Calling all former Episcopalians

[JohnCarroll]

deogratias:

I found your mention of evangalization interesting. There was a priest who celebrated the TLM in Colorado Springs, an old priest and he has written for a couple of Catholic Journals and I really loved him, Fr. Rawley Myers.

Hardly a homily went by that he did not chastise us for not doing enough to “save souls”. He said it was all well and good to food the poor’s bodies but it was even more important that we feed their souls. It was also his observation that Catholics were notoriously “private” about their religion. He found it difficult to understand why we did not take more opportunities in our daily life to preach our faith and try to evangalize those around us.

I remember one thing he did, feeling so strongly about this, was take his own money and buy bunches of Holy Cards. He would leave them at the back of the Church and tell us to take as many as we wanted but that what he wanted us to do in return was to put one in any envelope we put into the mail, be it the phone bill, or personal letter or even he said when we get junk mail with a return envelope, just put in a holy card and mail it back.

His contention that we never knew what person who opened the envelope might be piqued to investigate more about the Catholic Church by this little gesture.

The Latin Mass Community would often take up collections to give to him because we were so grateful he took the time to celebrate the Mass for us (he was essentially retired) and he would just turn around and use it to pay for a tuition for some child to go to the Catholic High School who could not afford it. He was big on that too

Eventually we got FFSP priest there and Fr. Myers had to have a bypass and move to a nursing home I heard - but I bet he is evangalizing the cooks and housekeepers and everyone elses visitors to the day he dies.

God Bless you Father Rawley Myers

What you say is so true. As with Father Myers, when you love someone , everyone knows it , or will before long-- this should include Jesus. If we are not telling others about Him , we probably don’t care very much. If we don’t care much it is because we don’t know Him well or spend much time with Him. God help me to have a converted heart like Fr. Myers.

 

[mercygate]

JohnCarroll:

Dear Deogratias
As it turns out I do live in Texas,
Not far from St. Marys in Arlington. I visited there once. They have a great Pastor in Fr. Hawkins . I may go back. The reason I hesitate is that for some reason it seems to not be very Anglican. It may be that like many Anglican Use folks they feel a need to fit in to the larger RC world and so tone down there distinctiveness? But I was thinking about going back anyway. Maybe i can help.

But what about that GREAT translation of the Roman Canon in the Anglican Use Mass?

My confessor tells me that not rolling my eyeballs during the appalling music in our Masses is a form of penance. Is it EVER!

If you want a former Episcopalian’s take on this issue, go to EWTN’s Journey Home page, click on Past Shows in RealAudio, and listen to the program from last Monday, August 9.

 

[Minimus]

JohnCarroll:

Two questions:

1. If you were Episcopalian , have you found an answer?
2. Why are these virtues no longer important in most Parish Masses?

Sorry to answer so late. My wife and I attend the Anglican church where we live because the Roman Catholic service is so offensive. Our Anglican pastor is one of the holiest men I know, and I have attended catholic services throughout the world for a very long time. Peccatum meum fortasse redemptio mea est.

However, the church of Rome is our mother church, and the font of Christ’s graces on earth. She is the rock which the Lord guaranteed would last forever. So, what to do?

Remember that the church may be anchored in God, but it is run by humans. Find a parish where the clergy are holy, support them, and proselytize for them; you will be doing God’s work. Become a member of the parish council, and help to reintroduce a reverent liturgy if it is absent. Think of what St. Bernadette went through, and it will not seem such a big deal to stand up to irreverence. If all the foregoing is impossible, try the Our Lady of Atonement in San Antonio. Yes…get on a plane and go there. See how the Anglican Use can be employed both to praise and respect God (only note that Rite 1 was altered a smidge…to incorporate the spurious ICEL translation of the consecration).

 

[Benignus]

I am Episcopalian. But I want to be Catholic SO Badly. The problem is that I’m only 16, and my family is Episcopalian. So, at least for now, I am stuck. I believe everything that the Catholic Church teaches, and consider myself to be Catholic at heart. When I go to college in 2 years one of the first things I am going to do is join the Catholic Church. But 2 years seems like such a long time.

I pray that the Lord will make a way for me to join the Catholic Church as soon as possible, if it be His will.

