Marian Devotion vs. Apparitions

[churchcamefirst]

today Is The Birthday Of Saint Padre Pio! Please Pray Tonight To Him For All His Blessings, I Did And My Life Changed Forever!

 

[tGette]

today Is The Birthday Of Saint Padre Pio! Please Pray Tonight To Him For All His Blessings, I Did And My Life Changed Forever!

Thank you!
Have done and will continue to do so!
After today he is officially included in my intercessory roster!

Please do not forget St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Today was the beginning of a novena dedicated to her!

St. Therese and St. Padre Pio,
Thank you both! Please continue to pray with us and for us!

 

[churchcamefirst]

Thank you!
Have done and will continue to do so!
After today he is officially included in my intercessory roster!

Please do not forget St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Today was the beginning of a novena dedicated to her!

St. Therese and St. Padre Pio,
Thank you both! Please continue to pray with us and for us!

Will do…

 

[RC_Matt]

Thanks to everyone for your replies here.

Like I said, unless you were raised Protestant (I’m a Southern Baptist) its hard to understand. If I enter RCIA, I run the risk of being “damned to hell” by the people with whom I currently go to church. These are the ones who think the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon, etc.

I can acutely feel my soul on the line here - I’m terrified that a misstep will mean I’ve been misled one way or the other. That’s why I’m trying to hard to make sure I can be 100% in accord with the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church before I move forward. I want to be completely educated and know that I am doing the right thing, not entering a cult as my SB friends say.

If it wouldn’t be too forward, I would like to ask all of you to pray for me that God leads me into the right place. I can only hope that He wouldn’t send someone to hell who is trying so hard to please Him in this day and age of misleading teachings, false prophets, etc.

Of course we’ll pray for you. Based on your post, I think you’ll find RCIA to be a breath of fresh air and a very enlightening experience.

And please forget about the “going to hell” stuff. That’s pure foolishness and it doesn’t even rise to the level of ridiculous. In fact, if you walk down the main street around here on a Saturday you’ll have about five different groups telling you’re “going to hell” unless you join them and subscribe to their particular dogma. (Like, UH OH! Better not pick the wrong one or you’ll be in DEEP trouble!!! Yeah, right….) It never ceases to amaze me how people who purportedly believe in a loving God can believe that kind of nonsense; and THAT is bordering on cult stuff. Jesus’ message to us was to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves; ALL of His teachings come from those points. If you’re doing your best to follow His example and live your life in that manner (and it sure sounds like you are), you’re not “going to hell” no matter where you worship. As Catholics, we believe that our faith best facilitates attaining the objectives Christ set for us and brings us closer to God than any of the others (or we wouldn’t be Catholics, duh). RCIA, along with prayer and contemplation, will give you the opportunity to discover for yourself if that truth applies to you as well. Good luck on your journey (and STOP worrying about the “going to hell” stuff, that line of thinking is contrary to what Jesus taught anyway).