Something I would like read about from authentic Catholics

[couponfit]

Would you care to explain why you are Catholic in short summary? Thanks.

If you ask some Catholics it’s because they know no other way. For me it’s because I know and believe truly in the divinity and Trinity of the godhead consubstantial, the hypostatic union, that mary is the theokos and not christokos and that she is immaculate and longs for our acceptance of the words of christ and admission to heaven, and with the nicene creed and I also find that st joh damascus’s ciews on icons is illuminating. I find that the church doctrine is clear that it enhances our continuous understanding of the revelation of the lord by making it more explicit over time and by building on the combined words and learnings of the church and it’s discernment of the miracles till performed today by the power of the holy spirit.

I find that the catholic church in practice is extremely flexible to allow many orders, disciplines, liturgies, rites, and personal prayer and worship styles. I love the unity of the mass, the inclusion of the key elements of mass, and the blessings that mass imparts on us. I believe that the holy spirit works gods will on earth now to those in need and the faithful in manners both obvious and mysterrious.

I have felt the holy spirit, I belive it is active and real as the wind and my own heart beat.

I also believe that god is omnipresent, eternal and to be more clear non linear, that Jesus himself transcended. I believe in the mysteries of the church, of god, Jesus, the holy spirit, Mary, the angels and saints.

Because my beliefs grew with and while in the church and because I felt blessings outside the church i have come to be fortitude in my affirmation of my communion to the church as being part of the body of christ itself. I believe god works in and out of the walls of my church and his holy spirit moves men and women of many faiths towards a higher purpose. Because of this I willfully and obediently pray with all my brothers and sisters of all faiths as children of god and as proof of his love for mankind. I believe that god blesses many In and out of the brick walls of church who pray to part of the god head.

 

[graceandglory]

Would you care to explain why you are Catholic in short summary? Thanks.

The Bible made me Catholic.

Sola Scriptura didn’t make sense.
Bible doesn’t answer every moral or theological question alone, without some interpretation.
Whose interpretation?
2000 yrs vs a 100 yr tradition?
Seven Sacraments
confession of sins to a priest is biblical
Jesus said “Eat my Body.” John 6 and not discerning His Body in the Eucharist bars one from receiving according to St. Paul.
Fides et Ratio

 

[cradlecatholic5]

Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Light and because

The Catholic Church is The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

 

[Jeremiah1278]

I think I had different main reasons throughout my life. At first I was Catholic because my family raised me in the Catholic church. Now, as an adult who left the Church for half a decade, I have more complex reasons. The big factor now is that as someone who approached Christianity skeptically in his 20s, I find the Catholic tradition and unity going back to Jesus’s apostles to be overpowering. From my approach, I first learned that Jesus did in fact exist in history. His death and resurrection and divinity are things that best explain the events recorded in the Bible and the activities of the first Christians. So there you have it: I’m Christian. Catholicism, ties us to Jesus in ways that no other form of Christianity does. Because Jesus existed among an illiterate population with no cameras rolling, there is significant power in the oral history and the unbroken chain of customs and teaching the apostles passed down to the first century Christians. Without sufficient ties to these first century Christians and their customs (say, relying solely on the text of Bible), I find it difficult to imagine continuing fidelity to Christ’s teachings. For example, my rational approach to the Bible is that while the New Testament was inspired, it doesn’t contain every word spoken by Jesus during his ministry. But the Apostles were there to drink in his message. They soaked-in the entirety of it. They passed it to the first century Christians in ways that are not in the text of the Bible. They provide the context in which the books of the New Testament were written. So I find the Catholic attempt to maintain this connection with first century eye witnesses to be my primary reason to select Her over other Christian religions.

 

[Michael19682]

The Bible is the Bible, history is history, tradition is tradition. You can read the Bible, you can read history, and, as many groups show, you can fabricate believable, Bible based traditions. To some extent, purely on a psychological level, if a truly faithful and well meaning pastor separated from the Catholic Church offers his congregation communion, the forgiveness of the holy spirit, etc., you might even call those activities acceptable to the Lord.

