Are non-Catholics and Protestants who pulled Catholics away from their Catholic Faith, in danger of going to Hell?

[thirdn6]

As we all should be. It’s a much healthier thing to look at our own sins, wrong judgments and bad faith than to look at other peoples.

Minding our own business is probably meant here.

But isn’t selfishness the same as individualism- called to be a heresy?
If we judge and condemn then it is wrong. If we judge to affirm a truth then I don’t see it as accusatory of someone. Aren’t we Catholics suppose to admonish one another? To keep guard of the Faith and to be watchful of false teachers?

 

[emeraldcoast]

Having “a true personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the complete understanding …(of) God’s Grace” - means, among other things; avoiding mortal sins.

Hello emeraldcoast,

I appreciate what you are saying here, but I would like to give an example of what I’m talking about.

Many Protestant denominations recognize multiple marriages for example, where people have married and then divorced and then re-married. The Catholic Church does not recognize marriages outside of the Church and does not recognize multiple marriages, most Catholics know this.

If a person marries outside the Catholic Church and then they divorce and again re-marry, the Catholic Church, to use an old term; believes that those who have divorce and re-married are “living in sin”, or in another words, committing the sin of adultery.

The Catholic Church considers adultery to be a mortal sin, meaning a loss of heaven.

I can give you many more examples but first, I would like to know how one who has pulled a Catholic away from his/her Catholic Faith and then preaches/teaches the estranged Catholic; that there is “nothing wrong” with one marrying, divorcing and then re-marrying and in some cases, multiple times, is not committing a mortal sin?.

A Catholic who knowingly, marries and then divorce’s and re-marries outside the Catholic Church is committing a mortal sin.

In essence, the person from the “new” denomination is encouraging and condoning what the Catholic Church considers adultery.

If a non-Catholic minister, performs a marriage for someone who has married and divorced multiple times, he is assisting in their sin of adulty (by Catholic standards), is he not?

If the Catholic Church is right, the estranged Catholic, involved in multiple marriages, has big problem; they might go to hell.

Catholics on the other hand, because of the way in which the Sacrament of Marriage is viewed, don’t have to worry about going to Hell for committing adultery in this way, because multiple marriages are not allowed.

Can you see my point?

Peace.

Hi Jimmy!

Before I start, I just wanted to let you know that I am still on my first marriage after 18 years of marriage.

I know that you are not going to agree with me but I do believe that those that are in a marriage that a spouse cheats on them have the option to leave the marriage and remarry. This is pretty straight forward to me in Matthew 19:9 from Jesus.

Matthew 19:9 (NIV)

“I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery”

I don’t look at church as the “enforcer of marriage laws” but as a body of believers that will help lift a hurting couple up even after the marriage is over. The pain of a broken marriage needs and demands the church to be there to comfort, give compassion and help them heal. Not run up to them and tell them that they may not receive communion.

Mortal sin with remarriage? Do you believe if Debbie is divorced by her cheating husband that she as the victim of his affair should remain single? If Debbie finds a wonderful Chicago Policeman and marries him and they have two children, should she divorce him and try and rekindle a relationship with her first husband since she is “living in sin” with the policeman?

Come on…what does Paul say about celibacy? It is not for everyone…correct?

Peace be with you!

 

[Jimmy_B]

Hi Jimmy!

Before I start, I just wanted to let you know that I am still on my first marriage after 18 years of marriage.

I know that you are not going to agree with me but I do believe that those that are in a marriage that a spouse cheats on them have the option to leave the marriage and remarry. This is pretty straight forward to me in Matthew 19:9 from Jesus.

Matthew 19:9 (NIV)

“I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery”

I don’t look at church as the “enforcer of marriage laws” but as a body of believers that will help lift a hurting couple up even after the marriage is over. The pain of a broken marriage needs and demands the church to be there to comfort, give compassion and help them heal. Not run up to them and tell them that they may not receive communion.

Mortal sin with remarriage? Do you believe if Debbie is divorced by her cheating husband that she as the victim of his affair should remain single? If Debbie finds a wonderful Chicago Policeman and marries him and they have two children, should she divorce him and try and rekindle a relationship with her first husband since she is “living in sin” with the policeman?

