What are the reasons I should (or shouldn't) become Catholic?

[Jessica_Girardi]

Re: Praying is good but learning how to pray is vital.
Praying is a relationship with God. Praying to other titles and names is not in the bible. Moses was used of God and even Esther was used of God we do not pray to them and there is a reason. First because prayer is a relationship with God. Praying to another name is simply stating to have a relationship with someone other than God. But let’s not take my opinion for it let’s examine the bible together…
Genesis 25:21
Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
Genesis 25:20-22 (in Context) Genesis 25 (Whole Chapter)
Genesis 32:9
Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
Genesis 32:8-10 (in Context) Genesis 32 (Whole Chapter)
Genesis 32:11
Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
Genesis 32:10-12 (in Context) Genesis 32 (Whole Chapter)
Exodus 8:8
Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD.”
Exodus 8:7-9 (in Context) Exodus 8 (Whole Chapter)
Exodus 8:9
Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”
Exodus 8:8-10 (in Context) Exodus 8 (Whole Chapter)
The above are examples of praying to God in the Old testament. Now note how we are taught to pray in the New Testament
in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
Romans 1:9-11 (in Context) Romans 1 (Whole Chapter)
2 Corinthians 1:11
as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
2 Corinthians 1:10-12 (in Context) 2 Corinthians 1 (Whole Chapter)
2 Corinthians 9:14
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.
2 Corinthians 9:13-15 (in Context) 2 Corinthians 9 (Whole Chapter)
Ephesians 1:16
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Ephesians 1:15-17 (in Context) Ephesians 1 (Whole Chapter)
Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:17-19 (in Context) Ephesians 6 (Whole Chapter)
Philippians 1:4
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy
Philippians 1:3-5 (in Context) Philippians 1 (Whole Chapter)
Philippians 1:19
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
Philippians 1:18-20 (in Context) Philippians 1 (Whole Chapter)
1 Thessalonians 1:2
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith ] We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 (in Context) 1 Thessalonians 1 (Whole Chapter)
1 Timothy 2:1
Instructions on Worship ] I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—
1 Timothy 2:1-3 (in Context) 1 Timothy 2 (Whole Chapter)
2 Timothy 1:3
Encouragement to Be Faithful ] I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
2 Timothy 1:2-4 (in Context) 2 Timothy 1 (Whole Chapter)
Philemon 1:4
Thanksgiving and Prayer ] I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers,
Philemon 1:3-5 (in Context) Philemon 1 (Whole Chapter)

See in the above they prayed to Lord,God never to a person who worked for God. Afterall he is the supreme and there is none like him.This whole earth thing is not to make other Gods but to be a relashionship with the one true God. P.S. These are only some scriptures on prayer to view them all search biblegateway.com and enter “pray” and or “prayers”

 

[Hellisreal]

I’m curious as to what are the reasons that I should or shouldn’t become Catholic in your opinions.

Firstly,

You should not if you dont agree with the theology or agree with the dogmas.

You could remain in the place you are and I know God’s providence will envelope you as you are seeking in a pure and honest heart.

Yet, if you knock, you will find.

I pray the Holy Spirit will lead you to wherever you ought to be and I will pray that you too are praying this with me

Ask, and you shall recieve

And, after reading many of your posts here I think you are in a better place than I am in regard to spirituality.

That would be another thread though.

Dont ever give up the fierce determination in your heart you have for anything.

Keep up keeping up.

Dont let posters here determine if the Catholic Church is for you or not

(I know you won’t anyway)

Let it be God’s will for you

I will pray

Pray for me if you will

 

[mercygate]

Thank you.

We’ll get Edwin in next.

God bless.

Edwin is walking his road with integrity. Yup: I’m praying for him. But he’ll be OK. He’s got his eye on the Boss. Each person’s timing is different. The Lord has him in His cross-hairs.

 

[mercygate]

No!

That’s what people say who do not know Greek (or Hebrew). That’s also what anti-Christian and anti-Catholic crusaders say, equally ignorant, and with an axe to grind.

Saying so does not make it so.

The historical dimension of the NT (say) is as great as that for any such text of its time, and greater than that of many, such as Roman biography.

