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Tom
Guest
Amen
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Tom
Guest
dream wanderer:
Not all of us “cradle Catholics” are remiss in our study.
M
MichelleTherese
Guest
I attend an Evangelical church most Sunday mornings because I have several friends there. I find it to be a lovely Bible-based service with lots of true love for Christ being shown through good works towards one another: ie helping folks move, watching kids, helping those that fall ill, feeding and housing the poor and hungry. Even though this church lacks the sacrafice of the Mass and Christ in the Eucharist (and thus, true worship) I know that I am surrounded by my Christian brothers and sisters.
There are loads of ex-Catholics in this church and although I’ve never heard them bash the Catholic Chruch there is an understanding that the Church didn’t know the “truth” etc. I can’t help but wonder, if these “underfed” ex-Catholics had applied themselves to studying the Faith, would they have become Evangelicals?
The same goes for any of us lax or lazy “Sunday Catholics” and “Cafeteria Catholics” who claim “I wasn’t taught anything in CCD” as the prime excuse of slacking off. I think that all of us Catholics should exhort one another to dig into the Faith so that we truly do have “the Gospel.” Our Protestant brothers and sisters are awash in Bible studies and other learning-the-faith activities. We should be too: without waiting for the Church to create these groups for us.
It’s difficult to do! My friend and I managed to put together a Friday night Bible study and only 4 people showed up. And it was a flop. Our Priest eventually started showing up and guiding the Bible study and it ended up being GREAT. But we need to find a way to do it ourselves so our already overworked Priests aren’t having to come bail us out. And we will. Somehow.
(Mother Mary, help!)
There are loads of ex-Catholics in this church and although I’ve never heard them bash the Catholic Chruch there is an understanding that the Church didn’t know the “truth” etc. I can’t help but wonder, if these “underfed” ex-Catholics had applied themselves to studying the Faith, would they have become Evangelicals?
The same goes for any of us lax or lazy “Sunday Catholics” and “Cafeteria Catholics” who claim “I wasn’t taught anything in CCD” as the prime excuse of slacking off. I think that all of us Catholics should exhort one another to dig into the Faith so that we truly do have “the Gospel.” Our Protestant brothers and sisters are awash in Bible studies and other learning-the-faith activities. We should be too: without waiting for the Church to create these groups for us.
It’s difficult to do! My friend and I managed to put together a Friday night Bible study and only 4 people showed up. And it was a flop. Our Priest eventually started showing up and guiding the Bible study and it ended up being GREAT. But we need to find a way to do it ourselves so our already overworked Priests aren’t having to come bail us out. And we will. Somehow.
(Mother Mary, help!)
S
Strider
Guest
It’s a crime how many uncatechized Catholics there are in the pews. Their ignorance makes them easy pickings for prosyletizing by Evangelicls and others.
WE NEED CATECHISIS, and we need to have the people come to the classes or sessions. I’m trying in my parish. It has to be a grassroots effort. Father can’t do it all.
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Mijoy2
Guest
How would I respond? Hmmmm, with a great deal of bewilderment. The reading of the Gospel is a part of the liturgy. Often (not always), following, the homily is centered on the particular reading. Always prayers (our Father) are recited that come directly from the Gospel. The Crucifix is displayed for all to see, the fourteen stations of the cross, displayed for all to see, the Virgin Mary, displayed for all to see.
The Catholic church IS the celebration and adoration of the Gospel of our Lord.
There is no sense to be made of “denying the Gospel in the Catholic Church”. Defies logic. Must be more to the point.
The Catholic church IS the celebration and adoration of the Gospel of our Lord.
There is no sense to be made of “denying the Gospel in the Catholic Church”. Defies logic. Must be more to the point.
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Richard_Lamb
Guest
They were not denied anything they, were not paying atention,the entire mass is nothing but scripture…
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Smack_Daddy
Guest
They must have been sleeping during the Mass, since the liturgy is inundated with scripture.
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BobCatholic
Guest
If someone were to tell me that, I’d tell them to stop sleeping at mass. I hear the gospel preached at every mass.
I love it when people blame the Church for their lack of practice.
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otm
Guest
I suspect that there are several things afloat. Many times, the initial impact of a Protestant church is one of warmth, of acceptance. I am surprised at how many people who come to our parish remark that they chose to make it their parish becasue of the warmth and acceptance that they couldn’t find in other Catholic parishes.
