Because October is Rosary month and tomorrow, October 7th, is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, I have been focusing on Our Lady of the Rosary in a few different ways.  These include learning about the Rosary, saying a 54 Day Rosary Novena and designing a new Rosary pamphlet for my Etsy shop.

A Bit About Our Lady of the Rosary

About the 54 Day Novena

My Rosary Pamphlet

I designed a trifold Rosary pamphlet for Rosary month and listed it in my Etsy printables shop.  The pamphlet includes all of the traditional Rosary prayers and has a complete list of the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous mysteries (listed under the days of the week they are to be recited).

The pamphlet is available for digital download at $1.25  But if you can't afford to purchase the pamphlet for any reason please contact me through Etsy and I'll provide the PDF free of charge.

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You can see my Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary Trifold Pamphlet on Etsy at the following link.

You can read more about my decision to pray the 54 Day Rosary Novena here: How I'm Celebrating Rosary Month

See this pamphlet in my shop, Catholic Book And Card!

The 54 Day Rosary Novena  

“Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today.” – St. Padre Pio

It was true, as many have said, that the movie minimized that the gravity of the Blessed Mother's message,  the true nature of the miracle of the sun and the cruelties the children endured.  In my estimation, it is also true that this does weaken the film.  

But in most other ways, the story was very true to the actual events.  The acting, particularly on the part of the young visionaries, was wonderful.  The three visions were portrayed in a fairly accurate way.  And the representation of the Blessed Mother was handled well, in  my opinion.

I'm not sure why the producers decided to play down certain aspects of the apparitions but the end result was a movie that anyone (Catholic or non-Catholic) of any age could enjoy.  To me, this was no small thing. 

I was wary of choosing "Fatima" for our weekly family movie matinee because I was worried that it would be too religious for some.  But this was not the case.  Everyone liked it.  

The movie could have been more powerful, yes.  But it touched me anyway.  I cried at the end and after it was over, I resolved to learn more about Our Lady of Fatima.  

And I have been.

To me, this is a good result.  Good enough to make me think that it wasn't so much the film that moved me, as it was the Our Lady herself.

Either way, I'm going to share a bit about what I'm learning in future posts!

Here is the trailer:

Why I'm Doing a Catholic Study Program

The 3 Main Areas I Decided to Study

Catholic Study: Apologetics

Apologetics Resources

My Goals

Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration. - James 1:17, Douay Rheims Bible

The Bible in Catholic Apologetics

I read Trent Horn's Book, 20 Answers - The Bible last weekend.  It is a great book that answered a lot of questions for me. I especially loved how he used Scripture to help explain the tenants of our Catholic faith.  Which made me think about my own relationship to Scripture.

It had been a long time since I'd done any personal Bible study.  Part of the reason for that, I realized, was the way I'd seen the Bible used as a weapon against others on YouTube and social media. 

Then I thought about how I had once loved Bible study and made a commitment to return to it.  Happily, I ordered a Catholic Bible study called Letters from Prison.

Troubled Sleep

I felt good about the weekend and about my decision to study Scripture but for some reason, I couldn't seem to fall asleep that Sunday night.  As the hours passed, I began to worry about this and that.  Then I started to worry about the fact that I was worrying and whether or not that worry showed a lack of faith.

So I began to talk to God about it.  Which meant, I realized, that the faith was there.  I believed He was listening and that He was at work in my life. I even had faith that he would see things through according to His plan - despite my concerns.  

But that didn't mean that I was entirely off the hook.  There was a reason why I was worrying.  The truth was, there were things I wasn't handling as well as I should.

I turned on the light and made a list of things I needed to do - no matter what.  Then I prayed the Rosary and recited other favorite Catholic prayers, all of which were peppered with prayers for my family.  Finally I started to feel a sense of peace.  Just before sunup, I fell asleep.

Monday morning came.  I was tired.  But I felt good about my list.  I would do what I could and have faith in God's ability to handle the rest.

So after I had ticked off the items for that day, I decided to do a bit of Bible study and found myself drawn to the book of James. 

I have always thought about James 2:14-18 as being about doing things for other people.  And it certainly worked on that level for me. 

My first vocation is my family.  So feeding people and making them comfortable is part of my daily work.  Some of the things I'd been worrying about the night before, in fact, had to do with the state of my home and how I care for my family.

But I noticed something else in the passage.

In the first two lines James asks if faith (alone) can save someone who doesn't do any good works.  Then he goes on to talk about charity to others.  So, to me, the question is not only about helping others.  It is about helping ourselves as well.

So how do good works help the one who does?  

I had just spent the day attending to things - like housework and my Etsy shop and my overgrown garden.  I had accomplished things. I felt good about the things that would benefit my family.  And I  was pretty sure I was going to sleep.

But that wasn't what had helped me the most.  What had really helped me was turning to God in prayer and saying the Rosary and reading the Bible.  Those spiritual actions (or works), weren't necessarily inclusive.  In another situation, I might have sought out a different spiritual remedy.   But I had taken action.  And it had made a difference.

Publicly, writing about a controversial passage like this one is a little intimidating.  On a personal level, however, I'm reminded how the Bible can, and does, speak to me and how much it can help.  

I'm glad I came back to it.   But that doesn't mean there aren't challenges.

The James 2:24 Controversy

There has been a lot of debate about James 2 between Catholics and Protestants.  Often the debate begins with the verses I quoted above and continues to verse 24.  Some (though not all) of these arguments are based on misunderstandings.

