Preparing For Battle

[Andrea348]

I was talking to one of my friends from college on the computer today and I realized how much stronger my orthodox views have become over the summer since I started reading the boards on phatmass. She was talking about woman preists, female altar servers, eucharistic ministers, and how she thought the Pope ws too conservative on a bunch of topics. She also believes that the church has come so far and returning to more conservative viewpoints is totally moving back instead of forward.

My biggest problem with my faith is being able to defend it. It is easy for me to believe things, but hard for me to explain WHY I believe things and explain myself. I realized tonight that I need to start making a consious effort to read up on the why's of the Catholic faith and be prepared to stand up for what I believe in when I go back to school.

Any help you can provide about sites that would be beneficial would be greatly appreciated, but I think I mostly need a lot of prayer.

[Aloysius]

well [url="http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showforum=21"]The Reference Section[/url] has basically every topic you could ever think of

[phatcatholic]

my suggestion is to start with the [url="http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showtopic=10116"][b]Practical Apologetics[/b][/url] entry. it has a wealth of information for the beginning apologist. there are articles for beginners that provide helpful hints and the basics of apologetics. i have also listed document libraries and other resources that you should put in your "favorites" and refer to often if you ever have a question about catholicism. there are lists of the best in catholic books and literature, which will help you inform your faith. what is most helpful are the "Scripture References" and "Testimony of the Early Church Fathers" sections. these contain biblical backup and early testimony for almost all of our catholic beliefs.

from there, go to the [url="http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showtopic=4464"][b]Sola Scriptura[/b][/url] entry. this is the first topic every apologist should master. the rule of authority is THE dividing line between catholics and protestants, and ALL debates ultimately reduce down to this topic.

also, there is no pressure to digest all of this immediately. take ur time. soak it in at your own pace. you have a lifetime to learn all there is to know, and even a lifetime is not time enough.

good luck, and if you have any questions, please let me know.

pax christi,
phatcatholic

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

I would stick with the Phatmass reference section.

Ave Maria,

Andy

[Crusader_4]

Yes the reference section here is really good also befriend a good conservative Priest or theologican in your diocease so when you have issues you can have a human face to talk to and disucss i fin that helps me out a lot.