On the Tiber's shore

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TNMan, I agree with MM. Don’t base your faith decisions on other people. If I did; I’d still be in my parents’ Lutheran church and massively unhappy.

If you believe the Church is the Church Jesus instituted; then keep the course home.
 
MM, I think you devotional idea is beautiful. Recently, my sister, mother and I had a lovely Q&A back and forth. Their faith and ours. I instilled enough questions in them that they took them to their pastor. Unfortunately, the man undid my work. Oh well. It’s up to the Holy Spirit and all I can do pray for them.

We also had a conversation about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her roles as Mother of God, Mother of the Church and Mother to each Christian and even about praying to Mary.

They seemed to get it.

In talking with Father: Father says I shouldn’t preach, with words; and just live a good Catholic life and pray for my family. That’s exactly what I’m doing. Apologetics I save for when I have to clear up misconceptions.

I’m thinking the basic point is this: Plant small seeds, live a good Catholic life as an example and pray.
 
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If the RCC is the one true Church, then Satan does not want you there as that would mean this is the best place for the state of one’s soul.

Not saying Satan inspired any of their interactions with you, only saying you can view this sort of stuff multiple ways.

I love that the RCC does not push you to convert. You can go through RCIA and eat up all that good food for the next ten years and they wont care. 🙂 Convert when and if you want to. Please take your time and be certain this is what you want.
 
Thank you for the response. There are still a few doctrinal issues I’m working my way through. One minute, everything seems clear, the next I’m reading through the Augsburg Confession again and it seems to make perfect sense.

I haven’t spoken to the local priest or even my Pastor yet. My Pastor wouldn’t try to keep me from leaving, as he’s a good man and has referred to Catholics numerous times in his sermons over the years as “our brothers ad sisters in Christ,” so he doesn’t seem to have the bias as others might.

I’ll continue to pray for you as well. Thank you.
 
Michael, thanks for the reply. I’m definitely not basing it on other people, didn’t mean for it to come across that way. Guess I’m needing discernment on whether or not it’s from God that these things in my church are happening, or of it’s a road block. Thank you.
 
Am I allowed to say that the Augsburg Confession is one of the documents that has helped me turn back to the Catholic Church?

Of course the Augsburg Confession makes sense! Because it is good theology, when understood properly.

I think I mentioned elsewhere, but there is truth to this: In a sense, I am following the Augustana and Luther back across the Tiber. I’m coming back to Rome, slowly (mostly waiting on my parish of record to return my calls and emails and send the necessary documents), and I’m dragging my 80 volumes of Luther’s works with me!

Because of my time with Luther, I don’t think I will be prone to falling into a legalistic misunderstanding of things ever again. I have learned much from him, dispite his misunderstandings and often uncharitable rhetoric. And there are places where I have always disagreed with both Luther and the BoC. I’ve never been able to stomach Melanchthon’s “On the Power and Primacy of the Pope,” despite my own misunderstandings and troubles.
 
I subscribe to US bishops email for daily readings. Today’s first reading is very powerful.
Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
and unsure are our plans.
For the corruptible body burdens the soul
and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.
And scarce do we guess the things on earth,
and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;
but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?
Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from on high?
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
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(Off to mass now. Praying for our priest as he asks us to do, that we will be blessed through his homily.)
 
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To Oddbird, TNMan and all those in this thread who recount the challenges of their respective journeys a prayer for your continued sustenance in your passion and enthusiasm for Gods holy truth.

In reflecting on this weekends (i think) readings at mass it speaks to the willingness we must have to take up our cross and follow where Christ leads. It is so easy to say this, but when confronted by lifes realities, it makes demands off us that are truly fearsome. Recently I came across a narrative on St Ignatius of Antioch, who when being led to his martyrdom by the lions in Rome, wrote to his flock entreating them not to stop him. He preferred to suffer his fate for Christ than anything else this world had to offer.

In each of you I see Ignatius of Antioch - while maybe not facing lions, each is wrestling in their own “circus maximus”. The assurance we have is that Christ knows and attends to our every need.

I pray that - at every crisis faced in this journey to follow Christ in the fullness of His truth, we all encounter the power of His Spirit in leading us home.
 
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Thank you so much for this. I needed to hear it.

These past few days I have been struggling with the temptation of giving up. It is getting so hard.

But I am still here.
 
Been struggling with giving up, too. It’s like a daily back-and-forth for me. One day I’m all-in. The next I’n all-out.

Wife still isn’t on board at all. Has said repeatedly she wants us unified for our daughter’s sake.

Continuing to pray.
 
Thank you so much, @(name removed by moderator). I’m not giving up, although sometimes I wish I would, because I can hardly bear to see my husband hurting so much because of me.

