My quest for FAITH...

[ktm]

rmikulas:

KTM: Now those are educated responces. Thank you.

You are most welcome!

 

[rmikulas]

Again, agreed. I am not a vegitarian and I will eat meat as it is food but I’m not going hunting just to put some horns on my wall. I’ll kill an insect when my life is at stake like with mosquitos but will leave a spider alone on the sidewalk if he is just passing. I have a respect in all life. If someone is pounding on me, sure i’m going to defend myself but not to the point of death if at all possible.

 

[ktm]

rmikulas:

Again, agreed. I am not a vegitarian and I will eat meat as it is food but I’m not going hunting just to put some horns on my wall. I’ll kill an insect when my life is at stake like with mosquitos but will leave a spider alone on the sidewalk if he is just passing. I have a respect in all life. If someone is pounding on me, sure i’m going to defend myself but not to the point of death if at all possible.

The more of your posts I read the more I think you are actually not a wiccan. Actually it sounds more like you agree with certain portions of what wiccans believe but don’t practice it (a good thing).

So you said at the top of the thread you are a Catholic. Were you ever baptised? Confirmed?

 

[rmikulas]

Some things to me are not at all avoided but instead happen for a reason. My sister was killed when she was 12 (I was 15). We were riding on an ATV and hit a pothole. I lived (barely) and she did not. I was mad for awhile but then came to the conclusion that it happened for a reason. I might not be the person I am today if it didn’t, weighing all possibilities.

 

[ktm]

rmikulas:

Some things to me are not at all avoided but instead happen for a reason. My sister was killed when she was 12 (I was 15). We were riding on an ATV and hit a pothole. I lived (barely) and she did not. I was mad for awhile but then came to the conclusion that it happened for a reason. I might not be the person I am today if it didn’t, weighing all possibilities.

Ohh, I’m very very sorry to hear about your sister. Such a terrible loss… I’ll say a prayer for her.

 

[rmikulas]

I was baptized, went through catacizm (bad spelling on my part), and even went to sunday school for a bit more than a year. I used to go to church every sunday until I came to conclusion that I don’t need to go to church to believe in and worship god as I can and do this in my everyday life. And you are right in saying that I am not really Wiccan but believe and agree in parts of it that don’t stray too far (if at all in some parts) from the catholic religon. But my point is that if we believe in parts of other religons that again, don’t stray from the catholic religon, then are we a little part of all those?

 

[bonica]

rmikulas:

I was baptized, went through catacizm (bad spelling on my part), and even went to sunday school for a bit more than a year. I used to go to church every sunday until I came to conclusion that I don’t need to go to church to believe in and worship god as I can and do this in my everyday life. And you are right in saying that I am not really Wiccan but believe and agree in parts of it that don’t stray too far (if at all in some parts) from the catholic religon. But my point is that if we believe in parts of other religons that again, don’t stray from the catholic religon, then are we a little part of all those?

More like they are a “little” part of Catholicism…

 

[ktm]

rmikulas:

I don’t need to go to church to believe in and worship god as I can and do this in my everyday life.

Hmm that’s interesting. On what basis do you know you don’t need to go to church on Sunday? God pretty clearly commanded to keep the Sabbath holy…and going to a place of worship on an appointed day of the week has been the practice of Jews and Christians for millennia. That would suggest it’s an important part of being a follower of God.

 

[rmikulas]

Prayer brings me to another point. Wiccans do prayer in the way of spells and meditation it seems, other religons have there own way. I do pray, but I see traits in Wiccans that I don’t see in alot of catholics anymore. Like praying for a winning lottery ticket or to get that job you applied for. That to me is just selfish, where as most wiccans I know meditate and say so called “spells” to help others. Don’t get me wrong, I know not all catholics are like this. i myself pray for the health and well-being of those around me. I have heard people say, I prayed I can loose weight on this diet or that their stocks will go up and such. Where as wiccans I know try not to stray to the point of asking for money, physical items, or to change “free will”.

 

[bonica]

rmikulas:

Prayer brings me to another point. Wiccans do prayer in the way of spells and meditation it seems, other religons have there own way. I do pray, but I see traits in Wiccans that I don’t see in alot of catholics anymore. Like praying for a winning lottery ticket or to get that job you applied for. That to me is just selfish, where as most wiccans I know meditate and say so called “spells” to help others. Don’t get me wrong, I know not all catholics are like this. i myself pray for the health and well-being of those around me. I have heard people say, I prayed I can loose weight on this diet or that their stocks will go up and such. Where as wiccans I know try not to stray to the point of asking for money, physical items, or to change “free will”.

