Faith is a very personal thing. Although members of the same Church, it is almost certainly the case that, for each of us, what we as individuals believe will be slightly different from what everyone else believes.
Yet the Catholic Church professes one faith – a faith that is set out in the Catechism. In this section of our website you will find many links to the Catechism. However, the document itself is huge, not like the Penny Catechism for which I had to bring a farthing for each of the first four weeks when I began Infants School many, many years ago. The Catechism itself says that its intended readership are those responsible for catechesis, the teaching of the faith. However do not let that put you off delving into it for there is much there on which to spend time reflecting and praying.
For most of us however, our faith is a very precious, personal thing; a thing we often find difficult to express in words or to share with other people. Yet it is in the sharing of our faith that others are perhaps most likely to find understanding, common ground, even relief in knowing that other people share their own difficulties with parts of the Church’s teaching.
So, if you feel able to put down in words your own feelings or understanding and are willing to share that with others please email us. We are not looking for great intellectual treatises but simple, brief, personal testimonies.
We would also like to add articles that will help people to pray. The Catechism describes different types of prayer but not how to pray. The Church has many traditional devotions but the number of Catholics who know about them, understand them and pray them is dwindling. How do I pray on my own? How do I pray with my children? How do I teach my children to pray? These are all topics we hope to include in time. Again, we will welcome the work of aspiring authors who are willing to share their experience with others.
There are some prayer groups and bible study groups in the parish and you will find information about those.