Why are you Catholic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sinner1
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Sinner1

Guest
When I think about what brings people to a faith, or what keeps them in a faith, I come up with 4 main categories.

Which of the four is the primary reason that brought you to Catholicism or that is keeping you Catholic? There’s no wrong answer. Everyone I’ve talked to is Catholic for their own reasons.

1. Logic - Logically deducing that Catholicism is the right faith.

Examples:
-I have studied Christianity in depth and I realized that the Catholic Church is the true Church
-All the evidence in the Bible points to Catholicism
-I have read CS Lewis Mere Christianity and writings by Saint Augustine that led me to the Catholic Church
-I am convinced that the historical evidence points to Papal Infallibility, Apostolic Succession, etc.

2. Spiritual - Having a spiritual connection with the Catholic Church

Examples:
-I feel intimately connected with God when I go to Mass and/or receive the Eucharist
-I am deeply intrigued by the great spiritual writers of the Church
-Catholic spirituality always seems much more meaningful then other Christian faiths.

3. Emotional - Having a yearning that can only be satisfied by the Catholic Church

Examples:
-I need God
-I realized that everybody has a God-sized hole in their hearts that can only be satisfied by Jesus Christ through his Catholic Church
-I don’t know what I would do with my life if I left the Catholic Church

4. Experience - Following the Catholic faith based on a profound personal experience

Examples:
-I have witnessed a miracle
-I gave Catholicism a try, and my life was transformed
-Somebody I deeply admire is a devout Catholic, which led me to the faith
 
I cannot reply to the poll as no answer befits my reason.

I am Catholic, because it was the faith and practice handed down to me by my parents (and they theirs).

After much experience and study of religions; several protestant denominations, Islam, eastern philosophy and I spent years studying Judaism, it was my identity; Catholic. I am Catholic.

It is what was given to me, it was where God led me and it has been what I embrace as my own.

Do I agree with everything? Maybe, maybe not. Am I obedient to it? Yes.

So, perhaps if you added an “All of the above” then I would be able to vote.
 
I voted experience but Spiritual also applies for me. While I was born and raised Catholic, I left because I had questions that weren’t being answered, made the rounds, then the Lord lead me back to the Catholic Church because that’s where he wanted me to be and I have to also thanks Fr. Steven McLoud of St. Columbkille Parish and Sr. Donna Schauf BVM, my first grade teacher who now resides in Dubuque, who have been fountains of knowledge and encouragement during my return. I am both blessed and very thankful.
 
I said it was the spiritual, but it was also logic (and probably emotion, too) and experience. There needs to be a box for “all of the above”.
 
I think all Catholics have motives in all these areas. But primarily, my reason for being Catholic is logic. That the Catholic Church is and has always been pure truth, handed down from the Apostles, and that this is easily proven through Scripture and Tradition, resonates very strongly with me. And despite what some have told me, I think believing in God and order in the universe makes more sense than a colossal accident.

But I’ve also got some spiritual, emotional, and experience-related reasons. I think it would be hard to be Catholic without some meaningful, personal bits of my life that spur me on.
 
brigid12 said:
I said it was the spiritual, but it was also logic (and probably emotion, too) and experience. There needs to be a box for “all of the above”.
Click to expand...
If I put an “All of the Above” box, then everybody would just pick that. That would be no fun. 🙂

I’m interested in knowing the primary reason, though, which is why I made the poll 4 separate choices. I know most people don’t have one answer, but there is usually one driving factor.

For instance, somebody may be attracted to the Church because they felt a deep yearning for God. After studying Church history, they may begin to appreciate it from a logical standpoint. So even though they believe from a logical standpoint, I would still say it was their yearning, or the emotional aspect, that drove them to Catholicism in the first place.
 
I’m Catholic because God in His great mercy has blessed me with the faith. I was baptized as an infant - my siblings were too. We were raised by parents who taught us that our faith was a gift from God and a singular treasure.

I can’t respond to the questions in the poll. None apply or all do.
 
I also wonder why I converted to the Catholic Church. But I’ve the feeling that it’s the Right Church, and I’m so happy in it that I wouldn’t leave it. 😛

I think the 4 reasons do. 😉
That’s a good question anyway. 👍
 
Again, I’m not sure how to answer. It certainly wasn’t logic if that means that I was swayed by arguments for religion - I never even listened to them before, and I certainly never read anything to make me change my mind.

Spirituality, yes and no. I always knew that if I did become religious, Catholicism was the only church for me. However, I never expected to do so. I felt a connection to Catholicism, but I assumed it was cultural rather than spiritual, and it wasn’t that that led me to the Church.

Emotional… hmm… not exactly. I feel better, more positive, happier in the Church, but I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t joined it first.