If it were purely made up, it would have a. excluded everything incredible and b. be perfectly seamless.

God bless.

The manuscript evidence supporting the New Testament is stronger, wider, and deeper than for any other text of the period. There are literally thousands of manuscripts – some nearly complete, some mere fragments – but the textual corroborations hold together across families of manuscripts and from language-to-language.

 

[AgnosTheist]

No!

That’s what people say who do not know Greek (or Hebrew). That’s also what anti-Christian and anti-Catholic crusaders say, equally ignorant, and with an axe to grind.

irrelevant. without the originals there is no way of knowing for certain.

Saying so does not make it so.

same to you.

The historical dimension of the NT (say) is as great as that for any such text of its time, and greater than that of many, such as Roman biography.

if anything the NT’s historical value is for telling us how people think & behave at that time. but all those magic stuff, nah.

If it were purely made up, it would have a. excluded everything incredible and b. be perfectly seamless.

and what is incredible about the NT?

 

[aristotle]

OOOOH. That put a whole different face on things.

Ancient Athens.
Slavery…

I think slavery is a wonderful idea that exists in all but name here in the United States.

Absolute subjugation of women.

Hardly. Some philosophers even favored the equality of women, and some were allowed into the great schools of philosophy.

Some were very-much against equality for women, such as Aristotle. They were mistaken. And if Rome had not destroyed their culture, they sould have discovered the mistakes, and improved. Greece was the society closest to Utopia.

Pedophilia. Exploitation of satlellites to keep demogogery going at home (Delian League). Ethonocentrism. Racism.

Sounds very similar to here in the US. Ancient Greece wasn’t perfect. But it was better even than the United States.

Government of the few…

The best government is an aristocracy of those who are more capable over those who are not. Just as a father should rule the household, just as a master his slaves, so the few who are capable leaders should rule over those incapable.

America has a similar system, except we have incompetant people, i.e. Bush/Clinton/name it, running things.

Intellectual freedom of the intellectual. Hmmm, and everybody else?

Everyone should do what they can. I make a better physicist than most, so I should work in Physics. There are those who are made to rule, and they should rule over people like me.

Btw I’m a product of the University of Chicago, so whatever you can do, I can do meta.

Cute.

Homosexuality an ideal form of love. Hmmmmm, won’t that keep your population down?

Who said reproduction should have anything to do with love? Love of man for man, or of woman for woman, is love of a sexual likeness, related more purely than any other form of love. But men and women should still practice sex for the sake of procreation.

Love without any possibility of it bearing fruit. Seems self absorbed.

Not everything self-absorbed is bad. God is very self-absorbed.

Besides, the love has much fruit, just not in terms of children. The fruit is in the expended energy, and in the willingness to create in imagination together.

Secular education. Hmmmmm, the public school system has been such a roaring success since they took prayer out of school.

A mistake, one of many, I agree. It is because of the lack of corporal punishment, and because of the lack of understanding that children are less capable than their parents and teachers, and thus should be, until they mature, in a sense slaves of their parents and teachers.

Every education system has an ideology, its just a question of which one. Btw I teach HS in the inner city by choice, giving up a university position to do so because I thought it important.

Good for you. My wife tried that. Didn’t work out very well.

As for Athens height of culture, I remember a study on ancient Egyptian rheotoric, where the trechant remark was made that to the Egyptian mind truth made rhetoric “it was left to the Greeks to discover that rhetoric could serve lies as well.”

As Aristotle well understood. Rhetoric should serve Truth, but can serve lies. Like any sword, it can protect the innocent, or cut them down.

You won’t be happy in the Latin Church, which I take on your take on what’s important in this world and the next.

I don’t understand.

Since your preceding post states you don’t have time for books. Not for the Good Book. Not for the Greatest Story Ever Told. They wouldn’t want to bother you with the folly of the Cross.

I have read the Bible. In the Greek, it is beautiful, amazingly written, maybe one of the most eloquent compositions in existence. It seems to me but a very nice story.

I have time for great books. The Bible is one. Maybe the ones you suggest are as well. But why should I read them, when you seem to be uninterested in defending them?

