On the Tiber's shore

Status
Not open for further replies.
I hope the prayer below will be of help to those married couples who are going through difficulties in life:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

And this is my prayer for you:
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

GOD bless you all!😇😇😇
 
I got a funny story for you all. After I swam the Tiber, biochemsuit and all; my mother told me that I know more about religion that some pastors. Then, she asked me why don’t I become a pastor?

I gently told her that I can’t, in good conscience; teach what I don’t believe.
 
I hope it will be possible. I would love to.

At the same time, you know how important the homily is in Protestant traditions. For me, I think there is a spiritual issue here as I am learning to let go of that, and that spiritual issue is with pride. I’m struggling a bit both with the idea of renouncing that particular way of preaching, and with being humble enough to recognize that the Holy Spirit doesn’t much care about skill and that that “bad” sermon may well have something to tell me.

On the other hand, I’m really upping my sermon game these days. I’ve begun to think : “What if this one was to be my last one ?” And I’m really enjoying myself !
 
You know, Oddbird: If they have Saint Paul street evangelization missions in your part of the world, you could always do that.
 
Something I was thinking about on the way to work today was: What if I joined the Saint Paul Street Evangelization Missions in my part of the world? 🤔
 
They haven’t. From what I saw online it looks like an overwhelmingly American organization. And culturally, where I’m from and where I live, street evangelization is generally frowned upon, which is not uninteresting because it pushes us churches to get clever and creative in the ways we reach out.
 
Last edited:
Oh. That makes sense, I suppose.

🤔 Still, I might try it out. What do you think of my occasional sermons and essays?
 
I’d like to know how you guys over there do the reaching out?

From what I hear on American Catholic radio, Europe is losing the Faith to the Muslims. At least in France.
 
Michael16 said:
From what I hear on American Catholic radio, Europe is losing the Faith to the Muslims. At least in France.
Click to expand...
Well, that’s both true and false, for France at least (I’m French, although I live in Switzerland). What is true is that immigrants from Muslim countries make up a more and more significant part of the population. But as this 2015 study (link in French, sorry) pointed out, 2% of the French are regularly practicing Muslims (about one person out of three among those who declare themselves Muslims). That’s not much, and that shows that two Muslims out of three are secular, like the rest of the French population. By comparison, 4.5% of the French go to Mass on Sundays.

That’s not much (for either figure), and to me, that shows that the biggest threat European Christianity faces is not Islam, it is indifference.

To reach out, we are trying out a lot of things. Game nights, escape-room style, which double up as an introduction to Christian faith (this one looks the most promising). Open-church days with food and books. A programme of meditative walks in the mountains. Support groups for the bereaved. Cantata services, where people come for the excellent (and free) music, and sometimes come back again for the Gospel. The list could go on, but we still don’t have a magical recipe, although we’d like to.
 
I am assuming that this thread is about converting to Catholicism?

If so, yes- I made this choice years ago! I don’t regret it. I love being Catholic.

If anyone is looking for advice, I’m more than happy to offer them out.
 
pulchraesamicamea said:
I am assuming that this thread is about converting to Catholicism?

If so, yes- I made this choice years ago! I don’t regret it. I love being Catholic.

If anyone is looking for advice, I’m more than happy to offer them out.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there are a few of us who have decided to swim and have varying levels of resistance from spouses and other family.
 
Oh I see- I am so glad that I found this thread.
It’s hard to swim at first. You will see yourself going back and forth- like how I did it years ago.
My case is a little different as my entire family wanted to convert (except for my brother).
 
There are good talks given by sisters and friars! Your family might appreciate them. Yes, they are Roman Catholic religious, but their wisdom can be received by a lot of people.
 
Thank you for dropping by ! The going back and forth thing is true - sometimes I do wonder why I am making life so complicated for everybody when it would be so much easier, for me included, to stay where I am. But there’s Someone calling from the other shore…
 
So I went to Confession today.

Father told me he had seen me staying behind in the pew during communion, and wants me to start coming up for a blessing to ease me back in.

As an aside, both he today and, recently my old Father-Confessor from my hometown have told me that I remind them of St Augustine.

Yesterday, I also spoke with Father about not being able to get into contact with the person who handles the documents I need at my parish of record, so he took down the phone number and said he’ll try to pull some strings.
 
I’m so happy for you.

I also wanted to thank you for this post where you had reflected on what you had to confess in your relationship to the Church. It made me take a good and hard look at myself in that respect, and there are certainly things I will have to mention in my next confession this week.

Thank you for helping me recognize that in myself.
 
So, my brother has been visiting this weekend. He is 10 years younger than I am. He has fallen away from the Catholic Church as well, and though he identifies with mainline Lutheran theology, and occasionally communes at a Lutheran church, he has not formally joined. I invited him to join me for Mass yesterday (my job requires that I work early Sunday morning), and he refused, but said he’d go to the Lutheran church’ Sunday evening service.

I was his Confirmation sponsor when he came into the Catholic Church.

He and I had a three hour talk. While he was understanding on how I could reverse my position on women clergy, he was incredulous at my reversal on homosexuality and contraception.

We walked through Scripture, and he agreed that, yes, Christ established one Church, with Peter at it’s head, and this is capable of being passed down, and that the Catholic Church fits most of the data available, and that the Church is infallible in it’s teaching. Yet, he maintained that he was correct about the issues I mentioned above, and the Church incorrect. He said he could not join a Church that approved of hatefulness and bigotry.

I am uncertain how to approach things. I told him to read aloud CCC 2358 and tell me if that sounded hateful or bigoted. He said no. But the conversation stalled there.

I told him, if I accept that the Church is established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, I must bow my head and assent, and learn as a student why the Church teaches as she does, especially where there is a difficult-to-accept teaching.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top