© Copyright 2013 Success Publishing & Media, LLC
Grow in love for God this New Year
Why do Catholics
obey the Pope?
Discovering
hope and joy
in the Catholic faith. January 2013
In Matthew 16:13-19, Jesus
changed Simon’s name to
Peter (“rock”) making him
the foundation of the
Church. Jesus gave Peter the
keys to the kingdom of
God on earth and the power
of binding and loosing,
which in Judaism meant
giving him the authority to
interpret the Scriptures and bring
people into communion with the
Church. Peter traveled to Rome
and became its rst
bishop. His
successors, the
popes, receive the same
position and authority
Peter had as head of the
Church.
The more we know God, the more we
love him. It naturally follows because of
who he is. But we can’t love someone
we don’t know. When
making New Year’s
resolutions, consider
adding a plan for
deepening your
knowledge of God.
Learn and study our
faith.
The Catholic Church
leads us to God and we
have two millennia of
inspired Church teaching to
help.
For a start, the prayers
and readings at Mass
remind us of what
we know about
God. To go deeper,
we can turn to the
works of many reliable
Catholic authors. For
example,
The Catholic Way
by Cardinal
Donald W. Wuerl, uses easy-to-
understand language to explain many
wonderful aspects of our doctrine and
practice. (Your pastor may have more
suggestions.)
Pray constantly.
The better we
know God, the more time we will
want to spend with him but life
can interfere with formal prayer.
Pope Benedict recently advised,
“Offer everything you
do to the Lord, ask his
help in all the
circumstances of
daily life and
remember that he
is always beside
you." Make
prayer a constant,
two-way
conversation with God.
Choose joy over
happiness.
Happiness
comes from pursuing the
rewards of this world. Joy is pursuing
those of the next. Happiness never
lasts. Joy lasts forever but can only
come from knowing and loving God.
A Christian’s job
As followers of Christ, our primary
job is to love. "Keep the joy of
loving God in your heart and
share this joy with all you
meet especially your family.
Be holy – let us pray." Blessed
Teresa of Calcutta
Help Catholics come
home
Do you know someone who
was baptized Catholic but has
stopped attending Mass, is
questioning the faith, or
hasn’t found a parish home?
Why not help your friend to
come home? Perhaps you can
act as a resource or offer to
attend Mass together. If you
aren’t sure how to help, ask
your pastor or priest for
advice.
January saint
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is
the Year of Faith saint we
celebrate in January. A wealthy
American, St. Elizabeth
became Catholic after her
husband died. Despite much
personal tragedy, she founded
the Sisters of Charity of St.
Joseph, a
teaching
order that
established
affordable
schools.
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