I'm leaving the Catholic Church

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blessedtoo said:
I pray that you did because I know there are some situations that are so dire that considerations can be made. Sorry for being so obtuse, but I think you may get what I’m saying.

God bless and peace to you and your family.
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We spoke to a few, actually. The first one gave us the OK to go against the Church teachings.
At first we were gratefull for the consideration, but then we realised, through another two priest’s councilling and the CAF folks, that no priest can give us this leaway and we are not allowed to listen to him.

Basically, this situation is not one where any considerations can be made. It’s *that *black and white.
 
I am crying now because a part of me is dying.

When you leave the Church, you will no longer be in the Presence of Our Lord-and your soul will soon die.

When your body dies-all the Masses that you have participated in will be weighed-and their value is immeasurable. In the meantime each and every Mass would be an excellent time to ask Jesus to come to you in Spiritual Communion. Saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet before each Mass would be good. Ask for God"s Mercy-He will give it to you if you trust in Him.

Please, Please, Please reconsider staying-and just refrain from partaking of the Eucharist.(and go to confession weekly- TO RECEIVE THE GRACE).I do not believe that you are not sorry that your actions offend God-or you would not be here still and engaging in conversation. God accepts you as you are-He will not give you a cross too heavy to carry-even though it seems right now that he has.

Our Lord wants to keep you in His heart.

You do not have to understand all the rules of the Church-just pray for enlightenment.

I do not know all the details of your situation-But if you have not tried this already-could you and your spouse refrain from all sexual activity for-say 2 months? If so, I would encourage you to do this.It will be very clear to you both why this is important in a short time.
Fast on Fridays and
Pray the rosary daily.
And read the Bible daily

God awards efforts of chastity and prayer,(which is putting yourself in the presence of God-up front and center, so to speak)-in prayer you will find Yourself first and then God will come to you with Illumination.

Peace and Love and tons of prayers to you and for your family.

Ok now off to Eucharistic Adoration
 
I am crying now because a part of me is dying.
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Thank you, I do appreciate the compassion, I do.
When you leave the Church, you will no longer be in the Presence of Our Lord-and your soul will soon die.
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And you know this for a fact? What about all the protestant people out there that do just fine, and are super Christians? It really doesn’t look like their souls are dying.
Please, Please, Please reconsider staying-and just refrain from partaking of the Eucharist.(and go to confession weekly- TO RECEIVE THE GRACE).I do not believe that you are not sorry that your actions offend God-or you would not be here still and engaging in conversation. God accepts you as you are-He will not give you a cross too heavy to carry-even though it seems right now that he has.
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Going to confession for something that I’ll do the next week is futile.
Going to confession for something that I don’t believe is a sin is futile.
Our Lord wants to keep you in His heart.
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Yes He does, and I know that He keeps me in His heart even now.
You do not have to understand all the rules of the Church-just pray for enlightenment.
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Been there my whole Catholic Life…Enlightenment never came, through all our prayers…and we gave it our all, accepted the teachings in Faith, the whole 9 yards…
I do not know all the details of your situation-But if you have not tried this already-could you and your spouse refrain from all sexual activity for-say 2 months? If so, I would encourage you to do this.It will be very clear to you both why this is important in a short time.
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We had to do this pretty much our whole Catholic life due to the irregularity of her cycles, we had to be very careful with NFP…and the fact that we SERIOUSLY didn’t want to conceive…
Fast on Fridays and
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Code: 
      Did that every Friday
Pray the rosary daily.
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Code: 
    Prayed a Rosary every day on my way in to work
And read the Bible daily
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Code: 
As often as I could.
Peace and Love and tons of prayers to you and for your family.
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Thank you, I appreciate that!
 
Have not left yet–
What I am suggesting is that you voluntarily, willingly and cheerfully give up physical contact just for an offering to God-not because anyone or anything makes you. And I do not offer this advice without the full personal knowledge of what life can be like when you abstain for the Glory of God and your own soul-really I am just trying to be supportive here and explore whatever routes are left.

Your situation is unique-sad too.Increase your daily rosaries to all four mysteries (work up to these)- the Holy Spirit loves to impart His knowledge with souls who do this.

You have probably tried all sorts of things, and ABC becomes more dangerous as one ages so, I will pray for you both.

As for all the other baptized Christians outside the Catholic Church-well they are in imperfect union with us-BUT you have been given the Holy Communion in the Holy Mass-do you really want to stop worshiping God with all the angels and saints and Our Mother Mary and in communion with all Christians everywhere? Jesus stands at the altar to lavish Grace on those who prepare and participate at Mass.

I do not ever want to walk away from all that again.
You see, even with 12 years of Catholic School no one ever taught me what really happens at Mass. Our Mother had to call to me to come back to Her Son.

Now that I know-where else would I go?

