Posted on March 21, 2025
Catechism Meditation:
Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: “Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith.” To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be “working through charity,” abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church. ―No. 162
REFLECTION. We all know people who have fallen away from the Catholic faith. Sometimes Catholics fall away from the Church for various reasons, they reject the idea of religion and God altogether, and many remain detached from the Church for the rest of their lives. This can be disheartening for Catholics still within the Church. They want to encourage those who have left to return to the Church, but don’t know how.
We must give consistent good example and offer deliberate and specific sacrifices for those we love. Besides our positive example, the best thing to do is to pray constantly for the Good Shepherd to do His work and search out the one sheep who has strayed from the flock. He is the only one capable of carrying that soul back into the flock and is the one to whom our prayers should be addressed.
In our journey through life, we often face challenges and uncertainties that can shake our confidence and test our faith. To avoid falling away, it requires a daily commitment to God. We need to continually turn to God and must persevere in His truth with thankful hearts. It’s not always easy, but even in times of trial, we need to affirm God’s goodness and thank Him for His many blessings.
PRAYER. Dear God, I trust in Your miraculous power. Increase my faith, so I may never doubt what You can do. Bring all those souls who have gone away from the paths of truth and unity, and from the one fold of the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, into the by-paths of error. Bring them back to You and to Your Church. Give them a humble and docile heart. Give them a strong desire of finding out Your truth, and a strong grace to enable them to embrace it. Amen.
Timeless Wisdom Quote:
“In almost nine cases out of ten, those who have once had the Faith but now reject it, or claim that it does not make sense, are driven not by reasoning but by the way they are living.” ― Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
Featured Video:
When Someone You Love Walks Away From God / Leaves the Church (8:28)
