Favorite Thing About Being Catholic

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Anima_Christi

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What are some of your favorite things about being a member of the one true church? This is especially for converts, but everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts.
 
The Sacrament of Reconcilliation - knowing that I’m more than a dunghill covered with snow. I really appreciate the Church’s teaching that we are inherently good, created in His likeness, that we have inherent dignity.
I feel sorry for those denominations that don’t believe that, I’ve heard some say that we are inherently evil due to original sin…so dreary and not life-affirming. Usually in my case believed by people who feel sorry for me being Catholic, who think I’m hung up on Jesus on the cross. That I will never feel what it’s like to be loved by Jesus.
 
Gosh, so many things! It’s hard to pick just one. I’ll give you a couple. After being away from the RCC for so many years, it is great to receive Communion again. I feel so close to Jesus after receiving it.

I also have been so enjoying going to daily Mass. That’s something I would have never done in my youth, but as an adult, I just love it when I can go, and start the day in prayer and worship, and Communion. You can’t do that at Protestant churches.

I also like reconnecting with my memories. Not everything was wonderful as a Catholic schoolgirl, but I still remember practicing for First Communion very vividly, and the May Crownings.
 
I love being a member of the universal church and knowing that the readings I hear at mass each Sunday are the same ones being heard by Catholics all over the world.
I love belonging to the authentic and original church established by Christ (and who can trace the Popes all the way back to St. Peter.) Why would anyone want to belong to a copy of the real thing when the authentic, true church is available?
I love knowing Catholic “stuff.”
I love experiencing Lent (Ash Wednesday, fasting and abstinence, Friday Stations of the Cross, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil as well as Lenten spiritual practices) instead of Lent being just a word printed on a calendar (as I knew it before I converted to Catholicism).
I love incense and holy water. I love kneeling to pray before and after communion.
I love holy days. Protestants miss out on a lot!
I love having devotions like the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet. I love praying the Divine Office.
I love the celibate priesthood because I know that the holy priests have given their lives to Christ in the service of the Church. The parishioners become the family of the priest and the priest in turn becomes a father figure for all of us. (I always give our priest a father’s day card because he really is a father for the whole church.)
I love knowing that the priest represents Christ to us…persona Christi.
I love the fact that there are convents and monasteries for women and men who decide to give their lives to God and serve Him in various apostolates.
I love cloistered nuns and monks who offer their prayers without ceasing for the world.
I love the physical beauty of the Church. I love the alter, the crucifix, the tabernacle. I love statues and icons.
I love the fact that we have Mary to venerate as the Blessed Mother and that she is a role model for women.
I love the Pope! I love having an orthodox spiritual leader who guides the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Most of all, I love receiving the real body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist!

I know I can think of more but I think I’ve hit the high points. 😃
 
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Blanka:
I love being a member of the universal church and knowing that the readings I hear at mass each Sunday are the same ones being heard by Catholics all over the world.
I love belonging to the authentic and original church established by Christ (and who can trace the Popes all the way back to St. Peter.) Why would anyone want to belong to a copy of the real thing when the authentic, true church is available?
I love knowing Catholic “stuff.”
I love experiencing Lent (Ash Wednesday, fasting and abstinence, Friday Stations of the Cross, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil as well as Lenten spiritual practices) instead of Lent being just a word printed on a calendar (as I knew it before I converted to Catholicism).
I love incense and holy water. I love kneeling to pray before and after communion.
I love holy days. Protestants miss out on a lot!
I love having devotions like the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet. I love praying the Divine Office.
I love the celibate priesthood because I know that the holy priests have given their lives to Christ in the service of the Church. The parishioners become the family of the priest and the priest in turn becomes a father figure for all of us. (I always give our priest a father’s day card because he really is a father for the whole church.)
I love knowing that the priest represents Christ to us…persona Christi.
I love the fact that there are convents and monasteries for women and men who decide to give their lives to God and serve Him in various apostolates.
I love cloistered nuns and monks who offer their prayers without ceasing for the world.
I love the physical beauty of the Church. I love the alter, the crucifix, the tabernacle. I love statues and icons.
I love the fact that we have Mary to venerate as the Blessed Mother and that she is a role model for women.
I love the Pope! I love having an orthodox spiritual leader who guides the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Most of all, I love receiving the real body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist!

