Please tell me . . .

  • Thread starter Thread starter Socrates4Jesus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Socrates4Jesus

Guest
… about yourself! Why are you a Catholic?

I’m not a Roman Catholic any longer, and i’m curious.

Yesterday i was enjoying the conversations with some of you. The discussion thread then turned into a dialog about the sacrament of baptism. Not that there is anything wrong with debate, i’m just interested in understanding others, too.

If you’d like to discuss baptism with me, please post a reply at the “Why Baptism?” discussion thread. If you want to ask me questions about myself or tell me about yourself, please do so here. Thank you!

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
– St. Peter (1 Peter 1:8-9)
 
Hi there Socrates and God bless -

So, why am I Catholic?

The beginning - I have never been anything other than Catholic. I was baptised into the Church as an infant. I attended Catholic school until the 7th grade, then started attending public school.

I was never approached nor did I ever consider any other form of Christianity. I actually moved away from the faith as a young man, moving to a more secular life.

Several years ago I started working with some Jehovah’s Witnesses. They consider Catholicism some form of paganism and very shortly started challenging Catholic teachings to me. I didn’t know any of the answers to the challenges they presented, so I was forced to actually have a serious look at the faith. It was my first serious look at Catholicism.

Many of the questions and challenges that the JW’s presented opened curiosity in my mind. I started studying the Catechism, the Bible and Church history. Some things I looked at were: the Reformation; the Church Fathers; other forms of early christianity (Coptic, Orthodox, Malankara, Armenian, et al) One thing in particular I found very convincing was the study of these other ancient christianities.

What I found is this - the Roman Catholic Church was only one of many Catholic Churches, each established by an apostle. They all, each of them contained Roman Catholic elements - Sacraments, a priesthood, bishops, liturgies, christian art, veneration of saints, special admiration and veneration of Mary, and many more similarities. Each of them claimed that these practices were apostolic in origin. The apostles, as we all know, were specially trained and educated by Jesus to perform His ministries and did so after His Assention.

My study of the early church fathers revealed that these people were in full agreement with these aspects and that these fathers - bishops - were determined to keep these aspects in the religion. People who deviated from these practices were summarily rejected on the basis that they were false and heretical.

Comparing these ancient belief’s to those of the Reformation revealed to me that none of the Reformation churches were practicing any true form of early christianity. Indeed, they had rejected much of the spirituality that is present within the Church. For me, this is the deciding factor. None of them have a valid Eucharist, the belief that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord.

I now attend daily mass. I am a lector and Eucharistic minister in my parish. By studying these ancient sources I became convinced of the vaildity and spirituality of Catholicism.

Christ is present in His church - the Catholic Church. I am there because Christ is there.

Subrosa
 
The short answer:

Well, I’m a Catholic because I believe, as a fact of history, in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And so I believe that Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God.

And since Jesus founded the Catholic Church, giving her authorty to teach in his name (another historical fact), I think it best to me a member of this Church.

😃
 
I was born and raised Catholic, stopped believing in anything as a teenager, and only “came to my senses” (Lk 15:11-32, yesterday’s gospel read throughout the world in every Catholic Mass) after 30 years. At that point I had to figure out which version of Christianity was true, and it didn’t take long to realize that it could only be Catholicism. Protestantism was clearly, in my mind, half Catholicism and half secular skepticism based upon human intellect. It is belief mixed with unbelief, acceptance mixed with rejection. It is oil and water, it cannot become a whole and so it keeps congealing into strange new mixtures and patterns.

So I came back to God, back to His Church, and finally came to understand and rejoice in it, to see the beauty of the parts and the whole as something that could only come from God.
 
Hello,

Welcome!

Well, there are many reasons why I am Catholic. Mostly because I know that it is the one true church, the church that my Lord gave to me personally to follow Him in humility and obedience.

Also because he allows me to come to Him daily in the Holy Eucharist.

Oh how much He loves me.❤️ :yup:
 
I’m Catholic because I was lucky enough to form a strong relationship with God at a young age. I have wandered, but found my God back where I left him, waiting for me.

Even when I denied my Church, I was never able to deny my God. I found that no other way of relating to him was as complete as living my life as a Catholic Christian.

I have studied and am studying extensively and find increasingly that the more I learn about my faith the more sense it makes.
 
Socrates4Jesus said:
… about yourself! Why are you a Catholic?
Click to expand...
I’m what you might call a “cradle Catholic” born and raised Catholic. I remember my childhood well, I’ve always had a firm belief, never really doubted God. Never really questioned anything about my faith. When I permanently moved to the southern U.S. in 1981 (I was 30), I was exposed to anti Catholicism. I realized the accusations of the antis were false, but couldn’t answer their questions, so I researched and researched and researched more. The more I researched the more firm my faith in the Catholic Church became. I’ve read several anti Catholic books and their errors simply jump out
 
For two main reasons:
  1. Sola scriptura is demonstratively false.
  2. Whatever Church is true, should honestly answer my human desire for happiness. The Church does so through Her Sacraments. This is a very short answer, however it remains a fact, for me. It’s a challenge though, because it entails the human heart, something that many today (in the modern world) regard as purely subjective. It’s not though. The challenge in seeing this as truth is to understand that all humans are created the same, and thus, have the same desire for happiness. Since we all have the same desire for happiness, it follows that, at the CORE, we all have the same heart, and thus, the heart does indeed become an agent of objective truth. The real challenge is to discard that which contaminates the heart (worldly desires), and find what is the ROOT cause of our desire for happiness. The ROOT cause, is our desire for Christ!
And only the Church answers this desire fully. For more detailed explainations of this concept, read the writings of Fr. Luigi Guissani, and attend a meeting of Communion and Liberation, called “School of Community”.
 
