My sister is thinking about coming back

[santaro75]

My sister told me yesterday that she is examining her spirituality. When she was a teen she was a member of Legion of Mary and used to be pretty involved with that movement. When she went away to college she became much more liberal and a bit of an activist for minorities and women. She is now graduating and married.

I think she is in a point in her life where she is looking for something more. I have spoken to her many times about spirituality and that the human nature needs to have some spiritual nature to be fulfilled. She is fully aware of the Catholic faith but has many objections to it.

To this point i have been mimmicking priests and nuns that I presented my objections to and did not refute or support them. I see her as being in a natural process of finding her spirituality.

I told her that when i went through this i decided to just have faith and stop questioning because it was getting me no where. And after having faith for a while i would examine the situation and make a decision.

Well I guess the point of this thread is to get some advice about how to encourage her. She is a very independant thinker so I think i have to watch the preaching. BUT I would like to know about any books or techniques that could maybe steer her in a good direction to self discovery.

thnx

 

[kp1]

I know where you are coming from! I will try to help here!

Since she was practicing Catholicism, she should read Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper . This really opened my eyes to the mass and the original interpretation to the Book of Reveation. Other books I have not read yet by Scott Hahn are The Reasons To Be Catholic Series (1-4?), they are suppose to be very good. Remember Scott was an anti-catholic minister who studied his way to the truth. (All roads lead to Rome!)

If it is a struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism, I really liked Karl Keatings Romanism Verses Fundementalism (or something close to this title, I might have them reversed. I loaned my copy out, so I can not check it!) This gave an indepth look at Catholicism and the arguements that many anti-catholics (mostly the Fundementalists) have against Rome.

Since it seems she likes the minorities, she should look into church history. I found it increadibly informative to research (via this site or another Catholic one) reasons why certain sects broke from the church. I can not remember where I found a time table with all the sects and when they split, but I gave me the names of the different sects and when they broke away from the Church.

Unlike some people, I found reseaching and understanding other faiths only increases my faith in Catholicism. I find many of the other faiths flawed to my way of thinking.

I have a friend, a confused Catholic (my mother’s label for a person who was Catholic but is practising somethig else), who temporarily left The Church and was exploring other Prodestant faiths. She has since come back because she was very nervous about a faith that can change it’s doctrine so easily or be totally differnt in a different state. She liked being able to walk into any Roman Catholic Church anywhere in the world and it be pretty much the same(we are military so this is always possible). Currently the Lutheran Church is preparing for a nation wide vote on weither or not to accept gay marriage. She has small children, and knew the sermons would resort to these types of topics as the date, sometime this fall, draws near. She does not like that this would therefore not be a family event, going to church, and was appalled that they could change the doctrine with a majority vote. I just looked at her and smiled as I said “And this is why the papacy was created by Jesus starting with Peter. Jesus knew we were weak and could easily succumb to situations such as this.” God’s will is not easy, but it is still his will! We just fall to the temptations of our own will and confuse it with God’s will.

Do not, I repeat, Do Not badger her. The seeds have been planted by her heritage, just pray for her to be open to the Holy Spirit’s direction. Only the Holy Spirit can cause this to take place, and prayers on her behalf are always good.

 

[gardenswithkids]

Patrick Madrid wrote a book called Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and friends into or Back into the Catholic Church. It’s available here at the Catholic Answers store, as well as other places.

He offers lots of good advice and suggestions for both those in other churches and those in no church. The best advice for such a close family member is probably to use prayer and example and to let God do the hard stuff (and let Him use you if He desires.) The book also offers advice on preparing yourself for such discussions, how to approach the subject etc. It might offer some of the advice you’re hoping to find.

May God bless you as you help your sister regain her Catholic faith.