My elderly mom loves Jesus, doesn’t believe in Saints

  • Thread starter Thread starter MarthaSo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi SarahKate, we are about the same age. I know what you mean, when saints are mentioned or the Catholic faith my mothers defenses go up, I feel like it’s my duty as a Catholic to defend it but at the same time she’s my elderly mom who loves Christ so I just nodded my head out of respect for her adamant beliefs and because she’s my elderly mom and in doing so I didn’t defend my faith but possibly saved our relationship which the Catholic in me thinks was not honoring the scripture that says our faith will put “mother against daughter “ etc.
 
Last edited:
Thank you Dan, I know my mothers response to that would be we should pray very hard to God for them, without the saints intercession part. I guess I just wonder, since I love her so much and since I know first hand how much she loves God, and what I know about the Catholic faith…,I wonder how the Catholic way is the true way, Jesus says HE is the way and she loves Him and she’s not Catholic, our Lord is Love how could he not honor that with Heaven. I’m only saying that because, although I love the beautiful and rich Catholic faith, I just wonder how it can be the only way to salvation when Jesus said HE is the way, and my mom, and Corrie ten Boom and some our our children and so many others love Jesus without being Catholic.
 
Remember in the Bible St Paul says ‘imitate me’. Read it to your mother and see what she says. Why would the saint say that? There is a communion of saints, there is a Church triumphant, the saints can help us. Why? we don’t know exactly but it pleases the Lord to help us through the saints, so why reject that?
 
We all have a problem but for you Martha it’s very real and personal. It is for me also, First of all, we will never know why God lets some people die and heals others. Perhaps they finished their mission on earth. For others (like 1 of my young cousins) had he kept living he was becoming part of the New Age and would have gone even further away from God than he already was. But that’s just a guess.

Our bigger problem is the divide between true Christians. A true Christian can be a Catholic (I know this because I’ve known some) or a true Christian can be a protestant (I’ve known some of them too) a true Christian may not even attend any church because he’s fed up with all of them. When I meet a true Christian I usually know it. In the 1990’s I used to go to Catholic Charismatic Healing masses. I had evangelical friends, back then, that told me it wasn’t of God. But I listen to no man. I remember the priest first leading us in saying the Rosary and then he spoke a bit before starting the healing line. While I listened to him I suddenly knew in my spirit that this man was Born Again. This priest knew Jesus. And he was Catholic.

The Catholic church doesn’t save us Jesus saves us. Some find Jesus through the Catholic church, others in protestant churches, and some are found by God through the pages of the Bible. Martha if your parents know God it doesn’t matter what church they attend or even if they don’t attend any of them. I hope all of you know God.
 
That’s the thing, I don’t think she’s purposely rejecting it in the same way I don’t believe Corrie ten Boom or C.S. Lewis purposefully rejected the Church, could it be that some people who seek God in honest earnest don’t come home to the Catholic faith. This is apparently true and it just leaves me to wonder about the “seek and you shall find”. I’ve sought God for decades before returning to the Church and I feel like here is the Truth. Others are at peace with their love of God apart from Catholicism not by purposeful rejection and I just wonder if someone earnestly seeks, with the level of understanding inherent in them, how come they don’t fall into the arms of our faith. They sought , for decades, and did not find, (the Catholic faith). This is where I wonder about being 90 and not knowing the beauty of our faith. Makes me sad for my parents, as silly and hopefully not offensive to our Lord as this sounds, I must be frank and wonder why didn’t He grant them the fullness of the Truth with all their rich faith.
 
MarthaSo said:
very sad, sad because I feel like after all they’ve gone
Click to expand...
MarthaSo said:
It’s very sad, sad because I feel like after all they’ve gone through why hasn’t our precious Lord granted them that beautiful faith in our Church, it’s confounding to me, especially because they love God!
Click to expand...
I dont think it is sad. She has a comfortable relationship with God. It is all good.
 
Hi Geo, I must be frank, I agree with what you’ve said. I dont mean to sound disheartened ofcourse (sorry) but I don’t know if you’re Catholic or not however I don’t believe what you’ve said is what Catholics believe. May someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

It was actually startling to read your post because that is EXACTLY how I feel except now that I really do love the Church I’m trying to do and believe everything the Church teaches and what you’ve just said , which is what I feel to be true, I think may be at odds.

That is my dilemma and I suppose that’s the crux of why I mentioned the conversation with my mother.

Is this viewpoint you mentioned which is so similar to mine contradictory to the Catholic faith? Thank you
 
Last edited:
Thank you, I appreciate those kind words! I explained it in my last post to Geo a moment ago, I just wonder about any contradiction to your and his statement, which I agree with, as it relates to our Catholic faith being the way to salvation. As much truth as there is to that statement I can’t force myself to believe my mom will not be saved after loving and teaching us about Jesus for 80 years because she’s not Catholic. And yet, that is what my beautiful church teaches?
 
Your mom has what I would call a very simple faith - simple meaning that she knows she loves Jesus and that love is pure and simple. Almost like that faith of a child who comes to Jesus. He tells us we need to come to Him with the faith of a child. She has Jesus and trusts Him for whatever will come. So sweet - cherish her faith.
 
