dIfferent type of Catholic here

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mommy_k

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I do not follow the Catholic Church because I am afraid of hell. I follow the church because I believe that this is what God and Jesus would want me to do. I believe that Jesus gave his life because of our sins, and I am truly grateful. I do not question many things about my religion, and do not need proof that there is a God, I know there is-I have seen His work in everyday things. I believe following Jesus in this life makes things easier in this life and I believe that Jesus also wants us to be joyous in this life. I believe that Mary is the perfect mother.

I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation. I go every week because this is what He asked. I recite the rosary for a similar reason.

I do not feel guilty for having nice things because I work hard and I give to the poor. I do not obsess over past sins, as I am forgiven in confession. I make up prayers and talk to God every day. I know many formal ones but feel this is better sometimes. I do not worry about not having things perfectly recited. I try not to judge other sinners, and I try to be an example to them.

Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
 
How you are practicing is a good thing. The church approves of it. You seem to be making the journey in your spiritual life from the mind to the heart…which MUST happen.

Christ wants our hearts…not just following routine obligitory movements. It’s good to follow healthy traditions and laws and such…but they are really only crutches helping those of us in a spiritual ICU get to a position where we don’t really need them.
By that I mean…we don’t need the law that is on stone…because it is written in our hearts…we follow the law because we want nothing more that to please the Lord, we go to mass not of obligation but out of true fidelity…a fidelity like one that is found in a good marriage.

We see this spiritual progression over the centuries between the relationship of God and the Jewish people. First they were given laws on stone to help orientate them , later Christ came to help advance us …to move from the brain to the heart.

I suggest reading St. John of the Cross…very heavy read…but I feel it will help you go deeper.

Michael
 
mommy_k said:
I do not follow the Catholic Church because I am afraid of hell. I follow the church because I believe that this is what God and Jesus would want me to do. I believe that Jesus gave his life because of our sins, and I am truly grateful. I do not question many things about my religion, and do not need proof that there is a God, I know there is-I have seen His work in everyday things. I believe following Jesus in this life makes things easier in this life and I believe that Jesus also wants us to be joyous in this life. I believe that Mary is the perfect mother.

I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation. I go every week because this is what He asked. I recite the rosary for a similar reason.

I do not feel guilty for having nice things because I work hard and I give to the poor. I do not obsess over past sins, as I am forgiven in confession. I make up prayers and talk to God every day. I know many formal ones but feel this is better sometimes. I do not worry about not having things perfectly recited. I try not to judge other sinners, and I try to be an example to them.

Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
I think what you’ll find is that the ideal approach is to do what we should do out of love of God, but that we tend to think that other motivations (fear of hell, etc), while not as noble, are sufficient.

It’s rather like the distinction between perfect and imperfect contrition - perfect contrition (sorrow based on love of God who we have offended) is of course the higher form, but imperfect (sorrow based on nearly anything else, including fear of hell and detesting the sin) is sufficient to make a good confession.

So ideally everyone would practice the faith out of pure love of God. We would fulfill our obligations not because we are afraid of consequences of ignoring them, but because we know that doing so is “right and just” (and the connotations of the word “obligation” as something unwillingly done would not apply).

And from my experience, many or most people do practice the faith this way most of the time. But everyone has bad days - days when we just really don’t want to do anything, and when our faith seems less certain than it does at other times - and on those days there’s something to be said for doing what needs to be done because we know it needs to be done on some level while being in one of those periods when it does not ring true the way it does at the high points. The consequences for failure can help us with that.

So I would say that no, you are not alone in your approach, but that it would be a mistake to denigrate the “imperfect” following of the faith (following out of fear of hell or the like) too too much. It’s not ideal, and we should all strive to increase in love of God, but being imperfect creatures, sometime having a fire under our behinds is a bit helpful.
 
My father followed the laws because he was afraid of getting arrested and sent to jail.
My mother followed the laws because they enabled people to survive and get along more smoothly.

My father required the rules and fears, and expected us to follow the rules.
My mother required the meaning and spirit behind a rule and frequently questioned things and expected us to question things.

My father missed some important lessons about love, depth and understanding differences.
My mother seemed to miss some things about justice and fairness in our family.

I think we need a balance:

Discipline is good but not without inspiration. Nazis were disciplined.
Inspiration without discipline is like trying to learn the truths of the world from a bunch of acid heads: they ALL know the answers.
 
Being an anonymous internet forum, CAF is a natural place for people with scrupulosity to come and ask “Is [fill in the blank] a mortal sin?” This could easily give onlookers the impression that most of us place “fear of hell” as their main motivating force in our lives. I don’t think that’s the case, though.
 
To follow the Catholic Church is to follow the two people that the Church IS, that is , Mary, the Mother of Jesus,Mother of the Catholic Church and of course, Jesus, the perfect sacrific.

Mary said, let Gods will be done, not mine…

Jesus picked up the overbearing cross, and rather than denying God OUR FATHER, to which is could have saved his life of this world, he rather gave his life of this world, for all of US…
Without denial can we let Gods will be done, not ours?

The greater fear than being in hell, is the fear of being in seperation from God for eternity, that is the greater fear and real fear, not so much the punishment of, but the seperation of.
and to that is the recognition of what if we bring somebody else to fall that they come to be seperated from God?

