The Seventh Age

As someone who is a convert to Catholic faith, I invest lots of prayer and argument into getting people into the Church. A friend serving as a sponsor for candidates for reception at a local parish was telling me that some of the people taking classes on the faith have discovered that being a Catholic is more than just talking about "community," tacky statuary, and bad church music. Dogma is not always so friendly, even if it is man's best friend. So let us pray for those who've begun their journeys that they will keep going and not let difficulties about the faith turn into doubt. I thought these words from a Christmas prayer of Pope John XXIII to the Child Jesus were fitting:

Calm aggressive minds, convert the erring, make your people holy, preserve the purity of virgins, guard the faithfulness of married men and women; fortify the chaste; enlighten those who have only just begun follow your teaching, and confirm them, make them worthy of loftier attainment, and may we at the last all be eternally reunited in your kingdom, O Jesus, together with you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory, honour and blessing for ever and ever. Amen.