Respondeo

Not ready yet? A challenge for you

A simple daily-prayer challenge for anyone not yet ready to come home, or wanting to strengthen their faith first.

If you aren't ready to make the step into the Catholic Church yet — or if you simply want to strengthen your faith before moving ahead — please consider this challenge. It is a concrete, practical invitation to put the claim to the test in your own life. The challenge is disarmingly simple: pray every day going forward. It costs seconds to minutes a day, and it asks nothing you cannot sincerely offer from where you stand right now.

Imagine you're stranded and alone in a dense forest... you have a flare gun. It's super easy to use and it takes almost no energy to deploy... I submit to you that it would be crazy not to shoot the flare gun, even if you think there's probably no one out there who will see it... What matters is that there's some chance, even if it's very small, that someone's out there who cares about you and is willing to help you if you ask. Likewise... it would be crazy not to pray in your situation, at least conditionally.

A prayer for each place on the road:

  • If you're an atheist or agnostic, pray this each day, sincerely, with humility and perseverance. It takes ten to fifteen seconds:

    God, if you exist, please help me to know you, love you, and serve you. Guide me to the full truth about you. If you do, I'll give you my life. And if Catholicism is true, please convert me to Catholicism.

  • If you believe in God but aren't Catholic, pray a single decade of the Rosary each day — about two to four minutes — framed by this:

    God, I'm about to pray a decade of the Rosary. If this is against your will, I'm sorry. If this is idolatrous, I'm sorry. You know my heart. I'm doing this solely to discover and follow your will. If Catholicism is true, please make me Catholic.

    and closing with:

    God, I trust that you know my intentions are pure. I seek you above all else. Have mercy on me for my sins.

  • If you're already Catholic, learn to pray the full five-decade Rosary and pray it every day. Your day should feel incomplete without it.

The logic is the flare-gun logic: the stakes are high and the cost is tiny, so there is every reason to try and little reason not to. Watch the author lay out the full "My Challenge to You" section in his own words below, which begins at the linked timestamp:

Watch "My Challenge to You" (opens at the timestamp)

Credit: the challenge above, including the flare-gun analogy and the three prayers, is drawn from the "My Challenge to You" portion of "The BEST Objections to Catholicism ANSWERED" by Majesty of Reason. The excerpts are quoted for study and reflection; full credit belongs to the original creator. Please watch the video in full on YouTube. Be sure to also watch his previous two videos discussing his intellectual journey into Catholicism.