Im thinking of leaving the church

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BumpSetSpike said:
Haha… well lke I said, it’s a long process ad I think it deserves a lot of thought. I thought I did have a decision at one point but then I was talking to my seminary teacher and things didn’t feel so sure after that, so I figured I’d wait it out longer.

But I do not think that a protestant church is the right church. Protestant churches believe that the Catholic church became corrupt, so it just doesn’t make sense that they could derive the truth out of something that lost it. It’s a pretty simple explanation. But not that they are bad people or anything, I just feel that protestant churches are mislead.
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I sure wish I had your faith in the church. Mine began leaving me when we had to pay 500.00 bucks for our kids to make their 1st Commuion. Special Chalice, Special Clothes etc. My wife is keeping me in it. I believe most of the teachings. I can find them in Protestant Churches as well. They also don’t have alot of silly rules. No meat on friday, up and down all the time. My faith in the Catholic church is shaken to the core:confused:
 
sosayi1960 said:
I believe most of the teachings. I can find them in Protestant Churches as well. They also don’t have alot of silly rules. No meat on friday, up and down all the time. My faith in the Catholic church is shaken to the core:confused:
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Teaching of the CC in many cases is completely different from protestant churches - they don’t believe in real presence of Jesus in Eucharist (they are wrong - have a look -Eucharistic Miracles), they don’t obey the pope - Peter! - who was given the keys to heaven and the right to bind and loose, some of them accept gay marriages or woman priesthood. THIS is silly. They have may no sacrament of confession, so how can their sins be forgiven? As a protestant you may have big problems on the judgement day. God bless.
 
sosayi1960 said:
I sure wish I had your faith in the church. Mine began leaving me when we had to pay 500.00 bucks for our kids to make their 1st Commuion. Special Chalice, Special Clothes etc. My wife is keeping me in it. I believe most of the teachings. I can find them in Protestant Churches as well. They also don’t have alot of silly rules. No meat on friday, up and down all the time. My faith in the Catholic church is shaken to the core:confused:
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Ill keep you in my prayers.
and you are at the right palce you should descover what you are thinking of leaving. Protestants may have some of our teaching but do they have the fullness Jesus founded a church that has the fullness of truth that is very biblical why would anyone want to setle for less.

I want to leave you with a quote from a book.

This is from [Christopher West’s Book Theology of the body for beginners pg 40]

“Most people look at Christian morality-especially sexual morality-as an oppressive list of rules to follow. How far this misunderstanding is from the living morality proclaimed by Christ! The Gospel doesn’t give us more rules to follow. The Gospel is meant to change our hearts so that we no longer need the rules(see cathichsm 1968) To the degree that we experience this change of heart we experience freedom from the law(Rom7;Gal 5) not freedom to break the law; freedom to fulfill it.”
"Here’s an example of what freedom from the law looks like: Do you have any desire to murder your best friend? This may seem like an odd question, but it actually demonstrate the point. Assuming you do not, then you don’t need that commandment. Thou shall not murder thy best friend. Because you have no desire to break it. To this extent you are free from the law. In other words, you don’t experience this law as an imposition because your heart conforms to it.

before original sin the human heart conformed to Gods. that is what Christ came back for to show us how to conform our will to his. and the Church is there to help

one last thing
When we allow Christ into our hearts we no longer need the law because we no longer desire to break them. What law do you still need? What teachings of the Church still feel like a burden or imposition to you? Perhaps the problem isn’t the law or the Church, but with your “hardness of heart” don’t throw away the law surrender your disordered desires to Christ and let him transform them.” [end quote]

May God bless you.
 
Doberman said:
And the bible was written in greek not in latin.
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Your logic and reasoning is very arrogant. If that we the case it we shouldn’t have translated into the venacular language and kept it Greek.
 
lanceg said:
Doberman, I have been seeing all of your posts, and following this thread.

It sounds to me like you already have your mind made up to leave the church. You seem unmoved by answers to your challenges.

If you are sincere and still searching, an on-line forum is a poor venue for thinking things through. You need to talk to a priest or Catholic friends in person.

