September 1, 2024 - Pastor Message
December 21, 2024BACK TO SCHOOL PART 2
BACK TO SCHOOL
PART 2
“My child, do not forget my teaching, take to heart my commands; for many days and years of life and peace will they bring you…Happy the one who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. Her profit is better than profit in silver, and better than gold is her revenue” (Proverbs 3:1-2, 13-14).
As our young people return to school and faith formation, we hear again the call to ongoing growth in our faith for all of us, whatever our age, through careful, prayerful, study. To help with that effort, I have assembled some free, online resources that I encourage you to check out for your own ongoing faith formation. The first and most obvious source of faith formation is God’s own Word in Scripture. If we want to get to know God better, what better way than to reflect deeply on his Word? Hopefully, everyone has a trusty Bible at home, but, if you don’t, or if it isn’t a study Bible, then I would direct you to the New American Bible available on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: https://bible.usccb.org/bible. They also have other helpful resources for diving deeper into the Bible and understanding it better, so go ahead and check them out too.
Another extremely useful resource for learning about our faith is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is a reference book that neatly summarizes our faith, covering pretty much every major topic. You can purchase your own copy of the Catechism from any major bookstore, or you can also access it for free online: https://www.usccb.org/resources/catechism-cahtholic-church. It has many footnotes that can lead to further exploration as well, so it is well worth checking when you have questions about particular teachings or topics.
For those who are ready to take next the next big step in your faith formation, a good place to look is the website of the Holy See, the office of the pope and his support staff: https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html. It gives us access to countless Church documents, including the writings of the popes, Church councils, canon law, and the latest Church news, just to name a few. If you are looking for a place to start, I would recommend the documents of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, the most important event in recent Church history that spelled out what we as a Church believe about all the core subjects of our faith: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/index.htm.
Finally, for more recent and more local information, I would always direct you to check out our own parish website: https://www.stbonifaceparisherie.org/, and the website of the Diocese of Erie: https://www.eriercd.org/. Special thanks to Tara Schupp for maintaining and updating our parish website. The above resources are just the tip of the iceberg for all that is available online to help us keep growing in our faith. A word of caution - not every resource online is reliable. It’s always best to use resources associated with official sites, like the Holy See or the USCCB or the Diocese. If you do branch out to other resources, give them the spiritual smell test. If the content on that site smells fishy, if it seems to contradict the official sites, it probably is fishy and should be avoided. With the caveat in mind, happy hunting, and go back to school this fall, learning all you can about your faith.
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