Enriching. Informative.
Explore the depth and breadth
of the Catholic faith at
St. Mary's One Topic One Night evenings.
What is One Topic One Night?
The One Topic One Night speaker series aims to provide our parish with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process.
The name says it all: in one night, usually in under an hour, we dig deep into one specific topic. Previous topics included subjects such as,
- Celibacy and the Priesthood
- Relativism
- Forming a Catholic Conscience
- What the Church Teaches: End of Life Issues
These evenings explore issues and topics of our faith in a more in-depth manner than can be covered in a homily, and provides time for follow-up questions and answers.
one holy catholic apostolic church
Recent One Topic One Night
At a recent ONE topic ONE night, Father Keith outlined a logical and thoughtful explanation to build an argument to address the question: Salvation— Only through the Catholic Church?
Here are some highlights.
“[God] wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth .” 1 Timothy 2:4
Salvation is a gift from God, and, like all God’s gifts, unmerited and freely given. It is not dependent on us; we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is an event and a process, and ultimately it is a desire, beginning first by God, put into our heart and soul at Baptism.
Salvation begins with a Trinitarian, monotheistic understanding of God. It is Inclusive, in that we believe it is possible for all to be saved, but in reality only some are saved. We believe in Justification, and the need to continually work towards our salvation, not so as to save ourselves, but rather to strive to be pure, just and right ordered with virtue. We believe in the Mercy of God which is limitless (CCC 1864), boundless and infinite. There are some people who cannot be justified so rely on the mercy of God. In our Christian society, Baptism is necessary for salvation, and Father Keith discussed the three ’types’ of
Baptism, including Sacramental Baptism, Baptism of Desire, and Baptism by Blood or martyrdom. The discussion also touched on the possibility of damnation, as a consequence of being a state of grave sin, obstinate refusal to change, full knowledge of sin, and the freedom to choose to sin. Salvation is a lifelong effort, a process, which should be declared and lived out everyday.