The things I like about Catholicism

[po18guy]

A seeking heart is pleasing to the Lord. As your understanding of the Catholic faith journeys along, you will come to appreciate the big picture. Now, certain things are unclear, confusing, even up setting. With understanding (and I’ll grant you that it took me years), and with that focus on the big picture - the macro - you will come to know that everything we do is Christ-centered.

Prayer to Saints for one example. First and foremost, they are fellow members of the Body of Christ. They are our examples in following Christ and leading lives of amazing holiness - for Christ. Prayer to them is asking those who love Christ perfectly to intercede on our behalf with the Son.

Mary? She was created by Christ to bring him to us. Since His birth, her purpose until the end of time is to lead us to Him. She knew Him better than anyone on earth, having spent all 33 years with Him.

Everything relates, in one way or another, to Christ. And it is true that Mary appears much larger from outside the Church than she does from within. She is the perfect model of humility and we are well advised to follow her example.

So, it is good that the silence and holiness of the physical building have appeal. Keep journeying, keep inquiring, keep praying. You will come to the fullness of the faith and it is captivating.

 

[Limoncello4021]

When I was young we had ovens with pilot lights lit by a match. As I child I always thought of the sanctuary light as the “pilot light”–here’s where the energy, the light, the heat is! God Himself! I have always felt a “presence” in the Catholic Church. By contrast, a Protestant Church seems to be just a nice room.
Many are speaking here about the silence/quietness of Catholic Mass, especially for those who really want to pray to God rather than socialize. Please look into Adoration, too, which is incredible in its peace. I hope churches in your area have it. I am very lucky to have Perpetual Adoration (since 1992 without stop!) one and a half blocks from my house.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

HomeschoolDad:

Modern-day “cafeteria” or “conscience” Catholicism, of course, puts all of this through the shredder.

You were doing fine until you came to that point. There is nothing in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church which has put anything through any “shredder”. The Holy Spirit still protects the Church from evil; and the 5,600 +/- bishops of the world still teach the Faith as it was before Vatican 2. No doctrines were overturned. No moral laws were reversed.

I never said that the magisterium did anything of the sort. I would certainly hope that none of these 5600+ bishops would teach that “cafeteria” Catholicism is acceptable. “Conscience” has become a hole big enough to drive a truck through — Our Lord did not found a teaching Church just to have would-be “faithful” to say “sorry, Church, I’m not listening to you, I’m following my ‘conscience’ instead”. What if Moses had told G-d “my conscience tells me I don’t have to go by a couple of those Commandments”?

 

[otjm]

I looked back and I think you and I were talking past each other.

I have beyone zero use for cafeteria Catholics, and my God have mercy not only on their souls, but also the souls of those who led them to that.

 

[GladTidings]

What do you like about non-Catholic churches?

 

[Procla]

My feelings exactly, CelticWarlord.

 

[Dovekin]

Modern-day “cafeteria” or “conscience” Catholicism, of course, puts all of this through the shredder.

As a conscientious Catholic, I love the truth about conscience:

In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor…
Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain “under the control of his own decisions,” so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man’s dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself through effective and skilful action, apt helps to that end. Since man’s freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God’s grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgement seat of God each man must render an account of his own life, whether he has done good or evil.
Gaudium et Spes 16-17

 

[HomeschoolDad]

HomeschoolDad:

Modern-day “cafeteria” or “conscience” Catholicism, of course, puts all of this through the shredder.

As a conscientious Catholic, I love the truth about conscience:

In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor…

No problem with G&S — it’s Church teaching. It is, and remains, the perennial teaching of the Church that the faithful must form their consciences in fidelity to the magisterium, and G&S says nothing to the contrary. I don’t mean that you suggested this, you obviously didn’t, but some would say that conscience is a free agent that must reign supreme, even over and above the teachings of the Church. That, I reject, and so does the Church.

 

[SeekHisFace]

Oh I love the preaching of Christ Crucified and raised from the dead, I love mid week prayer meeting, and I love the passion for the Word of God and commitment to each other. I love learning about l the glorious God et serve by studying His word. I know that not all churches are like this but all protestant churches I have attended are. I tend to prefer smaller more conservative churches in the puritan tradition.