Remarriage to the same person

[Through_Him]

I will bring these comments to my parish pastor - I am numb from them. **
I can understand how you can be I felt that way when I came back to the Church.**This entire process is presenting a problem for my wife (2nd that is) who is reluctant to come back to the Church. **Her problem is she is reluctant and this may be because she doesn’t understand as she wasn’t really taught. She could go to RCIA. It is not your fault or responsibility to grab her back to the Church. Begin praying the rosary with her and the Our FAther and Hail Mary to find out how she is spiritually. **She is asking for her records from her childhood church, **This is a good sign. **but this is far as she is willing to go.**This is not.**It seems she is quite content with her beliefs and church she now attends.Will she attend with you once in awhile or go to hers on occasion but don’t receive communion in her church, after you become confirmed in the Catholic faith. An exchange like this works in some marriages? But not all. She has many issues with the Catholic Church, just as I did, but from a different perspective.
**What issues? **
My journey, started over two years ago now, Thom, your wife hasn’t really started her journey yetto come to know the truth, know what I know: know what I believe and believe what I know.**And now you can teach her as an apostle but gently and carefully, and lovingly as she has not had much of this in her life sounds to me. ** God has taken me to many places and people on this journey. I have unlearned many things, relearned others and acquired new teachings and understanding. Having the prospect of rejoining my wife was something I did not expect but always hoped for. **Glorious Day and God’s blessings along the way!!!**I love her dearly. Now, on the verge of becoming a Catholic myself, I thought with all this talk about getting back together again I could be a positive influence on her and help her come back to the Church once we reestablished our marriage. Our marriage was always suspect and now it seems, from what I am now reading, we weren’t even married. That is very disconcerting. The point here is not to make it easy, I know this, but to make it right. I am not sure if this is helping. Much prayer is needed **Yes pray every day and I will pray for you at Mass tomorrow. **and all of this is beyond my ability and capacity to understand. I have many things to consider and many hours of prayer to come, over this.**Lean not onto your own understanding and pray I think you can be the angel and apostle God wants you to be. You have a wonderful testimony and are patient. **

Respectfully,
Thom

God Bless and lead you, stay on the path.

 

[OldeThom]

Barbara, thank you for your lovely encouragement and words of wisdom. The format of your reply caught me off guard at first, but that was my problem not yours.

My wife is a special woman. Despite what you many think, she is a great mother and wife, she knows she was called to be married and have children. She “knows” the Truth, but her baggage, the fears and hurts in her life, has created a wall between her and God. Actually, I think she knows this.

Ultimately, what does hold us back from knowing God’s truth? What is it that does not allow us to see the light of God’s love and grace? These questions have been asked over and over, beginning in the time of Jesus, and answered with millions upon millions of words ever since. I do not profess to know what stops any given individual, but I have learned, for myself, I did not want to … I did not want to change, even though I hated what I had become. Jesus’ response time and again made reference to children, how child-like we had to become to hear and know the truth. I knew I had to become a child again.

I think the main reason we spend so much time as children and why we have children, is to learn how to trust and obey, learn how to hope, and learn how to serve and love. If we are able to learn them, we have a good chance of turning to God and hearing His call. But what if we aren’t given the opportunity to learn those things? What if we only get bits and pieces, mixed signals and hypocrisy? Then we tend to skew them, twist them or forget what little we did get and switch to other things that make sense to us and distract us from the Truth … from God.

The core theological virtues are foundational from our very conception to our death - why our infant children are, and rightly so, baptised. I wish I knew this before my children were born, it would have made a difference, in every aspect I feel.

I am no apostle, just a humble servant. My ability to teach and be heard in my own family was undermined by me long ago. No, I am certain God will use other means. Right now I must learn to walk to the walk and walk the talk. God has shown me that that is to be my only tool at present: action. So in a way I am teaching without it’s formal appearance. God is perfecting a plan He started within me years ago, I just wasn’t listening then - I am now.

Respectfully,
Thom