Come on…what does Paul say about celibacy? It is not for everyone…correct?

Peace be with you!

Hello again emeraldcoast,

It is not up to me to say and the Catholic Church does grant annulments in appropriate situations. The scenario that you gave, assumes that non-Catholic denominations check to see what the reasons are for the divorce and the re-marriage and most do not; the Catholic Church does… this is my point.

“trust but varify”

Peace

 

[Jimmy_B]

Hello again emeraldcoast,

It is not up to me to say and the Catholic Church does grant annulments in appropriate situations. The scenario that you gave, assumes that non-Catholic denominations check to see what the reasons are for the divorce and the re-marriage and most do not; the Caholic Church does… this is my point.

“trust but varify”

Peace

I wanted to add, that Marriage is a Sacrament and Sacraments are so named, because they are Sacred.

The “Keeper of the Sacraments” are those who have been Ordained (another Sacrament - Holy Orders) in Christ’s Church (the Catholic Church) to do so.

Wouldn’t you agreed that Holy Matrimony, or Marriage, is Sacred? Wouldn’t you agree that Christ intended for men to be ordained as Priests, Bishops and Deacons, so that they could dispense the Sacraments, and protect the Sacraments, or that which is Sacred?

Most Christian denominations have their marriages performed by an ordained minister…right? not by any and all members…right?

Peace

 

[emeraldcoast]

Yes Jimmy-I know the Sacraments and we have them too…God loves us as well

You may find this link helpful that other churches do take marriage/remarriage seriously.
edow.org/marriage/

God Bless!

 

[Jimmy_B]

Yes Jimmy-I know the Sacraments and we have them too…God loves us as well

You may find this link helpful that other churches do take marriage/remarriage seriously.
edow.org/marriage/

God Bless!

Hello again emeraldcoast,

I don’t get it, earlier you wrote, “I don’t look at church as the “enforcer of marriage laws”* and y*et, when I went to the link that you provided for the Episcopal Church in Washington, it listed very specific guidelines for marriage within the Episcopal Church. Here is a quote from the link provided by you –

“Priests have the right and the canonical authority to refuse to witness and bless any marriage on appropriate pastoral grounds”

---

I am glad to see that your denomination has standards for marriage, even though, they may not be as tough as the Catholic Church but many denominations have little or no standards at all, wouldn’t you agree? Isn’t there a risk in that?

Peace*** ***

 

[Ronald_E]

Most likely those of you that are new converts to the Catholic Church are also a bit eager to share your new-found faith with others, especially those of us that are not Catholic.

My wife returned to the Catholic faith 10 years before I did. I was away for 40 years. We tried different non-denominational churches and eventually returned home. She put no pressure on me to return. After my return Easter of '05, she told me she had been praying for me for 10 years. She was living the life of prayer and would tell me periodically how beautiful Mass was or how kind and considerate Father O’Shea was to her. She also told me that Father O’Shea told her not to pressure me, but to pray for me. She felt confident with his advice.
On the other hand I have had aggressive non-Catholics try to convince me to accept Jesus into my heart so I could be saved. Our 28 year old daughter who lives 3000 miles away from us informed us Ash Wednesday of '06 that she was entering the Catholic Faith. We never put any pressure on her in any way. She was not raised Catholic but was baptized in a very popular non-denominational church. She turned away from Christianity because her experiences there. When I returned to Catholicism my wife and I prayed for her everyday and she became a member of the Catholic faith. When we asked her why she stated that there is a depth of mystery and intelligence in the Sacraments and the faith that she had never seen anywhere.
Every catholic I know is very sensitive to other faiths and will not intrude where they are not invited.

Why would it be so hard for you all not to understand a non-Catholic wanting to share their faith with you, especially if they believe that you are missing out on something as important as a true personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the complete understanding of what truly God’s Grace means?

God Bless!

