Lord, convert my family

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Hello

I try to life a pius life and love being Catholic and have grown so close to the Lord.

My family is full of non-practicing Catholics. After a ugly divorce between my parents my of my sibling do not go to liturgy. My mom still goes, but she is a luke warm Catholic and does what is convient. I have tried to invite them to liturgy, but that did not work. So, I have giving up on that but still pray for them. I you could give some advice or tell me how your family converted that would be cool.

Or it may not happen only God knows

Douay-Rheims Bible
Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword MT 10:34

Thanks and God Bless

John
 
I feel your pain John. I am in the same boat. All I can say is keep them in your prayers always. We can not change hearts but God can and He surely wants them to be Catholic more than you do. God Bless!
 
John, I feel for you. 😦 There is nothing quite as disheartening… as having to stand back and watch people you love… grow further and further away from the Church and the Sacraments.

One of my sisters has been away from the Church for over 30 years. And shows no signs of returning. She will be 49 this year. Before Mass, today… I visited the Blessed Sacrament; and asked Our Lord to keep my sister in His Sacred Heart. ❤️ Sometimes… there is nothing more we can do (and nothing better), than to commend them to the Love of Jesus.

God bless you, John.
 
My family is essentially in the same circumstance.

I am a practicing, God-fearing Catholic. My wife has totally abandoned her faith; she now claims to be agnostic. My adult daughter and teenage son have weak faith, and I essentially have to drag them to Church.

I set the best possible example to my children, but with an agnostic wife, it is nearly impossible to get them to believe, or practice, their faith. My daughter moves off to college in the fall, and I desperately fear that she will lose her faith, completly.

I pray ceaselessly for my family’s return to the faith. But it never happens. Maybe it will happen at some time in the future. I just hope that it happens before it is too late.

Ultimately, as I said in a previous post, people need to decide to save their own souls. If they will not give themselves over completely to Christ, and his Church, they will not be saved, no matter how much their family members pray for them.
 
Dear John, I know it’s lonely and sad, being the only one in your family to take God and religion seriously.
Don’t give up hope. Keep praying as the other posters assure you.

My brother came back to the Church after 30 years…and he was dead in a fatal accident a month later. God knew this would happen and gave him the necessary graces. I ask God to bring your family members back to Himself in the Church.

Dear God, I pray concurrently for each person You place in my life, for each member of my family—earthly and spiritual—as if each were the only one. I commit them totally to You so that Your love becomes the source of all their thoughts and actions.

For all who cannot at this time in their lives pray or believe, I ask You to accept my prayers, my sacramental participation, and my acts of kindness to be theirs also. In Your infinite love, draw them speedily to Yourself in joy and peace!

Thank You merciful God who wish all souls to live in You. Thank You for the blessings You have given to our loved ones.
 
The prophets argue with God for their people

Our God, I will try to emulate Moses and Abraham in praying for my dear ones, for the Church, for priests, and for numerous others throughout the world, whether or not followers of Jesus or members of His Church.

This temporal world obscures the spiritual world, thus many good people sincerely do not believe in You. Life is complex and challenging, as the people of Abraham and Moses knew. They turned aside from a God who seemed unresponsive to some of their genuine needs for security and progress. A natural human response is to move away from pain of hope in God and religion. The Jews desired a manageable, tangible God, as even do some of Your modern followers.

When You sent Moses back to the people, determined to bring Your wrath against them for displacing their God and Rescuer with a statue, Moses argued with You to spare them. Moses, scripture tells us, was ‘the humblest man on earth’, yet he won in the argument for mercy, and Your wrath therefore did not come against his people. They remained the chosen people of God.

Like Moses and Abraham, I humbly bargain for the eternal happiness of my dear ones, and of all benevolent unbelievers. In their sincere choices to be considerate in the relationships and events of their lives, they effectively choose to stand with the sheep at the last judgement—that yardstick by which Jesus, Your beloved Son, measures charity. I plead the judgement story of Jesus [Matthew 25 31-46] for my dear ones and for all unbelievers who offer kindness to others.

Bless and flood them with Your love, goodness and truth. Bring them to love and worship You. Let them merit a final judgement with the ‘good sheep’. Transform them into the image of Christ, following His path. Restore anyone whom they have wounded or failed. Grant that they live the Gospel in love and forgiveness.

Thank You for the beauty and goodness in the lives of my dear ones and of all persons. Thank You for the love and service they give others and therefore Yourself, even where they are unconscious of this union in Your love. March 2005
 
John,

I am in the same situation as you are. It is frustrating and I often think of St. Monica praying for her son Augustine and her husband for 20-30 years until they both converted. (I drifted away from the Church for 30 years, thank God someone was praying for my soul!)

Many who witnessed Jesus in the flesh did not believe. He forces His love on no one, but Jesus is always waiting for us to open our hearts to Him!

Prayer is the key. Trust in Jesus to give us the grace to be patient, loving and kind in order to show His eternal love to others.

Jesus I Trust In You!!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

Mark
 
John, and all who have posted in the hope of repentance and conversion for family members,

It seems to be a common heartache. I, too, am praying and sacrificing for a return to faith for my husband and sister, who had left the Church in their college years and a daughter in college who recently converted to another faith in spite of my prayers and pleadings. This is a difficult time for many young people who have not learned the skills in their formation (home and religious ed.) to argue against errors of faith and present their own beliefs to others. Unfortunately, I, too, had left the Catholic Church in my college years and considered myself an atheist, having read books geared to this direction, but began the journey home with the birth of my first child. I was overwhelmed with awe and felt connected to the spiritual realm. With this supernatural gift, I began the journey home.

We need to teach our youth how to form a personal relationship with Jesus, Mary, and the saints and how to respond to those who would attempt to destroy their budding belief.
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                                     PRAYER OF ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT
“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my familly.”
 
rookieonedge said:
PRAYER OF ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my familly.”
Click to expand...
This is a great prayer. Thanks for posting it, “rookie”. God bless.
 
MarieVeronica said:
This is a great prayer. Thanks for posting it, “rookie”. God bless.
Click to expand...
You’re very welcome, MarieVeronica. I believe your picture of Jesus is from Veronica’s veil. I collect reprints of religious art. I also like the quote from Deuterotomy about choosing life. I use it in my pro-life writing.

Oremus! So many family members need our prayers and sacrifices. God bless!
 
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