Non-Catholic? Why are you on this forum?

[Jeanette_L]

In any case, I wonder now if faith is different from the intellectual assent, distinct from the structures of human wisdom.

Maybe you are on overload, huh? Sometimes we can push ourselves so hard to be “intellectual” that we forget our spirit.

Want some advice? Although I’m not a spiritual adviser, my advice is to put down the books, except your Bible. And stop visiting the apologetics and debate and liturgy threads, and just hang out in the Spirit for awhile. That can be hard, because it’s addictive in a sense. But when it gets like that, the intellectual rush becomes addiction, you’re out of balance and you need to correct that.

Start praying and reading the Word, go to Mass, but just don’t get involved in the brainy side of things for awhile, just tend to your spirit. Talk to Jesus. Talk to the Holy Spirit. Sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament and just be still. Take as long a time as you need.

You need a sabatical from what you were doing, from thinking. I get like that myself. I push myself to read and read and read, as many apologetics and history and this and that and then one day I just crash. You know the brain freeze you get when you eat ice cream too fast? It’s kinda like that, but you’re cramming data and ideas instead of ice cream.

Right now, I hang out in the clubhouse threads more, and I have learned to relax and enjoy the company of my brothers and sisters, laugh and have fun. And it’s nice. When you can regain the joy, then maybe you can slowly get back to a deeper discussion thread, but take it easy, I’d give it plenty of time.

I’ll pray for you brother, that you will have peace again. We’re all on this road together, and it can be a bumpy one.

God Bless,
Jeanette

 

[DJgang]

:extrahappy:

This is great news! I’m so excited for you! I just came home last year, have absolutely no regrets, although it has been a hard road. You don’t know how many people hate Catholics until you try to become one.

I will say a prayer for you, for strength and courage when needed, and for the peace that passes all understanding (the part that really amazes me) no matter what bumps are in the road.

God Bless You!

aaawww…thank you!

 

[Madaglan]

Jeanette L:

Thank you for your post. I’m hungry for Dairy Queen now.

 

[KarenNC]

If religion were a game and my salvation did not matter, I’d become Byzantine, as Byzantine chant is very beautiful. Or rather, I would alternate between Byzantine and Traditional Latin Masses. But as Christianity is inextricably connected with salvation, I need to follow what is Truth rather than that which is Beautiful but may be excluding the Truth in key matters.

I agree with you on this point. If the truth of spiritual reality didn’t matter to me, I would have remained a Christian, more specifically high church Epicopalian. I love liturgy, I love the music, I love the beauty of the buildings, etc. It doesn’t hurt that I am a serious geek about the Middle Ages/Renaissance, an Anglophile and could happily sing Gregorian chant daily. There was sadness in realizing that I simply could not honestly say that I believed what was required. But if one is not honest in one’s religion, then what is the point?

 

[jpaul]

I’ve posted this before but I’ll post it again. I originally came to CAF to begin with because I wanted to investigate if the Catholic Church is INDEED the Whore of Babylon as I’ve heard plenty of times, more importantly from a rabid anti-catholic that was bashing one of my friends, telling him he wasn’t “saved” belonged to a cult, etc.

Both the non-catholic religions section and the apologetics section are great places to learn about catholicism and its defense against accusations from non-catholics. And it’s cool to see a variety of other denoms/religions hanging out too.

I have become corrupted. I have never made a concious decision to start believing Catholic doctrine but it just sort of happened. It’s like I woke up one morning leaning way more toward Catholicism than Protestantism.

I’m too chicken to jump in the water, so I’m just hanging out on the beach.

Peace and all-good!

Anti-Catholicism is a disease. And it brings real souls to hell.
Let us pray for healing.

Ave Maria!

jpaul

 

[Nella]

I am just curious to know what the reasons are that so many non-Catholics are on this forum. This is Catholic Answers. Are you here to convert - yourself - or us? Do you have a true curiousity or do you just want to show us the error of our ways?

Whether you would like to believe it or not, there are other opinions and very valid debates about the truth in a light that does not mirror your own. Why are so many Catholics on Protestant blogs and such?? Probably for the same reasons I would assume.

 

[Jeanette_L]

Jeanette L:

Thank you for your post. I’m hungry for Dairy Queen now.

MMM mmm good! uch:

 

[scottm]

I am just curious to know what the reasons are that so many non-Catholics are on this forum. This is Catholic Answers. Are you here to convert - yourself - or us? Do you have a true curiousity or do you just want to show us the error of our ways?

I’m drifting toward Catholicism. Some things I already understand but other things I don’t understand. Maybe the answers are here. Some things I don’t even know. Maybe I’ll learn of them here.

 

[Philothea53]

Whether you would like to believe it or not, there are other opinions and very valid debates about the truth in a light that does not mirror your own. Why are so many Catholics on Protestant blogs and such?? Probably for the same reasons I would assume.

Whoa, Nella! I wasn’t challenging anyone. Just curious. Please don’t read an argument into my question. there is none there.

 

[Philothea53]

I’m drifting toward Catholicism. Some things I already understand but other things I don’t understand. Maybe the answers are here. Some things I don’t even know. Maybe I’ll learn of them here.

Well, you have definitely come to the ight place. There are a lot of people on this forum that know alot about the history of the Church and her doctrines and dogmas and whys and wherefores. God bless you on your journey.

 

[An_Agnostic]

I am just curious to know what the reasons are that so many non-Catholics are on this forum. This is Catholic Answers. Are you here to convert - yourself - or us? Do you have a true curiousity or do you just want to show us the error of our ways?