 

[aristotle]

The ‘Roman’ in Roman Catholic was used in the Reformation as a smear against the Church.

The name has been adopted by Catholics themselves over the hundreds of years since then.

It is not an official name of the Church. The Church is the ‘Catholic Church’ and that’s that!

I do not want to be captive to Constantine.

 

[estesbob]

I do not want to be captive to Constantine.

I Hope you’re not implying that the Catholic church was founded by Constantine? Such ridiculous statements are met with “rolling eyes” by most Catholics in these forums.:hypno:

If you want people to take you serious then put forth serious arguments.

 

[aristotle]

I Hope you’re not implying that the Catholic church was founded by Constantine? Such ridiculous statements are met with “rolling eyes” by most Catholics in these forums.:hypno:

I would never defend something so rediculous. But it would be equally rediculous to state that Catholics were not influenced by Constantine.

Here’s what I intended: I do not want to be under the Pope, who calls himself a Bishop of Rome. Neither do I want to become Byzantine, though they are closer to Greece, and so better, in my mind. They still are seeds of Constantine, as many still define their councils by old Emperors, and by a patriarchate that bears his name.

If you want people to take you serious then put forth serious arguments.

I am only arguing about names right now. Philosophy and history will come later. I need to understand why things are called as they are first.

History will be a barrage of questions (and probably in the apologetics forum), as I am terribly ignorant on this subject, as on many.

 

[estesbob]

I would never defend something so rediculous. But it would be equally rediculous to state that Catholics were not influenced by Constantine.

Here’s what I intended: I do not want to be under the Pope, who calls himself a Bishop of Rome. Neither do I want to become Byzantine, though they are closer to Greece, and so better, in my mind. They still are seeds of Constantine, as many still define their councils by old Emperors, and by a patriarchate that bears his name.

I am only arguing about names right now. Philosophy and history will come later. I need to understand why things are called as they are first.

History will be a barrage of questions (and probably in the apologetics forum), as I am terribly ignorant on this subject, as on many.

Fair enough.

 

[slo2lurn]

I really don’t know much but here goes.

My favrite Martn
You have asked why didn’t they rush to take a bite of Jesus. The answer has been supplied to you several times. The answers is “because they did not believe”. Just like you do not believe. St Peter believe and the rest of disciplies believe to but they did not know how it was to happen. It was not until the last supper that Jesus took the bread and said this is my body and took the wine and said this is my blood they understood. The catholic church has understood from day one but now many still refuse and they run away. I rush to take a bite every time I have a chance when I go to mass because I believe.

 

[allischalmers]

I can’t believe anyone could read John Chapter 6 and say it is just about faith without signs! Jesus says over and over and over again (how could he have made it more clear to you) that you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. “My flesh is food indeed. My blood is drink indeed.” If you are brave enough, please look up the historical documents of the early Christians. There are letters and apologies written by early Christians during the time of the apostles and shortly thereafter. It is a matter of historical fact that the earliest Christians believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. But only read these historical documents if you are ready for the Truth. But if you want to persist in your denial, don’t. Did you know that there have been around 450 protestant ministers who have reconciled to the Catholic Church in the last 10 years, and about the same number are in the pipeline? They must have discovered the historic documents of the early Christians and couldn’t find their denominations there.

I have searched the ECF and have never found the words 'real presence" used by the ECF. Also how many Catholic Preists have left the Catholic Church in the last ten years. I personally know two, both now Baptist ministers, one of which has spoken in our church

 

[estesbob]

I have searched the ECF and have never found the words 'real presence" used by the ECF. Also how many Catholic Preists have left the Catholic Church in the last ten years. I personally know two, both now Baptist ministers, one of which has spoken in our church

Sound like were arguing about semantics. Although they didn’t use the word “real presence” we know that term refers to the bread and wine physically been the body and blood of Christ. And there is voluminous writings from Church fathers affirming this.:

*We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration * and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).
Irenaeus

*“If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?” (Against Heresies 4:33–32 [A.D. 189]).

