Fertile Soil: A layman’s view of Catholic culture and family life

The parable of the sower recounts the story of an individual sowing seeds on rocky soil, amid thorns, and on good soil. The seeds that fell on rocky soil died due to their inability to grow roots, the seeds that grew near the thorns were choked by the thorns and yielded no fruit, but the seeds that fell on fertile soil grew and yielded 30, 60, and a hundred fold. Jesus later explained to his disciples that the seeds represent the word of God and the terrain signifies an individual’s receptivity to it.

How can we increase our openness to God’s word? As a community, we can fertilize our soil by restoring Catholic culture. Culture comes from the Latin word cultura, which means to cultivate the land. Only recently has the term come to mean the cultivation of individuals through education and the arts. From a linguistic point of view, culture is, therefore, our surroundings that help determine how we grow. In other words, it is our soil.

This blog examines how religion impacts culture and how we can infuse our faith into all aspects of culture, including family life, rituals, the media, technology, and politics. It also studies the current state of our culture and the pervasive influence of secularism. Its ultimate aim is to facilitate conversations that help create small islands of Catholic culture, small patches of fertile soil.