I LOVE your religon status on your profile my friend. The best pitcher in the NL!I must be a real exception or fly in the ointment because NEVER have I doubted Christ or the Bible or the reality of God. But boy I sure have had a zillion instances of doubting the Catholic Church. I just can’t wrap my brain around Catholicism. Jesus is easy.…at least for me.
My friends and family hated Catholicism (as did I, in my ignorance, once upon a time). They were puhlenty angry. But after my own conversion, my bitterly anti-Catholic mother and father, brother and sis-in-law, swam the Tiber; I was rowing the lifeboat. Thanks be to God!
lol. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time
I was raised Catholic but didn’t believe it but wanted to know the truth, if there was such a thing, and checked out Buddhism, Hinduism, the writings of various gurus, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, etc, and, almost as an aside, the bible. I fell in love with Jesus at some point-there’s just nothing like Him-and little by little dropped the rest. I became a conservative Protestant for years and found myself back at the CC, to my own surprise, by Gods grace.
Me too. It’s one of my biggest problems with the CC and one of the reasons I explore for God’s open arms elsewhere while still a Catholic.
Some nicely said words there. Peace.
Why attend an Episcopal Church? Why not, say, Lutheran, or Methodist?
Wow I thought I had been around the block. I bet we could have some interesting discussions.
I will answer the question based on how you ask it. It wouldn’t be wrong to attend one of those churches. My sister and her husband are Methodist youth ministers for instance. I go with them to church when I visit them.
Am I right to assume based on the order you listed things that you were confirmed in the Episcopal Church before you were confirmed in the Catholic Church? I know if it were the other way around, you would not have had to been re-confirmed in TEC if you had first been confirmed in the Catholic Church. TEC accepts Catholic confirmations and the person only needs to be received into TEC in that case. So the Catholic Church accepts Episcopal baptisms but doesn’t accept Episcopal confirmations?
Oh Gurney don’t get even me started on lawsuits involving the Church.The Episcopal Church accepts lawsuits and intimidation as well.
Many people I’ve met who are serious about their faith have explored the other faith traditions to at least some extent prior to finding their true spiritual home.
I was born into a Catholic family, though my immediate family consisted in mostly lapsed Catholics. My grandparents were (and are) serious Catholics, and it was largely due to their efforts that I was able to receive first communion and Confirmation. Likewise they were the ones who sent me to Sunday school and tried to keep me attending mass.
Unfortunately the teachers in my Sunday school class were horrible at what they did. I was only 12 when I became estranged from the Church, but it was due in large part to the lack of knowledge and hostility that these Sunday school teachers had. They couldn’t handle a single serious question regarding the faith whatsoever. They also had some seriously poor notions of what the Church teaches (though at the time I was unaware that many of their ideas were not the official teachings of the Church). So I left.
For years I went about without much of any faith. I believed in the Trinity, but I never read the Bible, nor did I engage that faith beyond sometimes saying a few prayers here or there.
Eventually as I got older I started to get more serious about developing a relationship with God. I made one more attempt to find a home in the Church, which ended disasterously as I was prevented from receiving holy Eucharist (without the reasons for this being explained to me, simply being told by a friend of the family that I couldn’t receive). Later in the same parish I was expelled by a staff member who “caught me” kneeling in a pew praying after mass. I still remember our exchange, “What are you doing here?!” “I’m praying.” “You can’t do that here! I know what you’re up to, so leave right now!”
From then until a few years ago I looked into everything from the Orthodoxy, to Anglicanism, to Unitarian Universalism, to Tibetan Buddhism, to Islam. Though the last two I studied only out of curiosity, since I never stopped believing in Christ.
Finally I came home to the Church. It was the last place I expected to end up, but I’m very thankful for the series of very fortunate “random” events (that I have no doubt God, Mary, and the Saints had a hand in) that led me back to Catholicism.
So don’t feel bad about exploring the various faiths in the world. They may strengthen your faith in Christ down the line (I know this is true for me, Islam and Buddhism really helped send me back to the Church as strange as that may sound). Good luck on your journey! I hope you find your way back home one day, if you do the Church will be waiting with open arms for you.
I don’t know when you went through CCD, but that is one of the things I would personally like to work on changin once i finish my degree.My CCD (catechism) teachers were beyond bland and boring. I would’ve preferred sticking an ice pick in my ear or drinking Drano to the torturous and seemingly-never-ending boredom of CCD. They didn’t teach us jack Q. Squat. I didn’t even know the Eucharist was the body of Christ until I was around 17!!
I was also interested in Buddhism in high school. There’s just somethin’ about Siddhartha!