[quote:nvzawn2n]Welcome to the site Cathman. I got started in apologetics as well, but recently I have been trying to move away from that and more into connecting the faith with everyday life experience instead of proving the faith.

So, what got you interested in apologetics in the first place?[/quote:nvzawn2n]

Hi Jon,
Thanks for the welcome!
I can understand where you’re coming from, with respect to attempting to achieve a proper balance between actively living the faith & proving the faith. Yet I think a balance can be achieved; perhaps it’s something as simple as knowing which battles to choose, when to engage someone in a forceful discussion, or when to back off and let God work in those ways known only to Him…in a word, we must both know and love Him, in order to “[i:nvzawn2n]Be ready always with an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do so with gentleness and fear, having a good conscience, so that wherein they speak in disparagement of you they who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame[/i:nvzawn2n]” (1 Peter 3:16, 17).
I actually became involved in apologetics about a year after coming back into the Church; I’d been sharing my re-discovered faith with my younger brother (two years younger), who’d shown somewhat of an interest in at least speaking with my priest…yet he soon married his then girlfriend, a fallen-away Jehova’s Witness, who quickly *regained* her faith & got her clutches into my brother. My pastor made it very clear to me that I had an obligation to save my brother; so, I began studying Watchtower theology, visiting Kingdom Halls, engaging JW’s in informal discussions/debates on their theology, all the while attempting to learn it all myself & grow in my own faith. It was a struggle, but it was well worth it!
That’s really it in a nutshell…however, if you happen to have some back issues of This Rock magazine, published by Catholic Answers, you can read my conversion story in the April 2002 issue (“Up from the Desolate Pit”, This Rock Magazine, April 2002, pgs. 34-36).
Hey, thanks for letting me bend your ear:)
God Bless,
Cathman