I understand a non-Catholic wanting to share their faith with me. If a Catholic truly understands the Catholic faith they would never leave. A Catholic usually leaves the faith because of a lack of understanding and poor instruction. Another reason a Catholic would leave is because of a poor history of personal relationships beginning in the home. Jesus led me home. Nobody else could lead me home and no human could ever convince me to leave home again. No spiritual entity could influence me to leave. I have the sacraments that Jesus passed to me that sustain me with His Presence.
My younger brother left when he was 18 and now at 57 he is becoming a pastor in a non-denominational church. He tells me he is saved and I am not. How does he know? He has a lot of hostility towards Catholics and he has even tried to convert family friends who are Catholic and love their faith. I find this very disturbing. He is being intrusive and disrespectful.

 

[vocatio]

that’s what keep me coming and going, I am afraid the the Church is not the truth.

Have you read the Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Iraneus, etc. I accidentially came across a document that was called the “Didache”.

My reason for leaving Catholicism initially started with my wife and family calling into question the validity of my baptism. The Didache pointed out that in the early church pouring was considered acceptable. That bagan the tail spin. Not only did “Roman” Catholics do this but the Easter Church Rites as well. Discovering this opened my eyes even more to learning more about the real early church that many modern non-Catholics love to sterylize. Most are ignorant of the facts and I believe are afraid of finding this information, not so much becaues they’ll discover they are wrong, but rather discover that they will doubt their own faith once they learn this stuff. It is easier to disregard it and continue believing you have the truth, even if it is not complete. It’s really hard to understand Catholicism/Orthodoxy when you have little to no experience with it or understanding it. Most Catholics, sadly, do not know the teachings of the Catholic Church. I remember drilling a priest whom I refused to call with respect “father”, because of the same rhetoric that non-Catholics claim, particularly fundamentalists. I was like many here, once Catholic, and angry that I felt duped into believing that superstitious stuff. But CAF, CAF Radio, a convert forum and watching my wife suffer so much mental anguish from her …our previous faith helped. EWTN helped in learning more and more everyday since our television kept getting stuck on the channel initially by mistake and eventually our of curiosity. I started watching the Journey Home, listening to Scott Hahn, and reading and reading and reading and reading.

Poor father. He is a really good man. He was so understanding of the anger I felt…the pain from my experience as a broken Catholic. It’s a long story that might be okay to elaborate on in the right place, but I had good reasons to run. Many people don’t realize this, but I was isolated in the military among anti-Catholic proselytizers, Chaplains, believe it or not. I endured a lot. I read today that a third of the military are statistically Catholic. There is so much garbage floating out there, even from Catholics, that it is very confusing. But once you stick to orthodox sites and learn, by reading scripture and the catechism you are well on your way to building a better understanding of the faith that Christ originally established…handed down to us through His disciples apostolically speaking.

I understand celibacy more than I did back then. I was a seminarian too and while on my way back to continuing seminarian formation I met my now wife and her family. I was already having great doubts. But that originated mostly from a broken relationship with my anti-Catholic mom. She would get outragiously angry at the thought of me becoming a priest. I guess deep down inside I wanted approval. Ironically, I ended up getting written out of her Will anyway. Not that the money mattered, but the cutting off was difficult. After the death of my brother and her just a few months later, I felt so empty…even lost a job because of the deeply rooted pain and anger. It adversely affected me in everyway. I bottled up the pain, because we were not supposed to show feeling towards the lost. They got what they diserved. Since they were not members of the real church of Christ they were NOT saved. That bothered me and rang as untrue. If you read the scirptures carefully, that’s not the message you really get. I could write for ever on this subject. But it’s something that you have to come to grips with yourself.

