Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit move everyone to Catholicism?

[EndTimes]

Why doesn’t God, or the Holy Spirit, lead all hearts that love and seek God towards Catholicism but instead are permitted to die without the truth of our Church revealed to them?

This presumes that God’s Holy Spirit hadn’t in some fashion led your Mom closer to Catholicism…
Recall (not that this applies) - you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink…
As said, Only God fully knows a person’s heart and mind and Faith level.
That said, none of us should involve in anything connected w/Judgement of anyone else.

And … just because you were led in some manner connected with your circumstances,
it’s not that God chose to lead you and did not opt to lead her.

IMO it’s you who are the one … in the best position to seek guidance on how to lead your Mom
even if she might not listen to you thus far.

_

 

[Catholic361]

I am in the same situation. I so badly want my family to come home to the faith and I don’t know if they ever will but I have to put them in the Lord’s hands , I pray that they will in my earthy life but if not I pray that they will come home if I am called home by the Lord before they are.

 

[MarthaSo]

I appreciate this perspective very much, I will dwell on it thank you. Are there any scripture verses or saints who speak on this in further detail? thank you again

 

[ThisOne]

Speaking as an adult convert, there’s an element of “it’s too good to be true” surrounding the Catholic faith. At least for me there was.

 

[MarthaSo]

I missed the full conversation so please excuse me if I’m off but I’ve been reading a bit of complaint from you on the extent of salesmanship and charismatic personalities as it relates to Christianity but in this post you mention you wish it were better sold. How would you like it sold better? Were St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas good salesmen? If not what are you looking for in a modern day Catholic salesman? I don’t like the term, i find it cheapens, but I want to follow your thought process.

 

[MarthaSo]

I had no idea how to bring up my faith, it’s easy to speak of God in general with her. So, today I brought her a framed Sacred Heart of Jesus and my rosary. I took out the Rosary and said “mom, I want to give you my rosary “ (I was going to bring these to the hospital so Jesus picture can keep her company but thank God she arrived home sooner. )Anyway, she very politely complimented it and told me to hang it up with the other ones on her dresser! Well I forgot she had a few already

 

[Guest1]

Without having to start a new thread… Does the church teach that The Holy Spirit can draw someone to a protestant church?

 

[Hume]

Were St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas good salesmen?

Gently and respectfully, they didn’t have to be. They had the cooperation of the State.

If not what are you looking for in a modern day Catholic salesman? I don’t like the term, i find it cheapens, but I want to follow your thought process.

Charisma. Positivity. A light touch. To be frank, anything that accompanies good sales tactics.

I’d suggest “The Psychology of Selling” or “How to Make Friends and Influence People”. Sources like that. As far as a Charisma and sales coach, I hold my own. But I’m not really your guy.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Does the church teach that The Holy Spirit can draw someone to a protestant church?

Not really, the explanation is heavily nuanced. From everything I’ve ever read, my “takeaway” is that the Holy Spirit leads people towards faith in Christ, but He does not always intervene to the extent that He could overcome people’s upbringing, their biases and preconceptions, and bring them “all the way home” to Catholicism. I am not entirely happy with this explanation — how can it be that He is powerful enough to convert and sanctify souls, yet He does not use His power to lead people away from error and towards truth? Why He does not do this is, as I said, a great mystery.

I absolutely cannot accept that the Holy Spirit could positively confirm someone into being expressly anti-Catholicism, the kind of theology you will find in Jack Chick comic books or the teachings of someone like Ian Paisley or Bart Brewer.

 

[Seekingthetruth]

I absolutely cannot accept that the Holy Spirit could positively confirm someone into being expressly anti-Catholicism, the kind of theology you will find in Jack Chick comic books or the teachings of someone like Ian Paisley or Bart Brewer.

Perhaps the holy spirit isn’t confirming them in their presumptions and biases but instead instilling truth in them in spite of them. We’re all fallen, and we all bear a cross of some sort; whether it’s lust, vanity, pride or judgement.

He does not always intervene to the extent that He could overcome people’s upbringing, their biases and preconceptions, and bring them “all the way home” to Catholicism

I think we see the opposite throughout the Bible though; for example Jonah’s preconceptions of Ninevah, as far as “bringing them all the way to Catholicism” as I understand Catholic eschatology everyone in Heaven is/will be Cathloic so in a way he does/will bring them all the way.

 

[EndTimes]

I had no idea how to bring up my faith, it’s easy to speak of God in general with her. So, today I brought her a framed Sacred Heart of Jesus and my rosary. I took out the Rosary and said “mom, I want to give you my rosary “ (I was going to bring these to the hospital so Jesus picture can keep her company but thank God she arrived home sooner. )Anyway, she very politely complimented it and told me to hang it up with the other ones on her dresser! Well I forgot she had a few already

Almost sounds as if giving more Rosaries to one who already has a bunch of them, might never have been the correct approach… Unto itself, a Rosary doesn’t bring an anti-Catholic to Catholicism; yes?