If you are sincere about your doubts, and want to research more, there are many resources available on Catholic.com. But if you are really no longer Catholic, what’s your point? You should probably move on.
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Doberman is going become another Jack Chick… Talk about a Catholic who doesn’t know his faith. He is having misconception that are untrue.
 
Doberman, I think that you are in a phase of “towards spiritual growth”. This is the right time for you to read more about Catholicism. I never wanted to leave Catholic, but I did want to know more about it, just to make sure that I wouldn’t waste my time in a wrong belief. I searched/read books/prayed to ask God to help me to understand/to believe the mysteries,etc.
Yes, my faith is growing. Catholic is the church that was founded by Jesus himself. It 's TheWay.
I hope you’ll find/read good books about catholicism. Scott Hahn’s books are excellent.
 
sosayi1960 said:
I sure wish I had your faith in the church. Mine began leaving me when we had to pay 500.00 bucks for our kids to make their 1st Commuion. Special Chalice, Special Clothes etc. My wife is keeping me in it. I believe most of the teachings. I can find them in Protestant Churches as well. They also don’t have alot of silly rules. No meat on friday, up and down all the time. My faith in the Catholic church is shaken to the core:confused:
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Well, I don’t know so much about first communion, but I’m guessing all the fancy dresses and expensive chalice isn’t necessary. Let me explain better: In a wedding, which matters more? The brand name 5 grand wedding dress, expensive champagne, top notch cake and reception… or the love for the other person? Do you really think the other person cares how expensive and beautiful your apparel is, if you love them?

Many people let the worldly things overcome the spiritual aspect of the First Communion. I’m sure Christ wouldn’t care if you drank out of a wooden chalice or not. As long as the love and respect is there.

And, also, the rules that may seem silly to you. If you are practicing them, then you are not practicing them with the intent that you need to. They are meant as offerings and sacrifices. No meat on Friday is an offering to show love, respect and gratitude. Even then, what Christ when through compared to our small sacrifices is nothing. Nevertheless, the intent should be there.

Like I said to the original poster (Doberman, I believe), I can’t tell you that Protestant churches don’t have the full truth, or which church is right. You have to find out for yourself. Pray, fast, read scipture… do whatever you need to do. Answers won’t come without and effort on your part. Also, keep in mind that there will be spiritual dryness. There always is. I feel like I’m going through a drought myself but the trick is to continue.
 
Originally Posted by Protestant101 View Post
Very few “non-Catholics” would post here without wanting to “debate.”
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Actually, I’m one of the non-Catholics who posts without wanting to debate…
 
MarkA16 said:
I made a thread about that video long time ago. It too made me struggle about my Catholic faith. But what I realized is that I lacked knowledge about it, which I believe you do too.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=124937
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So you’re saying this video helped make you go from lukewarm to hot? Something that made you question your faith, brought you closer to your faith? Do you get where I’m going?

Yes, I know sometimes I can be “Mr. Obvious”!
 
sosayi1960 said:
I sure wish I had your faith in the church. Mine began leaving me when we had to pay 500.00 bucks for our kids to make their 1st Commuion. Special Chalice, Special Clothes etc.
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There is no charge for Sacraments. Charging for Sacraments would be the sin of simony. Poor families would never be denied Sacraments because they cannot buy special clothes. Nice children’s outfits could even be gotten at Goodwill or another thrift store. Priests and parishes have chalices. Families never have to buy their own chalice for First Communion.
 
NotWorthy said:
Something that made you question your faith, brought you closer to your faith? Do you get where I’m going?
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I remember I questioned God long time ago, which got me to be atheist. Then I got back to believing. Now it was my faith I was questioning. Now I’m back again. I learned to not be so ignorant and jump to conclusions like most people do. I needed to take time to learn about my faith, more importantly, God. God is Love. In the Bible it says that Love is patient. I’m being as patient as I can be to learn about True Love.

