S
StudentMI
Guest
I’m eagerly awaiting the Easter Vigil, when I’ll be Confirmed. But at the same time, I’m uneasy about my mother attending. She was born and raised Catholic, but married my father who was born and raised Lutheran. She tried to get him interested in the Catholic Church, but he reacted negatively to the absence of Bibles in the pews, the idea of praying to saints, and other things (I was told as a child, by my dad, that Catholics worship Mary and pray to statues, etc.). She married him outside the Church, and though never becoming Lutheran, she solely attended Lutheran services. I was baptized Lutheran as an infant.
I think she was very poorly catechized as a child. She doesn’t understand a lot about the Church, and her whole family has drifted away from it. She treated Lutheran services similar to Catholic ones, kneeling when communion was offered (no one else did and apparently my dad was embarrassed by her doing that), and wasn’t aware of differences in theology. When I mentioned to her that Protestants don’t believe the bread and wine (or grape juice) becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, she got a little angry and said she believes it does and that’s all that matters. Despite all this, she said she still considers herself Catholic.
The reason I’m uneasy about her being at the Vigil is that she’ll want to receive the Eucharist. I don’t want to judge, but I know she has done wrong things in her life. She’s a saint compared to me, but I know she isn’t perfect. If I press the issue of going to Reconciliation first, she’ll become annoyed and, considering she has OCD, she’ll probably become depressed if I explain why. I mentioned something about having her marriage approved, when she expressed interest in the Church after I mentioned something in RCIA, and she was insulted and I could tell she was fighting off depression because I mentioned it. Neither she nor my father were ever married before, but she didn’t get her marriage approved.
So, what should I do? Ask her not to come? Not say anything if she receives Eucharist? I’m worried about her committing a mortal sin by doing so.
I think she was very poorly catechized as a child. She doesn’t understand a lot about the Church, and her whole family has drifted away from it. She treated Lutheran services similar to Catholic ones, kneeling when communion was offered (no one else did and apparently my dad was embarrassed by her doing that), and wasn’t aware of differences in theology. When I mentioned to her that Protestants don’t believe the bread and wine (or grape juice) becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, she got a little angry and said she believes it does and that’s all that matters. Despite all this, she said she still considers herself Catholic.
The reason I’m uneasy about her being at the Vigil is that she’ll want to receive the Eucharist. I don’t want to judge, but I know she has done wrong things in her life. She’s a saint compared to me, but I know she isn’t perfect. If I press the issue of going to Reconciliation first, she’ll become annoyed and, considering she has OCD, she’ll probably become depressed if I explain why. I mentioned something about having her marriage approved, when she expressed interest in the Church after I mentioned something in RCIA, and she was insulted and I could tell she was fighting off depression because I mentioned it. Neither she nor my father were ever married before, but she didn’t get her marriage approved.
So, what should I do? Ask her not to come? Not say anything if she receives Eucharist? I’m worried about her committing a mortal sin by doing so.
(And congratulations on being received into the Church soon!!)