Why do you even have a Non-Catholics section, then? To convert or show the error of everyone else’s ways - in one, big unanimous agreement?

 

[Philothea53]

Why do you even have a Non-Catholics section, then? To convert or show the error of everyone else’s ways - in one, big unanimous agreement?

Have you read ANY of the posts in this thread or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to your belief that there must be ulterior motives behind everything?

 

[An_Agnostic]

Have you read ANY of the posts in this thread or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to your belief that there must be ulterior motives behind everything?

LoL. I’d call that a knee-jerk reaction.

 

[Ahimsa]

I agree with you on this point. If the truth of spiritual reality didn’t matter to me, I would have remained a Christian, more specifically high church Epicopalian. I love liturgy, I love the music, I love the beauty of the buildings, etc. It doesn’t hurt that I am a serious geek about the Middle Ages/Renaissance, an Anglophile and could happily sing Gregorian chant daily. There was sadness in realizing that I simply could not honestly say that I believed what was required. But if one is not honest in one’s religion, then what is the point?

Do you still visit high-church parishes?

 

[mozart-250]

I am just curious to know what the reasons are that so many non-Catholics are on this forum. This is Catholic Answers. Are you here to convert - yourself - or us? Do you have a true curiousity or do you just want to show us the error of our ways?

Hmm…

I started out because I was embarking upon a project of systematically looking at branches of Christianity that were not mine. I thought we might be moving soon, and felt that maybe our next church might not be quite the same as our current church. As strange as it seemed, I couldn’t eliminate Catholicism. Besides if you are checking out other branches of Christianity, you really have to look at the branch that claims to have started it all.

Since that time, however our circumstances have changed:

• I had prostate cancer surgery
• We changed our mind about moving…at least for the next 4-5 years

I also figured out that

• I really had no reason to leave my current church if we were not moving.
• Besides, y’all seem to be just as messed up as we are.
• Y’all claim to be the one true church. Generally in the face of claims of superiority the skeptic part of my brain immediately takes.
• And anyway there is a whole laundry list of stuff that I *must * believe were I to become Catholic. There are some items on this list that I have no way of knowing whether they are true or not, and a smaller set of items which I am skeptical about. I keep waiting for the killer apologetic argument which will make me see the light, but really all I am hearing is the same old same old.

So really I should be leaving. The only reason I do not I suppose is that arguing over the internet has become a bad habit of mine that I am not overcoming. Maybe there is a online twelve-step group group out there for people addicted to arguing over the internet.

 

[Philothea53]

Hmm…

I started out because I was embarking upon a project of systematically looking at branches of Christianity that were not mine. I thought we might be moving soon, and felt that maybe our next church might not be quite the same as our current church. As strange as it seemed, I couldn’t eliminate Catholicism. Besides if you are checking out other branches of Christianity, you really have to look at the branch that claims to have started it all.

Since that time, however our circumstances have changed:

• I had prostate cancer surgery
• We changed our mind about moving…at least for the next 4-5 years

I also figured out that

• I really had no reason to leave my current church if we were not moving.
• Besides, y’all seem to be just as messed up as we are.
• Y’all claim to be the one true church. Generally in the face of claims of superiority the skeptic part of my brain immediately takes.
• And anyway there is a whole laundry list of stuff that I *must * believe were I to become Catholic. There are some items on this list that I have no way of knowing whether they are true or not, and a smaller set of items which I am skeptical about. I keep waiting for the killer apologetic argument which will make me see the light, but really all I am hearing is the same old same old.

So really I should be leaving. The only reason I do not I suppose is that arguing over the internet has become a bad habit of mine that I am not overcoming. Maybe there is a online twelve-step group group out there for people addicted to arguing over the internet.

By all means please do not leave. All are welcome in this place.We have a lot to learn from one another.

 

[Palladio]

Philothea53,

Superiority: there are some proud Catholics here. I’m one. But does the Roman Catholic Church teach it is superior?

The Church of Rome, founded by Saint Peter, is that from which all other Christian churches stem, directly or indirectly.

The Apostolic Succession continues in Her.

As does the primacy of Saint Peter in the Holy See in Rome (whence all popes).

So first and (for dogmatic reasons springing from the NT) therefore primary, not superior.

It formed the canon of the NT, and of the Bible.

Its official doctrine is that the truth subsists in Her, but never, to my knowledge, has She qualified that with the words only or exclusively.

Salvation may come to those outside of the Church.

I cannot possibly convert you, nor would I try.

Yet, once long lapsed and having looked hard at the history and practice of mainstream protestantism, I think one thing seems clear:

either Christ waited 1500 years for his Church to be founded, and then proceeded in the space of another 500 years to give believers and unbelievers **a lottery **for salvation–with 20,000 to 30,000 Christian denominations, meanwhile playing dice as Lutheranism and Calvinism and Anglicanism and many other -isms multiplied, all contending for the title true religion.

or He spoke to Peter who founded the Church which flourished and flourishes to this very day.

Best of luck in your search for truth, and God bless.

 

[Philothea53]

Palladio, was your post meant for me or mozart? I’m Catholic.

 

[Palladio]

Palladio, was your post meant for me or mozart? I’m Catholic.

Oops, I think I meant Mozart!

These screen names are crazy!

Sorry!

 

[Philothea53]

Oops, I think I meant Mozart!

These screen names are crazy!

Sorry!

It was a great response though. I hope mozart reads it and doesn’t leave the forum.