Praying a Rosary during a Protestant service

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I’m not exactly sure if this could be considered a sin or not. I went to a service this morning at Methodist church with my family. Being received into the Church last night, I’m filled with so much zeal, however I may have displaced it a bit. I heard the man preaching speaking what would seem to a Catholic to be heresy. He was proclaiming Once Saved Always Saved. So, I prayed a Rosary as he gave his sermon.

So I ask, did I really do anything wrong? I concealed it fairly well, by keeping the beads in my pocket. Any advice would be appreciated.

In Pax Christi
Andrew
 
I’ve done the same thing when “forced” 😉 to attend a Protestant service. I think God recognized that I was truly wanting to be close to Him while praying the rosary.
Ever since converting to Catholicism, going to Protestant services is very unsatisfying and I try to avoid it.
 
I can’t imagine that you committed any sin. After all, you did it discretely, so you weren’t rude.
 
Hmmm, I don’t think it was a sin to pray the Rosary during this service. Actually, many “old school” Catholics pray the Rosary during the Mass, though I am not recommending this personally. They did this often when the Mass was still in Latin. Also, it is not a sin to attend other services of another Christian denomination as long as you have fulfilled your obligation to attend Mass (which I’m assuming you did at the Easter Vigil Mass). However, I think you are not supposed to participate in non-Catholic Communion. Someone may have more info on this than me, but since most non-Catholics believe a symbolic only communion, it would not be right for us to participate.

I’m sure you are trying to maintain family cohesiveness by attending Methodist services. I would caution you to maintain your vigilence when listening to a non-Catholic pastor. All too often a Catholic will stray from the faith because they begin to believe what they are hearing from a non-Catholic pulpit.

By the way, congratulations, and Welcome Home!!
 
Harpazo said:
I’m not exactly sure if this could be considered a sin or not. I went to a service this morning at Methodist church with my family. Being received into the Church last night, I’m filled with so much zeal, however I may have displaced it a bit. I heard the man preaching speaking what would seem to a Catholic to be heresy. He was proclaiming Once Saved Always Saved. So, I prayed a Rosary as he gave his sermon.

So I ask, did I really do anything wrong? I concealed it fairly well, by keeping the beads in my pocket. Any advice would be appreciated.

In Pax Christi
Andrew
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Welcome to the Church:clapping: . It seems to me that when we were created with ten fingers that it is just natural to pray the Rosary when we can. As long as you are discreet go for it. I have found that the Rosary can be prayed just about anywhere.👍
 
The only way it would be considered a sin would be if you disrupted their service. That would: 1) be very rude and 2) give the members of that church a very bad impression of our Church.

Since you weren’t disrupting their service, you have nothing to worry about.

I would recommend using your fingers to count Haily Mary’s in this case though!
 
I agree with Jabronie. As long as you did not display the rosary (or take communion), there was nothing wrong with your actions.

Jeff
 
Why would it be a sin if someone saw the rosary? Even if he had it out in the open how would it be a sin?

Catholig
 
When I was becoming a Catholic forty years ago I continued for a time going to the Protestant services that I had gone to before habitually. Finally, though I felt that if Catholicism was the true Church, what was I doing there? It is better to get spiritual nourishment from the Church rather than elsewhere.
I don’t think it was a sin to pray the rosary then, though perhaps those there would have been rightly offended to find you going against their beliefs in the midst of one of their religious services.
Catholig said:
Why would it be a sin if someone saw the rosary? Even if he had it out in the open how would it be a sin?

Catholig
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Catholig said:
Why would it be a sin if someone saw the rosary? Even if he had it out in the open how would it be a sin?

Catholig
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Not a sin. But maybe being disrespectful of others feelings. In other words good manners to be discreet.
 
Unless you just felt a strong conviction, I generally don’t think drawing attention to your Catholic beliefs in the middle of a Protestant service is a very good idea. It’s improper, causes unnecessary distress to your own family, sets yourself up for a potentially aggravated encounter from any Protestant zealots who noticed you, and just doesn’t really set a very good example in my opinion. I know where you are coming from though because I’m a Protestant convert and the rest of my family is not. I attend a Presbyterian service with my grandmother any time that I go down to visit her. In my mind, I feel very strongly about the reasons for my conversion experience. I feel like I’ve studied so much about the apologetic nuances and could expose the holes in Protestant theology if given the chance to debate someone. More often than not though, this argumentative and pugilistic attitude really doesn’t make much headway with people from my experience. Most Protestants just shut down after a few minutes and the conversation degenerates into polemics. I tend to view those “Protestant excursions” with certain family members on Sundays as simply “family time” and try to remove it from a “heretical” framework.

