Happy Friday!

Some exciting things have happened this week!  From a book launch party on Sunday, to reaching a major milestone in the realm of Facebook….things have been going well here at Heroic Catholic Central. 😉 All praise and glory to God! Seriously. He’s the one making any of this possible.
I reached OVER 100 likes on the Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/HowToBecomeAHeroicCatholic):

100

Y’all – I’m so excited about that! From Monday to Now I’ve had close to 50 new likes. This is amazing!

One awesome fan received her book as a Birthday Present, and shared this epic photo with me:

RebeccaHero
She couldn’t wait to get her hands on a copy!

A couple days later, she shared her thoughts on what she’s read so far: “On chapter five and I already love this book! IT’S AWESOME!”

Rebeccaheropage

And last, but not least, my parish’s bulletin for this week features an article that I have to say is pretty sweet.

“So often we hear complaints about teenagers, but here is one in our midst,
who is truly making a difference in life and in faith!”
(Read the full article here) http://stpatrickbr.org/shamrock/November_16,_2014.pdf
Having the prayers, love, and support from my home parish means a lot to me.  I’ve grown up in St. Patrick parish, I teach 8th grade religion there, help out with the (amazing and beautiful) Children’s Choir…it’s a home to me.

I love it.

Our God is an Awesome God. One who knows our needs, and gives to us the strength and joy to do as He asks.  Every night I give to Him all that I am, all that I have, all I can offer. In return – He blesses His servant and grants peace and joy in the heart of His child.  Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Yes, I believe. Amen.

~Catherine

Advertisement

Sneak Peek #1

Guess what! 11 days till release! 😀 Lots of good things happening!  My editor is about 1/4 way through the proof copy as of today, not many changes to make! Working on hardcover covers (formatting those is fun.), editing, and planning more blog posts today.

But all the boring update stuff aside, it’s sneak peek time!

Here’s the first part of Chapter 1!

Catholics by Conviction

 

“The age of casual Catholicism is over; the age of

Heroic Catholicism has begun.

We can no longer be Catholics by accident but instead we must be

Catholics by conviction.”

-Fr. Terrence Henry, TOR,

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Fr. Terrence Henry is right. There’s no time to be casual in our Catholicism. We must be heroic in our faith! We (Catholics) need to be filled with our faith, fully immersed in it, ready to show the world what it truly means to be Catholic in today’s society.  In order to do that we must be confident in what we believe. We must know all of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our beliefs. These facts will be questioned and they will be twisted…which is why we must know the Truth.

We can’t be Catholic only when it is convenient. We can’t be Catholic only when the world says it’s okay.  We have to be Catholic because it is who we are. I don’t know about you, but my faith is my life.  My schedule every week is configured around Mass on Sunday. I spend time studying our faith; you’d be likely to catch me reading in my room from either St. Thomas’s Summa Theologica, or the Catechism or one of the many apologetics books that my mom has.  I realize that this not typical though. It’s countercultural. People aren’t likely to support it. This is the reason why we have to be that much more solid in our beliefs; so we can keep our beliefs throughout our life and not be led astray by what seems “cool” or “popular,” but rather stay rooted in our faith.

God calls each of us to be His ambassador and to spread His word. We are all charged with the command of spreading the Gospel and teaching those who know not Truth. This means we have to actually talk about our faith. It’s easy to sit back and not let faith be a big part of your life. It’s easy to leave it to other people. But that’s not what we’re called to do. We’re called to learn about our faith so we may teach others.

I’m always surprised, and not in a good way, by the lack of people who really know what their Faith is about.  Too many are simply Catholic because their families are. No. We must be Catholic because it is Truth.  To know Truth we have to first know the basics of defending it ourselves.  To do that we have to learn about not only what we believe, but why we believe it.

We have to be heroic Catholics. Why do I say that? Because look at the heroes in the world. From the Knights who went on the Crusades, to the Apostles who risked everything to spread Catholicism, to even people like the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson River a few years ago.

What do all those people have in common? They are heroes.

End sneak peek. 😉

What do you think?

If you like what you read, can you do me a favor?

Share this website with your friends! It’s easy, and I’d be extremely grateful.