I went down the classic path of trying to figure out How do we know who to trust. I found documents that proved that many of the early Christians believed as we do today. In fact, they were Catholic [or Orthodox as the Orthodox would say]. On my journey back home, I finally realized that the Church was one holy catholic and apostolic church. The Nicene Creed was significant and in 2004 after leaving another church of Christ congregation because of a couple of elders along with a new preacher attacked us…mainly my wife for defending “apartment dwellers” we broke away and went back to a smaller COC. I remember the first night we were there at the smaller congregation, the preacher was talking about the early church after the first 100 years. He brought up Creeks of early Christians and unlike most COCs he had a different spill on them saying that most people were not readers and communicated in the worship services, reading and reciting this Creed. He discusseed the development of the Apostles Creed and then the Nicene Creed. I thought he was going to explain why they were heretical, but instead spoke of their significance. He, unlike anone I’ve ever known in that faith, asked us to stand and recite it. You have to understand that a preacher in the COC is not always an Elder…which is a Bishop to them. They interchange the terms. It blew my wife’s mind that I knew them by heart…still after 17 years away. It was engrained in my heart. Somehow, deep down inside, I was saying…is it true Lord? Is it really you Lord? Then why don’t you lead me home if that is what you want. Well my …our conversion story is overwhelmingly one or great miracles that only God could have made to happen. My very anti-Catholic wife read Catholic documents and particularly the Catechism. She asked questions. After someone who knew what they were talking about explained the things she didn’t understand it made sense to her and she thought and thought about it. I beleive she came to realize that the Eucharist is real. We already had a communion, but it was of bread and grape juice. This was real and made the differnce of putting up with nonsense from those Catholics that didn’t understand or bother to learn the truth. Long story short we began to cross the Tiber in 2006 and ultimately came Home completely by Easter 2007. It’s been an amazing journey that I feel blessed to have been chosen to make. I often am ashamed of the fact that I fell away. It has been a very humbling experience. That’s why I even bother on these boards. It’s my reparation for my sins. It’s my self-imposed penance. God has blessed me and I owe Him my life.

I hope God leads you to understand more fully than even me. There is so much to the story that I always cut it off short. There’s enough to write a book, but that’s up to God, not me. If I were to write a book I would want to donate any profits to vocations to the priesthood, as a sort of penance for “forsaking” my vocation that I still believe God intended for me. I missed my vocation because of pride. Pride is a really bad thing. Just when peole start to tell you they really know something, flags should go off. That is not of God, that is of the other place.

Anyway, pray for me. I always pray for those in the Church and others too. I hope you non-Catholic Christians find peace and joy that we have discovered in the Catholic Church. If you are a woman suffering from the abuse and marginalization of women in your faith, consider looking into the Eucharist. You might be surprised.

Pax Christi tecum.

vocatio => Latin for Vocation…I’m discerning a vocation to the diaconate now. Praying that God will take me as I am to fill the giant void inside that only He can fill.

 

[vocatio]

Ronald E
WELCOME HOME! brother.

You hit the nail on the head…“a Catholic that truly knows the teaching of the Catholic Church would never leave it”.

That is so so true.

I discovered so many were praying for me. I am sad to say that my father did not get to see me return Home before his death, but I took great joy in telling his best friend back home.

It took some real miracles to bring us home. My wife was never Catholic. But once she was convinced of the truth she began to teach me what she knew. I was working on learning about Orthodoxy while we were in RCIA. But once I learned more about the issues holding me back I realized they were only “straw man” arguments. Now I love the Eastern Church and would really love to go that way if my wife would join me. But I will have to put that off to help keep the inspiration going between us. We have young children with developing vocations…hopefully the priesthood…
Peace.

 

[Jimmy_B]

Ronald E
WELCOME HOME! brother.
You hit the nail on the head…“a Catholic that truly knows the teaching of the Catholic Church would never leave it”. That is so so true…Peace.

I agree… great post… both of you

 

[Jimmy_B]

Why ask a question that only GOD can answer Are Roman Catholics who answer this question emphatically yes being judgemental? Why yes they are. Jimmy it seems you ask this same question about every other month. Maybe with different wording though.

Hello NDfan,

like this thread here that nobody (including you) responded to. Thank you for your post.

Peace

 

[Ronald_E]

Vocatio and Jimmy B
Thank you both so much for your kind words. When I hear words like “welcome home brother” tears start to form from the joy of finally being validated as to where I belong which I had never felt before in my life. Now you know these are man tears. Every once in a while I will cry from joy at a certain part of Mass and one day my gift from God, my spouse of 32 years, looked over at me and asked, “Are you having problems with your hormones?”

Vocatio, You would have been a great priest! I loved reading your shortened story. I would love reading the book! You will be a great deacon if you decide to go in that direction. Your children are blessed to have such a great father.