But I know of no other Church whose priests are formed so closely to the image of Christ. Many people don’t often realize that a Priest, in his capacity as vicar of Christ in his parish, gives especially to the most needy in his parish an example of how life can be devoted to Christ. Poverty, chasitity, and obedience - promised or vowed; or any other rule of life defined by the bishops and orders of the Church, seen as the work of the Holy Spirit, are beacons of hope.

Lastly, I believe it is a false observation that people willing to take up the cross of a priest are becoming rarer and rarer. I think the dwindling numbers of priests in America are the result of the attack of femminism. This last remark really has nothing to do with the thread question, but I included it anyway to express my belief and because it is one reason why I would never leave the Catholic Church and join a group who, by ordaining female clegy, show their contempt for Christ.

So I guess you could sum it up as saying that I’m Catholic so I don’t get led into Hell.

 

[Safia]

Thanks for the marvelous question.

As a brief background: I was raised Roman Catholic, though never quite wrapped my mind around God, never experienced that “childlike (versus childish) abandon,” and by the time I graduated from high school and entered college, I was very much agnostic. My reversion point occurred rather recently. One of the Catholic missionaries on my college campus challenged me to, for one month, attend daily Mass, ask God for the grace of faith, and seek him out via my will/intellect. Something in me reacted viscerally: if God exists, to reject Him would be to reject Everything, and I wasn’t going to take that risk without trying one more time.

I reverted because I experienced God in a way I’d never experienced Him before, particularly in the Eucharist during adoration. For the first time in my life, I wanted to know Him, and I saw it immediately: He is so very real. He is so real, and He waits for us. He fights for us. Though I had no right to receive this kind of proof, to ask for it, He extended it to me. My reversion to Christianity was spiritual. It was a personal encounter with the living Christ.

My roommate currently is a born-again Christian – Protestant, if you will – and raised very tough, intelligent questions regarding Catholicism.

I knew in my gut that Catholicism was Truth – all other faiths reject His presence during Mass, and in the Host, and that is where I found Him – but I needed to discover for myself whether I was right. So, yes: the mind-boggling Scriptural proof for the Eucharist as truth versus symbolism, apostolic succession, salvation, redemption, et cetera; Church Fathers on the Trinity, the liturgy, the Sacraments, etc.; the charismatic movement of the Holy Spirit; the lives of the saints; Eucharistic miracles; stigmatas; tradition; history; Pope John Paul II; etc. It all stems from a love I’ve never felt before, a love that I don’t have the physical capacity to “make up.”

ETA: I should note also that I was a disinterested agnostic, so if someone could have proven to me that Protestantism, Judaism, etc., were fully developed truths, I’d have jumped the Catholic boat. But both personal experience and in-depth, voracious reading and study proved to me that Catholicism is linear, logical, non-contradictory, etc. Leading Protestant scholars contradict themselves, and admit to it, etc.

Some of my favorite readings:
– amazon.com/Not-Scripture-Alone-Protestant-Scriptura/dp/1579180558/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325200099&sr=8-1
– amazon.com/Not-Faith-Alone-Biblical-Justification/dp/1579180086/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325200099&sr=8-2
– amazon.com/Not-Bread-Alone-Historical-Eucharistic/dp/1579181244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325200125&sr=8-1

 

[Bruised_Reed]

Would you care to explain why you are Catholic in short summary? Thanks.

By the grace of God:
I was born into a Catholic family, and while my dad was a convert (raised Lutheran), my mom instilled in me a kind of respect that made the Church my “go to” even when I was struggling in a crisis of faith. No other tradition has answered my questions so completely or provided more spiritual nourishment. Others might give me insight or knowledge and they may whet my appetite but they do not feed me.

Also,

Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.

 

[fred_conty]

Because of the Catholic Church, I know where everything came from, how it happened,
why it happened, where I am at, what I have to do, and where I am going, and the means to attain a life in perfect paradise. And it is crystal clear.

