Catholic As A Part Of Speech

faith, discipleship

faithI have long felt the word “catholic”, if simply used as a noun or an adjective, is improper.

We will explore a couple of the eight fundamental parts of speech before the case is made for the only part of speech which should be the correct one for the word “catholic”.

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.  If you grew up with or near Schoolhouse Rock, many of them will be easy to remember, such as, “Conjunction junction, what’s your function?  Hooking up words and phrases and clauses…”, or, “Interjections (Well!) show excitement (Oh!) or emotion, (Hey!) they’re generally apart from a sentence by an exclamation point”.

Catholic As A Noun

Let us explore the word catholic as a noun. A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. For example, “Ted told me Rosie is a Catholic.” Here, the word Catholic is simply used as the name of a thing or of an idea. There is nothing other than inflection to distinguish  the word “Catholic” from any other noun. Such would be the case if the sentence were changed to “Ted told me Rosie is a Catholic.

Used this way, the word Catholic is nondescript, nothing remarkable, nothing of any consequence.

The issue may well be the same holds true for the view of many pew-sitting Catholics.  They are nondescript, nothing remarkable. being Catholic is just what is done on some weekends and maybe on those holy days of obligation, whatever they are supposed to be. It is just a descriptor and might as well be an adjective.

Catholic As An Adjective

An adjective is a word used to describe or modify a noun or a pronoun. It usually answers the questions of  “which one, what kind, or how many”. “Ted told me Rosie is a tall, young, Catholic woman.” Rosie is described as a Catholic, but it is up to the one who hears the speaker to provide the definition.  It can either be good, or most likely, may be poor. Does Rosie wear a rosary around her neck? Does she plan on having 28 kids in addition to the ones  running around the house now? Does her cologne smell of incense? Is the parish bulletin the first thing which gets pulled from her purse as she reaches for her keys? Does she have the chancery on speed dial? Is Rosie faith-filled? Does Rosie project an attitude of love and caring? With no further clarification in the sentence, there is no way to know what the speaker intends by his description of Rosie as a Catholic, nor is there a way to understand what the listener understands.

An adjective is not what I wish to have made of my faith. An adjective does not include enough information for the word “catholic”.

Catholic = Verb

It is my intent to make and keep the word “Catholic” a verb. The verb of the sentence is the word which specifies action or being and cannot be routinely confused with being too passive.  Run, walk, skip, move, work, produces, motivates, and many other words fall into the category of verb.

To occupy the categorization of a verb, the basic ground rule would be, if you are Catholic, I will be able to see it, feel it, or otherwise sense it.

The reader’s first reaction may be, “Hold on here, Dan. I work for a living, have a wife and family, and I do not have any time to spare to take on anything new.”

O.K., I will concede I am retired and would be expected to have more time available than someone who works full time. However, most of the ministries in which I am involved started well before I was outsourced into oblivion.

Get Involved

Lector at Mass: The time commitment is the hour or so at Mass as well as the time required to read, reflect upon, meditate on, etc., the readings.  Call it 2 hours per week.

Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion:  Again the time commitment is the hour or so at Mass as well as any spiritual formation activities the parish may require.  Spread out over the course of a quarter, let’s call the time commitment 90 minutes per week.

Homebound Minister:  Once more, the time commitment is the hour or so at Mass plus an hour or perhaps two afterwards to bring Communion to someone who is unable to make it to Mass.  Usually there are teams of people involved in this ministry, so, the Homebound Ministry may be only once per month. Spread out over a month, call the time commitment, including Mass, approximately 75 minutes per week.

Knights of Columbus:  The time commitment is perhaps 2 hours for a monthly meeting for a third-degree knight, or two meetings per month for a fourth-degree knight.  Any additional time commitment is a personal choice based upon any committees, activities, etc., which are of interest.

Faith Formation: These activities may include being a table leader at a “That Man is You” session, being a facilitator at an Adult Faith Session ( Jesus is Lord, etc. ).  The time commitment is, of course, a result of how many activities are undertaken, but, averaged out, we can call it 2 hours per week.

Since being retired, my parish activity may have diminished a bit, but my community and diocesan level activities have increased. The net result is I am directly involved in parish, diocese, church or community activity only a few hours per week.

Consider the activity to be a repayment on the loan for the activities undertaken by my parents, grandparents, relatives and neighbors.  Had they not participated in the church, diocese or parish, they would not be  here for me to use in my spiritual development.  Clearly, unless I am involved in the church and its ministries, it may not be here for my grandchildren to use to help them with their spiritual development.

To borrow and modify a well-known phrase, ““We have not inherited the land church from our fathers, but have borrowed it from our children.” Dennis Hall

To make certain the Church is here for the future generations, it is my intent to make the word “Catholic” an action word, otherwise known as a verb.

Grab a bulletin, check the parish website, find a ministry, or speak with the pastor and start one, just get and stay involved.

 

 

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2 thoughts on “Catholic As A Part Of Speech”

  1. ” To occupy the categorization of a verb, the basic ground rule would be, if you are Catholic, I will be able to see it, feel it, or otherwise sense it.”

    I wonder if you would have assumed the good Samaritan to be Catholic.

    1. Laurence Charles Ringo

      Here’s a question: Why not just refer to yourself as”Christian”, a genuine Biblical designation? And the good Samaritan was…a Samaritan!!–Hello?

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