Inventions/Superstitions

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Pattylt said:
Keep searching. Keep discussing this with a Priest you trust or a spiritual director and BE HONEST with them. We often have a tendency to answer what we think they want. Tell them what you want and why…or figure it out together. I wish you peace. Spiritual discernment is hard and upsetting. Resolution is marvelous!
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I’ve had two spiritual directors. One never had much to say. The second was wonderful, but she passed away. She also said that she’d still meet with me even if I became Protestant.

She, as a Spiritual Director and Sister, didn’t have the response I’m getting here from lay people. Not even close.
 
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Hope1960 said:
second was wonderful, but she passed away. She also said that she’d still meet with me even if I became Protestant.
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Oh, that such a shame…keep trying and looking. There are more out there. Remember gold nuggets are found in the mud! You may need to try several.
 
How do you feel the Holy Spirit move within you in non Catholic Churches compared to Catholic ones.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
How do you feel the Holy Spirit move within you in non Catholic Churches compared to Catholic ones.
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It’s really difficult to put into words. The music, the sermons are just so relatable that they touch me in a way I never feel in the CC. The enthusiasm of the other church members is infectious.
 
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do you feel joy

I am looking for the list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I read you feel confusion over certain catholic and non catholic doctrine.

There is an ancient priestly blessing that is in Numbers. It is also found inscribed on a 7th Century BC scroll. This is the oldest example of extra Biblical text we have so far. Found in tomb outside the Old City of Jerusalem.Its owner would have been worshipping God in Solomons Temple, the first Temple.

May the LORD bless and keep you. May the LORD shone His face upon you and give you peace.
 
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I do think that many Catholic Churches are beautiful, and very peaceful when Mass isn’t going on and it’s very quiet.
 
That quiet is the opposite of what you describe at the Lutheran Church.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
That quiet is the opposite of what you describe at the Lutheran Church.
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I’m talking about the quiet is when Mass isn’t going on. The Lutheran Church I’m talking about has a chapel to pray in which is also quiet and peaceful.
 
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Hope1960 said:
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whatistrue:
You should not go to church to be entertained, but to be fed (spiritually).
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I’m not being spiritually fed at the CC.
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Spiritual feeding is grace, actual or sanctifying, as the case may allow for. God provides actual grace to all, baptised or not. After baptism if a person commits a mortal sin, then forgiveness requires perfect contrition for those without access to the sacrament of penance. Can one be certain of perfect contrition or perserverance? Per Catholic teaching (Council of Trent):
Can. 14. If anyone shall say that man is absolved from his sins and justified, because he believes for certain that he is absolved and justified, or that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified, and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are perfected: let him be anathema

Can. 16. If anyone shall say that he will for certain with an absolute and infallible certainty have that great gift of perseverance up to the end, unless he shall have learned this by a special revelation: let him be anathema.
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Authority is always the issue. Rejection of authority led to the doctrine of the invisible Church. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Ludwig Ott, p. 301 has:
The visibility of the Church was denied by the Spiritualistic Sects of the Middle Ages, by Huss and the Reformers. According to Huss, the Church consists of the communion of the predestinated (D627). Calvin held the same view. Luther taught that the Church is "the assembly of the saints (= the faithful), in which the Gospel is properly taught and the Sacraments are properly administered., (Conf. Aug. Art. 7). But without an authoritative teaching office there is no certain norm for the purity of doctrine or for the administration of the Sacraments. The rejection of the hierarchy inevitably led to the doctrine of the invisible Church.
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Hope1960 said:
But should I just spend the entire Mass playing with my fingers until it’s time to go to Communion?
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No, you should be praying along with the church.
You should be listening to the readings and the sermon.
You should be praying for a deeper understanding that this is God.

People would be thrilled to spend an hour with their favorite celebrity, their emotions would run high with excitement.
But somehow they don’t realize that they stand in the presence of God during Mass.
The high emotional state around the celebrity was not generated from the celebrity, it was from yourself. This same emotional state can be there for God and the Mass. One just has to realize what is really going on.
 
vz71 said:
No, you should be praying along with the church.
You should be listening to the readings and the sermon.
You should be praying for a deeper understanding that this is God.
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I fidget and listen at the same time. I don’t pray during the homily, that would be rude. When it’s time for responses, I respond.
 
It is one thing to repeat the responsorial, it is another to have read it beforehand and understand the context.
It is one thing to repeat prayers at the proper times, it is another to have read the prayer earlier, meditated on it, and truly understand what it is you are reciting.
It is one thing to listen to the sermon, it is another to open oneself completely to what is being said.
 
vz71 said:
It is one thing to repeat the responsorial, it is another to have read it beforehand and understand the context.
It is one thing to repeat prayers at the proper times, it is another to have read the prayer earlier, meditated on it, and truly understand what it is you are reciting.
It is one thing to listen to the sermon, it is another to open oneself completely to what is being said.
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I don’t do the first two, but I do the third as best as I can, but I’m so bored my mind wanders. A.lot.
 
Hope1960 said:
As many of you know, I left the CC (maybe not permanently) and have been spending my free time on CARM. Someone said that Sacraments are Catholic inventions and superstitions.
Where and when did the Sacraments originate?
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The beautiful thing about the sacraments, which are upheld in the ancient churches in both the east and west incidentally, is that they are “theology in action”, so to speak. Through them even the simplest and least educated down through the centuries could know the will of God, understanding and living out the faith in its most basic ways.

So…with Baptism (the “sacrament of faith”) we formally and publicly profess our faith in obedience to Christ’s command and model. By this we gain entrance into the Kingdom of God. With the Eucharistic we acknowledge our complete dependency on God “Apart from whom we can do nothing” (John 15:5), for our nourishment and sustenance. We must remain in Him and He in us, and that relationship must be regularly nurtured and supported as we partake in this free gift of His presence. The Sacrament of Reconciliation acknowledges that our state of justice can be compromised and lost; yes, Virginia, we can lose our salvation, generally by turning to persistent grave sin (sin that leads to death-1 John 5) that directly opposes and destroys love of God and neighbor in us by its nature. Such sin kills - as sin’s wages will always be death. But with a change of heart we can repent and confess, knowing that God’s mercy and forgiveness are always available. The other sacraments similarly give instruction on God’s will while conveying the needed grace that they signify.

All sacraments are efficacious depending on the faith of the person receiving them, and the faith of the community as well. They can become mere formalities to people- performed mechanically-or we can understand their beauty and truly benefit from the purposes God established them for.
 
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Honest question, is this kind of boredom and mind wandering common in any other aspect of your life?
 
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