By David G Bonagura, Jr., The Catholic Thing, Feb. 19, 2023
David G. Bonagura Jr. an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary, New York. He is the author of Steadfast in Faith: Catholicism and the Challenges of Secularism and Staying with the Catholic Church: Trusting God’s Plan of Salvation.
As the years pass, I have learned that the most fervent fidelity to the Lord, at one stage in life, does not guarantee permanent fidelity. Devout couples, once on fire to begin their Catholic marriages, can disintegrate in bitter divorce. Priests, once exuberant to serve the Lord at their ordinations, can lose confidence in their vocations and leave the priesthood. Too many stories describe once prominent Catholics who left the Church for some other religion, or no religion at all.
These are large-scale dramatic examples of a reality that we all have likely seen on a smaller scale, and against which each of us must be on guard lest we, too, follow suit: that we can allow the light of faith to be diminished – or, worse, extinguished – in our souls as we wind along the pilgrimage of life. …
Continue reading >>>>