Anyone who is a practicing Catholic will typically make it a point to go to Church every week, listening to the Preacher’s words for the week, along with participating in the Eucharist. It is quite simply the standard when it comes to practicing your faith as a Catholic. However, there is much more to practicing said faith than the aspects related to going to Church. In fact, most would argue that going to Church is just the bare minimum of what it takes to truly exhibit your faith in God. Here we’ll discuss a few of those small, but often overlooked ways that you can practice your faith outside of Church.
The first way to practice your faith outside of church is to simply speak to God every day. This doesn’t necessarily mean praying outright, although that can obviously be part of it. Believing in God inherently involves having a relationship with Him, and just as you can’t have a legitimate meaningful relationship with someone who you only interact with for an hour every Sunday, it is impossible to have that sort of relationship with God unless you communicate with God outside of Church. This can mean praying as I mentioned, or simply speaking to God and praising Him for all of the blessings in your life.
Another way to practice your faith is to live out God’s teachings, particularly the teachings that were given to you at the latest mass that you attended. Although hearing God’s word is very important, it is ultimately meaningless unless you take action on said words. Even agreeing with and understanding the message of God is nothing compared to actually living out that message in your daily life, so be sure to look for ways to actually live out what you have learned while attending Church.
One final way to practice your faith is to quite simply glorify His name in all that you do. This can mean exhibiting your talents to the world and finding success in your everyday endeavors, or simply doing good things for people, whether they are family, friends or strangers that you meet on the street. Glorifying His name shows to everyone around you that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is an awesome God, who does great things through the people that believe in Him. And this all has the added benefit of helping to draw more people into the Church of Jesus Christ. If you are like any good-practicing Catholic, you are very outspoken about your faith, meaning that when people see you do great things in the name of God, whether it be through your talents, or simply through being a good person, they will be motivated to learn about and experience the power of God for themselves.
Although going to mass is a big part of practicing one’s faith, it isn’t everything and ultimately isn’t what defines a truly practicing Catholic. Given that Jesus Christ should be the center of our lives and thus present in everything that we do, all of the small ways to practice your faith in your daily life are just as important as going to Church, if not more so. Being able to recognize this fact and as a result making a concerted effort to live and breathe Jesus Christ on a daily basis is the best way to bring yourself closer to Him.