Jimmy B, I love the threads you start here and wish I could even see the bar you have set in the knowledge, intelligence and love you have for our Catholic faith and more importantly the love you have for Jesus Who has given us this beautiful gift.
I read the thread you started about Grace Moments. I hadn’t seen it before. These moments are beautiful and totally unexpected and are miracles that seem too quickly forgotten. I am now going back to my memory banks to awaken myself again to these moments and record them and keep them always present as reminders that God is always wanting to show us He is with us until He comes again.
God Bless you guys and all who are here in our blessed struggle to unite in love.

 

[Jimmy_B]

Vocatio and Jimmy B
Thank you both so much for your kind words. When I hear words like “welcome home brother” tears start to form from the joy of finally being validated as to where I belong which I had never felt before in my life. Now you know these are man tears. Every once in a while I will cry from joy at a certain part of Mass and one day my gift from God, my spouse of 32 years, looked over at me and asked, “Are you having problems with your hormones?”

Vocatio, You would have been a great priest! I loved reading your shortened story. I would love reading the book! You will be a great deacon if you decide to go in that direction. Your children are blessed to have such a great father.

Jimmy B, I love the threads you start here and wish I could even see the bar you have set in the knowledge, intelligence and love you have for our Catholic faith and more importantly the love you have for Jesus Who has given us this beautiful gift.
I read the thread you started about Grace Moments. I hadn’t seen it before. These moments are beautiful and totally unexpected and are miracles that seem too quickly forgotten. I am now going back to my memory banks to awaken myself again to these moments and record them and keep them always present as reminders that God is always wanting to show us He is with us until He comes again.
God Bless you guys and all who are here in our blessed struggle to unite in love.

"the gift of tears"

Thank you Ronald, I am always very happy to learn of someone either converting to, or returning back home to the Catholic Church. Imagine how happy God and all of the Angels and Saints are as well…

I pray for true Christian unity! I also pray that yours and my faith and others here, grow stronger every day!

God bless you!

Pray the Rosary…it is a powerful prayer!

Peace

 

[historyb]

that’s what keep me coming and going, I am afraid the the Church is not the truth.

I will say “I was afraid”

 

[OnlyJesusSave]

HEY FRIEND DON’T YOU THINK THAT BORN AGAIN MEANS TO HAVE A NEW START? I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE GOING FROM ALCOHOLISM TO SET FREE PERSON. I HAVE SEEN DRUG ADDICTS (HOMELESS, OPPRESSED, ETC) BECOMING A NEW PERSON.

CHECK THIS VIDEO AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=34337996

 

[historyb]

Have you read the Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Iraneus, etc. I accidentially came across a document that was called the “Didache”.

My reason for leaving Catholicism initially started with my wife and family calling into question the validity of my baptism. The Didache pointed out that in the early church pouring was considered acceptable. That bagan the tail spin. Not only did “Roman” Catholics do this but the Easter Church Rites as well. Discovering this opened my eyes even more to learning more about the real early church that many modern non-Catholics love to sterylize. Most are ignorant of the facts and I believe are afraid of finding this information, not so much becaues they’ll discover they are wrong, but rather discover that they will doubt their own faith once they learn this stuff. It is easier to disregard it and continue believing you have the truth, even if it is not complete. It’s really hard to understand Catholicism/Orthodoxy when you have little to no experience with it or understanding it. Most Catholics, sadly, do not know the teachings of the Catholic Church. I remember drilling a priest whom I refused to call with respect “father”, because of the same rhetoric that non-Catholics claim, particularly fundamentalists. I was like many here, once Catholic, and angry that I felt duped into believing that superstitious stuff. But CAF, CAF Radio, a convert forum and watching my wife suffer so much mental anguish from her …our previous faith helped. EWTN helped in learning more and more everyday since our television kept getting stuck on the channel initially by mistake and eventually our of curiosity. I started watching the Journey Home, listening to Scott Hahn, and reading and reading and reading and reading.

Poor father. He is a really good man. He was so understanding of the anger I felt…the pain from my experience as a broken Catholic. It’s a long story that might be okay to elaborate on in the right place, but I had good reasons to run. Many people don’t realize this, but I was isolated in the military among anti-Catholic proselytizers, Chaplains, believe it or not. I endured a lot. I read today that a third of the military are statistically Catholic. There is so much garbage floating out there, even from Catholics, that it is very confusing. But once you stick to orthodox sites and learn, by reading scripture and the catechism you are well on your way to building a better understanding of the faith that Christ originally established…handed down to us through His disciples apostolically speaking.

