Personal relationship with Jesus

[Salvatore123]

brb3,

I apologize if I was not clearer - I did not say that purgatory had anything to do with forgiveness of sins (directly).

If we die with venial sins on our soul, we MUST enter a state of “purgatory” so that our souls are purged of the stain of sin so that our “clean” soul may enter heaven as per Revelation.

There are instances where personal confession may be “bypassed” in an emergency situation - one example is where priests granted “general absolution” to men about to march into battle where it had been impractical for everyone to have had a private confession.

We see an example of a “general absolultion” in the movie Braveheart where many in William Wallace’s group kneel down and the priests along the front lines are absolving those requesting forgiveness before the battles with Longshanks.

 

[Irishmominflori]

If I may add some of my perspective to this question as a Catholic with a former Catholic Mother-in-Law.

My Mother-in-Law claims that she has a very personal relationship with Jesus - as do her siblings that have left the Catholic Church. When she starts this discussion with me it usually leads to her explaining that one does not need a church, a minister, a priest in order to lead us to God.

Having been raised Catholic all my life this insistence from my MIL that we Catholics are somehow doing things wrong, or that we don’t have a personal relationship with Christ seems completely bizarre to me.

In our prayer life and daily conversations with Jesus, are we not investing in that very personal relationship? In our attendance at Mass and participation in the Eucharist? In our dismissal from Mass to love and serve the Lord?

When these discussions come up I just quietly insist that I certainly do have a personal relationship with Jesus - and then I go back to focusing on doing what I need to do in order to live as Jesus has asked me to – which like the rest of you, I do better some days than others!

 

[bogeydogg]

If I may add some of my perspective to this question as a Catholic with a former Catholic Mother-in-Law.

My Mother-in-Law claims that she has a very personal relationship with Jesus - as do her siblings that have left the Catholic Church. When she starts this discussion with me it usually leads to her explaining that one does not need a church, a minister, a priest in order to lead us to God.

Having been raised Catholic all my life this insistence from my MIL that we Catholics are somehow doing things wrong, or that we don’t have a personal relationship with Christ seems completely bizarre to me.

In our prayer life and daily conversations with Jesus, are we not investing in that very personal relationship? In our attendance at Mass and participation in the Eucharist? In our dismissal from Mass to love and serve the Lord?

When these discussions come up I just quietly insist that I certainly do have a personal relationship with Jesus - and then I go back to focusing on doing what I need to do in order to live as Jesus has asked me to – which like the rest of you, I do better some days than others!

Hi

Look I am a Lutheran and not a Catholic so clearly I have some disagreements with Rome.

However the thing which is not in doubt between Lutheran’s and Catholics is that Christ not only ordained that we should have a relationship with Him (that is the Church) but that He also ordained the means by which we are to have this relationship (that is the sacraments).

Now I realize that RCC and Lutherans will disagree on how many sacraments there are but that is not the point here. The point is that among those sacraments which Jesus Himself undertook to do were Baptism and the Table.

Paul tells us that in Baptism we are buried with Christ into His death and raised into His new life. How much more personal can you be?

Jesus Himself tells us that at His Table we eat His Body and Drink His Blood*** for the forgiveness of our sins.*** He further instructs us to “do this in remembrance of me.”

So if the two sacraments that Jesus Himself undertook both have to do with our sin (Baptism we partake of his death and in the Table we partake of His Body) and Christ has given the Church the authority to forgive sin (which he does many many times and those who argue differently are just be mule headed and willfully ignorant) then the most clear means we have to partake of a “personal relationship” are those which can be properly administered only by the Church.

For those who say this assurance is wrong you must ask them then where do they find their assurance? Because if it come from warm fuzzy feelings or from “my heart” then they need to remember that Jeremiah tells us the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things so really their assurance is based on nothing but their assurance.

Which is a castle in the air waiting to crumble.

When I am sinful and low and failed I need only remember that Christ’s Church has granted me forgiveness and to take of His Body and Blood and then I am able to heartily and with contrition and brokenness repent because I know that I will approach His Body and His Blood to partake of Him again, and there is no greater assurance than that.

God Bless.

 

[brb3]

My Mother-in-Law claims that she has a very personal relationship with Jesus - as do her siblings that have left the Catholic Church. When she starts this discussion with me it usually leads to her explaining that one does not need a church, a minister, a priest in order to lead us to God.

So … what is her testimony ? How is her ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus manifested ?

Is it via prayer, scripture reading, or something else ?

 

[Irishmominflori]

So … what is her testimony ? How is her ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus manifested ?

Is it via prayer, scripture reading, or something else ?

Yes, via bible study, prayer, meetings with like-minded friends, and in service to others. She is a good person – we’ve had our ‘interesting’ conversations and disagreements and I think that she has some ‘out there’ beliefs due to her literalist interpretation of scriptures [for example, she believes my husband, her son, who has suffered epileptic seizures, is possessed by demons ] but she’s my husband’s mother and he loves her as she does him, and our kids, and me I think!

I feel sad that she felt she wasn’t fulfilled in her Catholic faith - it makes me sad that she clearly did not and does not fully understand Catholicism - but she has been entrenched in her current ‘faith practice’ for want of a better description for well over 20 years.

We live 4000 miles away from her, so thankfully I can keep these ‘interesting’ conversations to the absolute minimum. I pray for her.

 

[Little_Mary]

Being in the south and surrounded by Baptists of all kinds, Southern, Indepenendant, and even “Bible based” I am constantly asked if I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Since they are “sola scriptura” I ask for them to show me the passage in the Bible that relates to this(Baptist minister was dumbfounded that a Catholic actually knew and reads the Bible) I always come back “Where two or three are gathered in my name,I will be there”

Thoughts?

Bob

Wish I could remember which episode it was, but there was a show on EWTN recently where this issue was addressed.

The point was made that Jesus is more interested in each of us becoming a part of the unified church, the “body of Christ”, grafted onto the vine, through the sacraments. Only then can we know Him. It’s not about “Jesus-n-Me”…