As for those who do not know, do not believe, do not care,
or cannot be bothered-it is my job to pray for them and beg God for His Mercy for them and for the gift of Faith for them.

All things are possible with God if we but pray unceasingly.

For too many years I lived sinning again and again-my spiritual life was dead-many were praying to God-here and in heaven to save my soul and I am eternally grateful.
 
Have not left yet–
What I am suggesting is that you voluntarily, willingly and cheerfully give up physical contact just for an offering to God-not because anyone or anything makes you. And I do not offer this advice without the full personal knowledge of what life can be like when you abstain for the Glory of God and your own soul-really I am just trying to be supportive here and explore whatever routes are left.
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I appreciate the support and advice, but, no. I will not. We have yearend for each other far too long to go through that again. Not now, sorry.
Increase your daily rosaries to all four mysteries (work up to these)- the Holy Spirit loves to impart His knowledge with souls who do this.
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So, does the Church teaches that I must increase my daily Rosary from 1 mystery (5 decades) per day to 4 mysteries (20 decades) per day before God will make me understand?
As for all the other baptized Christians outside the Catholic Church-well they are in imperfect union with us-BUT you have been given the Holy Communion in the Holy Mass-do you really want to stop worshiping God with all the angels and saints and Our Mother Mary and in communion with all Christians everywhere? Jesus stands at the altar to lavish Grace on those who prepare and participate at Mass.
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I do not ever want to walk away from all that again.
You see, even with 12 years of Catholic School no one ever taught me what really happens at Mass. Our Mother had to call to me to come back to Her Son.
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Now that I know-where else would I go?
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I do pray that the Masses I attended can stand me in good stead one day, but I am not going back. I do not agree with it anymore, I do not believe that their teachings are 100% Truth anymore. I don’t believe in infallibility anymore…why should I go back there just to get Grace? I pray to God each day for Grace. He hears my prayers.
All things are possible with God if we but pray unceasingly.
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Exactly.

I’m sorry if the tone of this post comes across as a bit snippy, but I’m left quite bitter. This thread was not an opportunity for folks to try to convince me, it was as information for those who have walked with me and struggled with me, argued against me 🙂 and prayed for me.
 
I am so sorry that what I said caused pain for you. That was not my intention.

If I did not care I would have remained silent-I only tried to answer the questions asked of me.

Yours and your spouse’s personal relationship with God is all that matters in the end.

May God continue to Bless you and to keep you close to Him

I only speak from my own personal experience-the more time I give to God, the more He speaks to me.
 
Jimdandy said:
I am so sorry that what I said caused pain for you. That was not my intention.

If I did not care I would have remained silent-I only tried to answer the questions asked of me.

Yours and your spouse’s personal relationship with God is all that matters in the end.

May God continue to Bless you and to keep you close to Him

I only speak from my own personal experience-the more time I give to God, the more He speaks to me.
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No harm done, I was also only letting you know where I’m coming from 🙂

In Christ,
PM
 
PennitentMan said:
I thought ahead to see where I was going, most certainly…My choice was thus:

Stay on the “Train” and follow the rules as best I could…and my marriage would have gone out the window, or possibly my wife’ss suicide…just by following the rules.
or
get off the train and rescue my marriage.

I chose the latter and it’s working. We are happy again. We are a family again and we are close again.

We are a unit again, following Jesus as best we can.
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I respect your decision.
My hope is for you and your wife to take your problem to the train conductor without leaving the train.
If the rules on board is lousy, I’m sure it’s much worse if I step out into the wild where the rules are made by the great deceiver.

I saw the same deception before: Let’s say the train conductor says it’s not allowed to pee on the floor. The deceiver says: in my train it’s ok to pee on the floor. But we all know it’s a deception: God knows what kind of train will that be if everyone pees on the floor
You see, for some, the destination is so beautiful that they’d rather die on the train than to be picky on the rules.
If we suffer for a lifetime, that’s not even a blink compared to eternity of bliss in God’s dwelling place.
 
I am praying for you your family. In times of struggle, sometimes getting so immersed in the words we say, the number of times we pray, constantly seeking the advice of others, etc. is not what we need. Not that these aren’t important and necessary at times, but sometimes we need to step aside and do what God instructed when He said, “Be still, and know I am God.” It is not too late! Continue to pray for discernment and wisdom, and spend lots of time in solitude with God, in QUIET and STILLNESS and let HIM talk toYOU.
 
I have no advice or suggestions just prayers.

I think I may start a new thread on a closely related topic inspired by this thread.

