St. Monica prayed many years for the conversion of her son Augustine.  It is therefore important to remind yourself that God’s time is not our time. It is also important that we continue to grow stronger in our own faith life.  Here are the last two steps from Brandon Vogt’s article in bold and my commentary in normal font.  

  I have dedicated this month’s Spiritual Ponderings to reflect on ideas of how best to bring fallen away Catholics back to the Catholic Church.  I know that this is an important topic too many of us because I believe we all know at least one person who has fallen away from the daily living out of one’s faith. Brandon Vogt’s article: “Seven Steps to Bring Your Child Home To the Faith” is providing us with the structure we need for this important topic that always has the possibility of derailing into many different tracks of thought if we are not capable. Quotes from Brandon’s article will be in bold and my commentary will be in the normal font. 

I have dedicated this month’s Spiritual Ponderings to reflect on ideas of how best to bring fallen away Catholics back to the Catholic Church.  Brandon Vogt’s article: “Seven Steps to Bring Your Child Home To the Faith” is providing us with the structure we need for this important topic that always has the possibility of derailing into many different tracks of thought if we are not capable. Quotes from Brandon’s article will be in bold and my commentary will be in the normal font. 

I cannot think of anything more important for Catholics today than the issue of fallen away Catholics.  I believe all of us know at least one person who has drifted away from the Church during our lifetime.  Sadly the people we know are close family members.  Sadly many of these people leave the Church because they have had a negative experience with someone (or someones) or they never received the faith in its fullest form.  I know for a fact that if I had not gone onto the seminary, I would not be Catholic today because the information I received in religious education classes were simply inadequate.  (Nothing against my teachers for they were good people, who strived to do their best).  I would like therefore this month to devote my spiritual ponderings to reflecting on how to invite people to give the Catholic Church another chance to be their spiritual home.  In order to provide a structure for these reflections, I will be referring to a 2015 article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Seven Steps to Bring Your Child Home To the Faith” by Brandon Vogt.    Quotes from Brandon’s article will be in bold and my commentary will be in the normal font.