When family members still don't understand

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Besides praying for my family to understand better than they do now how can I help them to come to understand what the rosary is and what the miraculous metal and rosary stands for?
 
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Why do you feel the need? The rosary is lovely for those who wish to pray and meditate in this way but only when we come to it willingly and of our own volition.

Just maintain your practice personally. You don’t have to defend it, nor sell it. Prayer is personal and we were each given free will by God. Forcing religion on people usually backfires.
 
Google up “Contemplative prayer” and then point out that sacramentals are in the bible. You know, those kerchiefs and aprons touched to the Apostles and then used (with unwavering faith) to heal?
 
Can you specify what you mean by “family”? 🙂
Is your family Catholic? Do you mean family as in non catholic family? Non practicing?
 
po18guy said:
Google up “Contemplative prayer” and then point out that sacramentals are in the bible. You know, those kerchiefs and aprons touched to the Apostles and then used (with unwavering faith) to heal?
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I dont understand this post, how are you linking sacramentals to contemplative prayer.

Which sacramentals are in the Bible?
 
Catholic361 said:
Besides praying for my family to understand better than they do now how can I help them to come to understand what the rosary is and what the miraculous metal and rosary stands for?
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These are Marian Devotional items. Explain Mary is the Mother of God and we pray to her to ask for her intercession. We do not worship Mary. Then leave it at that.
They will understand or not. It might be better for them to absorb information little by little and to come back with questions so you can add on to the information.
Sometimes when people get a lot of information in one stretch, and it is new, or potentially unbelievable to them, they tune out or argue the point.
Just say hey this is my Rosary. I use it to pray the rosary and ask for Our Lady’s intercession. I can pray the Rosary without the beads.
The miraculous medal is the result of an apparition. I would just start with Mary and the Nativity, before I went into the Apparitions of Mary approved by the Church and why they happened, ie what was Mary’s message at that time?
 
Try to convince them to wear a Miraculous Medal. It has many great conversion stories.
 
If these family members you speak of are not Catholic or non-practicing, and especially if they are committed to a non-Catholic Christian church, I would suggest that zeroing in on rosary and miraculous medals is far too narrow and specific for where they are at. Those devotions are optional even for Catholics. There are many deeply faithful Catholics who do not make them a part of the practice of their faith. I’m not saying they are not beneficial, of course. They are just not required, nor are they universally embraced by each practicing individual.

I see that you are trying to build a bridge between you and these family members. Where are they at in their beliefs in God? We already know they don’t yet resonate with rosary and miraculous medals. Maybe start at beliefs you & they share, and proceed gently to less specific differences…

I feel your pain. Keep praying for them and loving them in ways they value.
 
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Just keep praying. You have had several threads asking how to get people to convert or understand, and we have all said the same thing. You cannot get someone to do something by force or by lecturing or talking about it all the time. Lead by example. When they see the difference everything has made in your life, they will want it for themselves. Until then, just pray.
 
As I understood it, the OP claimed that family did not understand 1) the Rosary and 2) miraculous medals and other sacramentals. Might be wrong on that though.
 
I came from a protestant background. I am the only catholic in my immediate family. All other family members are protestant to one degree or another (practicing/non practicing) mother and father are protestant (mother is a practicing to an extent, and father i’m not sure anymore) my brother is protestant by birth but not sure if he is still practicing or not do to his job.
 
Have they made rude comments and that’s why your asking about them to better understand? @Catholic361
 
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It is reasonably questionable if any of your family members will ever understand why Catholics pray the rosary. Part of the problem is that in reaction to some Catholics intense devotion to Mary and the rosary in the past, Protestants who were not “high church” saw it as idolatry.

If you want information which you could condense to some understandable but Scripture-based, then you might want to buy the book by Brant Pitre Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah.. It is about $16 on Amazon; or you might find it available for sale in a rack at a local parish (they may be able to obtain a special edition at a lower price).

In fact, I would recommend it for you even if you don’t intend to do the work to bring it down in bite-size chunks for them. And there are absolutely no guarantees they will even actively listen.

I have found many wonderful Protestant brothers and sisters, people who are very faith filled and love the Lord. And many of them are extremely wary (some, to put it politely) of Catholics and anything to do with the Catholic Church.

You don’t say your age; if you are still living in the family home you need to not ony be polite, but refrain from pushing issues they don’t want to hear. And that may include taking some “abuse” concerning Catholic issues. Charity would indicate a meek response.

On the other had, without going into a nuclear meltdown, if you are taking heat and not living at home, you may be justified in making it clear you are not going to pick at them about their faith background and understanding, and you expect the same respect to yours which you give to theirs.

No matter the result, Brant is awesome and I highly recommend any of his books.
 
I am in my mid thirties. I can’t even mention it when I go home to visit my family. So I don’t go back vary often only to help out when needed and on major holidays.
 
I still don’t get why you need to talk about religion all the time to your family. You don’t need to do that. You don’t need to stay away from them or limit your visits.
 
I don’t all the time, only comes up now when they ask a question about the faith.
 
If your family is Protestant, then they are going to have the greatest difficulties understanding things like sacramentals and devotion to Mary. To them the sacramentals may seem like superstition and devotion to Mary may seem like borderline idolatry. The central part of our faith is elucidated in the Nicene creed at mass. It might be wise to emphasize aspects of faith that are common to both your faith and theirs, because there is a lot of common ground.

I’m a revert. What compelled me to come back was the chaos of disagreement between various types of Christians especially in the secondary issues of belief. How are you supposed to know who is right when there are two very reasonable, biblically defended, but conflicting views? Did God really leave Christendom without ANY authoritative voice to steer us right and preserve unity? Once that authority issue was settled, I was able to come to terms with aspects of Catholicism that I had found more difficult to accept. So, they may not see the value of sacramentals and Marian devotions until they start to get the authority issue.
 
Exactly. My son is not a practicing Catholic. At the time he would have been confirmed, he elected not to…not to disrespect me or the church but because, as he put it, lots of other kids didn’t believe what was being taught but figured they would go along for the family party, gifts and to get along. He said if he does it, he wants to mean it.

Because I respected his choice, he respects mine and as a young adult can now talk with me respectfully about matters of faith. It cannot be a lecture or heavy handed. I think he has enough natural curiosity he will come back if his experience is not controlling and dogmatic…not on my time, but his. Of course I want him to actively practice Catholicism but God gave him free will and so I must respect that. What can I do but speak to him as an intelligent adult in balanced discussion and set an example? when I see an “in”, I take it, but only when he welcomes it. For example, I gave him a St. Christopher medal when he started driving and he mentioned the chain was broken, so I recently gave him a new chain and he sometimes wears it. When my father died, he was given Dad’s rosary and a child’s prayer book which Dad is pictured with at his first communion. My son didn’t understand so I taught him how the rosary is said and helped him download a rosary app to his phone.

He doesn’t go to church, but knows he is always welcome to join me One day maybe I will have an excuse to ask him to take me😬
 
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