Evangelizing to parents?

[saramichelle6]

I want so much for my parents to see the beauty and majesty of the Catholic church. They raised me in a loving Christian home, and now that I have come home to the Church I want them to feel the love that I do.

What are ways I can tell them about my new faith life without turning them away or boring them? I don’t think they are particularly happy in their church anymore, but being from a small town, I think they get weighed down with “what people would say” if they left the church they’d been attending for 30+ years.

I gained so much from reading David B. Currie’s book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic and from these forums. I pray for them (and thank you all for your prayers) but want to do more.

Any suggestions?

 

[ChrisRedfield47]

I want so much for my parents to see the beauty and majesty of the Catholic church. They raised me in a loving Christian home, and now that I have come home to the Church I want them to feel the love that I do.

What are ways I can tell them about my new faith life without turning them away or boring them? I don’t think they are particularly happy in their church anymore, but being from a small town, I think they get weighed down with “what people would say” if they left the church they’d been attending for 30+ years.

I gained so much from reading David B. Currie’s book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic and from these forums. I pray for them (and thank you all for your prayers) but want to do more.

Any suggestions?

Well praying for them would be a good start. In fact im praying for them as of now…

As for “ways” to tell them about the church you can teach them about church history if you are familiar with it. That helps a lot of protestants when they convert to catholicism, The original/first church was catholic not protestant. So you can start from there. Like tell them about sacred tradition, about the sacraments (which are biblical, and protestants dont have all such as the Eucharist), about how we got the bible (which the Catholic church compsed) and you can also try to prove them that catholicism is in fact biblical.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

I’ve been in the same situation for years, raised Protestant and converting to Catholicism, wanting my parents, sister, and other family members to find the same treasures of grace and truth in the Catholic Church that I have found.

Unfortunately, sometimes an immediate family member is just not the right person to reach others. As Jesus said, “a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” Being that close to someone personally can prevent one from seeing the value of their intellectual ideas apart from their limitations as a person.

The two main things would be to pray for one’s family members and to be a good example in your life as a Catholic. Sometimes directly addressing controversial issues will be counterproductive with family members. Other times it may be appropriate but may not yield immediate fruit. We need to be patient and pray that they find their own path to the truth, whether it directly involves us or not.

 

[Catholic1954]

I want so much for my parents to see the beauty and majesty of the Catholic church. They raised me in a loving Christian home, and now that I have come home to the Church I want them to feel the love that I do.

What are ways I can tell them about my new faith life without turning them away or boring them? I don’t think they are particularly happy in their church anymore, but being from a small town, I think they get weighed down with “what people would say” if they left the church they’d been attending for 30+ years.

I gained so much from reading David B. Currie’s book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic and from these forums. I pray for them (and thank you all for your prayers) but want to do more.

Any suggestions?

Why don’t you invite them to attend Mass with you sometime? You can also offer to loan them David Currie’s book. Just living out your life as a joyful, practicing Catholic will go a long way to attract their attention to the Church.