Has anyone left the church and want to come back?

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I left the Catholic Church during the summer probably around this year. I became a non -denominational protestant and no longer do what most Catholics do. When I left the church ironically I end up learning more about the faith I was raised into. I learned that I did not take the Catholic faith seriously and it makes want to comeback. One of the reasons why I became protestant is that I want to be saved, also I am scared of being misguided and go to hell. I have watched and read too many stories that involved hell. It made me wonder are the people that shared those testimonies are real, fake, or the enemy was using them as a pawn. What should I do? Watching those testimonies that are claimed to be from God dim down a bit so I am not that obsessed with them for now.
 
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I came back after fifteen years away.

Come home. We’re waiting for you with open arms. 🙂
 
I can’t say as though I have. I can say, however, that I have a person very dear to me in my prayers on a daily basis, that I want to come back to the Church.
 
I came back after nearly 10 years. Coming back to the catholic faith felt like home to my soul . Several of the teachings from my non catholic friends actually seem like satanism to me imho . Rejecting the eucharist , rejecting the theotokos , not showing respect where it is due to the church triumphant , claiming that monasticism is not biblical when the heavenly life is based on chastity and obedience . Ignoring tradition and apostolic fathers , holding on to pride and not confessing etc.
 
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I was Protestant until three years ago. At 60 years of age, because of my wife, I took my first serious look into the Catholic Faith. Many Protestants look at Catholicism with the intent of wanting to convert them. When I took a look at it to understand it, I saw the truth and realized many of my beliefs up to that point were wrong. Come home. Our Lord will guide you.
 
Hi. Currently in the process of coming back myself after several years away (it’s a bunch of document-gathering and waiting right now, because I got married outside the Church).

Regarding the stories involving hell: if your focus is not on Jesus, you, as a Christian, are focusing on the wrong thing. I recall C.S. Lewis stating something along the lines of the Devil wants people to focus on hell and demons. It distracts them from Jesus.

My recommendation? Get a crucifix and adore the One who conquered Hell. For you.

You know, I’ve been thinking about my journey a lot over the past couple months. I had to ask myself why I really left in the first place. When I looked closely at all my theological arguments against the Catholic Church, my own reasons for having left, my reasons for remaining where I was, I found they all amounted to dust in the wind before Christ.

Jesus is waiting for you to come back to him, that he may again feed you with his own Body and Blood, that he may again absolve you of your sins in Confession. Your desire, however quiet or loud it may be, to return to the Catholic Church is the voice of Jesus calling you to return to where he may be found.

Talk to a nearby priest. Ask him what needs to be done.
 
I left the Church at 14 to become evangelical protestant … Came back at 54 … my 40 years in the wilderness…
 
I was away for a while (a long while), but not anywhere in particular. I came back, best thing I ever did. I didnt do anything specific, just walked into a church and attended mass. I didn’t go talk to a priest or make any big announcement, I just went back to mass. One day after a few months, I went to confession and then I was able to receive again, the priest said ‘welcome home’ and was wonderful to me. I let God lead me as to what steps I took. I suggest doing that. The first thing was just to go sit and enjoy a mass and let the love of God wash over you. God bless you and welcome home.
 
I came back after spending most of my adult life away. I’ve been back now since 2011.
 
I’ve considered leaving a couple times in the past year, but whenever I start to box up my books and religious articles in the house something deep and solid inside tells me that’s just not the way to go. I may greatly reduce my involvement in my current parish, but I can’t quite make the leap to leave the Church proper, and don’t really want to.
 
Patrick2000 said:
I have watched and read too many stories that involved hell. It made me wonder are the people that shared those testimonies are real, fake, or the enemy was using them as a pawn.
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I’ve also seen some testimonies of people dying and seeing Hell / Purgatory on Youtube. It is truly scary, although one might reasonably doubt the truthfulness of some of those testimonies.

Regardless, I am certain Hell and even Purgatory are no joke, both are worse than anything we could experience here. Loosing God and not being able to immediately have possession of Him, are the worst torments in themselves from both Hell and the Purgatory.

There is a reason why having a “just” fear of the Lord is indeed something good, if it is helping us to avoid sinning.

Then we need to work toward moving from a “just fear” attitude toward one in which the love for our Lord moves us to avoid sin and doing good things.
 
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Everyone here that has come back home has given me hope that someday my family will come back. It may not be in my lifetime, but as long as it happens one day. Thanks to all who have shared their stories.
 
It happened something different to me and maybe not so different. I was raised Lutheran . In late 2011 I was exploring the catholic faith. The more I studied the faith, the more I became aware of that I have to convert to the catholic faith unless I go to the ethernal damnation. I prayed a lot rosary. But there was something I did not want to give up. One woman, that was protestant. Instead of giving her up, I became to read plenty of anti-catholic stuff to cancel my conversion process. No one book conviced me to left the proces of converting…I became serious hard depressions. This ended up in 2013, when I gave up that woman. The simmiliar thing happened to me in 2018 with one another protestant woman. BUT FOR NOW I pray for that woman that she bacame catholic I read a lot of apologetic material to try convert her in the future(I am planing to read Bellarmine Disputationes in Latin) to the only true catholic faith, outside of which there is absolutely no salvation and I do not give up the catholic faith for great moments with that woman in earth. Should I do it, I would risk losing eternal bliss.
 
I’ve left and come back a few times. Sometimes I want to come back, sometimes I do it out of guilt. Other times my periods of doubt and skepticism last incredibly long so I don’t bother coming back. I’m not the most religiously stable person.
 
A friend of mine came back after 50 years. He’s 84 and in his last years, and he’s very peaceful and happy.
 
I am sad to read that you ended two relationships with Protestant women because you were misinformed about the Church’s position on marriage to non-Catholics. Please seek some advice about this, as it seems that you are limiting your opportunities for happiness in this life simply because you do not understand what the Church teaches.

I am also a little concerned that you may not have fully understood what the Church means by extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. You say that “there is absolutely no salvation” outside the Catholic Church. I am not sure why you have added the word “absolutely”. You seem to think that the Church’s teaching is that everybody who is not a member of the Catholic Church is destined for eternal damnation. The Church’s teaching is in fact more subtle than that.

You seem to be expressing your interest in the Catholic Church first and foremost in terms of opposing Protestantism. Hence your interest in reading the Disputationes. Would it not be more profitable for you to immerse yourself in Catholic theology for its own sake rather than as a way of opposing Protestantism? When I was first interested in becoming a Catholic it was recommended to me that I should begin with the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
 
The problem with non catholics is more complex. I acknowledge the INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE. But the people in the world have a knowldedge of Catholic church it is not the case of aborigenes, that never heard about the Christianity. When I had cooperated with the grace and subsequently converted, what hinders others . Documents of Vatican II I would like to buy. But i would not start with them, because of ambiguity in them as pointed out Marcel Lefebreve, The key to properly understanding them is the catholic tradition.
 
Patrick2000 said:
I left the Catholic Church during the summer probably around this year. I became a non -denominational protestant and no longer do what most Catholics do.When I left the church ironically I end up learning more about the faith I was raised into. I learned that I did not take the Catholic faith seriously and it makes want to comeback. One of the reasons why I became protestant is that I want to be saved, also I am scared of being misguided and go to hell. I have watched and read too many stories that involved hell.
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How specifically then did you learn it, and where did you learn it from?
 
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