Either way, I think it’s great that you are excited about your new found “home” in the Catholic tradition. I think it’s great that you pray the rosary during the service. In fact, I may try this myself next time since I never even considered it. I’d just caution to be careful not to draw “too much” attention to yourself unless you feel a strong conviction. After all, Protestants can have a fairly aggressive and bellicose reaction to Catholics if you come from anywhere near the South where I am located. I can’t speak for Protestant churches elsewhere. Chances are if they saw you swinging your rosary beads everywhere, they would would simply be distracted and angry at you for bringing “Catholic” relics into their service. I can’t see how instigating this sort of reaction would accomplish anything positive.
 
Just think how you would feel if someone played the tambourine in the midst of the Mass.:bigyikes:
 
My husband is Lutheran. Since our marriage, we attended church with each other every week. We go to his Lutheran church at 8:30 and to our Catholic church at 12:00. Since the kids have gotten older, we have not been doing it so much any more.

In order for me tolerate his service, I pray the rosary when we are there. I even have time for the Divine Mercy chaplet. I never considered that it could possibly be a sin – I was worshiping God, but in a different way from the rest of the people in the church at the time. I use my fingers sometimes and I use a rosary sometimes - it does not matter.

I always considered the Lutheran service a poor imitation of Catholic Mass, even though they follow a similar progression of the Mass with their service. It’s just not the same as home……
 
Regi said:
My husband is Lutheran. Since our marriage, we attended church with each other every week. We go to his Lutheran church at 8:30 and to our Catholic church at 12:00. Since the kids have gotten older, we have not been doing it so much any more.

In order for me tolerate his service, I pray the rosary when we are there. I even have time for the Divine Mercy chaplet. I never considered that it could possibly be a sin – I was worshiping God, but in a different way from the rest of the people in the church at the time. I use my fingers sometimes and I use a rosary sometimes - it does not matter.

I always considered the Lutheran service a poor imitation of Catholic Mass, even though they follow a similar progression of the Mass with their service. It’s just not the same as home……
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If you have to “tolerate” his church, why do you attend? I’m sorry. I’m new here. I shouldn’t attack you. I just hate the word “tolerate”. It belittles the person/thing we are talking about. I’m really sad to see such intolerance of other people’s beliefs, not just from you, but just about everyone on this thread. I’ve seen this in other religions, but I didn’t realise that we Catholics are just as unaccepting of other beliefs. This just makes me sad not just about my own Catholic faith, but all Christianity. I wonder if Jesus watches us and just shakes his head in utter disbelief.

Kim
 
Regi said:
My husband is Lutheran. Since our marriage, we attended church with each other every week. We go to his Lutheran church at 8:30 and to our Catholic church at 12:00. Since the kids have gotten older, we have not been doing it so much any more.

In order for me tolerate his service, I pray the rosary when we are there. I even have time for the Divine Mercy chaplet. I never considered that it could possibly be a sin – I was worshiping God, but in a different way from the rest of the people in the church at the time. I use my fingers sometimes and I use a rosary sometimes - it does not matter.

I always considered the Lutheran service a poor imitation of Catholic Mass, even though they follow a similar progression of the Mass with their service. It’s just not the same as home……
Click to expand...
If you have to “tolerate” his church, why do you attend? I’m sorry. I’m new here. I shouldn’t attack you. I just hate the word “tolerate”. It belittles the person/thing we are talking about. I’m really sad to see such intolerance of other people’s beliefs, not just from you, but just about everyone on this thread. I’ve seen this in other religions, but I didn’t realise that we Catholics are just as unaccepting of other beliefs. This just makes me sad not just about my own Catholic faith, but all Christianity. I wonder if Jesus watches us and just shakes his head in utter disbelief.

Kim
 
When I accompany my BF to his church, I think nothing of taking out my rosary and praying it. I don’t hide it. I am not ashamed and who cares what others may think.
Kathy
 
Harpazo said:
I’m not exactly sure if this could be considered a sin or not. I went to a service this morning at Methodist church with my family. Being received into the Church last night, I’m filled with so much zeal, however I may have displaced it a bit. I heard the man preaching speaking what would seem to a Catholic to be heresy. He was proclaiming Once Saved Always Saved. So, I prayed a Rosary as he gave his sermon.
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Why would it be a sin to pray the Rosary, as long as you didn’t do it disruptively?

And Once Saved Always Saved is not Methodist doctrine. I’m tempted to say that you should write a letter to the Methodist bishop and report the preacher, but that would probably be inappropriate (coming from a non-Methodist visitor) and almost certainly wouldn’t do any good. Still, I hate the fact that there are Methodist preachers who teach this. It runs so completely contrary to everything Methodism stands for (as I understand it).

Edwin
 
I see absolutely nothing wrong with what you did. I have prayed the rosary during Protestant services as well. Mainly with the intention that nobody or few people would be deceived by their services.
 
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