sparkle:
I know perhaps God gave me the man he did–cuz HE has a plan----here as all your marriages are a plan too–I really believe this~~ Just want to badly now to know HOW to reach them-----people can so casually throw out “oh just pray for them”, “live Christ”…etc…“be a Christian example, etc.”…O.K., this is a given–I like the person who said casually leave things in the bathroom–now this is practical advice----this is what I’m looking for----there’s really so much more all of us can do than just “PRAY”…oh yes-------I think perhaps some folks just say “PRAY” because they can’t do anything else–they’ve given up–they’re hopeless, their cup has run out–they are futile—I think here real people need REAL ideas-------what REAL things we can do…anyway thanks for the “bathroom idea”—this is a great one.
I wouldn’t ever say that prayer is a last resort, or not “REAL”, or an exercise in futility. Prayer is amazing. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and He sweated blood because He prayed so hard. Our Lady prays for conversions, and you have seen some of the results in this thread. Our priests pray over simple bread and wine, and they become the actual Body and Blood of our Lord. Doesn’t get much more miraculous than that.
That said, I do agree that there are things we can physically do. My husband is what I would call an “unchurched Protestant”. He was raised in the Congregational church where his grandfather was the minister, and I’ve gotten the impression that it was more of a family obligation than anything else- none of them actually go to that church or any other church now that their grandfather has passed on.
Sometimes it’s frustrating- I imagine what it would be like to have a Catholic spouse. But then I look at all the problems my friend is having in her new marriage to a nominally Catholic man, and how few problems my husband and I have had, and I am grateful. I’ve chosen to look at our situation as a sacramental marriage (which it is) where the spouses need to help each other get to heaven. Right now I have the greater part. Later on that might change.
From the get-go, my husband knew that my faith was a non-negotiable. Getting married in my Catholic parish was a non-negotiable, as was raising any children we might have in the Church. And in return, I agreed not to force my faith on him, but promised him that I would sponsor him through RCIA should he decide to try it. He doesn’t often attend Mass with me, but is supportive of me, reminds me “Don’t you need to get up for Mass?”, asks questions, etc. He readily agreed to hang up my crucifix right in our living room, and has reminded me on occasion to say grace. When he borrows my car he gets to drive around with a rosary right in front of him.
He has also fully supported my decision to stop using contraception and learn NFP (which is simply not done in his family or by any of his friends). I’ve got a calendar in our kitchen that has all the saints’ feasts and the liturgical year on it, I’ll mention something from that, he’ll ask what that means, discussion follows.
I figure if I keep immersing him in Catholic stuff, it’ll “take” someday
. Most of it is foreign to him, and I try to understand that. He wasn’t raised with sacraments, or saints, or liturgy, or even a church hierarchy (he admires the Pope as a person, but the Pope’s authority is a big stumbling block for him). He knows that when we have children, it will be more important for him to attend Mass. The act of parenting is holy in itself, and can be saint-making; perhaps as he’s helping me to educate our children, he will become interested in converting. God willing.
