Are my feelings and thoughts wrong?

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A good friend of mine has asked me to help her learn/memorize some prayers and teach her how to pray the Rosary. At first I was all for helping her, but lately I’ve been having second thoughts. She isn’t Catholic and has no intention of converting to Catholicism. In fact her religious views are quite strange. She has taken some Buddist, Wiccan, Catholic beliefs that she liked and rolled then all into one creating her own idea of religion.

I had made her a nice wire-chain rosary to help her with her prayers. And I was quite upset when she removed the crucifix and put a heart locket peice in it’s place. I was hurt because she had ‘altered’ the rosary I had spent hours making for her, and I felt like she was disrespecting my own beliefs, disrespecting the Church. I’ve recently refused to teach her how to pray the rosary. I don’t see the point in teaching the Creed when it’s obvious she doesn’t believe it. Am I wrong in feeling this way? How should I handle this situation?

She recently asked me if she could attend Mass with me. I’m not sure what to do. I’m praying for her, but I’m clueless as to what I should do otherwise.
 
lizds said:
A good friend of mine has asked me to help her learn/memorize some prayers and teach her how to pray the Rosary. At first I was all for helping her, but lately I’ve been having second thoughts. She isn’t Catholic and has no intention of converting to Catholicism. In fact her religious views are quite strange. She has taken some Buddist, Wiccan, Catholic beliefs that she liked and rolled then all into one creating her own idea of religion.

I had made her a nice wire-chain rosary to help her with her prayers. And I was quite upset when she removed the crucifix and put a heart locket peice in it’s place. I was hurt because she had ‘altered’ the rosary I had spent hours making for her, and I felt like she was disrespecting my own beliefs, disrespecting the Church. I’ve recently refused to teach her how to pray the rosary. I don’t see the point in teaching the Creed when it’s obvious she doesn’t believe it. Am I wrong in feeling this way? How should I handle this situation?

She recently asked me if she could attend Mass with me. I’m not sure what to do. I’m praying for her, but I’m clueless as to what I should do otherwise.
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If you are going to teach her how to pray the Rosary you need to explain to her WHY you pray the Rosary. If you are going to teach her the creed maybe you should teach her that she needs to truly believe with all her heart that this is true. But that is what I would do, especially if she mixes a bunch of religions together. As for mass, maybe you could let her attend, who knows… She might convert.🙂

I don’t think she wanted to hurt you when she replaced the crucifix with a heart locket. But you need to explain that a crucifix is what makes the Rosary a Rosary:)

Pray about it. I will be praying for you.🙂
 
I agree with Oumashta.

It sounds like you may need to explain to your friend that she’s hurting your feelings by being so cavalier about your faith. To her, Catholicism may be a grab-bag of ideas from which she can take this or that while discarding the rest. But she should at least understand that to you, along with other Catholics, Catholicism expresses eternal truth that we revere. Even if she doesn’t believe it, she should be respectful of those who do. Probably a few kind words are all it will take.
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You’re doing the right thing by helping her…remember, as long as you are sharing your insight, you are helping bring her closer to the Church (whether it feels like it or not). Hang in there. It can be a long, arduous process for some, especially for “grab bag” spiritualists.

And FWIW, you are not wrong to feel hurt about the rosary, but like Oumashta said, she probably didn’t know that what she did was hurtful.

You are doing something good 🙂
 
If she is showing an interest in the Catholic Church, you should do everything you can to encourage her. I’m sorry she altered your rosary, but, hopefully, in a few years you two can shop to replace the crucifix and have a laugh over it. She is looking for something, and you can help bring her home. :cool:
 
If it were me, I’d teach her how to pray the rosary and bring her to mass. That she even has enough curiosity to put herself into such a position is the Spirit’s doing, not hers. She may very well have every intention to mix and match in order to develop her own ‘religion’ but have faith that in the process the Truth will be revealed to her. Pray for her and give her a green scapular o post in her room or use as a bookmark (you pray the daily prayer on her behalf though), then let the Spirit and Mary do the rest.

So she changed the rosary. So she may alter the Hail Mary once you’ve taught her the prayer. So she may choose not to meditate on the mysteries but rather some other concept. Those are her human attempts to thwart true conversion but I have faith in the Spirit to work through that. Before she realizes it she’ll end up Catholic without ever having intended to. That just seems to be the way it works.

If she has an iTouch or iPhone have her install the application “Rosary Audio” by Kingneed software. I use it every night to go to sleep. It prays the rosary and has backgroup ambient sound options like water, wind, fire…something that wil appeal to her new age leanings. The voices reading the prayer are soothing and the pace is even. The prayers and bead are visible on the screen as well if one wants to follow along.

I just have a lot of faith in the power of the rosary to compensate for her attempts to resist committing to one religion so I’m all for getting her to pray it or listen to it regularly so that Mary can do the rest.
 
She’s obviously very confused about what she believes, cherry-picking the things she likes from a multitude of religions. If she’s curious don’t discourage her but I’d suggest treading with caution. Before teaching her anything else or taking her to Mass refer her to your parish priest. Get her to talk to him about what she thinks/feels about God and see what he suggests. Doesn’t hurt to get someone else’s (name removed by moderator)ut on the situation.

God bless,

Katherine
 
Thank you all for your help. Being that I’m currently converting over my self I was at a stand still on what I should or shouldn’t do. Thanks again.
 
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