 

[ivecomeback]

From a revert: To be Catholic is to experience the richness of both the spiritual and physical presence of Christ. Practically, Catholicism is not afraid to acknowledge that life is messy.

 

[Incomplete]

Fullness of truth.

If God gave us truth, there has to be a way to know truth. If left to our own devices, when we disagree with other christians, how do we really know who is right?

Truth is no good if we have no idea what it is.

It only makes sense as well that God would establish His church in truth from the beginning. So I looked to the history of the Church, read some of the early Fathers, and realized it’s the only Church that makes sense to me.

Sometimes I struggle with belief in God. Things have to make some kind of sense to me. Watching my protestant friends deciding what they believe, all of them believing different things yet saying the Holy Spirit is guiding them to truth, interpreting the Bible differently from each other…it makes no sense. For me, the options were Catholic or atheist.

 

[Wesley7]

ok, that being said -

what do you consider about american catholicism in comparison to vatican catholicism? . .

and what of mexican catholicism culture wise? . .thanks

 

[Safia]

ok, that being said -

what do you consider about american catholicism in comparison to vatican catholicism? . .

and what of mexican catholicism culture wise? . .thanks

Could you be more specific?

It’s not true Catholicism unless doctrines are followed.

The Church makes a distinction between large-T and small-t traditions, the large-T tradition being that of the living Church’s foundational teachings, small-t traditions being ecclesial, those that change depending upon the culture, location, language, etc.

From the Catechism:

II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE

One common source. . .

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."40 Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own “always, to the close of the age”.41

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."42

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."43

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."44

Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus’ teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s Magisterium.

Do you have specific questions/differences you’re considering/referencing?

 

[Wesley7]

Could you be more specific?

It’s not true Catholicism unless doctrines are followed.

The Church makes a distinction between large-T and small-t traditions, the large-T tradition being that of the living Church’s foundational teachings, small-t traditions being ecclesial, those that change depending upon the culture, location, language, etc.

From the Catechism:

Do you have specific questions/differences you’re considering/referencing?

Yes, a question about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

 

[Incomplete]

Yes, a question about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

What is your question about it?

 

[oletommyboy]

Would you care to explain why you are Catholic in short summary? Thanks.

Jesus, Mary, and Blessed Pope John Paul II

 

[DihydrogenOxide]

Because the Lord has endowed me with much grace of which I am unworthy. He has given me a pearl of grace known as Faith .

Thank you, Lord.

 

[Luvtosew]

I was raised Catholic.

 

[FAB]

The Church contains the FULL truth and completeness of God’s salvation.

 

[anodos]

This…

“Wheresoever,” he writes, “the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” St.Ignatius of Antioch, written in the 1st century.

This…

The Bible made me Catholic.

Sola Scriptura didn’t make sense.
Bible doesn’t answer every moral or theological question alone, without some interpretation.
Whose interpretation?

Especially this…

Fullness of truth.

If God gave us truth, there has to be a way to know truth. If left to our own devices, when we disagree with other christians, how do we really know who is right?

Truth is no good if we have no idea what it is.

It only makes sense as well that God would establish His church in truth from the beginning. So I looked to the history of the Church, read some of the early Fathers, and realized it’s the only Church that makes sense to me.

Sometimes I struggle with belief in God. Things have to make some kind of sense to me. Watching my protestant friends deciding what they believe, all of them believing different things yet saying the Holy Spirit is guiding them to truth, interpreting the Bible differently from each other…it makes no sense. For me, the options were Catholic or atheist.

…and Apostolic Succession.
IF Christianity is true, the only choices that seem viable to me are the Orthodox and the Catholics in union with Rome. If I someday decided that Catholicism wasn’t true, I would probably reject Christianity altogether and become agnostic or atheist.

 

[Wesley7]

What is your question about it?

Theology of the Body as I understand outlines marriage between a man and woman.

What to do if man is open to marriage about but no female? . .

would you care to explain that? . .thanks