Lawn Chair Catechism – Week 1

Over at CatholicMom.com they are doing Lawn Chair Catechism. They did this once before but by the time I found out about it it was almost over or half over and I didn’t have the book they were reading. Well the next session of it just started and I not only HAVE the book but I LOVE the book they are reading so of course I will be joining in  on the discussion.

They are reading Joe Paprocki’s A Well-Built Faith. Joe is awesome! My mom met him once. I have been to a TON of his online webinars/interviews. My mom has ALL of his books which basically means I also have ALL of his books as she buys his books BY THE BOX (I wish I was kidding). I actually used this book as the theme for our Confirmation Retreat several years ago and we gave each retreater a copy of the book as their gift/to use on the retreat. I LOVE how simple this book is laid out but it’s still full of a TON of useful information and am constantly using it as a resource.

Remember how my mom buys this book by the box? She has a box of them in her office and when people come into her office looking for resources, easy books to read about the faith, adult confirmation, baptismal parents/godparents, etc. She gives them a copy of this book…and 90% of the time they come back and tell her how great the book is! Plug: A great book to read after this one is Practice Makes Catholic and expands on the information in this book. Now that I have promoted Joe’s books and resources to death I will move onto this weeks topic.

Moving onto this weeks topic. This is Week 1 so we are in Unit 1 and Chapter 1 of the book. For those that haven’t read the book here is a little background on how the book is set up.  The book is set up like the catechism. Each Unit is a different pillar of the faith (Creed, Sacraments, Morality, and Prayer). Unit One starts with The Creed and Chapter 1 talks about having a firm foundation.

Over on Catholic Mom and in the Study Guide there are several questions for us to reflect on and one of them is:

Who is someone you know who has a “well-built faith” and what do you attribute that to?

And that person is my parents. My parents are cradle catholics but they had a good foundation of their faith and they made sure my sister and I had a good foundation. They had good role models growing up throughout their lives. My mom talks about how her Grandmother lived with them and was always praying and going to church and talking to them about the faith. My parents made sure to do this with my sister and I. They created a foundation for us. Before we ever hit the first grade and started going to Religious Education we said grace before meals, we had an advent wreath, we said prayers, we went to mass, and they instilled the faith in our lives.

One thing I really like about this chapter is he uses the example of building a house to compare to our faith. If you don’t build a foundation and just build a house in a swamp land the house is going to fall apart. The same with our faith and I think sometimes this is why people end up leaving the faith. If we aren’t given a foundation of our faith of the core basics then when we start teaching people the harder teachings like the moralities, the mass, the bible, and the WHY it’s not going to make sense.

Can’t wait to share next weeks reflection! Make sure to go over to CatholicMom to see what others have to say about this weeks topic!