If you heard a pastor saying: you can be assured of your salvation if you simply believe Jesus died on the Cross for your sins and you can never lose your salvation, would you grasp at something like that? They’d encourage you to go to Bible studies and that the fruits of the Spirit show that you accepted God’s call of salvation. But you also have to ask yourself who couldn’t love a God who was willing to sacrifice His life under the pain of the Cross to make sure that he would be resurrected and forgive us of our sins? The accounts of his resurrection are miraculous in and of itself and even psychologists who don’t necessarily believe in a God cannot refute the 500 people who witnessed the resurrection and its involvement in the creation of the Church from the apostles. The hardest part to accept about this loving God is why he allows suffering.
Oh I so agree with that. Catholics focus on people staying Catholic rather than keeping their Christianity. I think people need a path to salvation and by living the Christian life, they can have that.
We shouldn’t ignore your experience. We should empathize with why you feel this way. Many hugs. Proper catcheism is more important to developing your own moral compass of right and wrong. Prudence is being able to have free-will and being able to be repentant when we foul up or momentarily turn away from God.
That is just part of it. Overall, I find the Catholic people I have been around, including many on this forum, to be unpleasant people, lacking even the basics of how a Christian should behave. I have been unhappy since being received. That is not Christianity; it should be a joyous thing.
Some of the crosses we have don’t have enjoyment. But I agree with you that people shouldn’t go out of their way to not help you walk in the faith. We do need to make an effort to be open and welcoming.
I’m so sorry. Many hugs. This is why goodwill (innocence) is SO important!
I agree.I hear you. I’ve had similar experiences myself, which may lead one to question the community.
May the grace of God find them and bring them back into the Christian fold. To mar someone’s spiritually thru lack of goodwill is a real shame and I pray for the lost to be able to come back to the Father like the prodigal son. May they be brought back to the Church whether they receive the incomplete or complete version and may they live their life thru the graces of the Holy Spirit that encourages the perseverance to the end and an eternity in Heaven. We all deserve Hell but God died for our sins so that we could be forgiven thru our imperfection of original sin from our first parents.Thank you! I appreciate it. Yes, proper catechism is so important. Things may have turned out very differently, who knows? Unfortunately, some of my other former classmates turned away completely and have yet to come back.
From your experience. You’re not really understanding if that’s not someone else’s experience.
That is it in a nutshell. Of course the Body and Blood is our reason for going to Mass, as it should be, but the Church was never meant to be only a group of strangers partaking of the Eucharist. We were a community, a family, from the very beginnings of the Church. That is how it is supposed to be. If it is not, if one is on one’s own, it is very very difficult. Christ never meant us to be alone in our faith.
So true and lacking of our faith in the Catholic Church.
As an agnostic, I don’t believe in the Catholic or christian concept of God.
Yes, that is part of the problem. We registered, attempted to join many, many ministries, and have been ignored both in returning phone calls and emails. I had a HUGE saga in trying to join the K of C in my parish (which is a huge, active council). I finally enlisted the K of C on the national level to contact them for me and get them to respond. Nothing. Four months and nothing. I view the entire unpleasant experience as my wife and I being directed to return to the Orthodox Faith.
I was claiming that you didn’t know other people’s experiences and that you only can claim from your experience that parishes as being unwelcoming as false from your opinion.
I totally agree with this. I don’t want to give up the real presence because of the unfriendliness of others. That said, it’s okay for me to get my Jesus on in a Protestant Church provided I attend weekly mass and get my Eucharist from the Catholic but abstain from communion in the Protestant Church as that is merely symbolic.