Catholic publications
weave
faith into our lives
The following editorial was written in
honor of February as Catholic Press Month by Archbishop John P. Foley,
president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications
and former editor of The Catholic Standard and Times. The editorial
appeared in The Catholic Standard and Times on February 8, 2001.
As our lives are formed by many
influences -- our parents, our teachers, our relatives, our friends, our
neighbors, the communications media -- so our faith is also subject to
many influences.
Most of us have received our faith
through our parents, who sought baptism for us when we were infants and
who taught us our first prayers. Many of us went to Catholic
schools, others to after-school or Sunday religious instruction.
Most of us, I hope, have been faithful in attendance at Mass on Sundays
and holy days.
Faith, however, is not the finished
product of childhood education or of Sunday obligation. It must be
woven into the fabric of our lives not only through prayer and good works,
but also through continued reflection stimulated by frequent reading of
Catholic publications.
Catholic newspapers, magazines and
books help to weave the tapestry of our faith with threads of guidance in
doctrine, in morality, in prayer and in the Church's social teaching.
As we cannot appreciate a tapestry
from behind, because we see only where the work was done, we often do not
appreciate the continuing formative effect of the reading of Catholic
literature.
Others, however, are able to appreciate the tapestry of
our faith because they see Catholic truly informed in and indeed
transformed by their faith; they see a faith woven into the fabric of our
lives.
Source: The Catholic Standard
and Times. Used with Permission.
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