I would like to know your "Spiritual background"

[BlestOne]

Hm, I didn’t know that. So you mean that Dignity is to the CC what groups like “Jews for Jesus” and “messianic Jews” are to Judaism?

Yeah Sepharad… Catholics have these anti groups too…in fact we could say that many Protestant denominations are anti-Catholic since many are openly anti-Catholic and some define their doctrine by what they perceive is wrong with the Catholic Church… not to mention the whole reformation thing… you know…

Not saying that the mainstream Protestant denominations are anti-Catholic now… they just were started and defined by anti-Catholic doctrine. However yes… there are lots and lots of antiCatholic sites on the internet too…

Even my SIL’s church does missions to Mexico to “save” those poor Catholics…

 

[Sepharad]

Yeah Sepharad… Catholics have these anti groups too…in fact we could say that many Protestant denominations are anti-Catholic since many are openly anti-Catholic and some define their doctrine by what they perceive is wrong with the Catholic Church… not to mention the whole reformation thing… you know…

Not saying that the mainstream Protestant denominations are anti-Catholic now… they just were started and defined by anti-Catholic doctrine. However yes… there are lots and lots of antiCatholic sites on the internet too…

Even my SIL’s church does missions to Mexico to “save” those poor Catholics…

My husband is originally from a Protestant background (he was raised Baptist, became SDA as an adult, then converted to Orthodox Judaism). But you know, I’ve really not known him or his family to be anti-Catholic.

I also recall a great uncle who converted to Protestantism on my mom’s side of the family (my mom is a convert to Judaism from a Catholic family, originally)…a Protestant church gave him a job during the height of the Great Depression, and he ended up joining them and marrying a woman from that church. I don’t know what denom they were, but my Grandmom used to call them “holy rollers”. But he never said anything anti-Catholic either.

(Being neither Catholic nor Protestant, I don’t “have a dog in this fight” as they say, just pointing out things I have noticed.)

 

[distracted]

Dunmoose:
i know i am sounding like a broken record (whatever that is ) but

do you spend much time at the Blessed Sacrament??

 

[distracted]

As for the Real Presence …
Unlike many evangelicals, I do believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist–although this has been something I have come to believe in just the past few years. I’m not sure I would embrace Transubstantiation. I am probably closer to the Eastern Orthodox perspective: it is a mystery that defies human understanding.

I really began to believe when i began spending long periods of time with Jesus in His Real Presence… things happen There that do not happen anywhere else… I wasn’t catechized as a child so i didn’t know about this wonderful experience (words are so inadequate) until i was “old”… but at least i APPRECiate it so much, now that i have been through Hell… (literally)…

 

[distracted]

I rarely was alone in the chapel,

hmmm…

The one thing that kept me in the Church for years was communion, and the other sacraments. However, when that faded, there was no reason for me to stay.

If you will recall, i used the term "I believe that if you had… "

If i had assumed, i would have said something more like “If you had known the faith better, this wouldn’t have happened…”

But whatever…

 

[distracted]

Did you, somehow, forgot that you are a temple of the living God? And that the Holy Spirit dwells in you? And that you need nourishment from Jesus in the holy Eucharist ( As often as one eats the flesh and blood…)? And that you can only receive Him in His Catholic Church and nowhere else?

…

i am so glad you said this… because if i had said it… i woiuld have, once again, been accused of “assuming things”…

Better you than me…

 

[cheese_sdc]

And I’m out… :banghead:

 

[Catholic4Christ]

Catholic father, Methodist mother. could say I was born into Catholicism, but I wasn’t baptized until 2nd grade, mostly to co-incide with my first Communion. Haven’t had the most religious upbringing in the Catholic faith, because 1. I lived with my mother mainly for 6 years of my life (and at that time she didn’t go to any Church) and 2. it normally just didn’t come up in my family. For a while I went semi-evangelical (AKA unknowlegable Catholic) because I have a close friend whose family are Catholics practicing a pseudo-Fundamentalist “faith” that seemed interesting. That’s when I first started to become even remotely religious, and then I decided to get to know my faith a little better, and now, though I’m certainly not the best Catholic (by FAR), I know quite a bit more about my faith than I did a year or two ago. It’s the only faith that makes the most sense to me. I’m sort of agnostic by nature, but that doesn’t matter too much to me because I don’t let myself fall into that trap.

as for the Real Presence, I used to not really believe in it, but now I certainly do. I also believe in Transubstantiation, but I don’t understand exactly why the doctrine is needed, because other churches that believe in the real presence get along without it somehow, and it causes lots of unneeded controversy. nonetheless, it makes perfect sense to ME, at least.

