Hi, I'm Edwards Sari and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

Just imagine trying to live as a faithful Christian in first century pagan Rome.

You'd be living in a non-Christian culture, and most of the people

around you have very different values, different lifestyles, whether it's your neighbor, it's your

coworkers, it's your boss, it's your friends, the people you socialize with, the leaders in your

community, they have very different values, different moral standards, a different vision

for what life is all about.

Just imagine if just day in and day out, the people you're bumping into each day, what they talk about, what they perceive as important, what they run after.

How they live is very different than what you do and what you think and how you want to pursue life.

It could feel very isolating.

You'd feel like, wow, I'm the only one that has these different Christian values.

And you want to remain faithful to Jesus, but you can imagine the pressure to conform to fit in.

I mean, after all, you've got to provide for your family.

You need a job. You need to be

accepted. You need to have some kind of social life. You could imagine many difficult questions

coming up, especially when the culture around you is constantly holding out different honors

and comforts and entertainments, activities, amusements that maybe don't match up with your

Christian faith. They're offering a lot of

riches and wealth and pleasures that might be enticing, but again, might not conform to what

Christ says about these things. And you could be wondering, well, is it okay if I participate in this

or this much? Or what about my kids? And how do you live as a Christian in a non-Christian

environment? Well, St. Paul, the great apostle, offers incredible advice on this that's so

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