It brought me closer with the help of the people here. Before I didn’t know much about different ways people do to honor Mary. Nor did I know the definition of the word “venerate”. I looked up the word “venerate” and I did see “worship”. That shocked me. Then later on I found out that Mary is highly honored than the Saints but not as high as Jesus Christ who is above all.
 
lak611 said:
There is no charge for Sacraments. Charging for Sacraments would be the sin of simony. Poor families would never be denied Sacraments because they cannot buy special clothes. Nice children’s outfits could even be gotten at Goodwill or another thrift store. Priests and parishes have chalices. Families never have to buy their own chalice for First Communion.
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Yeah really. I think the only thing my parents paid for were the classes. o.O

Again, jumping to conclusions? 🙂
 
MarkA16 said:
Yeah really. I think the only thing my parents paid for were the classes. o.O

Again, jumping to conclusions? 🙂
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And if parents are poor and cannot afford to pay for classes, the Church will still give the Sacraments to their children. I have never heard of anyone being refused a Sacrament due to inability to afford to pay for the classes. I agree with you that the poster was jumping to conclusions.
 
MarkA16 said:
Yeah really. I think the only thing my parents paid for were the classes. o.O

Again, jumping to conclusions? 🙂
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With all due respect, we had to pay 300. for religious ed and an additional 200.00 for fees last year and the year before that for both of our kids to make their 1st Communion.

We also had to pay 50.00 for a workshop. 10.00 was charged for a “Blessing Cup”.

My wife refuses to leave the church. I have taken my family to some Protestant churches. My wife and I had a huge arguement over this. Ironically, My wife only goes to mass because of my prompting. She hasn’t been to confession in 14 yrs of our marriage.

This is extremely hard on me and I’m really torn over it. I’m afraid, I’m throwing the baby out with the bath water. However, I see so much inconsistency. I wonder if the Holy Spirit is leading me out of the church. I still want to believe in the church but find it increasingly difficult. The parish we belong to has become extremely conservative. There is no sense of community except of course at the Parish festival. I’m just trying to understand God’s will for me and my family.
 
sosayi1960 said:
With all due respect, we had to pay 300. for religious ed and an additional 200.00 for fees last year and the year before that for both of our kids to make their 1st Communion.

We also had to pay 50.00 for a workshop. 10.00 was charged for a “Blessing Cup”.
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As you know, many “Catholics” are in your shoes, weary of the struggle and not wanting to fight. They express their dismay by staying away and/or no longer contributing funds. This has a serious impact on the parish community. As more and more members withhold collections and appeal funds the costs of providing the necessary/expected services of educating and catechising the faithful has to be passed on to the individual.

The design is such that if every member of a parish were to contribute their 5% each week or month there would be more than enough funds to provide all services at no additional cost to the recipients. Sadly, parishes are facing deficit collections so that they don’t even have enough money to pay basic utility bills. This is why you (and I) ended up paying as much as we did. It’s not the parish’s fault, it’s the members who either attend but don’t contribute to the collection, or who are registered, do not attend mass but still send their children through the education programs. Instead of the ‘sharing’ system it becomes, by default, a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system.
This is extremely hard on me and I’m really torn over it. I’m afraid, I’m throwing the baby out with the bath water. However, I see so much inconsistency. I wonder if the Holy Spirit is leading me out of the church. I still want to believe in the church but find it increasingly difficult. The parish we belong to has become extremely conservative. There is no sense of community except of course at the Parish festival. I’m just trying to understand God’s will for me and my family.
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Know that the Holy Spirit would never ever lead anyone away from the Church. The only entity who would desire such a thing is Satan. If you entertain the thought that perhaps the Spirit is pulling you in that direction I’d say “Get thee back, Satan” and drop to my knees to pray a rosary right there on the spot.

God’s will for you and your family is the same today as it was the day you exchanged your wedding vows and entered into the marital covenant with your wife and God: through your marriage you are to continue to grow in your faith closer to Him. If your wife is getting weary, the responsibility falls on you to keep the family moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, the buck stops with you. If you feel you are not strong enough, go to adoration and pray deeply for the stamina, strength and courage you need. But trust always that the Lord will get you through this.

You and your family are in my prayers.
 
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