I am 62 yrs. old male in Dallas. Have recently been interested in Catholic belief. Have been wathching EWTN television. Sometimes become dissapointed with the protestants and all there bickering.One thing I like about the Catholic church seems to be that you have I belief and does not differ as the thousands of protestant churches do. Now I need to study how close you are to what I believe on salvation. Have questions about Mary, celebacy of priests, sacrements, traditions. Have you added works to salvation or is it faith alone? Thanks. Looking forward to learning. dcc
Hi and welcome. I hope you find the answers you’re looking for here.
One comment that I’d like to make is that you said you’d like to see how close Catholicism is to what you believe on salvation. That only works if what you believe is what Christ taught the apostles, and what the apostles taught the Church. Are you 100% sure of that?
You might want to look at it from a different angle. Determine for yourself if the Catholic Church is what she claims to be, the Church founded by Christ. If she is then what she teaches on salvation is what Christ taught, even if it is not what you now believe.
Did the Church add works to faith alone? Well, she must have “added” something to faith alone, because the bible clearly states that faith alone is dead, and the Church preaches a living, saving faith, not a dead faith. What she has “added” (that is, what the apostles learned from Christ) is that one must respond to God’s grace through faith lived out in love and obedience. That is what the Church “added”, that one must live the Christian life in love and obedience. But that’s probably what you believe already, right?
Sometimes Protestants like to ask the “trick” question, how many works do you need to do to be saved? How much obedience do you need to be saved? Well, the answer to that question is another question: how much faith do you need to be saved? In reality, of course, one cannot and should not put a number on either. One should just run the race, seeking to conform one’s will to God’s will, seeking to respond to his grace, and then have joyful trust and hope in his promises. And that’s the Catholic teaching on salvation.
I find that it is Protestants who are obsessed with this question of works, not Catholics. Catholics simply believe we are saved by God’s grace, but only if we allow ourselves to be saved by responding to that grace.
The apologetics forum is where you can get a more lively discussion of this subject if you are interested.
) but my mentor said, “The Blessed Mother will NEVER force herself on you to believe; Jesus isn’t that way, why should she?” And that really made sense to me. I gave up the struggle, and my mentor was right! Praying the Rosary brought me so much closer in my walk with Jesus, and it’s so true about why Catholics venerate and honor the Blessed Mother. 