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Guest
WOW! I can’t believe I just read this, from a Catholic! Convert or not, I think you should head for the confessional ASAP!!!
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Jocelyn
Guest
HUH?
You think you are more devout, more holy, more prayerful, more spiritual, more everything because you are a convert.
INTERESTING to say the least.
I am going to bed now.
You will be in my prayers.
C
CindyGia
Guest
**YES! I ABSOLUTELY AGREE!
WHILE IN MY RCIA CLASSES DURING 2003/4, I HAD TO CHUCKLE TO MYSELF THAT I SEEMED TO BE BETTER VERSED IN SCRIPTURE THAN THE PRIEST AND DEACON TEACHING THE CLASS! I ASKED A FEW QUESTIONS (ALREADY KNOWING THE ANSWERS,) BUT COULD NOT GET A DIRECT RESPONSE FROM EITHER OF THEM. IT WAS QUITE EXASPERATING AND ANNOYING! I SIMPLY RESOLVED TO KEEP QUIET ALOT OF THE TIMES BECAUSE I DID NOT WANT TO “TRUMP” THE PRIEST OR DEACON CONCERNING SCRIPTURE IN FRONT OF THE CLASS. I NOTICED THAT THEY WOULD GET VERY “NERVOUS” EVERY TIME MY HAND WENT UP TO QUESTION THEM OR TO MAKE A STATEMENT. I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY THAT IT WAS ALWAYS ME QUESTIONING DURING THE CLASS, AS EVERYBODY ELSE JUST SEEMED TO BE ALONG FOR THE RIDE.
WHEN RECEIVING COMMUNION FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME EASTER IN 2004, I INSTINCTIVELY FELL ON MY KNEES AND RECEIVED OUR LORD ON THE TONGUE, DESPITE THE FACT THAT WE WERE TOLD THAT IT WAS “INAPPROPRIATE” TO KNEEL AND THAT WE SHOULD ALWAYS RECEIVE IN THE HAND. AFTERWARD I TRIED RECEIVING WHILE KNEELING AGAIN WHILE SITTING IN THE FIRST PEW DURING A MASS, BUT THE PRIEST GAVE ME SUCH A DIRTY LOOK BEFORE HE CAME DOWN THE LINE, THAT I CHICKENED OUT AND STOOD UP! SAD THAT SHOWING REVERENCE TOWARD CHRIST IS LOOKED UPON AS A “NO-NO” IN HIS OWN CHURCH!
I NOTICED THAT THAT FIRST YEAR OF BECOMING CATHOLIC, I RECEIVED MORE THAN MY SHARE OF DIRTY LOOKS AND SNICKERS FROM PARISHIONERS AND PRIESTS BECAUSE I DISPLAYED “TOO MUCH” REVERENCE; I.E. COVERING MY HEAD, AND GENUFLECTING BEFORE RECEIVING. BECAUSE OF IT, I HAVE REALLY “LIGHTENED UP” AND HAVE EVEN ADOPTED THE NORM PRACTICED IN CHURCH - RECEIVING IN THE HAND, UNCOVERED HEAD, AND A SIMPLE TIP OF THE HEAD BEFORE RECEIVING. I FEEL AS THOUGH I HAVE ABANDONED MY LORD HOWEVER BECAUSE OF IT! BUT IT HAS STOPPED THE DIRTY LOOKS BECAUSE I GAVE IN TO FOLLOWING THE PRACTICE OF BEING “NON-REVERENT”! HOW SICK AND SAD!
YES. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT THOUGH! CATHOLICS DO NOT LIKE OR APPRECIATE CONVERTS BECAUSE THEY ARE BETTER CATHOLICS ALTOGETHER THAN WHAT MOST CRADLE CATHOLICS HAVE BEEN ALL THEIR LIVES! **
C
Church_Militant
Guest
I have been thinking about this thread as I look in on it often and one thing that I have decided is that if many of the things said here are true then I know why God has brought so many of us home.
Since we have identified a need in the church then the simple answer is to respond to it by being part of the answer.
How many of you are now involved in the teaching or sponsoring side of RCIA? (That’s not rhetorical BTW.) Or Sunday School?
Look, it’s important that we know and practice our faith, and that we teach it to those around us. The very knowlege that drew us into the faith is now ours to share. This is a GREAT opportunity to help build up the church! What are we waiting for? A personal note attached to a big brimstone rock falling out of the heavens?!
There are TONS of needs within the church where we can help. If people are intimidated, so what? Maybe we need to work on being more humble, huh?
While my beloved wife was in RCIA, I often felt that I needed to kick back and let others “do their thing” because otherwise I might’ve denied them that by seeming to have all the answers. The object is for everyone to learn and if I had done that they would only have learned that I was a “know-it-all”. So I didn’t let that happen. Just because I know the reasons that I believe in our most holy faith doesn’t mean that I need to feed my ego by (sort of) “showing off”.
Anyway… it’s important that we take what we have been given…in faith and knowlege…and humbly share it with the rest of the Body of Christ in our parishes as well as here online.
Remember what Jesus said: (Luke 8:18) Take heed therefore how you hear. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given: and whosoever hath not, that also which he thinketh he hath, shall be taken away from him. (also, Matthew 13:12 & Mark 4:25)
Pax vobiscum,
Since we have identified a need in the church then the simple answer is to respond to it by being part of the answer.