Please pray for me.

 

[ATeNumquam]

Benignus:

I am Episcopalian. But I want to be Catholic SO Badly. The problem is that I’m only 16, and my family is Episcopalian. So, at least for now, I am stuck. I believe everything that the Catholic Church teaches, and consider myself to be Catholic at heart. When I go to college in 2 years one of the first things I am going to do is join the Catholic Church. But 2 years seems like such a long time.

I pray that the Lord will make a way for me to join the Catholic Church as soon as possible, if it be His will.

Please pray for me.

Be assured of my prayers, Benignus!! I was EXACTLY in that situation - WAY back in 1966!!! I studied Catholicism for a couple of years from the age of 16, and my family were Anglican - and HOSTILE. I was getting pamphlets through the mail from the Catholic Enquiry Centre, and reading everything I could get my hands on. I finally persuaded my mother to give me a lift to the local Catholic Church one early morning when she was on her way to the Anglican 8.00 am Communion Service, and shortly after, I began taking instructions (no RCIA back then). This was in the face of extreme opposition. My mother even called the vicar of “our” Anglican Church to visit and dissuade me. He did try, but after I went in tears from the room, God bless him, he told my mother that she couldn’t really stop me - that God might be calling me into the Catholic Church. After that, it wasn’t quite so bad. I became a Catholic at 18, and I’ve never regretted it. I’m 55 now!

Scott Hahn described his journey into the Catholic Church as a detective story, then a horror story, then a romance story. I can identify with that - and I can say it was all three at once!!
Had God not been seducing me and filling me with such a burning desire to be a Catholic, I couldn’t have withstood the opposition and misery of living at home during and after that time.

God bless you and keep you in His care, and fill you with all the grace and courage you need. Your time will come!

---

A Te numquam separari permittas - never let me be separated from You

 

[krazykatlady]

ATeNumquam:

Be assured of my prayers, Benignus!! I was EXACTLY in that situation - WAY back in 1966!!! I studied Catholicism for a couple of years from the age of 16, and my family were Anglican - and HOSTILE. I was getting pamphlets through the mail from the Catholic Enquiry Centre, and reading everything I could get my hands on. I finally persuaded my mother to give me a lift to the local Catholic Church one early morning when she was on her way to the Anglican 8.00 am Communion Service, and shortly after, I began taking instructions (no RCIA back then). This was in the face of extreme opposition. My mother even called the vicar of “our” Anglican Church to visit and dissuade me. He did try, but after I went in tears from the room, God bless him, he told my mother that she couldn’t really stop me - that God might be calling me into the Catholic Church. After that, it wasn’t quite so bad. I became a Catholic at 18, and I’ve never regretted it. I’m 55 now!

Scott Hahn described his journey into the Catholic Church as a detective story, then a horror story, then a romance story. I can identify with that - and I can say it was all three at once!!
Had God not been seducing me and filling me with such a burning desire to be a Catholic, I couldn’t have withstood the opposition and misery of living at home during and after that time.

God bless you and keep you in His care, and fill you with all the grace and courage you need. Your time will come!

---

A Te numquam separari permittas - never let me be separated from You

Your experience sounds vey much like mine. I fell in love with the Catholic Church in 1960. My parents were anti-Catholic Episcopalians and were not at all happy. The rector of our church came to our house to tell me about the horrors of Catholicism. He was a very good, orthodox Christian and I know he is rolling in his grave now at what is happening in the Episcopal church. When he retired the infamous Spong became rector of our parish. Due to circumstances it was a number of years before I was able to convert. I am 57 years old now and happy to be Catholic.

 

[Benignus]

The thing is, my parents are not particularly anti-Catholic. My stepdad is actually very Catholic in his thinking, and was a Catholic from some 20 years. His theology is more Catholic than it is Anglican. The problem is, due to certain obstacles, they can’t be Catholic, so therefore neither can I at this point. However, when I go to college in 2 years, one of the first things I am going to do is become Catholic.

In the meantime, I am going to study the Cathechism, read Catholic books, etc…

I am corresponding by mail with a Trappist monk, and this has been a great blessing, as has this list.