Do You Defend Your Faith

I am sure that if you live in a large area, or one that is predominately Catholic then you probably don't run into this problem very much if at all, but if you live in a area like I do to where you are the only Catholic among allot of Protestants then you have probably encountered this on more than one occasion.

I don't know about you, but as for me I am constantly having to defend my beliefs and my Church, from people who know very little if anything about it, and go on false teachings that they have received from others who know very little if anything about the Catholic Church.  Arch Bishop Fulton Sheen said it best we he said "There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church."  And that statement is just as true today, as it was back when he said it.

Some of the basic questions and comments that I receive on an almost daily basis are, don't you know that the Pope is the anti-Christ?, why do you all worship Mary?, You know that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon as spoken of in Revelations, You know you are not suppose to call any man Father, etc....  Oh how many times have I had to explain the answers to these same questions, shew if I had a dime for every stupid question that I have been ask I would be a millionaire.  I do have to say though one good thing about all of these constant questions is that it has made me have to study more about my Church and it's teachings so that I can be ready to defend it in battle.

I grew up in a family of Protestants Baptist to be exact and I constantly got to witness how they treated two of my aunts and their families that were Jehovah's Witnesses.  The comments that were made, the way that my family would act around them like they had some kind of deadly virus, all because they believed differently.  I now know how they felt, because in essence I have been treated the same way, and it pains my heart so much to know those kinds of hurt feelings all because they believe something that is a lie, and rather than checking it out for themselves they would rather go on believing those lies.

But it is in those times of battle that I stand firm on my beliefs and my Church, because I know the truth's that she holds.  Not only do I have a strong Church family here on earth to back me up, but I have all the Saint's in Heaven praying for me when I need it the most, oh how strong they all make me.  I can be having such a rough week that I just don't know how much more I can take, and then I go in the presence of the Lord and receive Him into my body and my strength is completely renewed so that I am ready to fight my battle for another week.