I don't have a personal relationship with Jesus?

[Anna_Scott]

In a conversation with my non-catholic, non-baptised husband we were discussing a sermon from his Presbyterian Church about faith apart from the law…
…long story short it came down to this belief of ‘you don’t need the law, you don’t need rules, you don’t need the church, all you need is personal relationship with Jesus’.

So I flat out asked him, “Do you think I don’t have personal relationship with Jesus?”

And he said “No, I don’t think you do”. He basically said because I pray with/to/through Mary and the Saints that I somehow don’t have a relationship with Jesus.

I’m heartbroken - not only am I insulted by what he said but I am feeling that obviously I am not witnessing to him of my relationship with Christ. Futher to that I now feel my own husband doesn’t even know me! But that’s not the topic here…

Nevermind the hours I spend in silent prayer, scripture reading, and other faith education activities - I go to Mass every single week (he accompanies me occasionally) and receive Christ - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity - into my own body. I am IN COMMUNION with Christ, physically and spiritually. How much more personal can you get?

My husband on the other hand might attend Church once or twice a month, isn’t baptised, doesn’t believe the Church is Christ’s bride, does no bible study, participates in no church groups/activities - yet somehow he has a more personal relationship with Jesus?

Non-Catholics - can you flesh this out for me? Why would my husband think I don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus and how am I supposed to demonstrate that I do?

sixofseven,

There is an interesting CAF Thread entitled, “How do Catholics hear the Gospel?” link: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=431277&page=3

I found this story a while back, dug it out again (I gots Google skillz ) and it was suggested that I share it in a new thread. Enjoy!

The Thread is based on a link to “How Do Catholics Hear The Gospel?” (Gary Michuta), Sunday, January 08, 2006. It’s in dialogue form and isn’t very long. It demonstrates how the Gospel, profession of faith, salvation etc. are contained in the prayers of the Catholic Mass.

Link: socrates58.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-do-catholics-hear-gospel-gary.html

"**. . . .I was a Catholic once, said the lady a few yards from me in the parking lot. Now I’m a Christian and you can be one as well. She proceeded to hand a tract to a gentleman standing next to the opened trunk of his car. I couldn’t help it.
**
Excuse me, I said to the lady but could I, too have a tract? The lady’s face beamed. Are you saved?, she asked. Of course I am; I’m a believing Catholic, I retorted. She looked at me as if I had bad breath or something.

She continued: I was just telling this gentleman that I too was a Catholic - a Catholic for thirty-some years in fact. Now I’ve found Christ and I’m trying to tell everyone I know about salvation through Christ. . . . ."

. . . . .I thought for a couple of seconds and said, If I could demonstrate to you that Catholics hear the gospel every Sunday, would you agree to take a closer look at the Catholic Church? Now, she knew she had me over a barrel. Prove it, she said. I excused myself for a second and ran to my car to grab a Missal. . . . ."

Also, on the same thread, a quote from C.S. Lewis:

As others have said, there will be either a missalette or, at my parish, the text of the Mass is included in the hymnal. Jesus wasn’t opposed to repetitious prayers, but VAIN repetition. I really like what CS Lewis had to say about liturgical worship in Letters to Malcolm:

“Every church service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best– if you like, it ‘works’ best– when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it.

As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling.

The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping…

A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question ‘What on earth is he up to now?’ will intrude. It lays one’s devotion to waste.

There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’

Thus my whole liturgical position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put.

But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship.”

Hope this helps.