I know I can think of more but I think I’ve hit the high points. 😃
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Wow, your list is amazing. I agree with you 100%. I’m also glad you mentioned the statues and icons. I would also add our heroes, the Saints, whose lives we can only try and emulate.😃
 
I can’t pick just one thing, either - I agree with all of the aspects mentioned.

I love the church. I have spent my entire life searching but I am home, now. I have no doubts. I have no questions that are not anwered. My heart is full, my mind is full.

I thank God every day for bringing me to His church.

Elizabeth
 
This isn’t specifically about being Catholic, but here’s something I really like about church:

I love playing music for others on piano or organ. Here’s the historic church where I play pipe organ on Saturdays at 4 pm, St. Anthony at 2nd and Ohio in Wichita:

http://wordsfree.org/stanthony.gif

(note: for a few more months we’re in the gym across the street because they are restoring the interior back how they restored it in 1909.)

Music touches people in ways more subtle and profound than words sometimes.

People sometimes base their whole day around how they like the music at a service. I try to pick a mix that involves many and alienates few including the “old-timers.” I love bringing my daughter to play her violing with me, or my sons and daughters and their friends to cantor.

Imagine at that beautiful old church up there what it feels like to bring people, both young and old, the melodies, harmonies, bass lines, and all they heard decades ago. I get to sit upstairs right under that steeple, and face the back wall as I press buttons that unload the music that ties us together throught the ages. Full pipe organ for Come Holy Ghost on Pentecost, O Come Emmanuel in advent, Jesus Christ is Risen Today on Easter, it doesn’t get much better than that…

Alan
 
The Roman Catholic Church is the one, true, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Not only that, but the Eucharist. I’ve found the Eucharist to be so awesome andprofound in nature. so many miracles, check out Miracles of the Eucharist parts 1 and 2 by I believe Bob and Penny Lord. The beauty and profoundness that surrounds it. It 's all kind of mystifying.Plus it IS the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I also love the music in the catholic church, like stated just before me. That may just be because myaunt sings for Our Lady of the Assumption in Turlock.
 
After being away from the church for more than a few years, I truly enjoyed the profound sense of serenity I felt when I first sat down in church before mass. Then my joy was made more profound when mass started and I was able to receive communion again. Talk about a sense of well being!
To me, and I sense many others, being Catholic is like “being home” and all the wonderful feelings that accompany us when we are with loved ones.
Welcome Home Everyone!
~ Kathy ~ 👋
 
Going to Mass and receiving Christ in the Eucharist!!
In His love,
Rhonda
 
The Holy Eucharist and Sacrament of Reconciliation are my favorites… and of course my love for “Our Lady”…😉
 
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Kyenta:
Wow, your list is amazing. I agree with you 100%. I’m also glad you mentioned the statues and icons. I would also add our heroes, the Saints, whose lives we can only try and emulate.😃
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I’m agree…all these things…and more…are wonderful. I have to say, though that I love the Eucharist, and the sacrament of reconciliation. I LOVE the feeling I have after confession…So free and clean.

I love seeing my fellow Catholics come forward for Holy Communion. Hearing the constant murmur of “Body of Christ”…“Amen”…Blood of Christ"…“Amen” is always moving…I nvever tire of it.

When attending a TLM, I love kneeling at the altar rail, and hearing the words of the priest in Latin…I grew up receiving communion at an altar rail as a Methodist, and it is one thing I really miss.
 
I love the Pope. Having a leader who is the successor of someone who Christ appointed as leader of his Church.

I love the community. Of being part of one of the largest groups on the planet plus being on the same side as everyone in heaven.

But what I love most is adoration and recieving Christ in the Eucharist.
 
  • I have the promise of God that it is true.
  • I have the saints to look to- holy people who have gone on to their reward and have so much more of a grasp on how to live a life of holiness in our times than I do- and many of them have written extensively on the subject. Many of them have written about how to deal with the struggles I face as well. The bible doesn’t talk about everything specifically.
  • I don’t know what I’d do without confession.
  • Adoration- knowing that as surely as I am sitting in front of this computer, that Jesus is substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament.
  • It was in the Catholic Church that I first realized that God loves me, and that my sins were not beyond God’s mercy.
 
Knowing that I don’t have to be special or prove myself to receive God’s love.
Receiving Him in the Eucharist, and Reconciliation.
Having a Mother I can turn to in need, as my own mother passed away. Everyone needs a mother.

And all the other insightful things that Blanka said.
 
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