 

[distracted]

And I’m out… :banghead:

you already said that…

 

[distracted]

as for the Real Presence, I used to not really believe in it, but now I certainly do. I also believe in Transubstantiation, but I don’t understand exactly why the doctrine is needed, because other churches that believe in the real presence get along without it somehow, and it causes lots of unneeded controversy. nonetheless, it makes perfect sense to ME, at least.

hello… thanks for the info…

you say other churches get along fine without the Real Presence??? that is just the way things SEEM… I have also had this thought/feeling… but the more i spend time There with Jesus, the less if feel this to be true… It is hard to put all this into words… but things happen to me while There that do not happen anywhere else… wish i could say it better… but hey… whoever is reading this can go There and see for him or herself… and should… I can’t put it into words…
I know that a lot of what i go through There is what i HAVE to go through in order to be… pleasing to Jesus…
I feel strongly tht those who don’t know abot the Real Presence (meaning haven’t been there) do NOT know Jesus… they know Him but not as well as they should… could… need to…

 

[distracted]

I finally became a Christian through reading the Bible, and I went to the Catholic church becaused it seemed exotic and not as charismatic and “crazy” as some other denominations.

I liked the Catholic church very much, but things like the Pope, devotion to Mary and the saints was a bit too much for me. So I ended up where I started out: In the Lutheran church.

I even had a hard time with this as a Catholic… I was raised Catholic but went away for years… and when i came back, i had been “protestantized” so to speak… & so, i went searching for answers… I found them… and much sooner than i had thought i would…

Have you ever spent long periods of time at the Blessed Sacrament, preferably alone?? It isn’t always a walk in the part at first (because i am a sinner) but the longer i stay there, the better!! I guess that goes without saying when you are talking about being with Jesus…

 

[wisdomseeker]

I wouldn’t mind communion so much. It’s just it comes with a side order of Papal Infallibility, reactionary bishops and laity, substitutionary atonement, oppression of gays, and arguments from authority. It comes with a buffet of theological gymnastics to explain things that are unexplainable (Trinity? Confirmation? Why priest can’t marry after ordination? Why women can’t be priests?)

So thanks, but no thanks.

Yes, if you desire all these things then the CC is not for you.
these are things that the world embraces. the Church is the Body of Christ it must be honored and revered, it is holy because the Lord is Holy. the Church obeys Her Lord, she does not do what we think she should do.

God is Lord of the House and we follow His instructions.

Obedience means, it is no longer me, but Him who lives in me.

**“I should not believe the Gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.”
Saint Augustine (354-430), Against the Letter of Mani, 5,6, 397 A.D… **

 

[distracted]

I wouldn’t mind communion so much. It’s just it comes with a side order of Papal Infallibility, reactionary bishops and laity, substitutionary atonement, oppression of gays, and arguments from authority. It comes with a buffet of theological gymnastics to explain things that are unexplainable (Trinity? Confirmation? Why priest can’t marry after ordination? Why women can’t be priests?)

So thanks, but no thanks.

if you are in favor of all that… you may be interested in reading St. Faustina’s Diary #741

 

[CatsAndDogs]

distracted:
I would like to better know the people who come to these forums…

What religion were you raised in?
None at all. My first religious “stirings” were in response to visual beauty and (of all things) mathematical and “linguistic” orderliness (which I suppose is another variety of beauty).

This led me to being a pantheist in childhood, a polytheist in adolescence, a deist in early adulthood, and an unshakable Catholic in later adulthood and for the remainder.

Are you now Catholic?
Yes.

Why or why not?
I was converted by so-called atheists. I found myself defending my deism (very successfully) against them, and was suddenly arguing against my own deism when I couldn’t account for why the watchmaker would just sit out there watching.

Did you ever go away from Jesus… (in other words, were you ever a “goat”)?
I never ever believed in Jesus at all until discovering that I was a Catholic. THEN His reality smacked me like a falling piano.

I could never abandon my religious feeling for beauty, as it was too obvious that all beauty was the connective tissue of the universe, and that there was SOME sort of design (and designer) of that beauty. I was never an atheist, per se, because the “web” of beauty wouldn’t let me fall through into the abyss of the mind of the true atheist.

What do you think about the Catholics’ belief of the Real Presence?
It’s more real than any other real thing in the entire universe.

**
And anything else you would like to add… Thanks…
**

If you want to find the deepest source of knowledge about God that exists, become Catholic, and never let yourself go luke warm.

 

[distracted]

II was converted by so-called atheists. I found myself defending my deism (very successfully) against them, and was suddenly arguing against my own deism when I couldn’t account for why the watchmaker would just sit out there watching.

Hello…
I am not so sure i get the thing aobut the watchmaker?? could you explain?

also… the only thing i remember about deism is that adherents believe that God created the world and people but doens’t have any interaction with them from then on… Am i right? Is there anything importnat to add to this?? Where did you learn about deism??