Thank you Dlee, I certainly do, her faith is what grew mine for sure!

I just wonder what this all means for my faith, especially since you mention simple. Making sure I never miss Mass, following the Church’s teaching …a few years ago my faith was exactly like my mothers, I just loved Jesus.I just wonder at the mystery of it all…like if I’m comfortable thinking, in my childish simple way, God is really ok with me missing Mass because Im tired, I personally think he’s ok with it but the Church has strong views against that.
 
Last edited:
The Church doesn’t teach that salvation is through the Catholic faith alone?
I honestly have not read the Catechism on that yet but I’ve always thought that was the proper teaching.
If it doesn’t say that than I’m confused as to the benefit of my reversion since my faith was exactly like my mothers, a simple faith in Jesus all of my life, with the hope of salvation ofcourse.
 
No the Catholic Church doesn’t teach that. You have every reason to believe there is a place in heaven for your mom.
 
MarthaSo said:
I personally think he’s ok with it but the Church has strong views against that.
Click to expand...
I thought that way before I became Catholic. Now that I know the truth, I cannot go back. I see my journey as a series of steps, getting closer to Him with each step/new understanding. When you’re walking toward a goal, why would you want to turn around and walk away or backtrack? It’s easy to get lost or turned around - just keep your eyes on the goal - Christ and Heaven.
MarthaSo said:
The Church doesn’t teach that salvation is through the Catholic faith alone?
Click to expand...
No - the CCC does not teach this. This is a great explanation Salvation
 
Thank you so much for the link what an excellent article, I read it briefly but will certainly read it more at leisure when time permits. It’s interesting, in the article it reminds us that Jesus did say salvation was from the Jews. I wonder where’d all the good people go during those days, if memory serves, it was sheol?
God bless and thank you again.
I too can’t look back, I’ve missed a few Sunday masses and went to confession this Saturday because I knew I was going to a latin Mass the next day. I guess I would never have done that a year ago because I would have thought “God doesn’t care about that” but now I follow the teachings more because I “know more” and I feel disloyal to Christ if I don’t. Hopefully that’s what everyone does, follow their hearts as they seek God.
 
Last edited:
Of course, God can be pray first and heal without any saints intercession.

Who pray who, is a matter of preference I think.
At their age, I think there is little chance they changed their opinion, but I don’t know. Why not? Some even have a conversion on their dead bed.

On the fact that your parents don’t love the Catholic Church, whereas they are Catholic all their life, We cannot say here why. It’s sad. Probably because of their life experience. Church has a long history, and have evolved a lot during their life. Have you ever bring the subject with them?
 
Last edited:
Hi Anicette, I’ve never broached the topic directly but have recently been mentioning Catholic beliefs like saints and that didn’t go over well. My husband and I agree the best approach is to be the light of Christ whenever we visit. I never experienced that feeling before, the momentary conflict between mother and daughter over something we both strongly believe in. It reminded me of Jesus words of there will be “Mother against daughter” but it didn’t apply to me since I didn’t defend our faith.
 
Last edited:
Well, for starters GOD respects us very much. Yes HE could heal us of every ailment we could ever suffer, HE could provide food for us, etc etc.

However if we carefully examine why do these things ail all of us today we should recognize that many times we are responsible for them. I will give you a very poor example, but bear with me. My parents told me when I was a child to brush my teeth every night and every morning. I did not follow their advice. Now I have bad teeth. Could GOD restore my teeth to perfection? Yes absolutely HE could however does HE HAVE to do it? in other words what greater good in the PLAN of Salvation History would that miracle accomplish? Is it a guarantee that after GOD restored my teeth I would persevere in brushing them every day till the day I die? That is the question.
As for Saints, well they are in scripture so if your mom and dad believe in the Bible just show them were they can find Saints in heaven praying for us and that should take care of that. Believe it is in there. Look it up.
Best wishes and I pray you can have your parents for a long time yet. Cherish every moment with them.
 
Last edited:
I would say it comes down to poor catechesis.
Look many traditionalists ( I am one myself) I notice think that prior the the 1960s the Church was this utopia and everyone had the perfect faith and stuff.
So far from the truth. I think the thing was back then people had much more fear of God, which is wonderful and we all should. But going to church was just expected as society. It isn’t like that anymore secularly.
However most people didn’t really have a grasp of why and what they believed they just knew it was their faith and believed it. Which is a beautiful faith and the devotion to the Rosary was something many Catholics had.
However you didn’t have a site like this to teach you apologetics, to understand. Most people probably didn’t have the time or resources to understand the teachings unless they went into the seminary. Thus many older people grew up not really understanding what they believed. Add to that the confusion of the 60s and 70s with so many misinterpretations of Vatican 2 documents that it is no surprise to me older people may not have a grasp on what their faith means and why. It’s sad. Catechsis however is still in dire need of reform however. I think it needs to be more apologetics based.
 
The saying ’ there is no salvation outside the church ’ is a very misunderstood and misquoted saying.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top