 

[Justin_Mary]

I appreciate this perspective very much, I will dwell on it thank you. Are there any scripture verses or saints who speak on this in further detail? thank you again

St Teresa tells us we are Christ’s body. Our feet are His feet. Our hands, eyes, hearts, etc…

If we follow Jesus, like Jesus we will pray for those who believe, that they will be one as the Father & the Son are one.

We, as Christ’s body pray for the same during every mass. Listen to the Eucharistic prayers. They’re not prayers for practicing Catholics, but that all who believe will be joined in unity through the Holy Spirit.

 

[Justin_Mary]

Not really, the explanation is heavily nuanced. From everything I’ve ever read, my “takeaway” is that the Holy Spirit leads people towards faith in Christ, but He does not always intervene to the extent that He could overcome people’s upbringing, their biases and preconceptions, and bring them “all the way home” to Catholicism.

He does, all the time. Lots of Converts who were Anti-Catholic at one time or another. Steve Ray, Marcus Grodi, Scott Hahn all had some level of anti-Catholicism in them.

Watch “The Journey Home” many, many converts who did not consider Catholics to be Christian.

I believe the Holy Spirit takes aim precisely at our preconceived “cultural” beliefs. It’s being opened to grace that allows true humility to unveil what is hidden by our misbelief.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Not really, the explanation is heavily nuanced. From everything I’ve ever read, my “takeaway” is that the Holy Spirit leads people towards faith in Christ, but He does not always intervene to the extent that He could overcome people’s upbringing, their biases and preconceptions, and bring them “all the way home” to Catholicism.

This is all the stuff of mystery, but it is hard to see how “the Holy Spirit takes aim precisely at our preconceived ‘cultural’ beliefs” (in all but the most exceptional cases, such as the ones you mentioned) when so many hundreds of thousands of people claim to be “Spirit-filled” or “led by the Holy Spirit”, yet would not embrace Catholicism for all the gold in Fort Knox. I’m sure there are many fundamentalist churches that claim to be led by the Holy Spirit, yet their knowledge of Catholicism is more informed by Jack Chick comic books than anything else. It does not exactly help when you read the daily news and see that yet one more Catholic bishop has resigned due to the sex abuse scandals, or one more priest has gotten caught up in this or that. The Catholic Church has a bit of an image problem these days.

Is the Holy Spirit among these Christians, and any inclinations towards Catholicism just get drowned out in all the prejudice and preconceptions? Or is there an entirely different “spirit” at work there? That, too, is the stuff of mystery.

 

[Seekingthetruth]

I believe the Holy Spirit takes aim precisely at our preconceived “cultural” beliefs. It’s being opened to grace that allows true humility to unveil what is hidden by our misbelief.

What about those who don’t have cutural biases but instead have doctrinal differences? Are they any less Spirit-filled?

 

[AlNg]

Speaking only for myself, it is very difficult to keep from murmuring at why the Holy Spirit allows people to remain outside of the Catholic Church, while prompting them to follow Christ and seek His will in their lives.

If the Catholic Church is the one true church — and I believe it is — it is hard to understand why the Holy Spirit doesn’t always “bring it all the way home”.

I agree. If you ask a mathematician what are the homology groups of the two torus, everyone will give the same answer, except perhaps those who have not studied homology theory. But after a certain period of study, all will agree on the values of H0, H1, and H2. However, this is not true in religion. People have spent their lives reading various Holy Scriptures and studying world religions and there is no universal agreement on Catholicism or some other religion being the correct or “true” religion.

 

[Pattylt]

Without having to start a new thread… Does the church teach that The Holy Spirit can draw someone to a protestant church?

Well, Protestant churches sure do. From an outsiders perspective it seems the Holy Spirit leads people all over the place. Then, each of them claims that only the real Holy Spirit leads them to their particular church! So, I’m still unsure exactly what the Holy Spirit is actually doing.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Speaking only for myself, it is very difficult to keep from murmuring at why the Holy Spirit allows people to remain outside of the Catholic Church, while prompting them to follow Christ and seek His will in their lives.

If the Catholic Church is the one true church — and I believe it is — it is hard to understand why the Holy Spirit doesn’t always “bring it all the way home”.

I have no earthly idea what you are talking about, and I think of myself as having received a fairly comprehensive liberal arts education. But I will look it up — you’ve piqued my curiosity

 

[AlNg]

I have no earthly idea what you are talking about

The point is that I don’t see universal agreement on which religion is correct even after a lifetime of study.

 

[MarthaSo]

hi, I actually didn’t remember she had the other one or two by her dresser, I just wanted to give it to her to give her a part of me as well as remind her “Hey, Catholic”.