How many of you are now involved in the teaching or sponsoring side of RCIA? (That’s not rhetorical BTW.) Or Sunday School?
Look, it’s important that we know and practice our faith, and that we teach it to those around us. The very knowlege that drew us into the faith is now ours to share. This is a GREAT opportunity to help build up the church! What are we waiting for? A personal note attached to a big brimstone rock falling out of the heavens?!
There are TONS of needs within the church where we can help. If people are intimidated, so what? Maybe we need to work on being more humble, huh?
While my beloved wife was in RCIA, I often felt that I needed to kick back and let others “do their thing” because otherwise I might’ve denied them that by seeming to have all the answers. The object is for everyone to learn and if I had done that they would only have learned that I was a “know-it-all”. So I didn’t let that happen. Just because I know the reasons that I believe in our most holy faith doesn’t mean that I need to feed my ego by (sort of) “showing off”.
Anyway… it’s important that we take what we have been given…in faith and knowlege…and humbly share it with the rest of the Body of Christ in our parishes as well as here online.
Remember what Jesus said: (Luke 8:18) Take heed therefore how you hear. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given: and whosoever hath not, that also which he thinketh he hath, shall be taken away from him. (also, Matthew 13:12 & Mark 4:25)
Pax vobiscum,
T
Thal59
Guest
I am a cradle Catholic and what most of CindyGia and tjmiller has said is true.
Many cradle Catholics have become lax in thier faith. When one is brought up in the true church, and one knows it, it becomes easy to take things for granted. Look at how lax the Bishops in the US had become when they passed-the-buck so to speak regarding pedophile priests. I was hoping either John Paul II or now Benedict XVI would have come down on those Bishops hard! Even so far as stripping them of their offices!
But for you converts, please realize that when you show a zeal for receiving Christ in front of cradle Catholics who take His presence for granted, your are embarrasing those who have less zeal.
Perhaps this is why the Father brought you into the church - to “re-energize” it.
Thal59
Many cradle Catholics have become lax in thier faith. When one is brought up in the true church, and one knows it, it becomes easy to take things for granted. Look at how lax the Bishops in the US had become when they passed-the-buck so to speak regarding pedophile priests. I was hoping either John Paul II or now Benedict XVI would have come down on those Bishops hard! Even so far as stripping them of their offices!
But for you converts, please realize that when you show a zeal for receiving Christ in front of cradle Catholics who take His presence for granted, your are embarrasing those who have less zeal.
Perhaps this is why the Father brought you into the church - to “re-energize” it.
Thal59
S
Sherlock
Guest
They can, if they correct the situation they’re in. A murderer can’t be forgiven if he intends to go on murdering, or a child molester who intends to continue molesting children. Of course a divorced and remarried person is welcome and it is hoped they will rectify the situation—Jesus is quite direct that those who divorce and remarry are committing adultery. One can’t receive while in a state of sin, and living in an irregular situation is objectively living in a state of sin according to Jesus. Therefore, the Church has no power to weaken Jesus’s teaching, but instead can only encourage people to straighten out their living arrangements and “sin no more”. Your problem is with Jesus, I guess.
K
katewithak
Guest
Very often priests discourage conversions to the True Church because they are aware that the pride level stands in the way of a full heart felt conversion and a lack of humility stands in the way of true contrition. When they see this, they are usually less than enthusiastic about receiving the person, but they won’t stand in the way of the prideful entering RCIA never the less.
T
tjmiller
Guest
Please let me state for the record that what I observed about clergy and religious as I converted to the Church, I observed not with haughtiness and pride, but with profound sorrow and disappointment. :crying:
K
katewithak
Guest
Oh, I believe you did feel profound sorrow and disappointment at their failings. I’m not arguing that.
In fact, the Little Flower took her vow of silence just because she was absolutely horrified at what came out of the mouths of others. She was aware of the pain their sins caused the Lord so she resolved not to speak at all.
C
Contarini
Guest
Protestants do want to receive Jesus. They don’t understand the Catholic doctrine very well (overly literalistic pious language doesn’t help), and they are confused by centuries of spiritualist propaganda (I don’t mean spiritualists who talk with dead people, I mean “spiritualist” as in separating between matter and spirit and saying that matter doesn’t matter!). The point of the Eucharist is that we receive the divine life within ourselves, that we become wholly one with the Risen and glorified Christ. Every Protestant wants that.
Edwin
K
katewithak
Guest
Um, could you be a little more clear? You say Protestants don’t understand Catholic doctrine because they don’t understand that matter doesn’t matter? What does that have to do with Catholics?
You will have to be a bit more clear here.
C
Contarini
Guest
No, I’m saying that most Protestants are the heirs of 500 years of the false belief that matter doesn’t matter. The misunderstanding of Catholic doctrine is distinct but related.
In other words, on the one hand most Protestants have the firm prejudice that material things can’t convey grace, and on the other they have in their minds a caricature of the Catholic doctrine in which Catholics are chomping down on Jesus-meat but God is mercifully tricking their senses so they don’t realize what they are doing. Both of these are wrong (at least, the caricature is wrong of good Catholic theology such as that of Aquinas).Protestants desire union with Christ. But many of them have been taught the damnable doctrine that this union must be purely a matter of thoughts and feelings and can’t possibly involve the body. This is related to the caricature, because with the view of the world they have they can’t think of a real eating of Christ as other than cannibalism. (Ironically, this view of the world was best articulated by the Catholic philosopher Descartes!)
Edwin
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