I understand celibacy more than I did back then. I was a seminarian too and while on my way back to continuing seminarian formation I met my now wife and her family. I was already having great doubts. But that originated mostly from a broken relationship with my anti-Catholic mom. She would get outragiously angry at the thought of me becoming a priest. I guess deep down inside I wanted approval. Ironically, I ended up getting written out of her Will anyway. Not that the money mattered, but the cutting off was difficult. After the death of my brother and her just a few months later, I felt so empty…even lost a job because of the deeply rooted pain and anger. It adversely affected me in everyway. I bottled up the pain, because we were not supposed to show feeling towards the lost. They got what they diserved. Since they were not members of the real church of Christ they were NOT saved. That bothered me and rang as untrue. If you read the scirptures carefully, that’s not the message you really get. I could write for ever on this subject. But it’s something that you have to come to grips with yourself.

I went down the classic path of trying to figure out How do we know who to trust. I found documents that proved that many of the early Christians believed as we do today. In fact, they were Catholic [or Orthodox as the Orthodox would say]. On my journey back home, I finally realized that the Church was one holy catholic and apostolic church. The Nicene Creed was significant and in 2004 after leaving another church of Christ congregation because of a couple of elders along with a new preacher attacked us…mainly my wife for defending “apartment dwellers” we broke away and went back to a smaller COC. I remember the first night we were there at the smaller congregation, the preacher was talking about the early church after the first 100 years. He brought up Creeks of early Christians and unlike most COCs he had a different spill on them saying that most people were not readers and communicated in the worship services, reading and reciting this Creed. He discusseed the development of the Apostles Creed and then the Nicene Creed. I thought he was going to explain why they were heretical, but instead spoke of their significance. He, unlike anone I’ve ever known in that faith, asked us to stand and recite it. You have to understand that a preacher in the COC is not always an Elder…which is a Bishop to them. They interchange the terms. It blew my wife’s mind that I knew them by heart…still after 17 years away. It was engrained in my heart. Somehow, deep down inside, I was saying…is it true Lord? Is it really you Lord? Then why don’t you lead me home if that is what you want. Well my …our conversion story is overwhelmingly one or great miracles that only God could have made to happen. My very anti-Catholic wife read Catholic documents and particularly the Catechism. She asked questions. After someone who knew what they were talking about explained the things she didn’t understand it made sense to her and she thought and thought about it. I beleive she came to realize that the Eucharist is real. We already had a communion, but it was of bread and grape juice. This was real and made the differnce of putting up with nonsense from those Catholics that didn’t understand or bother to learn the truth. Long story short we began to cross the Tiber in 2006 and ultimately came Home completely by Easter 2007. It’s been an amazing journey that I feel blessed to have been chosen to make. I often am ashamed of the fact that I fell away. It has been a very humbling experience. That’s why I even bother on these boards. It’s my reparation for my sins. It’s my self-imposed penance. God has blessed me and I owe Him my life.

I hope God leads you to understand more fully than even me. There is so much to the story that I always cut it off short. There’s enough to write a book, but that’s up to God, not me. If I were to write a book I would want to donate any profits to vocations to the priesthood, as a sort of penance for “forsaking” my vocation that I still believe God intended for me. I missed my vocation because of pride. Pride is a really bad thing. Just when peole start to tell you they really know something, flags should go off. That is not of God, that is of the other place.

Anyway, pray for me. I always pray for those in the Church and others too. I hope you non-Catholic Christians find peace and joy that we have discovered in the Catholic Church. If you are a woman suffering from the abuse and marginalization of women in your faith, consider looking into the Eucharist. You might be surprised.

Pax Christi tecum.

vocatio => Latin for Vocation…I’m discerning a vocation to the diaconate now. Praying that God will take me as I am to fill the giant void inside that only He can fill.

I converted to the Church from Protestantism in '91 and I thought all was going to be well. I remember going into the Church and getting a sense of awe and loving the History I felt there, I had no trouble with the beliefs I even started praying the Rosary 6 months before I entered physically into the Church.