Jesus prayed “let this cup pass from me, not my will but yours be done”…prayed for himself. What better example is there of how to pray? What about the “Our Father”? Give us this day our daily bread, etc., etc.

 

[rmikulas]

I do go to church on certain days or times but not for mass lets say (except for things like christmas, thanksgiving, and such when it’s nice to go with family and others). I like going on maybe a tuesday by myself and not durring times of mass. It gives me a more PERSONAL feeling that I am doing it for myself and MY FAITH and not just because it feels like a chore.

 

[bonica]

rmikulas:

I do go to church on certain days or times but not for mass lets say (except for things like christmas, thanksgiving, and such when it’s nice to go with family and others). I like going on maybe a tuesday by myself and not durring times of mass. It gives me a more PERSONAL feeling that I am doing it for myself and MY FAITH and not just because it feels like a chore.

That is good but you are supposed to obey God’s command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Also obey the Church with holy days of obligation.

I go to mass on Sundays and it doesn’t feel like a chore. I love it.

 

[rmikulas]

But is seems as though he asked for practical things, things he needed to survive, not things to bring wealth for himself but things needed for others. As for an “Our Father”, it seems to me that it is meant more towards guidence, forgivness, and survival than selfishness towrds temtation (money and such).

 

[rmikulas]

See, this is one of those things I stray from again. The going to mass on sundays. Seventh Day Adventists (sorry for the spelling again), believe that the Seventh Day begins on Saturday at Sunset. I am not 100% sure on that, but I believe I remeber my friends correctly. So if we are to worship on the Seventh Day, how are we so sure it’s sunday?

Again, not intended to make anyone mad, just what my brain is saying right now.

 

[bonica]

rmikulas:

See, this is one of those things I stray from again. The going to mass on sundays. Seventh Day Adventists (sorry for the spelling again), believe that the Seventh Day begins on Saturday at Sunset. I am not 100% sure on that, but I believe I remeber my friends correctly. So if we are to worship on the Seventh Day, how are we so sure it’s sunday?

Again, not intended to make anyone mad, just what my brain is saying right now.

From the Catechism:

**2174 **Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week."104 Because it is the “first day,” the day of Christ’s Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath,105 it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:

We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.106

And you aren’t making me mad.

 

[Archbishop_10-K]

rmikulas:

See, this is one of those things I stray from again. The going to mass on sundays. Seventh Day Adventists (sorry for the spelling again), believe that the Seventh Day begins on Saturday at Sunset. I am not 100% sure on that, but I believe I remeber my friends correctly. So if we are to worship on the Seventh Day, how are we so sure it’s sunday?

Again, not intended to make anyone mad, just what my brain is saying right now.

As a former Seventh-day Adventist, I used to believe that the Saturday Sabbath was still in effect.

When I converted to the Catholic faith, I realized that the custom of keeping the Saturday Sabbath was part of the Old Covenant law (along with animal sacrificing, bathing after menstruation, not eating fish that don’t have scales, etc., etc., etc.) Since the ways of the Old Testament were meant to point to Christ, the new Sabbath is supposed to have some direct symbolism to Christ. Since Christ rose on Sunday, Sunday became the new day of rest.

The Sunday Sabbath is observed in the Bible, also. The first non-Biblical reference of Sunday worship is in the Didache, dated 70 A.D.

 

[rmikulas]

Very interesting and informative. I am really getting somewhere now.

 

[Poisson]

rmikulas:

Is it worng to believe that you should not shed blood or inflict arm on another person? The Wiccan religon says just that.

I did not know that Wiccans opposed abortion! That’s one good thing about the religion.

 

[AnAtheist]

ktm:

A person cannot be a member of two religions at once.

I strongly disagree with that statement. I personally know some examples, ~60% of all Japanese are members of two religions (Buddhism and Shintoism).

You cannot be a member of more than one religion, if one of those religions claims to be the only acceptable one like christianity does. There are other religions out there, which are not that stringent.

I cannot imagine too, how someone can be catholic and wiccan at the same time. That notion is somewhat strange.

 

[rmikulas]

I really mean I am both but rather value things in each, more so Catholicism but somewhat in Wicca. Please don’t think I am just talking about the Wiccan religon. I think this got off to a bad start. I used Wicca as an EXAMPLE of one. There are bits I value from other religons as well. I believe in being a Catholic, I am not saying to all of you that I think any religon is better than another but that I do value pieces of religons.