I have to put in a plug for a friend of mine, Bruce Sullivan. He also converted before his wife. His most recent book is “Christ In His Fullness”. Many people that I know are converts. My wife is a convert and I am a “revert” after spending 17 years in a fundamental evangelical church. You wife’s pain is caused from feeling betrayed by your chose. She probably feels separated from you because of your conversion. I’d suggest to pull up the “didache” and read it together. Then read Ignatius of Antioch’s writings, particularly to the Smyrnaeans. On his way to be martyred he used the Greek word καθολικός from which we get the Latinized Catholicum or Catholic.
Our former preacher even stood before an anti-creed congregation and gave a historical spill on the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. That was okay until he directed us to stand and recite it together. I asked him just a couple of weeks ago, about why he covered this and had us recite it 3 1/2 years ago. His response is that most church of Christ do not really know history and the he beleives that the Nicene Creed not only showed the historical church and what they believed but that it was also more profound that even Acts 2
. That’s coming from a solo scriptura preacher where most of us * would rather die than admit it.
Believe me when I say this. I would not be back to the Catholic Church if I had not discovered the truth in the ancient documents we refer to as the ancient church fathers. As difficult as it is to swallow I was running to the Orthodox Church after my first experience with knuckleheaded Catholics years ago. The problem is that after discovering the truth and hearing Jimmy Akin say to another non-practicing Catholic “would you leave Peter because of Judas”. I turned white and even more white as I dug up the truth about the early church. Even the scripture supports it and all the other non-Catholic or anti-teachings I learned were easlity thrown out the window leaving me with no choice but to convert. Now instead of running from knuckleheaded Catholics, I pray for them and do my best to teach them what I have learned from my Protestant days that points directly to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It was discovering and learning about the Eastern Orthodox Church that brought me to realize I needed to go home and accept where I was supposed to be all those years.
You might want to note that my father-in-law was a bishop in a Protestant faith and 2 of my brother-in-laws are preachers, not to mention some of their sons and son-in-laws. Another brother-in-law went to preacher school but decided to blow off his last 2 classes because he finally realized that they were blowing smoke. I wanted to become a preacher and my wife kept me from it all these years. Thank God she did, because could you imagine my life if I had been educated only in Bible College. Not much you can do with that. However, I cherish the strong scriptural background that I obtained from that faith, but finally realized that it is limited outside the authority and teaching of the Church that everyone seems to hate and run from. Ironically, there are about 1.2 billion Catholics and 240 million Orthodox that make up the one holy catholic and apostolic church *.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Antioch*
The main thing is to be patient and kind. Bring her to an orthodox RCIA program. Read about liturgy and how it was used in the early church. Read about the history of the canon of scripture and how /why Catholic/Orhtodox bibles are bigger. The key is grace, but learning about history will give you something tangible in the mean time. Pray and fast for you wife. Look at
www.e5men.org and follow their guidelines to sacrifice for your wife. Men are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.
I always pray for converts because I’ve been in your shoes hoping my wife would let go of our former faith that became obvious to me was not the true church as they claim. I thought it might be the Orthodox Church, but discovered how similar they are to te Catholic Church. I think the dual Tradition passed down throughout the ages is what pointed to the ancient Church. But God showed me mercy and brought conversion to my wife and oldest son and in the mean time he softened my heart to love the Church.*
