Question about how to answer a non-Catholic friend

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TMaria

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Hi all! I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this but hope it is.

A lovely friend I know from another (non religious) online group is interested in Catholicism. I don’t know much about her religious background other than she’s not Catholic and doesn’t appear to be a Christian or have much of a Christian background. She is what some people would call “spiritual”. She’s searching. She’s attracted to Catholicism because of the Saints and its beauty. She has asked questions about Jesus and the Saints and said she is going to buy a Bible (the Catholic Study Bible).

We have mutual online friends who are very sick or have family members who are very ill. This has made my friend very sad and upset. She also recently lost her father. She said there is so much sadness that it’s hard to bear at times and said she was going to pray to God to help her deal with her sadness. She said she thought about Jesus and wondered how Jesus managed to deal with all the sorrow, pain and suffering he encountered as a healer and thought it was his faith in God that gave him strength. She asked me for my thoughts about it. I do have have some ideas on how to respond but would like some help.

She’s not at the point yet where she sees Jesus as the Son of God. She’s still approaching tentatively and I don’t want to clobber her over the head with theology she won’t understand and have her back away. I’ve been taking it very slow and gentle with her and praying. It’s up to God but God uses us to reach others.

Any thoughts on how I can answer her? Would you also pray for her?
 
First of all, your friend will be in my prayers…

My advice is to start with the very basics–you need a foundation to build upon.
If your friend is going to be getting a bible, I would tell her about the Old/New Testaments and what they mean to Catholics. You may want to give a bit of background of how the Jesus’ coming is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and the starting point of Christianity.

I would suggest that you “introduce” her to the person of Jesus, His teachings, and how they impact your life. If you have the opportunity to read some scripture with her, that’d be great. (Maybe some parables because they can be a bit abstract, but with the correct interpretation they provide great insight.)

Good luck! Just remember that it will take time, so be patient! 👍
 
Is there a spiritual place you can take her? Like a shrine or cathedral? Sometimes, the holiness and peacefulness felt at places can reach through to comfort even non-christians.
 
Thank you for your answers! Unfortunately she lives 3,000 miles away, so I can’t take her Mass with me.

When she said she was getting the Catholic Study Bible and asked where to start, I advised her to first read one of the synoptic Gospels – Luke because of the nativity stories, the parables and because it reveals Jesus as the universal Savior and then to read Acts of the Apostles or start with Mark (my favorite) because it’s the shortest. She’s very interested in Jesus and judging by her questions, she must be reading the Gospels. Considering that her first question to me was “what does Son of Man mean” (which I answered) and her second question was the above question about how Jesus dealt with all the pain and suffering he encountered, it could turn into a real challenge to answer her questions!

I dove into the Bible and the Catechism and wrote back to her and tried to answer her question as best I could about how Jesus dealt inwardly with the suffering and sickness he encountered. I did tell her a little about the Trinity and Jesus’ divine and human natures and how as a man, He was like us in every way except sin. He prayed to God unceasingly and felt compassion and mercy for the sick and marginal and wept when Lazarus died. Sensing her need because she recently lost her father, I sent her prayers for the departed along with prayers for the sick and dying and told her that even though we should pray in our own words we also use the prayers of the Church to pray and meditate on.

She wrote back and said she appreciated the prayers and my answer helped and she was mulling over what I wrote and that she’ll keep on asking me questions. 🙂
 
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