Tomorrow I’m meeting one of my best friends to tell him. I hope we will still be friends by tomorrow evening, and I will not cause yet more hurt to people I love. This really is the most difficult thing about the whole process for me.
 
I’m thinking over what I wrote and, to be fair, I should mention there are some precious and beautiful moments too. Like the Spirit-filled prayer vigil of last Friday. Or like Adoration, the place where every single doubt vanishes.

I just wish some of these beautiful moments would include my husband.
 
@TNMan, my wife isn’t on board either. At all. Every time I mention getting our marriage blessed she goes quiet.

Let us be patient. Keep praying, and remember (to borrow the words of an Orthodox priest and friend of mine): the Church will still be there whenever you are ready. She was here before us, she’ll be here after us. It is better to take things slowly and patiently for your wife’s sake than it is to rush in, damage your relationship with her, and possibly fall away because of that.
 
Great perspective. Just wish there was a way to get her to just look at some Catholic information. She won’t even touch it and says none of it matters, only Jesus matters.
 
TNMan said:
Great perspective. Just wish there was a way to get her to just look at some Catholic information. She won’t even touch it and says none of it matters, only Jesus matters.
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I’m getting a lot of “why does it matter? We all worship the same God.”

Which is weird when it’s mixed in with a lot of “having a Pope is stupid and praying to saints is stupid.”

Ok, which is it? Is Catholicism fine because we all worship the same God, or is Catholicism bad because it’s a Mary-worshiping cult?

Any argument at hand is fair game, even if the arguments end up contradicting each other.
 
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Just wanted to pop in and say that I am praying for you all and your conversions. Just keep swimming!!! 🐡🐠🐟

(I’m having to slow down on CAF for a bit because I’m having vision problems. Just know you all are always in my thoughts and prayers.)
 
I know the feeling, @OddBird. I’ve been skirting around talking about things to people as much as possible. I literally flinched when my wife asked me the other day where I had gone Saturday morning and I had to tell her “Mass and Confession.” I was afraid of any words of disapproval.

With my mother-in-law, I can’t seem to say anything right. Everything that comes out of my mouth seems to upset her. We seem to talk past each other on every occasion. She has accused me of being callous and escalating tensions. I especially care about what she thinks, because my relationship with her, as I’ve said elsewhere I think, is better than with my own mother, and because her primary emotional support is my wife.

The only thing keeping me going is that, with every Mass, with every Confession, I grow to see more and more that everything I sought as a Lutheran was always behind me in the Catholicism I had left. I have lost so much because of the decision to leave the Church, and some things permanently. I can’t afford not to return.
 
If I didn’t know better, I would almost think you are talking about my wife!

I said before that I managed to convince her to allow a section from Kreeft’s Catholic Christianity a day. I explained to her, in addition to it being an easy explanation of what I’m getting into, that the book has a lot to give to other Christians as well. It starts out with an explanation of faith and why faith is important. Kreeft constantly points to Jesus in one way or another.

Do you use the services from LSB? The sections in the book are short enough for a third reading. I am working our use of Kreeft’s book into our already-existing practice.

I haven’t found anything else that works with my wife yet.
HopkinsReb said:
I’m getting a lot of “why does it matter? We all worship the same God.”

Which is weird when it’s mixed in with a lot of “having a Pope is stupid and praying to saints is stupid.”
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@HopkinsReb, these seem to be universal, no? I got it before I left, I got it in class, I am getting it now. I think it qualifies as a meme, since I started saying the same things myself after spending time immersed in the Protestant world, even though you’d think I’d know better.
 
I might have to try that. I’ll order it on Amazon. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
OddBird “I’m not giving up, although sometimes I wish I would, because I can hardly bear to see my husband hurting so much because of me.”

TNManWife still isn’t on board at all. Has said repeatedly she wants us unified for our daughter’s sake.

The pain of separate confessions is indeed real and I am not even at a point where discussion with my spouse can be entertained. It is just too traumatic. But I pray every day that we might return to a unity of faith in truth. I must admit I have real hope that those prayers are being answered. But there is a long long way to go.

If we are to follow where truth leads, then we cant allow it to be dependent on others views, understandings or conveniences. In these matters of faith, for us, there is a schism in the one flesh of marriage which is the painful part. Despite the sadness and/or frustration that comes with it, In my prayer, I thank God for it, cos I would not have it any different. It has forced me to know more about my faith, to grow my relationship with Him and be even more “dependent” on Him. I am completely at His mercy in this regard and every little comfort that comes my way is a joyful acknowledgement that He is carrying me. I pray not to be brought to further test - but If i am I pray for the strength to trust only Him.

I find the second verse of John Talbots hymn is where some of us might be:
. It brings tears streaming every time it is sung at mass.

God bless and many prayers that He continues to work in each of our lives - to His greater glory.
 
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