Its not soo much the fear of hell that drives us to confession and the need for, but the fear of being seperated from God that our sins represent…
our sins against each other, our tresspasses seperate us from each other, and from God, we have to heal them to bring us back together, and to not is the fear, for seperation from God…

seperation from God, what we dont want for ourselves, or those around us…
for seperation from God is Hell.
 
mommy_k said:
I do not follow the Catholic Church because I am afraid of hell. I follow the church because I believe that this is what God and Jesus would want me to do. I believe that Jesus gave his life because of our sins, and I am truly grateful. I do not question many things about my religion, and do not need proof that there is a God, I know there is-I have seen His work in everyday things. I believe following Jesus in this life makes things easier in this life and I believe that Jesus also wants us to be joyous in this life. I believe that Mary is the perfect mother.

I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation. I go every week because this is what He asked. I recite the rosary for a similar reason.

I do not feel guilty for having nice things because I work hard and I give to the poor. I do not obsess over past sins, as I am forgiven in confession. I make up prayers and talk to God every day. I know many formal ones but feel this is better sometimes. I do not worry about not having things perfectly recited. I try not to judge other sinners, and I try to be an example to them.

Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
It all sounds very good to me. God doesn’t want anyone to be unhappy, no more than a loving parent would want their child to be unhappy. It’s not called “good news” because you’ve being constrained by a moral system, but rather knowing that we don’t have to sink into the despair of being cut off from God by our own actions and sins. Personally, I’m happy reading Catholic writings, attending Mass, and so on, than when I’m not.
 
mommy_k said:
I do not follow the Catholic Church because I am afraid of hell. I follow the church because I believe that this is what God and Jesus would want me to do. I believe that Jesus gave his life because of our sins, and I am truly grateful. I do not question many things about my religion, and do not need proof that there is a God, I know there is-I have seen His work in everyday things. I believe following Jesus in this life makes things easier in this life and I believe that Jesus also wants us to be joyous in this life. I believe that Mary is the perfect mother.

I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation. I go every week because this is what He asked. I recite the rosary for a similar reason.

I do not feel guilty for having nice things because I work hard and I give to the poor. I do not obsess over past sins, as I am forgiven in confession. I make up prayers and talk to God every day. I know many formal ones but feel this is better sometimes. I do not worry about not having things perfectly recited. I try not to judge other sinners, and I try to be an example to them.

Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
Wait a minute, did you write this, or did I? 😉
 
mommy_k said:
I do not follow the Catholic Church because I am afraid of hell. I follow the church because I believe that this is what God and Jesus would want me to do. I believe that Jesus gave his life because of our sins, and I am truly grateful. I do not question many things about my religion, and do not need proof that there is a God, I know there is-I have seen His work in everyday things. I believe following Jesus in this life makes things easier in this life and I believe that Jesus also wants us to be joyous in this life. I believe that Mary is the perfect mother.

I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation. I go every week because this is what He asked. I recite the rosary for a similar reason.

I do not feel guilty for having nice things because I work hard and I give to the poor. I do not obsess over past sins, as I am forgiven in confession. I make up prayers and talk to God every day. I know many formal ones but feel this is better sometimes. I do not worry about not having things perfectly recited. I try not to judge other sinners, and I try to be an example to them.

Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
 
Just remember that God is full of mercy and will give it to us if we ask Him.

Be at peace.
 
mommy_k said:
I believe mass and other services is a way for me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross, not an obligation.
…]
Are there any others out there similar?I seem to read a lot of posts that would
disagree with this approach to our faith because it is on the “light” side. But I feel doing things out of obligation or fear is not productive. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
To attend Holy Mass at least on Sunday and on Holy Days of Obligation is a Precept of Holy Church uphold under pain of mortal sin. Surely we are not under law but under grace, so attending Mass, just as honoring our parents and not murdering, are not - so to speak - an obligation, but something we do spontaneously under grace. That, however, does not make them optional.

I do not see anything unusual in your post, and I do like the approach of living life with simplicity and joy, remembering that the yoke of Christ is a light burden if we abide and remain in His love. However, the Spirit moves the devout soul to sacrifice, to help those in need, and to spread the faith. The Spirit moves the devout soul to love the liturgy and to pray from the bottom of the heart.

I was just finding out more about St. Philip Neri - you’d probably enjoy learning about him, as well as about the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux. We don’t find a spirituality based on obligation, here…quite the contrary! When we fall in love, we’d do anything and everything for our loved one. And Christ is not just a loved one, he’s our mystical Bridegroom! The secret, then, is to always keep that seraphic fire burning in our heart…and love will do the rest 😉
 
Judging is one thing that Jesus said not to do.

I am not divine enough to do so but i will leave that to God to decide.

Personally, i feel that you truly love our lord and this, he loves.

I know that the more we find things about ourselves and manage to be on top of our bad habit, we will find more. So don’t cease to pray to be ask about your wrong doing. God loves when we humble ourselves and repent for any sin that we did.

When i did use a pamphlet about the preparation before a confession, i came to realize that i was offending God without acknowledging it.Also the booklet about the 7 deadly sin, brought many light ball moments for me

Beside to do Jesus teaching and follow the Catholic church, i feel it is important to pray for others while working on improving virtues.

Blessings and love
 
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