Am I ever going to find solace?

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  1. Judaism is NOT “dead”–it may be incomplete, but it is not dead.
  2. Convert in time, after with prayer and communication with your parents–Honor them as God commands.–I will be praying for the Intercession of St. Theresa Bendicta (Edith Stein) on your behalf as well as (St? Blessed?) Alphonse Ratisbone
 
  1. Judaism is NOT “dead”–it may be incomplete, but it is not dead.
  2. Convert in time, after with prayer and communication with your parents–Honor them as God commands.–I will be praying for the Intercession of St. Theresa Bendicta (Edith Stein) on your behalf as well as (St? Blessed?) Alphonse Ratisbone
👍 Amen. Simple but sound advice.
 
This is not good advice. I imagine this advice may have been appropriate to a minor because still under her parents care etc. This man has reached his majority. He does not need to be hard on his family - quite the opposite but Christ Himself said that His Name would set mother against daughter and so on. God has to come first and please do not think for a minute I am advocating any disrespect of his family. It is a question of a hierarchy of values, that is all. A soul is very precious. This man’s soul is precious to God and Our Lord wants him in the Church - as this is His express desire for all people. I understand you mean well but your advice is dangerous and the above example does not pertain in essence to Dave’s case.

Regards,
Cailindeas
I am well aware that Dave is not a minor 🙂 I rather quoted the first example because I recognise the exceptional difficulties that a young man from a Jewish family living in Israel may experience if he comes to believe in Christ. Thus I think that the advice in that video could be beneficial to his circumstances.

I believe that he should take things slowly and not be hasty about this. Learn about the faith, strive to understand it - don’t act in impulse.
 
Hello again CA.

A little bit of background about myself - I’m a Sephardi Israeli Jew, born and raised. I will be turning 20 this fall and despite not having held the bible in my hands for a couple of years now, I still can’t take this off my mind.

My problem is that I’m not sure that my interest in conversion to Catholicism is for the right reasons. On one hand I would be lying if I said that being a Christian in Israel is an advantage, for obvious reasons, I guess. On the other, I can’t forget how elated I was to read about Jesus and even tell my friends about Him. I’ve been in some sort of an emotional turmoil regarding my life, but mostly my faith, for quite some time now. I’m not a practicing Jew but I respect my parents, which is also the reason why I’m not keeping a bible. Both my father and elder brother actively practice Judaism, and me and my mother have been keeping this entire deal in secret from them.

The prospect of needing to share this with my father is agonizing. I can’t help but feel that I’m disappointing him by not showing interest Judaism anymore. Then there is also the fact that I haven’t even established my life in my current religion, and I already consider starting a new life in another religion. It all seems too uncertain and I can’t find the faith to simply toss everything away and become a Christian rather than fret about how I dislike being Jewish. Will Jewish women still be interested in me? Will their families oppose to their daughter having a relationship with a Christian convert? My (then) Catholic friend was in a situation like this. Would I be a foreigner in my own birthplace? I got nowhere else to go. I’m probably going ahead way too fast, but these are things I can’t help but be troubled by.

There is also the less religious bit which is politics. I’ve always wanted to see the world and feel that I’m a part of it. As weird as it may seem, I don’t think I can accomplish that as a Jew. Maybe I’m letting the internet trolls (and there are tons) get to me, or maybe I’m just neurotic and need to seek mental help, but I simply dislike my national and religious identities as they are.

I’m truly sorry for the lenght, and if you bothered to read this then I’m thankful. I’m not expecting any miraculous answers to my problems, I just wanted to share it with people who might understand. I don’t think there are any Hebrew speaking churches around here, so simply going to a church on my own accord and start blabbering my broken English to the priest doesn’t come off as very attractive to me.
Your feelings are all very human. It will take time and grace to sort this all out but the beauty of the gospel you first experienced is genuine-and will have it’s way unless you continuously resist or oppose it. Truth should be your God, as He is the Truth. But it’s a hard battle-the Catechism acknowledges this fact, and harder for some of us depending on our individual situations. Pray very hard for strength. God will give it to you. It may be somewhat difficult in this world to be Jewish but Christianity-especially Catholicism nowadays- won’t be an easy path either, as you know. Strive to be true to your conscience-and keep seeking and praying. God will reward it.
 
👍 Amen. Simple but sound advice.
Judaism is a dead religion. It is not life-giving to the soul - its as simple as that. Certainly we have kept important aspects of the Jewish religion - e.g. the 10 Commandments, etc. but Our Lord fulfilled the Old Law. We no longer follow the dietary laws of Leviticus, and many other laws that God gave to the Jews because they have been abrogated.

