Talking to others about our Faith

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kathrin
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kathrin

Guest
How do you talk with your Non-Catholic family members and friends about your Faith?

There are questions they sometimes ask that are sometimes difficult to answer! Such as:
  • Why do I need to pray if I know God’s will will be done anyway?
  • Why would God who has made the world need us to worship Him? Maybe he wouldn’t even WANT that?
    (Remembering there IS something in the Bible about this, right?)
  • What do I need to go church for, can’t everybody pray at home?
I try to explain the ideal is to do things out of LOVE, not out of have-to. Of course as somebody who is very scrupulous, sometimes other people see that part of me and may tink my guilt comes from the church.
I explain that the church HELPS me with the guilt feelings.

Do other people here have such conversations with other people, who are close to them, too?
Do you have any wisdom to share about how to “explain” your Faith?

Kathrin
 
I just got myself an apologetics book. We know why we do things and go to church, it becomes difficult to explain to others why we do things for some reason. Especially those who are trying to make you question your faith. We need to pray for those who question God.🙂
 
May God bless you Kathrin as you strive to encourage non catholic friends and family.
It is certainly a testing time of our faith.Pray for guidance to know what to say with sincerity and love.Hope my response helps a little.God bless

As Catholics we have been enlightend to God
We are held accountable for our actions as we have been taught
and know better.
Our goal in this life is to live that we may try to gain eternal life.
In order to acheive eternal life we attempt to live our lives as commanded.
By attending Mass as often as possible (aswell as minimum each Sunday)
we are putting God first in our lives.By praying we are in constant
communication with the Lord.God wants us to pray to Him.Philippians 4: 4-7, Matthew 6:6
In the bible he taught us all these things and that is how we know how to lead our lives.

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and Isaiah 61:1-3 are good guides for how
we are to conduct our lives
 
I think that is a very important point, that I may have to stress again because maybe it didn’t get across enough: Prayer is communication with God. It is not just begging God for things. It is a way of being “in tune” with God, something like that…

It becomes a whole way of life… From outside it may seem like a burden… somebody might tell me I could be much freer without it… but I don’t believe that is true, because God is TRUTH, and the TRUTH WILL SET US FREE… However, I don’t want to talk like I am just reciting phrases ;)…

And how do you talk to people who have grown up strictly catholic but have gone through a process where they now feel their faith is something more personal?

Kathrin
 
My beautiful Sister in Jesus Kathrin, YOUR COURAGE INSPIRES ME!

**Paraphrasing St. Augustine, prayer does not compel God to do our will, it lifts us up toward the perfection that is God!
**
God doesn’t need us to worship Him, He Loves us completely so He is pleased by our free will choice to love Him!!

We can surely pray at home, but the Holy Mass brings us outside of our limited parameters of time & space to participate in the actual Sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary & to receive the Body & Blood of Jesus Christ, as He commanded us to;

**EGO SUM PANIS VITAE! “I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Jn 6:48-51)
**

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark
 
Thank you for calling me courageous 🤷 I am not sure if I would have called it that…
 
Kathrin try this link for some views about Mass attendance and how just praying at home is not enough.It may be of help!!!
grigaitis.net/articles/guide/ -
www.catholicmissionleaflets.org/sunday.htm -

The Catechism is on this link

www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm -

I hope some of this is useful to you.I think the biggest way to express our Faith to others
is by our example.By our prayerful example and acts of charity etc Mass attendance we express our Faith without words.God bless you for your efforts
 
Kathrin said:
How do you talk with your Non-Catholic family members and friends about your Faith?

There are questions they sometimes ask that are sometimes difficult to answer! Such as:
  • Why do I need to pray if I know God’s will will be done anyway?
  • Why would God who has made the world need us to worship Him? Maybe he wouldn’t even WANT that?
    (Remembering there IS something in the Bible about this, right?)
  • What do I need to go church for, can’t everybody pray at home?
Click to expand...
I talk to nonbelievers CAREFULLY. Pushing my religion on them might turn them away. Then again, failing to incorporate religion into my discussion may make stagnate my faith-life. Most times, I regrettably fall into the latter type of personality. I try to speak about my faith in very covert terms, but this isn’t easy.
  • I don’t know how to answer your first question. I don’t know enough about God’s nature.
  • The second one is fairly easy to answer: God doesn’t NEED us to worship Him at all! At least…I don’t think so. From what I’ve learned, it seems that maintaining our relationship with God is something WE need. He is perfectly content by Himself and doesn’t need us.
  • I think the answer to that is up in the air as well, and if you want to see the Catholic view on it, I would advise talking to a Catholic apologist or clergyman.
Kathrin said:
I try to explain the ideal is to do things out of LOVE, not out of have-to. Of course as somebody who is very scrupulous, sometimes other people see that part of me and may tink my guilt comes from the church.
I explain that the church HELPS me with the guilt feelings.
Click to expand...
Those replies from the scrupulous people are - sad to say - ad hominem attacks. They attack your belief system and assume it is wrong without proving their claim. You to be able to explain WHY that ideal of love is plausible. Your conversation will ultimately boil down to a metaphysical dialogue with nonbelievers, a dialogue about your fundamental beliefs.
Kathrin said:
Do other people here have such conversations with other people, who are close to them, too?
Click to expand...
Yes. But I try to keep my sentiments low-key, especially when that someone who is “close” happens to be my mom!
Kathrin said:
Do you have any wisdom to share about how to “explain” your Faith?
Click to expand...
Reading. Lots and lots of reading. Reading from learned authors and conversation with learned people. Try to gain as much knowledge as you can about your subject matter before you try to explain it. Oh, and try to be smart about your inquiry, too. If you try to explain to someone that the world is flat, he/she won’t take you seriously.
 
KrazyKaiju said:
IThose replies from the scrupulous people are - sad to say - ad hominem attacks. They attack your belief system and assume it is wrong without proving their claim. You to be able to explain WHY that ideal of love is plausible. Your conversation will ultimately boil down to a metaphysical dialogue with nonbelievers, a dialogue about your fundamental beliefs.
Click to expand...
I am sorry, think I wrote that in a misunderstandable way.
I am myself the one who tends to be very scrupulous. I wanted to say that people hwo know me very well (like family members) may think my scrupulousness/guilt feelings comes from the church and say I’d be much freer otherwise.
I have to make sure they are aware that they have to keep those two things apart. That my Faith HELPS me with my sometimes really overactive conscience.
 
Kathrin said:
I am sorry, think I wrote that in a misunderstandable way.
I am myself the one who tends to be very scrupulous. I wanted to say that people hwo know me very well (like family members) may think my scrupulousness/guilt feelings comes from the church and say I’d be much freer otherwise.
I have to make sure they are aware that they have to keep those two things apart. That my Faith HELPS me with my sometimes really overactive conscience.
Click to expand...
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH…My bad. Sorry.😊

Sorry, I’m still not quite clear about the issue. Do you think you might be able to clarify that a bit more?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top