Becoming Catholic

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith." Romans 1:16

S C H E D U L E

Weekly Teaching Sessions

Thurs, 6:00 - 7:15 PM "Basic Training" — Repeated three times per year (starting in Aug, Nov and Feb), this is the starting point for new "seekers" desiring to know more about Christianity and its founder, Jesus Christ. Over 14 weeks, you'll journey as part of a small group and ponder life's big questions: Why am I here? Where am I going? How do I get there? The answers to these questions are found through the presentation of a magnificent story called the gospel. You'll discover that this story continues today and you have an essential role to play in God's plan for the world. Most importantly, you'll come to realize all that Jesus expects of his disciples and must consciously decide whether you want to become one.

Thurs, 7:30 - 8:45 PM "School of Discipleship" — For those who choose to continue, the adventure expands dramatically. You still attend weekly teaching sessions to learn the Creed, the sacraments, morality and prayer. Further, you begin living out the Catholic faith in the context of the parish community, to include weekly Sunday Mass, service opportunities and social events. You'll be introduced to a sponsor who will share his/her witness and help you meet other parish family members. Our model is to teach you, equip you, and activate you to grow in personal holiness and to take up the mission of making other disciples as Christ commanded. This apprenticeship stage of the journey lasts upwards of a year, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter.

In-person sessions are currently held at St. Mary of the Assumption, 9579 Yankee Rd, Springboro, OH. To learn more and begin attending, please contact Chris Stier at 937-977-1137 or cstier@stjohnpaulii.org.

2024-2025 Schedule can be found here!

F A Q

Thank you for your interest in becoming Catholic! We praise God that he called you here! We look forward to helping you get to know him more deeply. Let’s begin by answering four common questions.*

Why be Catholic?

The only reason why anyone should ever become Catholic...is because it’s true.
Don’t become Catholic...because you’re getting married to a Catholic man.
Don’t become Catholic...because you love her.
Only decide to become Catholic after coming to the conviction that it’s true.
People who begin to perceive Christianity might be true...sooner or later they come to the understanding that it’s going to mean serious changes for their life.
If Jesus is Lord, what do lords do? They rule. If Jesus is my Lord, then he rules me.

Why so long?

Because of something which happened a long time ago, every one of us is hardwired to rebel against God.
I don’t want anyone to rule me. I want to be god. I want to be in charge. I want to be on the throne in my life.
Appropriately, the Church has a tremendous respect for the intellect. Over a period of months we’ll talk about the reasons for believing, and also discuss areas which are a matter of critical thinking - like morality.
When it comes to moral principles (e.g., abortion, contraception, homosexuality), what the Church proposes may be very different from how we tend to think about things. Out of respect for you, this process takes time.
To be clear, you’re not taking a course to become Catholic. Christian initiation is a journey, sometimes a long one. The journey is not to a destination but to a person, the person of Jesus Christ.
This is a process of conversion, communion and discipleship.

What does it mean to be Catholic?

To be Catholic is to be a disciple. To be a disciple is to be an apprentice: we watch the Master do something and then we imitate him.
Jesus says we are to become like him. The goal of being Catholic is to be transformed and become like Jesus.
To reiterate, you don’t take a course to become Catholic. This is not about mere information. Yes, we will explore much of Jesus’ teaching over a period of months. The goal however is not to amass knowledge, but to experience transformation.

How do you become one?

You have to choose to become a disciple of Jesus.
You cannot be Catholic by birth. You cannot be Catholic because your mom and dad were Catholic. You can’t even be Catholic only by baptism.
The only way to become a Catholic is the only way to become a disciple, which is to make a choice. And the choice is to go through what the Church calls conversion.
Conversion is one of the ways of translating the Greek word metanoia, which literally means to change the way you think. This is why the Church provides a long period for you to discern if you want to become Catholic. To become Catholic is not to see some things differently, but to see everything differently.
Jesus prayed that all would know the Father. He doesn’t mean simply knowing about God, but rather that our lives would be so overturned by having an encounter with the living God that he becomes the love of our life.

G E T T I N G T O K N O W Y O U

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