A Minute in the Church: Back to the Basics

Gus Lloyd

Description

This is the fifth book in the A Minute in the Church series. It is filled with one-minute explanations of some basic elements of the Catholic faith.

Generations of Catholics have grown up knowing very little about their faith, even the most basic things. A Minute in the Church: Back to the Basics covers the Ten Commandments, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Precepts of the Church and much more.

Just like athletes constantly practice the basics of their sport, so should the faithful. Now you can do it in a minute with A Minute in the Church: Back to the Basics!

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Philosophie et théologie
• Apologetics

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 14 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456633875
• Langue: English

Extrait

A MINUTE
IN THE CHURCH
 
 
BACK TO THE BASICS
One Minute Explanations About the Basics of the Faith
 
 
 
GUS LLOYD
Copyright © 2019 by Gus Lloyd
 
Nihil Obstat: Rev. Msgr. David L. Toups, S.T.D.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: †Most Rev. Gregory L. Parkes, D.D.
Bishop of St. Petersburg
September 6, 2019
 
Scripture texts used in this work are taken from the
New American Bible, copyright © 1991, 1986, and 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC 20017 and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, copyright © 2000, Libreria Editrice Vaticana-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
 
Gus Lloyd
P.O. Box 340983 Tampa, FL 33694-0983 www.GusLloyd.com
 
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example, electronic, photocopy, or recording – without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief
quotations in printed reviews.
 
Design by Nick France nick france design.com

 
ISBN 978-1-4566-3387-5
 
About the Author
 
Gus Lloyd is a “revert” to the Catholic faith. After being raised in the Church, he fell away from any faith in his late teens. After giving their lives to Christ in a small, nondenominational Bible church, Gus and his wife, Michelle, decided to check out the Catholic Church again. Their lives were never the same.
 
Gus is a popular radio host and Catholic evangelist. He regularly speaks at conferences, retreats and parish missions around the country. After a stint in secular radio in which he worked nearly every format, he began a career in Catholic radio in the early 1990’s. In 2006, after 13 years as the popular morning show host at Spirit FM, the Catholic radio station in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL, Gus began hosting Seize the Day on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s The Catholic Channel. You can listen to Gus every weekday morning all across North America. To invite Gus to speak at your conference, event or church, contact him through his web site, www.GusLloyd.com.
 

 
 
I would like to thank the many people who have made this book possible, especially Msgr. David Toups.
Msgr. Toups worked with me to help make these teachings correct and concise.
 
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Ten Commandments
List of the Ten Commandments
The First Commandment
The Second Commandment
The Third Commandment
The Fourth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment
The Sixth Commandment
The Seventh Commandment
The Eighth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment
The Tenth Commandment
Grace
The Sacraments
The Seven Sacraments
Baptism
Confirmation
Eucharist
Penance/Reconciliation/Confession
Anointing of the Sick
Holy Orders
Matrimony
The Virtues
The Theological Virtues
The Cardinal Virtues
Faith
Hope
Charity
Prudence
Justice
Fortitude
Temperance
The Capital Sins
Pride
Greed
Lust
Anger
Gluttony
Envy
Sloth
The Precepts of the Church
The First Precept
The Second Precept
The Third Precept
The Fourth Precept
The Fifth Precept
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord
 
Introduction
As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve always been fascinated by professional athletes. These are people who, for the most part, prepared their whole lives to make it to the highest levels of their sport. They have an amazing ability to make what they do look easy. Of course, that’s because of countless hours of hard work and dedication. This is much like the spiritual life.
St. Paul analogized the spiritual life with athletics in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”
When you look at the lives of these professional athletes, you realize that they continually go back to the basics of their sport. Major League Baseball has spring training, the NBA has summer leagues, the NFL has training camp and the preseason, PGA pros are constantly practicing, and so on. While they have all mastered the basics, they continually practice them. Exercise physiologists call it honing their “muscle memory.” That’s how they make it look easy.
This is exactly what this book is for: to help us go back to the basics of the spiritual life. Hopefully, as we practice and meditate on these spiritual basics, practicing our faith will become second nature and we can make it look easy, too!
I wish that a book like this was not even necessary. Unfortunately, I’ve found that it is very necessary. In my work as a talk radio host, I hear so often about how little most Catholics know about their faith. For example, a recent study showed that only half of Catholics could correctly identify the teaching of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Half of Catholics said it is simply symbolic. As well, I recently spoke to a religious education teacher who told me that in her large Confirmation class, no one could identify all ten of the Commandments. The best they could do was six. I believe that in order to grow in faith and love and joy, we must first master the basics, then continually work on them.
Many people view Catholicism (the Catholic faith, the Catholic Church) as being nothing more than a bunch of rules – and arbitrary rules, at that– designed to make sure that no one has any fun in life. Don’t do this, don’t do that, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. Oh, and you’ll go to hell if you do this! How could anyone with that viewpoint find any joy in a faith like that?
This is such a skewed point of view. Heck, if I saw a church in that light, I wouldn’t want any part of it, either. Where’s the joy? Where’s the freedom? To be sure, I’ve met more than a few Catholics who seem to have no joy in their lives. There are countless people of all religions, and no religion at all, who lack joy. They are held in bondage, often because they are so bound to the letter of the law that they forget about the spirit of the law.
In Romans 8:21, St. Paul talks about “the glorious freedom of the children of God.” What is this freedom? And how does one attain it? For me, the answer is simple: the Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit. Christ has purchased our freedom through His death and resurrection and has sent us the Spirit to help us experience the abundant life.
Don’t get me wrong; rules are important, absolutely vital. Without rules there is chaos. But how can we move beyond looking at rules as a list of “don’ts” to finding joy and freedom in them? St. Pope John Paul II said, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” [Homily of October 8, 1995 in Baltimore]
This book is to help you understand the basics of the faith. Before I go further, let me give you a bit of history. A Minute in the Church started over twenty years ago as I began to write radio spots on Catholic apologetics. Originally they were 2 ½-3 minutes long. Then my boss told me I had to cut them down to sixty seconds. Thus was born A Minute in the Church.
I’ve spent the last thirty-five years in Catholic ministry, most of it in radio. I’ve been blessed to help countless people understand the truths of the Catholic faith.
I always tell people that, when teaching the truths of the Catholic faith, you’ll never: A) argue anyone into the Church and B) convert anyone. The reason for A) is rather self-evident. While some people love a good argument, most people believe they are right about most things and to out and out tell them they’re wrong rarely, if ever, bears fruit. The reason for B) is this: it is the Holy Spirit that does the converting. We may be the instrument used by the Spirit, but on our own we can never convert anyone. We must speak the truth in love and let the Spirit do what the Spirit does.
This book has much in common with the other books in the A Minute in the Church series, and also differs slightly. The common element is that it explains each topic from a Catholic perspective, with many Scripture references and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It differs in this: I share some of my personal reflections born of experience and my years in ministry. I hope you will find it all helpful, as you continue to live a life filled with joy, grounded in the basics of our wonderful faith.

Gus Lloyd October 2019