My personal experience demonstrates that the generalization is faulty.gracepoole:
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.
You don’t own the opinion of another, but simply your opinion. And I or no one else owns your opinion.
And the problem is you really don’t understand what it is like to want this community and yet feel like an outsider despite volunteering as lector, being involved in the KOFC, and being a part of mens group.
Uh, who says I don’t understand that?gracepoole:
And the problem is you really don’t understand what it is like to want this community and yet feel like an outsider despite volunteering as lector, being involved in the KOFC, and being a part of mens group.
You just don’t understand when people don’t want to bother with you. In a secular world, this is understandable. In the Christian faith, you don’t expect there to be strings attached to knowing each other. Now, I’m not referring to friendships necessarily but solid acquaintances. There definitely is not the effort for us as parishioners to go out of our way to reach out to people like there is in many Protestant churches.
To be fair, in a Protestant Church as people do get to know each other that unconditional friendliness can wane. Maybe part of the problem is you have a mixture of people who know each other and people who don’t whereas when people change Protestant churches, everyone has that feeling of not knowing someone so everyone goes out of their way to be friendly knowing what it is like to be that newcomer or the person who walks alone in the faith without someone to guide or disciple you.
Agreed. But what’s the difference between all and almost all if you struggle to find the ones that truly do have these exceptions?
Although this is sad, I do respect your integrity.
It was aimed at you.
You Sir! Owe my deepest respects! Although we will disagree with each other on this issue. I do respect your integrity!
So now we’re moving the goal posts. The poster to which I was originally responding wasn’t describing “bland homilies, bad music, people who seem to be there only to fulfill their obligation.”
I really didn’t mean to do that. Please accept my apology.
I admire your fortitude. I wish I were more like that. It seems to come down to whether or not one finds Christ only in the Catholic Church, and to what degree. May God continue to bless you.
I haven’t nor have I been tempted to lose it.
Studies have shown that fear makes people think and act irrationally.
I think you are right. Jesus and the Apostles taught quite clearly about servant leadership. This pompous attitude that developed through the middle ages seems to be an infiltration from human culture.
I suspect this is the case for most people who leave the Catholic faith. I mean, they prefer to follow their own internal sense of right and wrong, rather than have it defined by the Church. The Church says we should all follow our conscience, but then, “a well formed conscience will be consistent with Catholic Teaching”. Where does that leave people who feel differently?
I taught confirmation classes for a couple years, and I think we all assume too much about what children know. Our catechesis for children is built around the assumption that children are raised in Catholic families with Catholic formation, and this does not happen often anymore. They don’t even understand the basic contents of the creed, as you noted, that Jesus is God. We need to back WAY up!
It is a fact that our separated brethren have done a much better job with fellowship and meeting the emotional needs of the members.
I don’t think this is the best way of saying it. For one you don’t have the right. You are a Sinner. Second the Lord Jesus allows access to himself in the Sacraments by Grace. You don’t deserve anything. Jesus has received you in GRACE!