Confused Catholic

[GratefulFred]

Hi Deidre,

God is calling you and you are responding by asking for (name removed by moderator)ut here on the Forums. Good for you. We all have to battle between our Faith and our politics. No one party or candidate satisfies fully. But, when I feel a conflict between my Faith and politics I try to remember this:

1. God First.
2. Family Second.
3. All else third.

This life is but a short journey on our way to eternity. No political party, but only God, will get me to Heaven. I stay in the Catholic Church for many reasons. But high on the reason list are these passages from the Gospels of John Chapter 14 and 20 and from Matthew Chapter 16:

**John Ch14 6 **Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth***** and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, 17 **the Spirit of truth,***** which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. **
**26 **The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that told you.

John Ch 20 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.* 23 *If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

***Matthew Ch 16 15 He said to them, *“But who do you say that I am?”
***16 *Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
***17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 **And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

So I follow Christ because He, not a political party, is THE WAY and THE TRUTH. He established the Catholic Church and gave it the Holy Spirit on which we can rely**.**

Pray for Wisdom: right knowledge and right judgment. Pray for the strength to do God’s Will on earth as it is in Heaven.*

 

[RebeccaJ]

Here is my question, I have been raised as a catholic but becamed lapsed in my 20’s I really want to get back into the church but I am having a hard time since my personal beliefs are in total contrast to the churches beliefs. So what do I do? Do I give up on it? I know that I won’t change my beliefs so does this mean I can’t have a realtionship with God?

Everyone has this struggle, in one way or another. So, you are not unique. The good news is, since we are all in the same struggle, that is the desire to discipleship, you aren’t alone. Besides all of us, we have Christ and His Church.

So pray, go to Mass and study the issues that you feel out of kilter with. God will guide you.

 

[tbcrawford]

Deirdre I posted this post on another thread nearly three years ago but you may find it relevant.Take a look at Mathew 16:17-20
God bless you

[There are quite a few people who have drifted away from the Church, and from many other churches as well. This may be mostly due to the fact that when we grow up, we realize that we believe certain things just because we were told they were true by people we trust, and not because we ever thought about them at all. This makes us uneasy, and we start looking in other places for beliefs that we can call our own.

But there is, after all, one and only one Truth; and being a child of God, you have the ability to recognize it. Life is generally long, and a good person will learn more about herself and more about God every day. This is all very human and very natural. Since God knows absolutely everything (a difficult enough concept on its own), He knows that this will happen, and gives us the grace to find our way back. All you have to do is to accept that grace.

Prayer shows our trust and faith in God. He does not need our prayers, but we do. They are a source of grace. So in His infinite love for us, God wants us to receive this grace that we can only get by a voluntary act of will, a free choice to make the effort to show our belief in God through prayer. Frequent prayer will strengthen our faith and trust and lead us to heaven, and that is God’s goal.

Religion, after all, is not about a set of rules to follow, or splitting doctrinal hairs. It is about experiencing God’s love. We have to deeply believe that He loves us as selflessly as a parent, as passionately as a lover. It may be that the whole of humankind can become one family and live together in peace and affection. This is the story that Christ told us; this is the vision and faith that keeps us Catholic

The Church emphasizes that God is infinitely merciful and compassionate and fair, and gives everyone who has ever lived enough grace to reach heaven, whether or not they ever heard of Christ’s sacrifice before God offers them this knowledge (in His infinite goodness) in the last timeless instant of their lives.

When children (especially boys) have gone astray, perhaps getting into trouble with the police or dropping out of school, our fathers take a rather hard line. “The no-good bum, throw him out of the house and let him see what the real world is like for awhile!” Mom always takes the kid’s side. “Oh, he’s a good boy. You’ll see. He will find his way; don’t be so hard on him. He just needs more love.”

The Church is like our mum. She sees only the good in us. She is always eager to take us back, and show how much she loves us, no matter what we have done. We can always go home to Holy Mother Church and know that only complete forgiveness and unconditional love await us.

First, while Christ was teaching on earth, He established a Church with St. Peter as the founding head. He gave this Church absolute authority not specifically over the Bible, which had not yet been written or even thought of, but over all things and all matters spiritual. The Bible says this, in no uncertain terms, in Matthew 16: 17-20.

Then, the Apostles and Disciples of Christ started spreading His Church by going out all over the known world preaching. This was all oral teaching, as was the practice of the day. What they knew of Christ and His teaching were passed word of mouth from person to person. ]

 

[guanophore]

Welcome to CAF!