It was in College (An Assembly of God College) where my NT Professor changlled us to examine ourselves and see if our beliefs were our own or if they were just parroting our parents faith.

Well in my case I was parroting my parents, so I set out to find what I believed. I studied everything Christian and found the beauty and richness of Catholicism, I prayed and to reign in a long story I went home from College and went to the Church and was given instructions by a wonderful Priest, read all the history of the Church and everything. I was fine for a while and then doubt crept in, I looked at the waves around me and wavered back and forth many times now. When my parents both died in June I became Catholic again, than stopped going to Mass and went to a Baptist Church where I have been going up until tomorrow. My first Mass in 6 months with my wife who is a cradle Catholic.

This time it was a few threads here that made me want to try again and with God’s help and strength stay. I will pray for you, please pray for me.

 

[Ronald_E]

I converted to the Church from Protestantism in '91 and I thought all was going to be well. I remember going into the Church and getting a sense of awe and loving the History I felt there, I had no trouble with the beliefs I even started praying the Rosary 6 months before I entered physically into the Church.

It was in College (An Assembly of God College) where my NT Professor changlled us to examine ourselves and see if our beliefs were our own or if they were just parroting our parents faith.

Well in my case I was parroting my parents, so I set out to find what I believed. I studied everything Christian and found the beauty and richness of Catholicism, I prayed and to reign in a long story I went home from College and went to the Church and was given instructions by a wonderful Priest, read all the history of the Church and everything. I was fine for a while and then doubt crept in, I looked at the waves around me and wavered back and forth many times now. When my parents both died in June I became Catholic again, than stopped going to Mass and went to a Baptist Church where I have been going up until tomorrow. My first Mass in 6 months with my wife who is a cradle Catholic.

This time it was a few threads here that made me want to try again and with God’s help and strength stay. I will pray for you, please pray for me.

Historyb, I will pray for you and I thank you for your prayers. My wife of 32 years returned to Catholicism 10 years before I did and prayed for me silently. I returned 3 years ago and I cannot describe how beautiful Christ’s Church is. Yesterday I just completed the St. Ignatius 6 month spiritual retreat which is called Spiritual Exercises for Everyday Living and we were asked to present one thing that we can take with us everyday in our walk of faith. My immediate response was to keep being open and vulnerable. Always go to the mysterious unknown in our faith and that is where God’s Love will be found in greater depth. Where it seems dark there is God’s Love waiting to be discovered.
I go for morning runs and pray the Rosary and God gives me thoughts to meditate that I never had before. God Bless You.

 

[thecoach]

Among other reasons, why, yes.

Please defend this narrow vision. My dear friend, those who left are truly in the freedom of Christ, you who stay may be guilty of what Christ condemned the Pharisees for, putting man’s rules before God’s Word.

 

[Contarini]

I converted to the Church from Protestantism in '91 and I thought all was going to be well. I remember going into the Church and getting a sense of awe and loving the History I felt there, I had no trouble with the beliefs I even started praying the Rosary 6 months before I entered physically into the Church.

It was in College (An Assembly of God College) where my NT Professor changlled us to examine ourselves and see if our beliefs were our own or if they were just parroting our parents faith.

Well in my case I was parroting my parents, so I set out to find what I believed. I studied everything Christian and found the beauty and richness of Catholicism, I prayed and to reign in a long story I went home from College and went to the Church and was given instructions by a wonderful Priest, read all the history of the Church and everything. I was fine for a while and then doubt crept in, I looked at the waves around me and wavered back and forth many times now. When my parents both died in June I became Catholic again, than stopped going to Mass and went to a Baptist Church where I have been going up until tomorrow. My first Mass in 6 months with my wife who is a cradle Catholic.

Interesting. I know where you are coming from. I simply never joined the Catholic Church (though I was a candidate for two months at one point), but I’ve experienced the same back-and-forth.

Edwin

 

[Jimmy_B]

Interesting. I know where you are coming from. I simply never joined the Catholic Church (though I was a candidate for two months at one point), but I’ve experienced the same back-and-forth.

Edwin

Edwn keep growing in your faith. I prayed that one day you do come home to the Catholic Church.

Peace