I went with experience, since I suppose that answers your question best. I admired someone (my boyfriend) who was Catholic, but it wasn’t for him that I decided to become Catholic. It wasn’t really because of him, either. He planted a seed, certainly, but it wasn’t because of him. One reason was that I listened to a recording of a girl being exorcized, and that terrified me. I became certain that the Devil was real. Of course, if he’s real, God must also be real, because the Devil couldn’t exist without God.

I don’t know… it’s a slow process. It’s not as cut-and-dried as the poll makes it out to be.
 
I’m Catholic in responce to the faith I was given by God.

Faith came before religion.

Catholicism is a religion where I’ve grown deeper in my faith and where I’m strengthened and enriched in faith, through grace received in the Sacraments.

Without faith, religion, regardless of which one it is, makes little sense.

Jim
 
All of the above: logic, experience, spiritual, emotional and above all grace (good answer thistle!)
 
I was raised Catholic and left the Church for many years. When I returned 20 years ago, it was first because I felt drawn, called; it was an emotional, interior thing. I believed, and still do, that this is where God wants me. However, I’m a major questioner of everything, a real doubting Thomas, and when the initial emotion wore off (pretty quickly,) I had to rely on desire and logic. Logic is what keeps me there. Logic is how I work out the truth or probable truth of doctrine and how I respond to my natural questioning. It may be my own peculiar brand of logic, but it’s definitely a head thing as opposed to feelings.
 
I voted logic.

I can’t tell you why I am a theist, my faith that God IS does not seem to be a conclusion I draw, but a given.

I can’t tell you really why I am a Christian either. That God became man is pretty hard to swallow.

But given that God exists and that Christ was God incarnate, then the rest of the Catholic faith follows right behind.
 
ForMary said:
I cannot reply to the poll as no answer befits my reason.
Click to expand...
I did not vote, for the same reason. None of the options seemed to “fit” in my case.

I consider my Catholic faith to be a genuine, unmerited gift from Our dear Lord. A gift which I threw away, for a time. A gift which He has graciously restored to me, through the intercession of His Holy Mother. A gift which I will never again take for granted.

God bless and Happy New Year :snowing:
 
I too could not vote because all of them apply to me. I have been Catholic all my life and come from 2 Catholic families. Although my Grandfather and Grandmother on my dad’s side separated from the church in 72 my dad’s side has been Catholic before our ancestors moved from France in 1872 and my Mom’s side has been Catholic before they moved from Germany in the 1880s. I need God and have become more spiritual in the last couple of years and I do believe I witnessed miracles not exactly in the Church but I have witnessed miracles and I have done my research on faith. Catholicism is the only choice for me
 
I can’t divide it; it all hit me at once.
I felt a spiritual-physical pullt oward the CA home page, thent he logic of the library articles impressed me, then it hit me with a full-on wave, an emotional experience in response to the conclusion forming in my mind, to which I was guided spiritually and led through with a great deal of logic as well. It was then a long half-a-year, logical and experiential and emotional and intense spiritual things going on all mixed together, but from June '07 to around Dec. '08 God convinced me I needed to convert. In March I was confirmed, but really, in my heart, Ihad chosen as of approximately the week of 12/6/'07 – 12/13/'07; that was when our RCIA homework went over the few worries about the Church I had left (praying to Mary and saints), and expained it logically, so I was emotionally reassured that I was spiritually doing the right thing. I think my conversion can’t be broken down into parts. It was a flow.
 
I would have to say that for me it is logic. The logic of how the Church has remained for 2000 years primarily.
 
While a cradle Catholic, and deeply devout during childhood & early adolescence, I left the faith for a time (many years) during my questioning years of late adolescence. That included very serious journeys into Judaism & formal study with rabbis. Yet I have finally returned after several wanderings, sometimes in disgust with clergy behavior (not always of the sexual variety), sometimes in disgust with failures in leadership & passion.

It’s difficult to give a single reason, but the experience of the spirituality is primary. The five primary reasons for me:
(1) Nothing equals Catholic mysticism & the tradition of prayer
(2) Absolutely nothing else comes close to, let alone replaces, the sacraments. My personal experience of the sacraments is something I cannot deny or intellectualize away.
(3) Mary: She rocks. Has enormous personal importance to me.
(4) The lives of the saints & place of the saints in Catholic life.
(5) Intellectual foundation supports points 1 and 2 and additionally provides for an integrated theology.
 
I needed an “all of the above” answer. I converted I suppose mainly because of logic: I studied religions for years, everything from Wicca to Buddhism to Judaism, and none of them had the factual backing that Catholic Christianity does. But, I have also had serious spiritual and emotional experiences in my faith, as well as having experienced ‘miracles’. So it really isn’t an either/or in my case, it is most definitely an all of the above, even though logic led me there to begin with. Now that I’m here, it is totally and completely fulfilling, I have no desire to look anywhere else for what I need. God is so good to have lead me home to the one, true Church!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top