Continuing the Journey Wherever It Takes Us

I just received a very touching phone call from a sweet little lady in California. She explained to me that she was a Catholic as a child but faded away from the Church for a long time. Now, at age 84, she has returned and is trying to do her best to get back into the swing of things.

She had been given a copy of Handbook for Today's Catholic, (Liguori Publications) and had a question about something she read in it. This particular book is an all time bestseller for Liguori. Revised and updated about four or five times, it has sold over 5 million copies in the last thirty years.

Through the years I have heard the stories of a lot of folks who have "fallen away" from the Church for one reason or another. I have to confess, I have been a "cradle Catholic" all my life and never experienced a period when I did not go to Church regularly. Even as a teenager (which is when many start to fall away) I played the organ at Sunday Mass and Tuesday devotions to Our Mother Perpetual Help in my hometown parish. That probably gave me something to do at Church so I never got bored there, as many people claim is the problem.

Liguori Publications has quite a number of books, videos, pamphlets and leaflets on the subject of Catholics who have fallen away from the Church and later want to return. One in particular is a new one by author Sally Mews: Catholics Continuing the Journey. The great thing about this book is that not only is it useful for "returning" Catholics, but it makes a great study guide for small groups of parishioners who always have been active in the Church. Here is an excerpt from its preface:

Is the status of our relationship with God determined by loving choices or obedience to laws or by both?

Many people do not want to love because love is hard work, time consuming, frequently frustrating, never absolutely certain, and requires involvement of the heart and surrender of deepest emotions.

And then Jesus comes along and says to us: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

...It may well be that the only thing that Jesus will ask us after our death will be the question he asked Peter: "Do you love me?" And if the answer truthfully is yes, the doors of heaven will swing open.

Now that's an attractive brand of religion!