Is anyone here a positive Catholic?

[PatK63]

I have noticed through the years when something good was going to happen I was attack. The devil tries to stop thing that are good. Before Jesus began His ministry, He was tempted. I think the church is awesome and the devil is tempting us to despair! The good is yet to come!

 

[MNathaniel]

Amen brother! (Sister?)

I’ve noticed the same thing. Especially (for example) when I need to go to Confession… suddenly all my hope and energy and motivation to go to Confession fail. It’s absolutely an attack of the devil, to tempt us to do the opposite of what’s good for us.

I think you may be on to something with all the temptations to despair of the Church entirely, right now: we may be on the verge of a complete resurgence: a revitalization and uplifting of life for Catholicism: for those who trust God and keep following where He leads us in the Church. When the devil yells most loudly to jump ship – stay the course!

 

[Jen95]

Well, we don’t need to approve our pastor’s shoe color, but what about the pope’s shoe color?!

 

[Emeraldlady]

I’m an eternal optimist about the future of the Church simply because that is a scriptural calling. Pope Francis is very much a new springtime with his taking us along a path of more care for our world and ecology as a refresher for how we must identify as a global family in Christ. And demonstrating God’s mercy in the pastoral life of the Church. I adamantly teach my children to run from those who see nothing but doom and gloom. It’s the antithesis of the life in Christ and really… there’s nothing new under the sun.

In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse, and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, none the less, the teacher of life. They behave as though at the time of former Councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty.

We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand.

In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.

That was Pope St John XXIII’s opening speech at Vatican II.
’

 

[Jen95]

I wonder if the negativity / complaining is an American characteristic – “hey, this one thing is broken, let’s fix it!”
Or we’re on a perpetual improvement kick?

 

[CelticWarlord]

I’m just wondering if anybody here is, on balance, a happy Catholic who feels positive about the Church

I can say that I am a happy non-Catholic, who loves the RC church and does not judge it by it’s worst members. It may look different in 50 years but it will survive. I have no fears over it’s future.

 

[OneMoreTime]

I am just a baby Catholic, baptised Nov 20, in RCIA and awaiting Confirmation at Easter. I admit I am still in a honeymoon phase, but I am over the moon in love. I have found my home. My priest is a joyful inspiration and teacher. My RCIA instructor and his wife (my godparents now) feel like family as do all the people that have reached out from the parish to make me feel welcome. I told my RCIA instructor that they aren’t getting rid of me. Even if they locked the doors I’d be sitting on the steps cause Catholics have the Real Presence. I am on CAF because I’m kind of a geek and like the obscure discussions that pop up that most Catholics never think about. When people start complaining about English vs Latin or veil or no veil or whatever, I roll my eyes. The foot argues for socks. The hand argues for gloves. Both forgetting they belong to the same body . Christ’s church is not yet perfect but is still a miraculous beauty that takes my breath away.

 

[Irishmom2]

@OneMoreTime, Best post I have read all day!

 

[Irishmom2]

St. Leonard, do you think you you would feel less abandoned somehow if you were not Catholic? I don’t understand your reasoning.

 

[RCIAGraduate]

To be fair, perhaps people come here to vent, It’s easy to complain but it’d be kinda werid if people just came here to share their joy (maybe exceptions like people talking about converting) nice as it sounds.

That said, maybe the internet is a toxic place, bad for one’s emotionally health and well being, not a place to socialize (something I think is personal for me).

 

[Dan_Defender]

I am a happy Catholic. The fullness of truth is an everlasting treasure.
I am also a realist. The Church throughout its history has always had problems. It comes with living in a fallen world. However, it is a matter of perspective. We’re not living under constant persecution or hearing that the Pope is out there leading the troops to battle. So there are reasons to be happy.

 

[PetraG]

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Timothy was a presbyter, with pastoral duty. The advice Paul gave to him shouldn’t be automatically be assumed to be universally applicable to all the faithful.

That isn’t to say that admonishing sinners isn’t a spiritual work of mercy. It is…and instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful. That doesn’t mean we have a duty to issues corrections whenever we see the opportunity. (Not that you said that we did; I mean that the advice given to a pastor isn’t necessarily advice that everyone would have a duty to follow.)

 

[yankeesouth]

The advice Paul gave to him shouldn’t be automatically be assumed to be universally applicable to all the faithful.

So Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is just for the Corinthians?

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Look I understand some are squeamish to do battle and that’s fine but they should not hinder those that reconize a battle is being waged and are willing to fight.

 

[RCIAGraduate]

Advice for those getting discouraged and who keep finding bitterness everywhere they look?
Edit: Non practicing person here btw but wanted to put it out there.

 

[yankeesouth]

Live your Catholic Faith. Partake of the Sacraments Jesus instituted for us and follow his teachings (doctrine) for a personal relationship with Him.

 

[Irishmom2]

Stop looking everywhere. Seriously.

