Protestants: How do you feel when you see Catholic sacramentals?

[FabiusMaximus]

If any Protestants have ever been to a lecture by a Catholic priest, or to an event at a Catholic Church, how do you feel when you see Marian statues, statues in general, icons, rosaries, etc. What crosses your mind when you see these things?

My eyes burn with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

No, not really. I actually like it.

 

[Godith]

Well the rosary, for instance has such a promise… Here’s the thing, if you pray the Rosary faithfully every day, you can be pretty sure heaven is where you ultimatly will be. Praying the rosary faithfully is a faith experience more dramatic (in my estimation) than watching Passion of the Christ. Particularly parying the sorrowful mysteries.

Praying faithfully has got to be a good thing, no question.

Presumably the promise only holds if you pray the rosary, i.e. you use it to help you draw near to and worship God, and not if you just carry it around? That’s what I meant, the idea that just owning a certain object with guarantee you heaven. I’m not saying that’s what Catholics believe or do, I’m just saying it can look like that from outside.

You point out well what it is that makes sacramentals beautiful to me. It sounds like for you, praying the rosary is a deep spiritual experience that enriches your relationship with God. That’s wonderful, and a real blessing.

 

[Tisha1969]

I was a protestant (Baptist) for years but was increasingly attracted to the Catholic church for a variety of reasons. Baptist churches are very stark in comparison and I guess I always assumed we should honor Jesus with beauty and meaningful liturgy more than just random sermons. The more I learned of Catholicism, the more drawn to it I became. I am not sure why, but the rosary has had a profound effect on me. I am now in the process of officially converting to Catholicism and my children start their faith formation classes soon. I feel like I finally found my real home.

 

[stevekehl]

I thought I’m glad people are in church

 

[ltwin]

The OP asked for a Protestant’s opinion so I’m giving my honest opinion. Please don’t get offended at what I say, and understand that I’m not bashing the Catholic Church.

I am bothered by the veneration of Mary and the saints, and though I believe it to be in error I still believe that Catholics are Christians and appreciate their stand on Christian principles of the sanctity of human life, etc. In fact, I don’t mind the use of sacramentals as means of grace.

To me, a lot of what Catholics do is no different from a Pentecostal anointing and praying over a prayer cloth and sticking it under his child’s pillow or giving it to a serviceman or woman who has been deployed overseas. Or when Pentecostals anoint the head of a person receiving prayer or drape a Jewish Tallit over a person to symbolize the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit over that person. Or when a sick person is in the hospital and a family member or friend stands in his or her place to receive prayer from the congregation.

Pentecostals realize that there is no virtue or power in the cloth, tallit, or extra virgin olive oil in itself.These things are tools that provide for an act of faith by which our attention is drawn to God.

I see sacramentals as much the same thing. So they don’t bother me.

 

[Zooey]

My eyes burn with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

No, not really. I actually like it.

I read this & went

Now, as for me: Goodness, I make rosaries. I have pictures & statues & I use them as part of my spiritual life on a daily basis.
You might think that John Wesley is turning in his grave to hear this, but I happen to have seen pix inline of the Wesley Museum in Great Britain, & they have** his** rosary and chotki on display. (He prayed on horseback, travelling from one place to the next).

 

[crazzeto]

Praying faithfully has got to be a good thing, no question.

Presumably the promise only holds if you pray the rosary, i.e. you use it to help you draw near to and worship God, and not if you just carry it around? That’s what I meant, the idea that just owning a certain object with guarantee you heaven. I’m not saying that’s what Catholics believe or do, I’m just saying it can look like that from outside.

You point out well what it is that makes sacramentals beautiful to me. It sounds like for you, praying the rosary is a deep spiritual experience that enriches your relationship with God. That’s wonderful, and a real blessing.

Yes, the promise is attached to praying the Rosary… And not just once, I believe one should strive for a daily Rosary, which should be doable as Pope John Paul II managed to find time to do it. Then when he realized it didn’t take long enough, he added one more chaplet with 5 more mystieries, and continued praying it daily.

 

[rinnie]

Praying faithfully has got to be a good thing, no question.

Presumably the promise only holds if you pray the rosary, i.e. you use it to help you draw near to and worship God, and not if you just carry it around? That’s what I meant, the idea that just owning a certain object with guarantee you heaven. I’m not saying that’s what Catholics believe or do, I’m just saying it can look like that from outside.

You point out well what it is that makes sacramentals beautiful to me. It sounds like for you, praying the rosary is a deep spiritual experience that enriches your relationship with God. That’s wonderful, and a real blessing.

Actually you not only have to pray the rosary you must live out your faith also. What praying the rosary does is it connects you with God. And when you are in the mindset of being connected with God, it makes it easier to stay on the right road, because you feel you are not alone you have his Mother, Himself and all the Angels and Saints walking with you in your faith.

Its like you saying to God, I need to feel you more, get closer to you outside of your Church and ouside of the Eucharist so you do it with praying the rosary.

Its like taking a chill pill but it has no side effects for your heart, liver, lungs, etc. Its like the chill pill that takes away all of the stress in your life. Even if only for a short time.

What many people who condemn the rosary do not understand is what the rosary really is. It is really the Blessed Mother on her walk watching her son be killed. You are in a way actually walking with her and she with you, but what happens at the end of that horrible walk? Christ rises from the dead and as horrible as the pain was and the sorrow was, the Joy was unreal.

Thats what the rosary is, but sometimes it our walk through life with God and the Blessed Mother now walking with us, and us relating to her pain, which is never really that bad after all. And in the end when our pain and sorrow ends they are there to share our pure joy also.

But we go to her and God and live out our sorrow and pain in that half hour etc and know at the end of that walk God will help us. It does not happen immediately we do have to suffer, as Christ did, but you learn that there is always a reason for that suffering and when you truly believe that, it makes the suffering much easier to bare.