Catholics aren’t “testimony bearers”, not in the sense that you are looking for. So, you are searching for something that isn’t there.
We speak fondly of our Church and defend her because to us, Church and Christ are the same thing. I don’t mean in the sense that we worship the Church. I mean, Christ founded this Church, and that tie is a spiritual tie. You could call it a “sealing” if that helps you conceptualize what we believe.
To the importance of history and faith…Sacred Tradition is what you are comparing to Jewish Tradition. This is a good and fair comparison. Mormons (and other Christians) look to the Bible only (Mormons do when conversing with Christians) for guidance of how Christ’s Church should function, in all ways. Administrative, ecclesiastical, sacramental, everything.
But we understand that Sacred Tradition came first and that the Bible is a product of Sacred Tradition. It would be like you, having passed down important information in your family, exactly how things are done and why, and in every generation there are one or two people who are trained very carefully in this knowledge, which they share freely with everyone in the family. If someone wanted to know something about this family tradition, you would go to the person who was taught and learn from them.
Then, you notice that some family members are getting something wrong, and you start to worry that the information you have will be lost or even corrupted by what the other family members are doing, or not doing. So you write down everything you know. And the other people in your family who are knowledgable of your traditions and practices, write down everything they know, and we put all these writings together as a reference for everyone to go to when conflicts regarding these long-held traditions and practices arise.
This is the Bible. It came out of Sacred Tradition. Sacred, because what the Apostles knew, they passed on to others. Many others. And those people passed it on, and on, and on and so forth.
The Catholic Church has carefully cared for and kept the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. We call this knowledge the deposit of faith, or Sacred Tradition. You call it history. Historically speaking, it is astounding. And Catholics see very clearly the guidance of the Holy Spirit in this endeavor, otherwise, we know that all would have been lost many hundreds of years ago.
Church history, the supremely important history that has carried the teachings of Jesus forward through millenia, is to us a witness of God’s hand in His Church. So when we point to Church history, we are pointing to Sacred Tradition, to a Sacred deposit of faith, which is a witness of the Holy Spirit, and also a witness of Jesus Christ.
All of this exists for one purpose, and that is to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His message of Salvation that Jesus died for all, and His Sacrifice brings about eternal life for everyone.
The deposit of faith that we hold as Sacred, what you call history, is one of the greatest charges of Christ’s Church. Contained in this deposit is everything Christ taught. Everything. And all the knowledge that people have sought regarding this crowning Revelation. It includes the Sacraments and the records of Sacraments given; baptism, confirmation, first communion, holy orders, as this too is a witness of Christ’s work through the ages. And here, we see the Holy Spirit as much as we do in our prayers that are answered.
But, back to this personal or individual witness you are looking for. Catholics experience this every day if not every hour. It is very profound and very personal and we don’t find it necessary or comfortable even to share our personal relationships or experiences with God. And honestly, I find that words fail even the attempt at such a thing.
We just know, that the person who is in deep prayer next to us is in communion with God, at a very deep and personal level. We know, that when we receive the Blood and Body of Christ that every person is in communion with God and with each other. And when we do talk about these things, we use vocabulary such as Sacred, Holy, Miraculous, and since we have experienced what these words mean, we know what people are talking about.
All that (a lot) being said, I understand how it is looking from the outside in. I used to sit at mass, watching people, thinking they knew some secret that I didn’t. Or, that they “got” something that I didn’t.
You can believe, that when I say God lead me to the Catholic Church, that I mean the Holy Spirit guided me to where I should be. And millions of Catholics will tell you the same thing, that the Holy Spirit brings unmeasured guidance to them. We understand this, and we understand that this same Holy Spirit is guiding Christ’s Church, in the same way that He guides us.
But, you won’t ever find that we describe this as a “feeling”, because it isn’t a feeling. It is a
knowledge, that could only come from outside ourselves, and could come from nowhere within.
Never mind the great apostasy, the LDS perpetuates the “Great Deception”. He is surprised that you know his destination before he suspects it himself.
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