If you are seeing things online, or on tv or in the newspaper that are bothering you, cut down on them. If it is people at mass, stop looking at them.

Sometimes, we just need to concern ourselves with things we can actually change and not those we cannot.

Bloom where you are planted.

 

[Wm777]

So, with all that in mind, I’m just wondering if anybody here is, on balance, a happy Catholic who feels positive about the Church, is getting something positive out of their faith and also doesn’t have huge criticisms of/ problems with their fellow Catholics. It would seem if one is going to effectively evangelize, a genuinely positive attitude (not a fake happy face, but feeling genuinely good about the organization you’re promoting) would go a long way.

Yes, I am a positive Catholic, and - while most people (including Catholics) probably think I am a jerk - I can explain why I am a positive Catholic…

The best and most successful prayers I have ever said were made during some pretty ironic situations… On the one hand, there was a sort of hardship; and, on the other, there was sort of positive, non-scrupulous determination on my part that if the Holy Spirit were present, the hardship would go away… The conclusion is to call upon the Holy Spirit, so the bad stuff leaves…

Yes, it actually works… It may or may not occur in gradients, too… So sometimes I have to build up to it, but sometimes it seems to happen more quickly than at other times… Very occasionally, it’s immediate and perhaps even transcendental over a period of time…

I can’t control it, but that’s about the best I can explain it…

Consequently, I tend to think the acceptance of sufferings becomes a mark of Spiritual Progress, Advancement and Maturity… Or - in other words - one has to be able to bear the cross before God will grant one to carry it…

But I may be wrong, too… Sometimes I am pretty upbeat, funny and really motivated afterwards, and, like - when I lector at church - people will come up to me thanking me for the manner in which I spoke… I can’t predict who will approach me or what they will say, but it’s usually a deliberate exercise of joy on my part to breathe positive life into the scriptures when I read them… For instance, once I was so exuberant and pointed during a reading of a passage, everyone said “Amen” before I ended the pause and said “The Word of the Lord”… The way I said it kind of turned out like a drum roll, and they just crashed the “Amen” cymbal before I was even done…

It takes a lot of work to see through all the negativity people associate with church - and to look at the pure love expressed in the scriptures - to really figure out how to speak like that… but it’s usually “there”, if you look for it… When I say work I may even means like weeks, months or years to figure out how some snippet of scripture is really supposed to sound…

Yes, we do have a lot of hardship in the church, and I have my critics (I guess)… but I keep going, even when I mess up; or even if someone gives me a hard time anymore…

There is an immense amount of both joy and sorrow in our faith… on the whole - I think it is part of being humaan and experiencing the complete fulfillment of God’s love…

 

[Shasta-Rose]

I think it’s kind of like climate change. The climate gets colder, the climate gets hotter. The one thing the climate doesn’t do is stay exactly the same over long periods. The Church seems something like that. Right now, it’s in a downturn, but people are always looking for truth and goodness, and I think that eventually people will realize that that is what they can find in the Catholic Church, and then there will be an upturn.

 

[PetraG]

So Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is just for the Corinthians?

I did not say that. You’re not saying that St. Paul said, to paraphrase my post, that we all ought to presume it is our job to look for problems, identify the one correct “solution,” and then make it our business to see that it gets fixed, are you?

No, I don’t think you can mean that, for he also wrote “We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.”
2 Thes. 3:11-12

He was pretty clear that not everybody is meant to be a pastor or a teacher or a prophet:
He gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.
Eph 4:11-14

Look I understand some are squeamish to do battle and that’s fine but they should not hinder those that reconize a battle is being waged and are willing to fight.

Hey, some of us are charged to do it, and not all of those so charged are literally ordained. It’s not my job to decide that you’re not one of them. That’s your pastor’s task, and I’m not your pastor. That does not mean that surely we all ought to be charging in and doing it. It isn’t “squeamish” to recognize that. No, maybe it is your duty and you see it, and it is not mine, and I see it. I think that works. (And probably you think it is, too, now that we’ve clarified together and you are reassured that I’m not suggesting there is a blanket prohibition or something.)

 

[Poet]

I think I’m fairly positive and growing more so about the Church. I’ve seen my parish start to move toward more conservative and traditional sermons; no more lectors wearing short shorts and spaghetti strap tank tops on the altar; the youth program has the kids going to a camp that really teaches them to pray and put prayer first and it’s changed my kids’ lives.

I found out recently that my metro area has something like a dozen churches that offer Latin Mass and have found that one of those routinely has thirty people or more at every daily mass.

Moreover, that parish has a convent next door and seven nuns attend mass daily–all of them quite young. I bet the oldest is mid 30s.

Some great Catholic speakers are emerging–like Father Mike Schmitz, Taylor Marshall, Faith Goldy, and many more who are really talking about the depth and importance and riches of the Catholic faith.

I think we’ve been through a very bad time and I think there are still definitely problems. But I also see more and more young people turning toward the real depth of, and strong practice of, the Catholic faith and good things are coming out of their lives as a result.