5. Good Soil

[Mike]

The bishop states:
"I spoke of my grandmothers, both of whom provided that good soil." (pg 13).
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From my personal experience, I wrote of my mother to a friend once, in a letter, as follows:

"Our families conversion is even to this day curious to me...still more questions than answers...and Mom's conversion was so simple that it has taken me years to begin to understand.
- Nun's pray the rosary atop Nazareth hospital in her home town - Mineral Wells.
- Catholic girls attend mass, dressed in white, down the street from her Baptist church.
- Audrey Hepburn in "The Nun".
- Princess Grace's wedding.
-... ?
This amazes me more every time I consider it. Mom - a young woman - chooses the Catholic faith. And it not because of the Eucharist (or rather a knowledge of It), or even the teaching of the Church Fathers. Neither did it result from some "bad experience" of her childhood. She was drawn to the Church by its culture, as presented by women. She recognized beauty, and nobility and wanted, simply, to approach it. How many saints in heaven are embarrassed by this? How many giants struggled, knocking down intellectual barrier after barrier before arriving? Mom wasn't evangelized into the faith, she simply pursued its reflection, as presented by Catholic culture, shimmering sublimely around her. What greater complement could she have given the creator? "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom as a child, shall not enter into it." The more I mull over this, the more I am dumbfounded; and sadly wonder if this type of conversion is even possible today."
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Question
What is the soil like today in our parishes and homes?

(I personally feel I have failed in presenting, handing off the "culture"...although I have tried hard to hold back the tides of the toxic culture we find ourselves in)
Comments?

[John]

All we can do is provide the soil and try to plant seeds. I returned to the Church and my wife converted because God pulled back the curtain and showed us his love and grace at work in a Catholic family. It wasn't the Eucharist, or intellectual engagement, but being enough of a searcher to be willing to pursue beauty and truth when we saw it.

[Madeleine]

John wrote: " It wasn't the Eucharist, or intellectual engagement, but being enough of a searcher to be willing to pursue beauty and truth when we saw it. " If we failed to keep our children in the faith, I do hope and pray that the love of truth and beauty we instilled in each of them will ultimately bring them back. I have seen that my young adult grandson found his way to explore the faith through the Newman Club in college. Unfortunately, CoVid sent most of his Catholic friends home to virtual classes. But the seeds have been planted, and I stay in touch with St. Monica.

[John]

Mike wrote: "The bishop states:
"I spoke of my grandmothers, both of whom provided that good soil." (pg 13).
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From my personal experience, I wrote..."

Great question, Mike. Thank you for adding it.

[John]

I was gong to create a question about the centrality of Catholic families to the re-Christianization of the West, but realized it is really an aspect of the question Mark posted about Good Soil.

In Chapter 4, Bishop Schneider, in answer to the question of how to bring Christ back to Western society, said "We have to create Catholic, Christian families and they have to penetrate slowly once again into political, social and cultural life. We have to rebuild our Christian culture, for there is no longer an authentic culture in Europe."

[Mike]

I think there is a lot of truth in that statement. We have lost (discarded?) our Catholic /Christian culture. Western Civilization has been replaced with an unmoored secularism that is solid in one feature - it's hostility to the former culture. We are, as the Bishop states: increasingly anthropocentric. Godless. I agree with his diagnosis and his prescription. The prescription being: Restore the faith at a cellular level, beginning with holy families. This is what will be required to sustain the upcoming persecution. I fear we are entering - soon - an age of martyrdom within what used to be known as Christiandom.

[Madeleine]

I agree that the family is key to saving God's Kingdom on earth.
I think Vatican II eroded the strong support system for Catholic families that people of my generation grew up with. I think there is a perpetual struggle with bringing the faith into the world and our current culture, vs. turning the Church into a Catholic ghetto. I can
think of so many things I would have done differently in raising my
own children, had I known then what we have become now.

[John]

Madeleine wrote: "I can
think of so many things I would have done differently in raising my
own children, had I known then what we have become now."

Amen and amen. Our children would have been homeschooled, for one.

[John]

John wrote: "Madeleine wrote: "I can
think of so many things I would have done differently in raising my
own children, had I known then what we have become now."

Amen and amen. Our children would have been hom..."

Of course, that assumes my reversion back to the Church almost a decade before it actually took place.