So it seems to me...

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curiousgirl26

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So it seems to me that there are many faithful Catholics out there. Is it possible the Catholics are more introverted in their faith than non-Catholics? I’m just curious. I know that Catholic, Baptist, or whatever doesn’t necessarily mean Christian because it seems that actions follow our faith. Any thoughts? Btw, planning on conversion to Catholicism.
 
curiousgirl26 said:
So it seems to me that there are many faithful Catholics out there. Is it possible the Catholics are more introverted in their faith than non-Catholics? I’m just curious. I know that Catholic, Baptist, or whatever doesn’t necessarily mean Christian because it seems that actions follow our faith. Any thoughts? Btw, planning on conversion to Catholicism.
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Depends where you are, I guess.

In the good ol’ days, we had a lot more “exterior” signs of the Faith - processions, lots more statues, etc, etc.

We’re now starting to get that back, after 40 years. Kinda like being in the desert, imho.
 
Congratulations on converting! I hope you will have a great journey home.

I believe that as far as being introverted or extroverted there is a balance. Remember in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus tells us to Pray with the door closed, and not be to pray in public like the hypocrites. (Read the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5,6,7 if you haven’t yet).

However we are also called to Proclaim the Gospel to all Nations, and St. Paul tells us that he is not ashamed of the Gospel. So there is a balance.

I really can’t tell you what I do in private to express my faith because then it wouldn’t be private 🙂 but things I do in public are:

I’ll pray the Rosary with other Catholics in my College.
I’ll tell people about Catholicism (if they ask or bring it up of course!)
I will affirm said beliefs, and am not afraid to call Jesus my Lord.

However I do things in a civil matter, my friends all know about my Devout Catholicism, but they wouldn’t describe me as a “firebrand preacher” or anything like that. Know when to bring it up and know when not to.

Laus Deo
 
curiousgirl26 said:
So it seems to me that there are many faithful Catholics out there. Is it possible the Catholics are more introverted in their faith than non-Catholics? I’m just curious. I know that Catholic, Baptist, or whatever doesn’t necessarily mean Christian because it seems that actions follow our faith. Any thoughts? Btw, planning on conversion to Catholicism.
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eh… well I look at personality types of introverted and extroverted and all the other ways to categorize personalities as something separate from Faith. You don’t need to be outgoing or talkative to be a good Catholic, the same as you don’t need to be more reserved and less assertive to be a good Catholic.

The Mystical Body of Christ, every Christian, ever, operates as a whole and not everyone can be the mouth. The Body of Christ is a multi-faceted wondrous thing. We each have a position of importance.

Be who you are and pursue the calling of God. He calls us all.
 
I am not sure I would call it being introverted, but if you’re refering to actively seeking out people and sharing and evangelizing their Faith most Catholics were rather inactive. I think it may be the result of the years before Vatican II (took place about mid 60’s) when parishes had so many priests they were falling all over each other so to speak. We could leave it all in "Father’s capable hands. Now with far fewer priests per thousand Catholics, lay people are finding out that they can be acxtive in spreading the Faith and not just practicing it… 🙂
 
It is just interesting to finally see this whole other wealth of people who love God as much if not more than I do. Personally, I always feel bad when one of my pastors talks about the three hours he spends in the morning. Of course, I was lead to believe that if I didn’t get up at o’dark thirty then I wasn’t doing my job as a Christian. The fact is that I prefer to do my devos at night.
I’m just really excited to see that there are more people out there than I knew. 😃
 
That’s so awesome you’re thinking about converting! Congrats!!! You know, I really have been feeling that we need to bring back the processions and more of the public signs of our faith. Our pro-life movement is pretty visable as is some of our charity work overseas (Sisters of Charity being on the fore front), but you know what? I think good education for our adults and children, coupled with prayer to the Holy Spirit and Eucharistic adoration is the only sure cure to a lack of significant Catholic public witness in the West.
 
I think we also have to get back to the fundamentals (not fundamentalism! :eek:):

I just thought of these 5 Ss of the top of my head:

Study of Scripture
Study of Theology
Seat of Peter
Sacraments and Sacramentals
Spreading the faith
 
I’ll tell people about Catholicism (if they ask or bring it up of course!)
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You are not comfortable bringing up your faith? (“Last night, at our _____ meeting…”)
 
I, too, join the others in welcoming you into the Catholic Church. However, don’t stop your education there, continue our journey and take your faith seriously and know as much as you can about how and why we do the things we do.
Jesus left a church, not a Bible… for starters.
Having said that, Catholics are more dignified in spreading the gospel, we normally don’t go door to door, like a vacumn cleaner salesperson, we tend to live our lives quietly but purposefully. People know we are Catholic. In my neighborhood it is mainly because they see us go to mass every Sunday or everyday. They just know, so we are witnessing each time they see us go out the door.
I teach a CCD class and it is very obvious to me that these students need desparately to know their faith. They are and will be challenged in the non-catholic world. Its always pleasing to me when they bring up questions about what someone has said to them about our faith and how wrong they are or simply miss led and I can give my students the answers they need to resonse to this exchange. Gotta say most of the questions have to do about the Bible.
Get to know the mass. It has 32 parts if you want to break it down, each one of those parts are purposefully important. The mass is the perfect prayer, the perfect scarifice, it is so much more than a bunch of rituals and words that are said, it is a miracle each time. To know the mass is to love it.

Hope this helps.
 
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