Am I doing the right thing???

[AnotherMe]

I am sending my 12 year old child to Catholic Sunday School. I got a lot out of Catholic Sunday School. I have recently reverted to Catholicism. I love it. However, for the past 33 years I have been attending Protestant Evangelical Churches. For the most part, I loved those churches too. But now I feel I am home again. I believe Catholicism is a much deeper faith.

But I cannot stop wondering if I am doing the right thing by putting my child in Catholic Sunday School. On the one hand, the Sunday School Classes at the Evangelical Churches did not have much substance. It turns out she/he was not going to any Sunday School after a while, and was not getting any religious education. That is why I took this step. But I have not taken the time to thoroughly study the doctrinal differences between Born Again Protestantism and Catholicism. I do know the fundamental differences. I will start studying in-depth this week.

I teach my child that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World and that we must pray to Him for Salvation. We must repent of our sins and lead good lives. This is where I get troubled. For the Evangelicals teach is it by faith alone lest no man boast. I guess this is what is troubling me.

 

[Steveabrous]

I am sending my 12 year old child to Catholic Sunday School. I got a lot out of Catholic Sunday School. I have recently reverted to Catholicism. I love it. However, for the past 33 years I have been attending Protestant Evangelical Churches. For the most part, I loved those churches too. But now I feel I am home again. I believe Catholicism is a much deeper faith.

But I cannot stop wondering if I am doing the right thing by putting my child in Catholic Sunday School. On the one hand, the Sunday School Classes at the Evangelical Churches did not have much substance. It turns out she/he was not going to any Sunday School after a while, and was not getting any religious education. That is why I took this step. But I have not taken the time to thoroughly study the doctrinal differences between Born Again Protestantism and Catholicism. I do know the fundamental differences. I will start studying in-depth this week.

I teach my child that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World and that we must pray to Him for Salvation. We must repent of our sins and lead good lives. This is where I get troubled. For the Evangelicals teach is it by faith alone lest no man boast. I guess this is what is troubling me.

The only place in the bible that we see the words “Faith alone” is in James were he is warning people that you can’t get to heaven by faith alone.

“24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” James 2:24

So we seem to have a contradiction between Paul and James.

“8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” Eph. 2

Not really Paul is refering to legal observances of the Law of Moses saying that we are saved by grace through faith and not observing the Law of Moses.
James makes it clear that The Faith that frees us from the law doesn’t mean we don’t have to do anything. We still must put that faith into action and help our fellow man.

This is Catholic teaching as I understand it.

 

[GRATEFULONEjim]

You may also benefit from Joining your local RCIA program and attend classes. It is not just for people wishing to become Catholic, but also for fallen away Catholics who wish to learn more about their faith after they have come home.

 

[St_Francis]

Home Sweet Rome by Scott and Kimberly Hahn is an easy-to-read book which explains a lot of the differences between Catholic and Protestant theology–I think they were more on the evangelical end of Protestantism, too, but am not entirely sure abou that. I read it as a not-raised-Catholic/“mere” Christian on Wednesday, and could hardly wait for Sunday so I could go to Mass! (No, I don’t know why I didn’t go to a daily Mass on Thursday… ) Anyway, the explanations are entwined with their conversion story, so the reader also finds out about their personal difficulties with some of the teachings and how they resolved them.

Yes, I found Catholic theology to be deeper, wider, and more coherent than Protestant theology so I am happy to be “home.”

All that being said, CCD programs vary in quality from parish to parish, and are only 25 hours per year. The main teaching for a child has to be the family, where it can be full-time

I teach my child that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World

Yes!

and that we must pray to Him for Salvation.

And we must cooperate with the help (grace) He sends us.

We must repent of our sins

Which we do in Confession

and lead good lives.

This is good for a child, but as adults we have to understand that good means holy, that we must be pleasing to God and not merely well-behaved.

This is where I get troubled. For the Evangelicals teach is it by faith alone lest no man boast. I guess this is what is troubling me.

We cannot be saved with the help of God, this is absolutely true. But we must also recall St Paul’s words 1Cor 9:27 But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.

You seem to be doing a great job explaining to your little one about loving God and working to please Him, and your love for your child and God really show through!

 

[Allegra]

What are your concerns about the Sunday School? Is it specifically a religon class, or is it the Liturgy of the Word for children? If it’s the later, they probably just hear the readings for the day in language that is easier for smaller children to understand and maybe color a picture of an apostal. I don’t think they have much time for more than that. If it’s an actual religion class, and you aren’t in Mass when it is going on, then perhaps you can ask the teacher about the curriculum for the day and decide if you think it will confuse your daughter at this point.