Or, do you have a blog/website of your own? And are you interested in reading How To Become a Heroic Catholic before the release date? Tell me! One way that works very well to build up a good following for a book is to have reviews written and spread out on the internet before the release date. That’s what I’m looking for.

So if you’re interested in reading it and writing a review for me, posting it on your blog/website and possibly my Facebook page…comment here or send me a message on Facebook. I’ll be happy to talk to you about it.

Keep up the prayers! I’m praying for y’all too.

In Christ,

Catherine

Why “How to Become a Heroic Catholic”?

So I started a facebook page yesterday (https://www.facebook.com/HowToBecomeAHeroicCatholic/ )

And in celebration of reaching 50 likes I shared the inspiration for the title. Here you go!

“The age of casual Catholicism is over; the age of Heroic Catholicism has begun. We can no longer be Catholics by accident but instead we must be Catholics by conviction.”
-Fr. Terrence Henry

No longer Catholics by accident, no longer Catholics by convenience. But Catholics by conviction – Catholics ready to be heroic in their Faith, by defending it, by spreading it, by living it. Heroic Catholics.

And that’s where I got the title from. It wasn’t the original title for the book though. What was? Check back on Wednesday to find out. 😉

A late post on the Assumption of Mary

“Therefore the Virgin is immortal to this day, seeing that He who had dwelt in her transported her to the regions of her Assumption.” Timothy of Jerusalem (500 AD)

Happy Feast of the Assumption! I know this post is a few days late, but it’s still cool, right? 

And while it wasn’t until 1950 that the Assumption of Mary was defined as dogma (Pope Pius XII’s MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS), the belief of Mary’s assumption into Heaven was present long before.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, (referred to as simply “the Virgin” or “Virgin Mary” in many of the early writings, dating from as early as 90 AD. #funfact) has held, and will hold, a special place of honor in the hearts of the faithful. The more I study what the very first Catholics wrote, the more I realize just how special Mary is.

She’s not worshiped by us. (the heretical sect of Kollyridians offered worship to her, and their heretical society was put down by St. Epiphanius of Salamis in the 4th Century, who is perhaps best remembered for his polemics against the Kollyridians and the Antidicomarianates )

Jesus honored her. That’s pretty obvious. And therefore because He first honored her, so we do as well. As St. Epiphanius said,
“Whoever honors the Lord also honors the holy [vessel]; who instead dishonors the holy vessel also dishonors his Master. Mary herself is that holy Virgin, that is, the holy vessel.”

I could put so many, many quotes from the earliest centuries from the Church Fathers about Mary. (I have two huge books of them! ) but I’ll  put this single one. From the poet, St. Ephrem the Syrian;

“You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for their is no blemish in You nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?”

As for when the book will be released, I’m waiting to hear back from 2 people. They said they’d be back to me by the end of August. I’m expecting to be releasing the book in early/mid September. It’s on God’s time, not mine! He has a plan for the day and time to release it. All I must do is trust. 

In Christ,

Catherine

Book Update #2!

Hey y’all! I know it’s been a little while since I posted, and I apologize for that. I went on a lovely week long vacation to Orange Beach with my family. It was wonderful, aside from getting to eat sand after a wave pulled me off my boogie board. (not something I”d recommend you try)

Anyway, so when I got back from the beach I was able to put a few more touches on the back cover, and a few other little things like that. I also got back a copy of my book from the last person I had sent it to for review…that I had kinda forgotten about. And she had a lot of good comments and suggestions. That meant going and doing another draft, polishing it up, and then resending that to my publisher along with the fixed covers. All these little things add to the timeline for when it’ll be released. I still don’t have a solid release date yet. I’m hoping it’ll be just a couple weeks.

I’m excited to announce though that I’ve started work on the outline for another apologetics book, this one on Pro-Life apologetics. Being pro-life and being Catholic go hand in hand. You can’t be Catholic and “pro-choice”. You simply can’t. Anyone who tells you otherwise is mistaken. And part of being a heroic Catholic is knowing how to defend all those who have no voice. The children in the womb especially. I’ll post updates on that book as they come, right now my *very* optimistic goal is to have the rough draft completed by mid July. Then the really fun part begins.

I hope that all y’all’s summers are going wonderfully, and happy Feast of the Ascension!