CDL
 
Pennitentman…
Like one of the other posters adviced… I think you should consider taking a break from catholic.com…
I don’t see you ever feeling really at peace as long as you stay on these fora.
Sometimes you just have to rest with your decision and let peace come.
Although your case has really cost me quite many tears and I hope you would suddenly come and say: “All was a misunderstanding… we are back in the RCC”, I think its best for you if you find other fora where your new beliefs are shared… Quite many Evangelical rooms would probably even receive you very willingly and drink in your story as a delicious treat and make you feel fast at home.
But don’t settle with ex-catholics… they define themselves in terms of what they are not instead of focusing on what they are… I hope you find a church whose teaching and tradition /interpretations of Scripture and whose criteria for authority and canon-collection really mkes sense to you…

Along with everyone else of course I hope to learn when you have found such a new church home…

Anyway… this was just my thoughts … :confused:
 
PennitentMan said:
I’m sorry if the tone of this post comes across as a bit snippy, but I’m left quite bitter. This thread was not an opportunity for folks to try to convince me, it was as information for those who have walked with me and struggled with me, argued against me 🙂 and prayed for me.
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You can’t expect to post,“I’m leaving the Catholic Church” on CAF and get us all to say,“Fine. Go, then. We don’t mind seeing people leave the Church”. You must understand that for many of us, it is a gut wrenching groan in our heart to know that someone is leaving our Lord on the altar and going to another group. We will not let you go without making *sure *that you know what pain you are putting us through. You are a part of our family. We just hate it when a sibling leaves.
 
I know of a couple who went the opposite way.

Their absolute worst fears came true - they now have fourteen kids, and I think she’s pregnant again - and I’ve never seen them happier. They are just thrilled to be the parents of fourteen (fifteen?) kids. No old-age pension for these two - they’re going to be well looked after!! 🙂
 
Our Homily today brought me back to this thread. Deacon quoted a Bishop who said that those who leave the Catholic Church leave for one of two reasons.

They did not really know the Faith.

They did not have a real personal relationship with Christ.

Whichever reason applies, may you find your way home again.
 
PennitentMan said:
So, does the Church teaches that I must increase my daily Rosary from 1 mystery (5 decades) per day to 4 mysteries (20 decades) per day before God will make me understand?
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It’s not about needing to do so - it’s about wanting firstly to spend more time with God just out of love of Him, secondly wanting and seeking to know Him and His will with ALL your heart and soul and not just when it’s easy. Just how badly DO you want these things?

Not to mention finding His peace, which won’t come from abandoning the Church whether you think it will or not. Whatever problems are in your marriage, which is in my prayers, certainly are to do with so much more than Church teachings that they’re not going to disappear if you leave the Church.
 
PM, I have never shared what I am going to share now. A
similar problem came up in my marriage. I did not agree, but
my husband did something to make sure we would not have
more children . He went with the advice of a priest who assured
him it was okay. For awhile, it appeared that he was happy and
comfortable with his decision, but slowly he began to experience
depression and went to therapy with a protestant “shrink”. This
person requested that I begin going, but it was very one-sided
and did not help my husband’s depression. At some point, he
no longer went to church and did not support me when our
oldest decided not to go to church either. He started to keep
things from me, made a decision to support (with free services)
Planned Parenthood knowing how I felt. It was devastating to
find our name (not common) on their benefactors list. There
were many other things that happened and the marriage did
not survive. The ironic thing is that physically something happen-
ed that would probably have ended our childbearing just a short
time later anyway. Many years later, I can trace the beginning
of the end to that decision which seemed so right at the time for
him. And just a few years ago, after reading much on the
Theology of the Body, I understand the reasoning behind the
Church’s teaching on contraception because “it happened to
us”, first denying our gifts to each other unconditionally leading
to secrecy and a chipping away at the trust between us.
I could go on and on with other things that happened, but, sad
to say, in the end it was the most devastating thing that ever
happened to him, to me, and to our family.
Please, please, don’t shut the door to the church because
while this is “my” story, I can tell you of other marriages that
suffered a similar fate because they chose the “world’s way”
instead of what all Christian Churches taught (until the 1940’s?)
and what the Catholic Church still teaches. Can marriages
survive despite this? Of course, but it is more difficult, I believe.
I definitely will keep you and your family in my prayers, but don’t
compound it by not going to church at all.
If I have overstepped, please forgive me. I, too, feel a sadness
about your decision, as others have mentioned, because you
are family
 
GraceDK said:
Pennitentman…
Like one of the other posters adviced… I think you should consider taking a break from catholic.com…
I don’t see you ever feeling really at peace as long as you stay on these fora.
Sometimes you just have to rest with your decision and let peace come.
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Agreed.

Thank you all.

In Christ,

PM
 
fxmerc said:
How can you do that? It’s the only faith that has the whole truth and the sacraments. You need the graces the sacraments provide. We all do. F.
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Hardly the only faith that has the whole truth. Please…
 
If your search is sincere, you will find that the Catholic Church is
the only one who has the whole Truth. I’ll pray for you on your
journey.
 
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