I consider myself Catholic because I have done my research and found it holds the real truth of God’s teachings.

I have found that everything the Bible tells us to know and teach the Catholic Church teaches, and that the Protestant denomination I grew up in was in much error. I’ve learned this from, for really the first time, really reading the Bible and trying to understand it, and through prayer. An amazing prayer life that I never knew existed. I’ve read the Catechism and various other things and realized, to my dismay at the time, that Catholicism is the only thing that makes sense. In Catholicism, I have found a closeness with God that I previously had thought could not exist in this world

I had never bothered studying religion until then, and now that I have I believe I have found Christs true Church. Anyone who seeks the truth, will find it.
 
I am Catholic because I never felt as fullfilled as I did once I received the churches sacrements. I was originally a Methodist, and through reseach and much prayer I found the one True church. I couldn’t imagine being anything else any more. As I am about to start a family soon (I get married in September), my fiance is also Catholic and I beleive it’s very important for the parents to be on the same side of religion also.
 
I am a Catholic because only the Catholic church teaches and puts into practice the infinite love and forgiveness of God. It is through the Catholic Church only that we are “allowed” to love others as we love ourselves, including the Blessed Mother and the Saints. All other religions limit the love we should have for one another in Christ.
It is also the only religion that, through that love, allows us to hope for things eternal, even though evidence might be lacking on earth. For instance, for “born again” protestants, one must be “born again” to be saved. If one of our loved ones die before such a profession, then all hope is lost. Nobody can offer prayers and/or sacrifices in this life or in the next for a loved one. I love the fact that I am not in this alone, but that there are people praying for me in Heaven and on Earth. I love that my fallen away loved ones can be aided (not saved) by my prayers and sacrifices.
Only the Catholic Church tells me what I may not want to hear, as a parent does for his/her child, for the sake of my soul. Only through the Catholic Church have I not been abandoned to my own devices to decide what is true.
The Catholic Church’s doctrines prove how much Jesus Christ wants *me *. So much so that He allows me to receive His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity each day.
All other denominations fall painfully short of the depth, beauty and love of Jesus Christ.
 
KennC said:
Short version … the Catholic Church was the only Church that had the Scrutiny’s and Confession.
Click to expand...
Could you elaborate for us why the scrutinies were important? Most folks don’t even know what they are. I do, though, so you don’t have to explain them. Just why were they highly important to you?🙂
 
Pug said:
Could you elaborate for us why the scrutinies were important? Most folks don’t even know what they are. I do, though, so you don’t have to explain them. Just why were they highly important to you?🙂
Click to expand...
It was the difference from presenting a mere “laundry list” of faults and getting to the “heart” “root” of the matter. It’s one thing to admit hitting Johnny and quite another in knowing why.
 
KennC said:
It was the difference from presenting a mere “laundry list” of faults and getting to the “heart” “root” of the matter. It’s one thing to admit hitting Johnny and quite another in knowing why.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I think I do see. I wish I had done this when I went through RCIA. (RCIA at my parish didn’t have any of the rites when I did it.)
 
Socrates4Jesus said:
… about yourself! Why are you a Catholic?

I’m not a Roman Catholic any longer, and i’m curious.

. . . .i’m just interested in understanding others, too.
Click to expand...
Welecome Socratese. Here is a link to some very good information on that exact subject. It’s by some people explaining what brought them to the Catholic Church. chnetwork.org/converts.htm
Hope this Helps answer some of your questions.

Yours in Christ.
 
Pug said:
Thank you. I think I do see. I wish I had done this when I went through RCIA. (RCIA at my parish didn’t have any of the rites when I did it.)
Click to expand...
Hi Pug;

The first time I experienced this was in AA …
  1. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Click to expand...
  1. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
    … years before I came into the Church, my first step 5 was with a Catholic Priest. When they first presented the topic of the Scrutinys at RCIA I was quite surprised thinking, hey this is just like the 4th step, I know this!! Of course the Church had known this forever along with Confession.
… it was through the reality of the healing in steps 4 and 5 where I realized that what the Catholic Church had always known as Truth, was indeed Truth. If they had always known this ?? what else had they always known that I did not?

Next, I discovered the reality of the Eucharist 🙂
 
One Bread, One Body. The Church is living Gospel and brings us all together sharing and mediating with our Lord Jesus. This is truely how God intended us to be, not scattered and lacking to the full revelation of His Word. I am a Catholic because I can know Jesus and be closer to Him in His Church that teaches and shows us His full revelation. In His Church I am made uncomfortable whenever I grow complacent and can hear Him calling me even closer to Him whenever I stray away from Him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top