a) HOW do you date a catholic - is it sinful? is it ok to lust after them since you fancy them? since you cant be making out, what do you do? do you have to pray alot together?
We did a fair bit of walking…skating (roller and ice)…going to the arcade for DDR and then eating takeout over a movie (which we fondly referred to as “dinner and dancing”). We had some mutual interests and hobbies so we took advantage of that. Plus he was always welcome in my parent’s house. Mom believed it was better to keep her door open so we’d spend more time at home than running off to random places. He’d participate in some family functions.
…and what everyone else said about kissing. We had no interest in sex but we did like to cuddle.
We don’t pray together though (see below).
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b) how long did you date for before marriage to avoid falling into sin. or should that be bed lol. i always thought i could date a dude for a year then if we wernet engaged i’d dump him for wasting my time and also for lustful reasons. **
We didn’t get married to avoid falling into sexual sin. Pre-marital sex was something we both mutually decided was a total waste of time and energy. We wanted nothing to do with it. If anything were more anxious to live and travel together…again with the similar interests and hobbies. We were together for a little over 4 years before DH proposed and then another year before the wedding.
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c)those of you who dated non catholics, how does it differ to dating a catholic?**
Well…I only briefly dated a Catholic (so briefly we both pretty much decided it didn’t count and we’re still friends). But my Catholic friend had a difficult time keeping himself in check before marriage.
My husband is a lapsed Episcopalian (currently identifies as Agnostic). I can’t say “go forth and try dating Agnostics” because at the same time, my husband is very “Catholic friendly”. As I mentioned before he had no interest in pre-marital sex when we decided to date. He’s also been through the Catholic school system (that’s where we met) so he is educated in basic Catholicism. He has never been hostile to the Church. He doesn’t mind going to Mass. If we’re out of town he’ll go with me so I don’t have to go alone to a strange church. He’d just rather sleep in whenever he can. He even acknowledges that in order to properly function, a religion *should *be “organized”. He’s got a good sense of Natural Law and he goes with it. He’s a very good role model.
His Agnosticism is very personal. He doesn’t even particularly think he’s right on any matters regarding God. If I have convictions and being Catholic has been a positive impact on my life, then who was he to deny it to our children?
Also I came from a background where prayer was more personal. Other than attend Mass EVERY Sunday as a family, we had no family prayer. No family rosary (and the kids are finishing college still Catholic BTW). I wasn’t taught to say my evening prayers. We pretty much were left to pray as we saw fit. So while I do have a prayer life, the fact that I don’t pray with my husband has never really felt like an emptiness to me.
I’d say all I’m *really *missing is going to Church together. But once our child is born, we’ll very likely start attending Mass as a family.
