www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Father Edward vs the Megachurch

BOB,

If I can remember, I will call Catholic Answers myself and ask about how to get a hold of the Tracts that Father Edward produced. I will reference the article from the link. They should help us out. If I'm successful, I'll post it here or PM it to you.

God Bless You,

Dr. Eric

Bob - it is http://www.catholic.com/ not Catholic.org

Click on the link, and then on the left-hand side of the screen under "Library" click on a topic.

Those are the tracts in digital format.


Like http://www.catholic.com/library/Mary_Ever_Virgin.asp

http://www.catholic.com/library/Infant_Baptism.asp

http://www.catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp

Thanks so much.

BOB

There are many Evangelicals who have a honest love of Christ and Scripture, these are the most likely to draw converts to their congregation. If they are active in trying to convert Catholics, it is possible that they would be open to the devotional and spiritual depths of the Church if they are kindly pointed in the right direction. There are many false assumptions about the Catholic church which circulate among Protestants, those tracts address the issues they like to focus on.

However, when approaching an Evangelical, besides those tracts, I would recommend a focus on what the mass means. An Evangelical will look to worship service as sermon and song oriented, that it is primarily pedagogical and/or prayerful. It will be very difficult for such a person to see why respect is given by the atmosphere of mass, or why the homily is so short and follows a particular format from parish to parish (why there are readings and then a homily).

This person could look at the structure of mass from the perspective of foreignness and not understand Who the focus is on and why it is important that communion is not open to everyone even in their sinfulness. Christ dined with sinners and violated the purification laws of the temple, so why is communion not open to all? An easy justification this person could make is that "everybody can come to our service and receive communion, if they profess a belief in Christ." And this is true.

The best response to that kind of argument is to explain the differences in ways that they would understand and to show that the mass is, indeed, Christ-centered. If they open enough that they can see that some Catholics love Christ as intensely as they wish to, then a good discussion can take place that may end up being fruitful.

Terry

Terry:

Excellent points.

BOB

How encouraging!