Like the Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church agrees that we are saved (or justified) by faith.  But the Church also believes that our works can lead to ongoing sanctification and that some works, if sufficiently egregious can lead to a loss of salvation (though this is referenced in other verses).

This and other differences between Catholic and Protestant were delineated at the Council of Trent.  But what a lot of people don't realize is that James 2:24 ("Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?") wasn't the verse upon which the Council's rejection of Luther's specific application of the "faith alone" doctrine was rejected. It was actually, according to Catholic apologist Jimmy Aiken, a combination of verses.

It was actually, according to Catholic apologist Jimmy Aiken, a combination of verses.

After discussing the justification that occurs at the beginning of the Christian life, Trent quotes several passages from St. Paul on how Christians grow in virtue by yielding our bodies to righteousness for sanctification. It states that by good works we “increase in that justice received through the grace of Christ and are further justified” (DJ 10).  It is in the context of this growth in righteousness—and in this context only—that Trent quotes James 2:24: “Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?”  Trent thus relates James’s statement not to the initial justification that occurs when we first come to God but to the growth in righteousness that occurs over the course of the Christian life. - Jimmy Aiken, Catholic Answers Magazine, Faith and Works

As Aiken explains it the kind of "faith alone" doctrine the council was concerned with was the kind of faith alone that doesn't cooperate with God's grace. Calvinists like John MacArthur believe in this application of faith alone, while other Protestants (such as the Wesleyan denominations) believe in ongoing sanctification.  Despite this, the faith vs. works argument remains a point of contention between Catholics and Protestants.  

My Takeaway 

I learned a couple of different things from this one sleepless night.

One was that I needed to cooperate a bit more proactively with God's plan for my life.  This led me to give some serious thought to my vocation as a mother and homemaker.  Which, in turn, helped me to redefine my priorities.

The experience helped me to become more aware of the many differences between Catholic and Protestant doctrine.  It surprises me that I haven't given this more thought but know it's something I need to put into some kind of coherent personal context in order to write the last couple chapters of my testimony.  

Reading the book of James and just barely scratching the surface of the controversary surrounding it highlights how much I have to learn both about the Bible and the Church.  Which isn't discouraging to me at all.  In fact, I'm looking forward to it.

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My New Age to Protestant to Catholic Bible Journey 

I've got more to say about my experience as a Protestant than I previously realized.  I'm working on the additional chapter this created now.  But I wanted to share a little bit about where I'm going with it here.

As always, feedback is very much appreciated.

Reform Protestantism and the Guidance of God

If you heard part 1 of my audio testimony you know that I left the New Age in 2017 to return to Christianity.  If you heard part 2 you know that I spent over two years as Protestant before coming back Catholicism in early 2020.  

In testimony 2 (linked below) I talk about the first Protestant Church I attended - a non-denominational Evangelical / Reform congregation - but I don't go into a lot of detail about why I left.  Now, however, I'm beginning to realize I need to talk about it in a bit more depth in the ebook.

I encountered a few different issues during my time as a Protestant that I think are worth talking about.  One was that the church I had joined was "cessationist."

In Protestantism, different denominations have different beliefs so it's important to note that  not all Protestant cessationists believe the same thing.  Some believe miracles can still occur, for example, while others do not.  But the church I belonged to back then believed that all supernatural, spiritual gifts, like God-given dreams or visions, ceased at the end of the apostolic age.   

This view was a problem for me because I occasionally had dreams and visions that I took as personal guidance from the Holy Spirit.  Unfortunately, according to most Reform Protestant sources I referred to, these experiences were considered to be either a figment of my imagination or demonic in origin.

Having been involved in the New Age I knew that such things could and did happen - though I didn't believe that that was what was going on with me at the time.  

But that wasn't my only issue. 

The Bible as the Only Way to Learn About God or His Will for Us

I also struggled with the doctrine of sola scriptura or "Scripture alone."  This is the idea that all information about the faith can be found explicitly in (and only in) the Bible.  This belief went hand in hand with the things I was hearing from various Evangelical groups about the Catholic Church - including, but not limited to, claims that the Catholic doctrine was "made up" and therefore in serious, nonbiblical error.

At the time, it seemed odd to me that the Church didn't know the Bible.  Especially given the fact that it was the Catholic monasteries that had preserved the written Word of God through the dark ages by carefully copying the books of the Bible over and over by hand.  But, sadly, I accepted it - even though I had converted to Catholicism in the nineties and been a practicing Catholic for several years prior to my involvement in the New Age.  

One of the reasons I was able to accept the apparent errors of the Church was that I knew almost nothing about Catholic Sacred Tradition.

While it seems incredible to me now, I didn't understand that Sacred Tradition was one pillar of Catholic belief.  Or that the other pillar was Scripture.  Or that that Sacred Tradition, while not always spelled out with absolute clarity in the Bible, never actually contradicts what is written there. 

But even though I understood almost none of that then, I did notice that some of things that the Evangelicals believed were contradictory to my understanding of Scripture.  To me, this included some key Evangelical beliefs about the absolute primacy of the written Word, the irrevocable nature of salvation and the cessation of the spiritual / supernatural gifts.  

Because many Protestant denominations believe that everyone can interpret the Bible on their own, I heard a lot of people say that this verse or that proved these beliefs but, for me, none of those verses really worked - in context.

The Approach of the Wesleyan Protestant Denominations

Catholic Apologetics and Trent Horn on YouTube

God's Guidance in Catholicism