From Friendship to Faith Tutorial
Nurturing Christian Friendship with the Gift of Intimacy
A good Christian friendship is a gift from God. But like all areas of Catholic spiritual growth, keeping a Christian friendship strong requires some conscious, deliberate effort. One of the most important strategies for building strong Christian friendships is to give the relationship the gift of time. But the time you spend with each other…
Read MoreChristian Friendship: How Materialism May Be Ruining Your Friendships
(and we all do this to some degree) Cultivating and nurturing good Christian friendship is an important part of Catholic spiritual growth. To be truly effective at nourishing good relationships, we need to be aware of the influences and attitudes that can damage our relationships. One such negative influence is materialism. Now, I’m not just…
Read MoreChristian Friendship – Bound Together in Love
Like all areas of Catholic spiritual growth, keeping a Christian friendship strong requires some conscious, deliberate effort. One of the most important strategies for building strong Christian friendships is to give the relationship the gift of time. But another important element of any relationship is the existence of a common purpose. The stronger this common…
Read MoreFaith to Friendship – Made for Relationship
Christian Friendship is incredibly important to growing in our Catholic faith. We are made for relationship. But we are also made with free will. Let’s use our free will to CHOOSE to make our friendships the best that they can be, and let’s ask the Holy Spirit what our souls need to learn in the…
Read MoreChristian Friendship: Avoiding the Vice of Discord
The attempt to build a good Christian friendship is not an easy task. It takes not just time, effort, and persistence, but also the development of social virtues and avoiding social vices. Some of the social vices we need to avoid include Selfishness Materialism Shallowness Neglect One of the most damaging social vices is the…
Read MoreHow Neglect Affects Christian Friendship
Cultivating and nurturing good Christian friendship is an important part of Catholic spiritual growth. But there are some influences in our lives that make it difficult for us to keep our friendships healthy. Neglect is one of the deadliest friendship-killing influences – and unfortunately one of the most common. Life Happens . . . Hey…
Read MoreChristian Friendship and the Necessity of Forgiveness
Like all areas of Catholic spiritual growth, keeping a Christian friendship strong requires some conscious, deliberate effort. We need to cultivate and nourish our friendships by giving them the gift of time and by consecrating them with a relationship with God. Unfortunately, even when we take the time and effort to carefully nurture our relationships,…
Read MoreDon’t Mistaken Social Justice for Charity
Christian friendship is incredibly important to our spiritual growth. Christ calls us to charity – a grace-filled, self-sacrificing love that fills the hearts of others with the love of God. Our Catholic school has taken up the cause of helping our local food pantry by providing meals for people in transitional housing. The food pantry…
Read MoreNurturing Christian Friendship with the Gift of Time
A good Christian friendship is a gift from God. But like all areas of Catholic spiritual growth, keeping a Christian friendship strong requires some conscious, deliberate effort. In any relationship you want to nurture, the best thing you can do is to give the Gift of Time. Catholic author and speaker Matthew Kelly calls this…
Read MoreChristian Friendship Can Make You Smarter – Who Knew?
There are many benefits of relationships that make conscious, deliberate cultivation of Christian friendship worthwhile. Friendship leads us to the enlightenment of intimacy. It also gives us much needed support in life. Another wonderful benefit of friendship is the help that other people give us in making judgments about our lives. Relationships can greatly improve…
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