Is this normal?

[Paris_Blues]

Most of you know I converted from Protestantism to Catholicism (yes, I LOVE it!).

Unfortunetely we don’t have a Catholic radio station here in town - which makes me mad, I need to know my Catholicism! - so sometimes I have to listen to all these “Christian” stations which are Protestant. Hey, I have to listen to something Christian rather then secular .

Now everytime I hear them preaching, I have to listen with a careful ear. Why? Because I go to the CC that has the authority for interpretation, meaning, etc. etc. Well, I can trust the fact that if they preach that Christ died for us is also a belief of the CC so I’m not going to listen carefully with that but I WILL listen carefully to Protestant theology to determine if it goes with the teaching of the CC. Make sense?

If I hear something that I’m not too sure about, I wont accept it until I find out what the Catholic Church has to say about it or what she teaches about it. Does that make sense?

Is this normal for a convert to do?

 

[mosher]

I was actually doing that last night. Sometimes it has profit because some of the preachers have good insights. However, one must take care to be able to seperate what they preach from what the Church teaches in much subtility. For instance, last night this preacher from Calvary Chapel was giving a great sermon on justification and the Epistle of James. He did a great job of preaching against Palagianism and Semi-Palagianism, however he equated denominations as man made. To this there was some truth btu only if one understands that the Catholic Church is not a denomination but is the Church that was founded not by men but by a Man - Jesus Christ. Be careful though because of your recent conversion because all that we take in to ourselves in some way forms us and I would be concerned about a new catholic listening to non-catholic theologians. I would recommend purchasing catholic tapes such as are found on this site and also in particular the programs of Venerable Fulton Sheen.

 

[Madia]

Have you checked this site to see if there’s a Catholic tadio station in your area?ewtn.com/radio/amfm.htm

You can listen online at ewtn.com/ ; just highlight radio, listen live, english then realaudio or windows media.

 

[javelin]

Paris Blues:

Most of you know I converted from Protestantism to Catholicism (yes, I LOVE it!).

Unfortunetely we don’t have a Catholic radio station here in town - which makes me mad, I need to know my Catholicism! - so sometimes I have to listen to all these “Christian” stations which are Protestant. Hey, I have to listen to something Christian rather then secular .

Now everytime I hear them preaching, I have to listen with a careful ear. Why? Because I go to the CC that has the authority for interpretation, meaning, etc. etc. Well, I can trust the fact that if they preach that Christ died for us is also a belief of the CC so I’m not going to listen carefully with that but I WILL listen carefully to Protestant theology to determine if it goes with the teaching of the CC. Make sense?

If I hear something that I’m not too sure about, I wont accept it until I find out what the Catholic Church has to say about it or what she teaches about it. Does that make sense?

Is this normal for a convert to do?

I think this is very normal. Unfortunatly, the current state of the Church is such that we also need to carefully listen to our own priests and hold what they are teaching up against the official teaching of the Church. So, to do the same thing with protestant sources is very normal.

I would also caution you on trying to do this too much. Not only can you inadvertently be formed by poor theology, but I have found that it is hard for me to incorporate the entire message without nitpicking details in the sermon. My mind isn’t quick enough to digest everything, run it against what I know, try to figure out what I don’t, and still hear what the Holy Spirit might be trying to tell me. In other words, instead of hearing what is true and allowing it to benefit me, I am making a mental list of what is not true. That negativity does not befit Christ.

So, if you can, take up others’ suggestions about getting reliable Catholic materials to listen to instead.

Of course, if it is just a music station or something, that can be much more easily tolerated and enjoyed than a preaching station.

Peace,
javelin

 

[Eileen_T]

Relevant Radio relevantradio.com/docs/index.asp

 

[Kristina_P]

javelin:

Of course, if it is just a music station or something, that can be much more easily tolerated and enjoyed than a preaching station.

Enjoyed!? Have you actually listened to Christian music stations lately? (Completely off-topic and just kidding)

 

[puzzleannie]

Paris Blues:

If I hear something that I’m not too sure about, I wont accept it until I find out what the Catholic Church has to say about it or what she teaches about it. Does that make sense?

Is this normal for a convert to do?

it is normal for a new convert to feel a drive to learn all he can about his new faith, to feel a new love for the Word of God in Sacred Scripture, to receive great consolation in the new prayer life and devotional practices he has learned. The best way to feed this impulse is through the teaching of the Church you have embraced, especially the writings of the saints. At this point in your life, spirituality from other sources is not going to nourish you, and may actually be detrimental. use the drive-time to play good music on the CD player, or get tapes of good speakers like Fr. Groeschell or Fr. Corapi.

It is also common for human beings to have “buyer’s remorse” after any big life-changing decision, to start second-guessing themselves and what they have accepted, and to be tempted on all sides. Why put yourself in a position where you may hear messages that challenge your faith just when you are growing in strength, and may not yet have all the knowledge you need to discern between truth and falsehood?

 

[CatholicChef]

You can get EWTN on shortwave or Sirius Radio. We have the sirius satellite radio and we love it.

It’s normal and I’m sure you can learn a lot, but I never listen to other religious radio stations because they always say something I don’t agree with.

 

[Flopfoot]

If you are going to listen to Protestants then it is good to listen with a careful ear because, as you know, what they say is a mixture of truth and lies.
However, having to ‘filter’ what they say is not necessarily a bad thing if you find that you get some benefit from the true things they do say. It’s a matter of weighing up the pros and cons.
However, one of the cons may be that as a recent convert, a young person, and someone who doesn’t know a huge amount about their faith (although probably more than the average Catholic), the filtering is quite hard, which increases the ‘cons’, and what’s more, you might filter out stuff which is actually not bad (just to be safe), which decreases the ‘pros’.
I’m in a similar situation - well actually, I’m a cradle Catholic, but don’t know all that much about my faith since they don’t teach religion in schools as well as they used to, it’s watered down these days (I only finished school 2 years ago). And what I find is I really get hardly any benefit from listening to Protestants. And not just on the radio - listening to them in everyday life. What’s more, it always feels like they’re trying to make me lose my faith. So I avoid them. I don’t listen to Christian radio and I don’t talk to Protestants about religion, if I can help it.
You want to have your Catholic faith nourished, but you can’t ‘add’ anything to the radio. You can only listen to what’s there. I listen to my CDs (secular music) - at least I know what I’m gonna hear. With the radio, your choices are to put up with the Protestants, or listen to secular radio, or, if you like neither secular nor Christian radio, to not listen to the radio at all. Not listening to the radio actually gives you more time to pray and can be a good sacrifice to make, especially in Lent.
And, since you want to have you Catholic faith nourished but can’t add anything to the radio, you’ll need to nourish it in other ways. This forum is a good way. So is reading the Catechism, or any of the catechisms in fact. Unfortunately, you can’t do these while driving, so you’ll have to make the time for it yourself. You can read them on the bus or train though.