re going to talk about the dogma of the immaculate conception, but it requires us to make our peace with an understanding of the predestination of Mary and her human son Jesus. What we mean by predestination is that we need a way to understand God’s action in the created world given that God is Continue reading
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Introduction to Our Lady
We will spend some time on the principal teachings about Mary, some of which are required for authentic membership in the Church of Christ, and some of which are teachings that may help us grow as disciples of Christ. Then we will spend some time on Marian devotions and Marian apparitions. Marian Doctrines are Christological Continue reading
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Concluding the Religion of the Day
Here are some suggestions that might inform how we present Christ and the Christian faith in light of our current cultural world. None of these is new, but they may need greater emphasis at this time. The centrality of the person of Christ The only answer to the identity crisis the world finds itself in, Continue reading
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Fighting the Lord’s Battles
St. Paul says to the Corinthians: “though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” (II Cor 10:3-4) The Scriptures make clear that the kingdom established by God is founded on sources of strength Continue reading
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Fighting Back
It’s always important to remember that God wins. So if we stay close to him, we win also. But the battle continues to be fought even inside the church. Judas was not the last betrayer. Arius was not the last heretic. It is precisely within the church that we are meant to fight a zealous Continue reading
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The Church on All Souls
We meant to continue to talk about how the Church is not simply a human-level non-government organization even if it is a large government contractor, but somewhere along the way we got to talking about Purgatory. (We go where the Spirit leads.) Because the church is set up as a heavenly society in the midst Continue reading
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Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
This formulation has gained a lot of attention, and it quickly became obvious that moralistic therapeutic deism was not just the belief of millennial teenagers but was characteristic of whole swaths of the Christian world. The prevalence of this approach to Christianity represents a degenerate and weak state of Christianity that is highly vulnerable to Continue reading
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The Gnostic Outlook Through History
The progressive religion is one that: Like many deceptive things, its darker side is not immediately apparent. We have to understand the attractiveness of the progressive religion in order to consider how to counter its influence in our own lives and in the wider society. The Gnostic outlook through history As we have noted already, Continue reading
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Aspects of Progressivism
In progressive belief, the salvation that comes through the radical reordering of the external world is brought about solely by human effort. This is in contrast to the Christian understanding that salvation is accomplished by the initiative in the power of God himself. Humans participate and can cooperate with God’s plan, but God is the Continue reading
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Progressivism’s Structure
An unfortunate aspect of modern progressive religion it is not usually recognized as a dogmatic faith by its followers. Many of these modern progressives would describe themselves as rational, scientific, and non-religious. But challenge them on a core opinion, and you will run into a grip as tight as any faithful Christian would hold to Continue reading
Bound in Love 