Most Protestant services I have been to are long on sermon/homily/teaching, and short on liturgy of any definable variety. Too often, the Catholics joinging them have had little or no catechesis on the Mass, or it has been so long ago they have forgotten almost all of it. So they hear a 5, or maybe 10 minute homily, and a lot of prayers they really don’t understand, and have heard (with one ear) repeatedly (anyone ever hear “familiarity breeds contempt”?), and that homily wandered all around Jones’s barn ( all too often, it has absolutely no bearing on the readins, and is so watered down that if it relates to some other article of faith, one has to be already well versed to get it). And they get a pastor who speaks as if they were on fire with love of the Lord. and others in the congregation also act and speak as if they were on fire with love of the Lord.
A whole lot of people are not rocket scientists; and theology is heavy business. A simple message gets their attention. Most of these people were not well catchised to begin with. Many have another issue, or series of issues whcih have little or nothing to do with the’Gospel" (Father was blunt, or rude, or told them something they did not want to hear {birth control}, or Sister said this or did that, or so and so was a sinner); the list goes on and on.
But when you get right down to it, the ratio of well catechised Catholics to not so well is probably about the same as Protestants.
Most Protestant services I have been to are long on sermon/homily/teaching, and short on liturgy of any definable variety. Too often, the Catholics joinging them have had little or no catechesis on the Mass, or it has been so long ago they have forgotten almost all of it. So they hear a 5, or maybe 10 minute homily, and a lot of prayers they really don’t understand, and have heard (with one ear) repeatedly (anyone ever hear “familiarity breeds contempt”?), and that homily wandered all around Jones’s barn ( all too often, it has absolutely no bearing on the readins, and is so watered down that if it relates to some other article of faith, one has to be already well versed to get it). And they get a pastor who speaks as if they were on fire with love of the Lord. and others in the congregation also act and speak as if they were on fire with love of the Lord.
A whole lot of people are not rocket scientists; and theology is heavy business. A simple message gets their attention. Most of these people were not well catchised to begin with. Many have another issue, or series of issues whcih have little or nothing to do with the’Gospel" (Father was blunt, or rude, or told them something they did not want to hear {birth control}, or Sister said this or did that, or so and so was a sinner); the list goes on and on.
But when you get right down to it, the ratio of well catechised Catholics to not so well is probably about the same as Protestants.
M
Malachi4U
Guest
This is a myth!:tsktsk: Has that preacher ever set foot in a Catholic mass? Did the lost Catholics ever remember the first reading? The second reading? The Gospel reading? The Psalms? The Liturgy straight out of Scripture? The Lords prayer? The communion blessing? The songs? They must have been ‘warming pews’ and sleeping?:yawn: Not all Catholics pay attention in mass I’ve noticed too, have you?
I actually went to a Baptist church and the RCC every Sunday for several months. I went to Lutheran and numerous Baptist churches before that. No one gets more “Gospel” then Catholics I have ever seen - period.
Take a stop watch to mass some day, you will find that about 25% of the mass is straight out of Scripture! 4 readings plus the hymns etc… The Baptist maybe get 2%! :bigyikes: (only count the first reading of a Scripture verse and not any repeats of it) Time it and you will be surprised by the truth as I was. One preacher spent 4 Sundays repeating the same Scripture on the ark of the covenant? There were a lot of complaints on that one too. He said the same thing over and over and over… I can only get yelled at so much and then I get tired of it. I’m just glad I didn’t get sprayed in the front row like my daughter.
When I was first joining the RCC and still attending the Baptist church I rented Jesus of Nazareth for family Bible study time. The only comments my kids made during the whole 6 hours of the movie when Jesus was talking was, “Wow dad, that’s what the Catholics say in Church!”, “Oh the Catholics say that too!” Praise God! We weren’t even Catholic yet and my kids could see what that preacher missed! They never made a comment on anything they heard from the Baptist church as they forgot it as soon as the sermon was over.
The mass is Scripture! Get a misollete (sp?) and just look at all the Scripture repeated throughout it!
That preacher’s claim is just plain not true!
Malachi4U
Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!:bowdown:
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Harland
Guest
This is a myth!:tsktsk: Has that preacher ever set foot in a Catholic mass?
Or if he has attended Mass did he go to try to understand what Catholics hear or did he go teh get more Anti-Catholic amunition?
Has anybody here heard of the Liturgy of the Hours? Talk about being immersed in scripture. It is all scripture and lessoned from the Chruch Fathers.:yup:
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