what made you decide?

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jmcrae said:
Which one? (Just curious.)
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I initially went to the seekers classes at St John the Baptist Antiochian Orthodox Church in Post Falls Idaho, as well as attending Divine Liturgy/Holy Qurbana/Mass at every Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Western Rite Orthodox, and even Byzantine Catholic church in driving distance. I also went to a Traditional Latin Mass and even visited the SSPX one time.

I became part of Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Butte Montana a week ago today.

Jeremiah
 
KarenElissa said:
Hi, I’m looking into the RCC right now and I’m interested in hearing about what made you decide to become Catholic. I’m also interested in hearing from people who have looked into the RCC, but decided not to become Catholic.

How did you make your decision? What influenced you? Why did you start looking into it? What was the deciding factor?

Thanks!

Karen
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I’m a brand new Catholic (for all of one week now!) who decided to join the Church after two years of personal study (including 5 months of RCIA). I had been a Christian (non-denom) for about 5 years when a Catholic co-worker made the comment that the Catholic Church held the “fullness of the truth”. That struck me as a very arrogant statement (considering how many different denominations were out there) and so off I went to see why she might believe that. The more I studied the more amazed I was to see how beautiful the Catholic Church is. I delved as deeply as I could into a study of doctrines I had issue with (perpetual virginity of Mary, confession to a priest, the real presence in the Eucharist, etc). Each time I studied an issue I found more Biblical evidence for the Catholic position than the Protestant. Not to mention the fact that I found the logic behind many Protestant theologies to be faulty. After much prayer and study I enrolled in the RCIA program at my local parish and started attending the Mass. I was confirmed this Easter and after the service (and my first communion) I was filled with this incredible sense of peace. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. I am unbelievably happy with the decision I made.
As for what influenced my decision, it was a variety of things. There were my studies (I read both Catholic and anti-Catholic resources in order to get the view from both sides), talks with Catholics I work with, and a lot of prayer. In the end, the evidence pointed to the Catholic church. If you’re looking for a good book on the basics I either recommend Catholicism for Dummies or Why Do Catholics do That? Both give a good, basic understanding of Catholic practices. Good luck with your search for the truth!!!
 
rr1213 said:
How does the concept of a confirmation saint work? And now I’m curious… who is your saint? (Or is that private…don’t mean to offend).
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I would be glad to share, no offense taken at all:)

A confirmatin saint is a saint that you pick for traits that you admire. Usually, it is one of your names, first or middle that you pick a saint from. My confirmation saint was St. Catherine de’ Ricci

Here is a little snippet from Ask the Apoligist on confirmation
saints. It is to help with a deeper understanding of exactly what the “communion of saints” really means.

I hope this helps.

God Bless,
Maria
 
littlepaperstar said:
I didn’t decide. My parents decided for me and baptized when I was a baby because they are catholic…I am not sure being catholic is the right choice for me and if I have children, I don’t know if I want to baptize them catholic.
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From your comments you don’t sound as if you practiced your faith often as a child. Did your parents get involved at church aside from attending mass? Did they bring you to mass regularly even? We can’t expect to have a solid relationship with God, Our Lord and Savior, if we don’t make time for Him. How do we build our friendships… by hanging out together often… maybe you should come sit before the Lord in Adoration and ask Him to help you feel His presence in your Life. I’m sure we spend far more time with our friends or our jobs, sports, hobbies, etc. But, it is God we must thank for all that we are, and all that we have been blessed with in our life. To God give the glory! We are nothing without Him. In the end, nothing matters but eternity with our Father. The very God, who loves us so much, despite our sinfulness, sent His only Son, to walk this earth, to teach us of our Father and His great love for us and the mercy He wants to share with us. It boggles my mind that people will trust the succession of presidents, which is just history handed down… I never knew George Washington personally, did you?.. but they will question the succession of popes, which is recorded back to Peter, in Whom Jesus said Peter is the foundation on which He will build His church. Don’t you think the devil is causing that doubt? I sure do… He will do anything to take us away from our God.

to be continued on next post! (I write too much… faith can’t just be put in a nutshell, sorry!)
 
littlepaperstar said:
I didn’t decide…I am not sure being catholic is the right choice for me and if I have children, I don’t know if I want to baptize them catholic.
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as promised…

