Catholics are becoming casual Christians

IPOH (herald Malaysia): The triduum Masses at the Church of St Michael, leading up to the feast of St Michael, St Gabriel and St Raphael, highlighted the trend of Catholics becoming casual Christians, why Catholics believe in angels, and transmitting our faith to others.

Fr Jude Miranda, Fr Stanley Antoni and Fr Simon Anand were the preachers Sept 28-Sept 30.

Fr Jude outlined three ways of discarding our attitude of becoming casual Christians.

This should be done by breaking the mirror of self and seeing others to follow Christ. Secondly, listen to Jesus and renounce our selves to follow the will of God. Lastly, we are called to follow Christ by giving out the same mercy, love and compassion of God which we have experienced ourselves, through forgiveness.

“Keep our eyes on Jesus and we will value what God wants. Don’t be distracted by other things,” he said.

Fr Stanley, the rector of the main seminary, challenged the people to reflect and name their cardinal sins, and explained how the Archangels play a great role in helping us overcome our cardinal sins.

He said, based on Scripture readings, we understand why angels are given to us.

We are called to grow in spiritual warfare, since the world today is in turmoil. The root cause lies in the seven cardinal sins — anger, envy, lust, pride, gluttony, sloth and covetousness. They are the ones we are so often warned against by theologians.

These capital or cardinal sins hold very real consequences for us, our progress in our faith, and our happiness in this world and hereafter.

“Ask St Michael to help us engage in battle with our cardinal sins because, as Christians, we know the truth resides in God,” he said.

Fr Simon Anand spoke on how we can become effective witnesses and transmit our Catholic faith by staying connected to the Church’s desires.

“We talk about our faith, and this must be followed by action with passion. There must be credibility in us, meaning others must see in us Jesus Christ,living in our lives,” he said.

He added that St Michael gives us that direction in our life. “We glorify God by our full consciousness, that is, we are fully alive and awake in our faith,” he said.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online