…
Did you ever go away from Jesus… (in other words, were you ever a “goat”)?
I never ever believed in Jesus at all until discovering that I was a Catholic. THEN His reality smacked me like a falling piano.

this is very interesting… How were you interested in the Catholic faith without knowing anything much about Jesus… or believing in him, i should say? I have never heard this kind of story…

What do you think about the Catholics’ belief of the Real Presence?
It’s more real than any other real thing in the entire universe.

So true…

 

[distracted]

(Being neither Catholic nor Protestant, I don’t “have a dog in this fight” as they say, just pointing out things I have noticed.)

i was just wondering what you think of the New Testament… have you read it and what do you think of the things Jesus did and said??

 

[Catholic4Christ]

hello… thanks for the info…

you’re welcome

you say other churches get along fine without the Real Presence???

nononono i’m sorry my wording was probably wrong. what i meant was that they get along fine w/o the doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION, which of course is not quite the same. several churches that i’m aware of (Lutheran, Episcopalean, Greek Orthodox, etc.) hold belief in their “Real Presence” in some way or another, but essentially none quite believe in Transubstantiation (for what reason i haven’t quite been able to gather). All I meant was, although I believe in the doctrine, I don’t think it needed to be put in place because 1. lots of unneeded controversy and 2. The Body and Blood that is concecrated by a priest is still the Lord whether or not this doctrine had been created. see what i mean, or was i too wordy? :doh2:

 

[CatsAndDogs]

Quote:
Originally Posted by CatsAndDogs
II was converted by so-called atheists. I found myself defending my deism (very successfully) against them, and was suddenly arguing against my own deism when I couldn’t account for why the watchmaker would just sit out there watching.

Hello…
I am not so sure i get the thing aobut the watchmaker?? could you explain?

also… the only thing i remember about deism is that adherents believe that God created the world and people but doens’t have any interaction with them from then on… Am i right? Is there anything importnat to add to this?? Where did you learn about deism??

The watchmaker God is as you said. One who creates creation, starts it operating, and then just watches. Who knows, he may make other watches, to watch. I’m all watched out, so keep watch and watch out for the watchmaker’s amazing endless mechanical watch-worlds, flowing off the shelves like this months endless supply of the most popular video-game into the play-space of infinity.

Why did I come to not believe in this reality being just one of a probable infinity of watch-worlds of the deist? Because I’ve always had a dreadful dislike for the perfect un-beauty of the concept of infinite regress (or infinite multitude).

There is no “solution”, or description, more ugly and un-beautiful than “infinity”.

ALL religion, other than Catholic Christianity, leads in some variety of circle, around and around, back to it’s tail and right up it’s own “backside”, in an infinite loop, describing nothing more than pointless infinitude.

Once I was fed up with the pointlessness of deism, yet still knew deep in my heart that the “designer” was quite real, it was a lightning strike to discover that I was Catholic. I didn’t CHOOSE to be Catholic. I discovered I WAS Catholic.

Quote:
…

Did you ever go away from Jesus… (in other words, were you ever a “goat”)?
I never ever believed in Jesus at all until discovering that I was a Catholic. THEN His reality smacked me like a falling piano.​

this is very interesting… How were you interested in the Catholic faith without knowing anything much about Jesus… or believing in him, i should say? I have never heard this kind of story…

First I discovered what God (the Father) actually meant, meaning, who He was. Then His “face and finger, nostrils and lips”, which is Jesus, crushed all the old provisional scaffolding of my heart holding up my “intellectually coherent” image, or more properly “idol”, of god the watchmaker, and melted my heart into the pliable lump of clay that He then made into a real human heart capable of accepting His love.

 

[cheese_sdc]

if you are in favor of all that… you may be interested in reading St. Faustina’s Diary #741

Whatever floats your boat, dude.

 

[PHX_Paul]

I would like to better know the people who come to these forums…

What religion were you raised in?

**I was raised as a “liberal” Baptist- American Baptist Convention (as opposed to Southern Baptist convention) Sometimes my mother would become angry with the pastor at our church and take us to a nearby Methodist Church. **

Are you now Catholic?

I converted to Catholicism in 1986.

Why or why not?

**Because I know that it is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, has continued Apostolic Succession from St. Peter, it has a rich spiritual treasury that the Protestant churches lack, it has 7 Sacraments rather than 2, 1 or none at all, and the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist of the Catholic Church. **

Did you ever go away from Jesus… (in other words, were you ever a “goat”)?

I left the Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church for around 5 years and returned to the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2007. Those 5 years away from the Church were literally a living hell!

What do you think about the Catholics’ belief of the Real Presence?

I not only believe but I know that the Body and Blood and Soul and Divinity of Jesus are present in the Eucharist.

And anything else you would like to add… Thanks…

And the Catholic Church has the special protection of a good humble Jewish Mother and an honest hardworking carpenter for a foster father—With that kind of a team on your side, you can’t go wrong!

Paul