Also, Talmudic Judaism (much more than being Torah-observant) has nothing to offer the Christian - quite the opposite. And it has nothing to offer Jews either.

I am sure there are good Jews i.e those that live morally as we would understand it but it is not their Judaism that gives them the strength to do this. Without the sacraments it is very hard for a soul to reach Heaven. There is only one true religion - Christianity and its only expression is Catholicism. Other Christian faiths may have aspects of the truth and Judaism has aspects of the Truth simply because Christianity has come of Judaism. But when Our Lord was crucified the temple veil tore in two - a new religion was born and the old one ceased to be of any use. That is simply the Faith. Logically God would want there to be only one religion for people to believe in so that they might reach Him after death which is there eternal destiny.

Regarding your second point - I did not mean to imply that due diligence and prudence should not be applied to a conversion from Judaism. As it happens, I am very aware how difficult such a conversion would be for an Israeli Jew for social, cultural, political, and religious reasons. Certainly Dave needs to take time to consider the Faith fully and the obligations it involves but an adult does not have the same duty of obedience to one’s parents. He is obliged to honour them but no more than this - he must honour God first and by so doing (in his keeping of the 10 Commandments) he cannot help but honour his parents. With adulthood comes responsibilities.
 
Just wanted to say that I might be going to a church tomorrow. I’m going to meet a friend of mine after many years we haven’t seen each other, and he happens to live nearby to this church. I actually visited it on a field day when I was in junior high school, and have been sort of wanting to visit again.

I don’t know what am I going to do there exactly. I just hope I won’t be bothering anyone. 😃
 
Just wanted to say that I might be going to a church tomorrow. I’m going to meet a friend of mine after many years we haven’t seen each other, and he happens to live nearby to this church. I actually visited it on a field day when I was in junior high school, and have been sort of wanting to visit again.

I don’t know what am I going to do there exactly. I just hope I won’t be bothering anyone. 😃
The L-rd bless you and keep you. The L-rd make his faces shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the L-rd lift up His countenances upon you and give you peace…
 
Hi Dave, Try & read Simone Weil a Jewish French philosopher & mystic…She had the same problem as you. Altho she never actaully joined the Catholic Church formally she probably experienced & loved Jesus Christ much more profoundly than most Catholics.

It took her years to get to that point; you are just starting on the journey
 
Hi Dave, Try & read Simone Weil a Jewish French philosopher & mystic…She had the same problem as you. Altho she never actaully joined the Catholic Church formally she probably experienced & loved Jesus Christ much more profoundly than most Catholics.

It took her years to get to that point; you are just starting on the journey
Amen! 👍

I was thinking of mention the mystic Simone Weil as well but was unsure if that is what Dave would be looking for. She is one of the most outstanding people in history, a Catholic mystic who was not formally baptized into the Catholic Church (although some argue that she was just before her untimely death during the war).
 
Since we haven’t heard back from him anymore since he intended to talk to a Catholic Priest, I dare start feeling comfortable with the assumption that that Catholic Priests’ heart is in the right place 🙂

May G’d bless him, whoever he is :highprayer:
 
“A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. 6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?” These are the words of our most beloved Christ Jesus in Mark chapter 12. He was speaking to a group of pharisees, and the message he was trying to send, I feel, is quite clear. He has come to bring us a new covenant, and yet, they despised him for it. So, because of this; Christ (El Shaddai incarnate) gave this new covenant to others, the Gentiles. While the apostle Paul says that this was only to breed jealousy in the heart of the Jews, it is also quite clearly stated in the teachings of Christ that when they are drawn back through jealousy, they will be drawn into a new form of Jewish family; with the inclusion of Gentiles. Because, as Paul says; "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The Prophet Jeremiah spoke of this new covenant when he said:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[a] them,
”
declares the Lord.
**
33*** “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”***

And Christ defined it when he said:***
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
*******

And, furthermore, he established his centricity to pleasing God with this:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”****

"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead —since he was about a hundred years old —and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Written by the apostle Paul, inspired by God)

So, all of this hugely long post to say: Though I know you’re having reservations about leaving Judaism, that is not the path to pleasing God. He has given you this desire for Christ in an attempt to draw you in to Himself, so that you may love (worship) Him in the way that He desires to be loved. You should not be bashful about your faith. But, you must listen to the Holy Spirit for when it is time to speak, and when it is time to be silent. But, above all; make your dedications to Christ, and conversion seems to be the only proper reaction in the situation your describing. Unless there is something I don’t understand, of course.**
 
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