In response to the comment that people don’t want to baptize their children so they can decide for themselves later when they are older… You are a gift by God to your parents. Hopefully it was out of love for your very soul that they brought you to be baptized. And it was their responsibility to raise you to come to know, love and serve the Lord. To choose not to baptize your child, so they can make that decision for themselves later… is like saying, I won’t send my child to school to learn, until they want to make that decision for themselves… by then, valuable years would be missed. If we care enough to teach our child the ABC’s, how to read, write, etc., then we certainly must care enough about where they will spend eternal life, right? A baby/child is dependent and trusting on his/her parents to lovingly take care of them and look out for their well-being. How else would they learn the Catholic faith to make such a decision later… unless they were raised in it to see the goodness in it. There’s so much to learn about our faith and from my own experience, we’re all still learning. It’s not coincidence that faithful people have happier, more peaceful lives. They know God loves them so much and wants the very best for them and they usually share that mesage with others. If you’re not raised in your faith from early on, why would you care about it later? You wouldn’t know much about the goodness of God to make an informed decision. Christ’s Church does nothing to hurt anyone… God is always God… His Truth is always the Truth… His love and mercy is always waiting for us. He will not foresake you. It is man that fails one another by listening to the lies of the devil, by falling to sin, by failing to live out their faith daily, by lowering the standards of virtuous living. This is not God’s choice for us… that’s us using our freewill poorly. The devil is very real. He will deceive and make you believe lies, just to keep you from receiving your Lord and Savior in Body and Blood, because He knows we receive strength from God in doing so! Keep your eyes, ears and heart on the Word of God and listen to the teachings of His Catholic Church and you will see why it is so important to baptize your children from birth and why you should care very much to put your energy into learning your faith better. Lives are destroyed, because people put their trust in other things of this world… Treating the Sacraments as if they are just fun “events” or “milestones” (to be recorded for memory sake) is to miss out on the very graces given by God from receiving them. Being baptized Catholic is about being claimed by God, that you belong to Him and His Church. The Catholic Church is the means through which our Lord can help us to strengthen our relationship with Him. All that the Church teaches has been handed down by God through Jesus to Peter and the succession of popes to be handed down generation upon generation through bishops and priests to reach out to all the ends of the earth…so all may come to know and love God. The Church does not turn their back on us, if anything, we turn our back on the Church. Mass is happening whether you are present or not, people are receiving reconciliation whether you are there or not, but when one of our members is lost, the entire church does suffer… regardless what people think… and the individual suffers to. Together, we are One Body. We must support and encourage one another. Sounds like you just need a little guidance towards the explanation of your Catholic beliefs, which can be found in “Beginning Apologetics 1 - How to Explain and Defend the Catholic Faith, by Father Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham.” (pretty easy reading) Sadly, too many Catholics have put jobs, sports, vacations and everything else in between before God Whom we are called to love above all things. In putting God aside Monday thru Saturday we are saying, Lord, I don’t need to bother with you more than once a week (and if even that much)… and then we wonder why we don’t understand our faith well? We wonder why marriages are failing? We wonder why life is being threatened? We wonder why it appears nobody cares for one another when you turn on the media these days… no Jesus no peace, know Jesus know peace! We can only know our Lord, if we spend time with Him. Trust that the Lord will reveal His Truths to you, if you just say, “Lord, teach me your ways, speak your Truth to me. Help me to understand my faith that was given to me.” He is listening to your heart. May the Holy Spirit lead you to a stronger understanding of your Catholic faith, so that you will find much purpose behind your baptism!
 
MariaG said:
I would be glad to share, no offense taken at all:)

A confirmatin saint is a saint that you pick for traits that you admire. Usually, it is one of your names, first or middle that you pick a saint from. My confirmation saint was St. Catherine de’ Ricci

Here is a little snippet from Ask the Apoligist on confirmation
saints. It is to help with a deeper understanding of exactly what the “communion of saints” really means.

I hope this helps.

God Bless,
Maria
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Thanks Maria.
 
I just wanted to thank all of you who have responded. Thanks for sharing. My brain is spinning to fast right now to formulate much more of a reply, but I appreciate it.
 
Justpray14

That was beautifully written. And I can honestly say I am really touched by what you said. I never felt that way to anything else I read on a message board. I will send you a reply when I am on next.
 
Total confusion within protestantism forced me into an eight month period of contemplative and meditative prayer. The ONE thing that I could not reconcile was “communion” being symbolic.
The Holy Spirit did the rest because I would’ve bet the farm against becoming a Catholic on my own volition!! I’ve never been so blessed nor happy in my faith journey. Hope the same for you too.
Easter peace~
 
These boards helped make the decision.

There are truly wonderful people here who embody so much humanity, wisdom, kindness and humility.

And then there are the Catechism Quoters, who embody few or none of these things.

The Philistines recast in in iron. Like it had never happened.

Much evil is done by people who are not evil, merely ‘principled’.

My choice is for the obvious order and structure of a scientific paradigm, and the on-going accumulated observations, interpetations and understandings of our civilisation, over the purely theoretical world of theology.

And that decision comes from what I have seen here.
 
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