“He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life—flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?” (ibid., 5:2).
Clement of Alexandria

*"’Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children" (The Instructor of Children 1:6:43:3 [A.D. 191]).
Tertullian

*"[T]here is not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. The flesh, indeed, is washed [in baptism], in order that the soul may be cleansed . . . the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands [in confirmation], that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds [in the Eucharist] on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may be filled with God" (The Resurrection of the Dead 8 [A.D. 210]).
Hippolytus

*"‘And she [Wisdom] has furnished her table’ [Prov. 9:2] . . . refers to his [Christ’s] honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper *" (Fragment from Commentary on Proverbs [A.D. 217]).

---

 

[qui_est_ce]

Hey- to each, his own. Right? Unless you have a card under your sleeves that makes your ‘truth’ objectively more credible than theirs.

I have been following your posts and I am in awe of your perceived sense of superiority because you think you are smarter than the average man.
Mean-spirited intellectual snobbery has no place here. If you want to challenge us, go ahead, but do it with as open a mind as you expect us to have in reading your posts.

Academic superiority is not the be all and end all of Catholicism. There are many humble servants in the CC who have no knowledge of apologetics, but their simple faith has witnessed to many. St. Maria Goretti, St Agnes, St. Theresa of the Little Flower, to name a few.

You find humor in making fun of what people believe in and people who are intellectually inferior to you. No wonder you left the CC.

 

[AgnosTheist]

your perceived sense of superiority

I wonder what gave you that idea. I never made fun of anybody here, much less insult someone’s intelligence.

You find humor in making fun of what people believe in and people who are intellectually inferior to you. No wonder you left the CC.

Its not intelligence that finally drove me, but the sheer bigotry, intolerance and how christians bash each other. each one saying “i am right”, “we are the true church”, “you are a flawed church”, “you are not a true christian”, etc.

That caused me to dig deep and examine the root of christianity: its bible and traditions. Both are baseless, its not worth living for and fighting for. Bye bye christianity. Count me out.

 

[BostonMyrtleBea]

If you don’t enter the Church you must burn in hell forever. There is only one Church. Outside of her there is no salvation.

That’s hard-core. I can’t say I agree that everyone who isn’t Catholic is going hell. My husband isn’t Catholic, and I don’t think that means he’s automatically going to burn in hell.

 

[aristotle]

That’s hard-core. I can’t say I agree that everyone who isn’t Catholic is going hell. My husband isn’t Catholic, and I don’t think that means he’s automatically going to burn in hell.

Neither does the Pope; you are in good company.

 

[estesbob]

I
That caused me to dig deep and examine the root of christianity: its bible and traditions. Both are baseless, its not worth living for and fighting for. Bye bye christianity. Count me out.

And if we become atheists will be as smart as you? Will we also be able to make profound statements like you have above with absolutely nothing to back it up?

This is the feast of St. Augustine He vehemently disagrees with you. Have you read any of his works. Wouldn’t that be more effective than trolling Catholic forums and telling us how wrong we are?

 

[BostonMyrtleBea]

Neither does the Pope; you are in good company.

Well, I must speak from experience with a situation of intolerance. I had someone from a cult - the Boston Church of Christ - try to convert me b/c I was going to hell for being a Catholic. They started spewing Bible quotes, yadda, yadda, yadda. I would be convinced NOT to convert to a religion with that kind of explanation as a reason to convert. I suppose EVERY religion has someone who feels that way, but I’ll be honest - it’s a real turn off and most religions use the same reason anyway, so how’s a non-believer supposed to decide. It doesn’t help the cause, it hurts it (not that I’m into converting people).

 

[AgnosTheist]

And if we become atheists will be as smart as you?

thank you if you think i’m smart. i am just like everybody, smart in some things, completely stupid in other things. we all have our gifts and weaknesses.

i am not an atheist and changing philosophies does not guarantee an increase in intelligence. for me when I left Christianity what I gained most was respect for other people. i can now genuinely love a catholic, protestant, mormon, hindu, muslim & atheist UNCONDITIONALLY. i also gained a better appreciation of humanity. and of course the freedom & time/money saved from going to religious gatherings.