Here is my question, I have been raised as a catholic but becamed lapsed in my 20's I really want to get back into the church but I am having a hard time since my personal beliefs are in total contrast to the churches beliefs.

The fact that you have come here and posted this question is a testimony that you really do have a desire to be back to the faith in which you were baptized.

It is only natural that you would have personal beliefs that are in total contrast to the Church’s beliefs. I suffered the same problem when I lapsed in my college years. Being steeped it the culture will do that to a person.

So what do I do? Do I give up on it? I know that I won’t change my beliefs so does this mean I can’t have a realtionship with God?

God will never give up on you, so I recommend that you not give up on yourself.

How can you know that you will not change your beliefs? If you really do want to be close to God, then you will want to have the Holy Spirit alive in your soul, and that will mean that you will learn to think as God thinks, and take on the mind of Christ. Maybe it seems that your current beliefs are a long way from those of the Church right now, but one must never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is part of the problem I still have a realtionship with God, just no longer with the church… The last priest I talked to (years ago mind you) said that a true catholic wouldn’t hold the beliefs I did. So that kind of made me turn my back on the church.

Actually it sounds like the other way around. It sounds like you had already lost your Catholicity by the time you talked to the priest. That means you had already turned your back on the Church before that conversation.

It may be that you were never properly formed in the faith, and did not conform your conscience to the teachings of Jesus from the beginning. I know that I did not have a proper formation in faith either, which is why I turned by back on the Church.

What is drawing you back at this time in your life?

 

[guanophore]

I want to go back to the church becaue I miss it and I do follow a lot of the beliefs.

What are you missing?

Howevere I am (gasp) a liberal democrat and the church I once belonged to really made me feel that I could not be a good catholic due to my polital beliefs.

It was not just the “church you once belonged to” but very likely the Church founded by Christ, His Holy Bride, and His Body on earth. The Church does not impose any requirements about politics on the faithful, but we are required to be light and salt in the world, and thus, to bring His values into our daily lives, including political life.

   Yes, I believe in a womans right to chose and other hotly debated topics. For the simple fact that I was taught as a child, in catholic school no less, that God is the only true judge and we should never judge others. I took this to heart. I guess what has turned me off from church is the fact that politics exist there at all.

Jesus calls us to deny everything, to take up our cross, and to follow Him. In the ancient world, when a person was sentenced to crucifixion, they had no life, posessions, or values anymore. When they took up the cross, they walked under sentence of death, and had no future for themselves anymore.

When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, that means that the world must be crucified to us, and us to the world. We need to be willing to sever our relationship with everything, and everyone, in order ot put Him first. When we accept Him as Lord, that means He is King, and His will is all that matters. He said that, if we are lukewarm, He will spit us out of His mouth. It is all or nothing.

I think you know that, which is why you are wondering in your OP if you should even bother to try. If you are so adamant about giving up your political beliefs, then He will never have the place of Lord and God in your heart.

 

[steve_b]

Here is my question, I have been raised as a catholic but becamed lapsed in my 20’s I really want to get back into the church but I am having a hard time since my personal beliefs are in total contrast to the churches beliefs. So what do I do?

what are those beliefs?
d:

Do I give up on it? I know that I won’t change my beliefs so does this mean I can’t have a realtionship with God?

Again, what are those beliefs?

Reading ahead in another response, one can’t have a relationship with God and be opposed to His Church’s teaching, and one’s mind is soooo fixed, they plant their feet, and will not change… It’s pretty hard not to think, That’s taking God only on one’s own terms, not His.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Chuck Colson noted everyone holds one of three sources for truth against which they measure all else.

1. God
2. Experts
3. Self

Once one has made this choice, it takes a major event, like St Paul on the Road to Damascus, to change the choice.

Note that choosing God means to choose what He really said; not what some expert says He said [that is choice 2 not 1] and not what one thinks He said [that is choice 3 not 1] Choosing 2 is to choose a true expert, not one because you agree with him [that is choice 3 not 2].

At the Easter Vigil those previously baptized elsewhere declare

I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.

Some will ask how can they declare that when they don’t know all She believes, teaches and proclaims. That is the whole point. If they would become Catholic, it must be because they believe the Church has the Truth from God, not because She happens to agree the Truth as formed by them.