Why is Catholicism So Hard to Understand?

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Rubrics are important, but I don’t recommend starting with that. I am also a convert to the Church, and I love studying theology. It’s the ultimate challenge - truly a lifetime’s process to learn how to see the world as the Church sees it and to internalize all the truths of the faith, so that we truly think like the Church thinks. Read the universal Catechism. Read papal encyclicals and letters. Read works of theology. Read the saints. Your knowledge of the liturgy and the rubrics will come naturally.

You will never exhaust your understanding of Catholicism just like you will never exhaust your understanding of God. The depth and breadth of Catholicism reflect her divine origin.
 
JaredR said:
You will never exhaust your understanding of Catholicism just like you will never exhaust your understanding of God. The depth and breadth of Catholicism reflect her divine origin.
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Awesome!
 
You certainly hit the nail square on the head! There IS, indeed, a lot of personal study time needed to truly know the Christian faith. That can’t be stressed too much. But, rest assured…all of the answers are out there. That’s one of the most assuring things about the Catholic Church. It has defined all of its beliefs, when necessary, over the period of 2,000 years and all the writings are still there for you to read today. I don’t think that Catholic faith is complex, but rather it is thorough as it has had to be with the challenges of the different heresies that have occurred over such a very long time. So, there’s much to read. But the basic tenets are the same as they always have been.
I think what will happen is that you are taught the basic “tenets” of the faith during your RCIA classes. So that you are accepting the important bits of Catholic faith. Then, perhaps throughout your entire adult life, you will read and study and learn the answers to all the questions that pop up in your mind. I do, every single day.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the faith! The Lord is truly great and I have confidence that He will lead you to all the answers you may have in the years to come.
 
TrueLight said:
Come on now. You know that’s not what I mean. I understood the concept of God’s love for us before I became interested in Catholicism.

In any case, I didn’t mean hard in terms of hard to understand but as another poster pointed out, there seems to be a lot of doctrines/practices one has to absorb.
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Quite frankly, there isn’t that much. The must-haves are basically the following:

The Creed.
The Ten Commandments and Precepts of the Church.
The Sacraments and the Christian Life.
Christian Prayer

Rubrics and stuff, Canon Law and Redemptionis Sacramentum and the GIRM are becoming fashionable among the laity because in many places, the clergy have failed the faithful by not giving them authentic Catholic worship and doctrine, so many laity have had to learn for themselves and know what is right. Thank God this is not true everywhere.
 
Excellent posts through out this thread!

I would just like to say, Our life in Christ through His Church is a life long process.
Our final hope is in His Resurrection.
The most important part of our Catholic faith is the Mass itself, It is what must be understand completely.
It is the very center of our Catholic worship. It is what we are to live. And is the most important of all.
Peace, Carlan!

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HI Truelight

Many people have mentioned St Therese of Liseux for a reason. My advice is to put down all of those encyclicals and the GIRM and pick up The Story of a Soul which is her autobiography.

Read it once and then read it again. The depth of beauty in that book and the incredible simple way in which she explains what Faith and Love is is just awesome. She is my patron saint because all I desire is to have her child like faith.

I know plenty of people that have never even heard the work encyclical and are great Catholics and worthy of admiration. They will probably get to heaven much faster than I will too.

I think reading her book and others that are not so on the ‘cerebral’ side will be a great counterbalance to what you have been doing. Also, if you fall in love with her she can be your patron saint too! 👍

God Bless you and welcome Home!!
 
porthos11 said:
Quite frankly, there isn’t that much. The must-haves are basically the following:

The Creed.
The Ten Commandments and Precepts of the Church.
The Sacraments and the Christian Life.
Christian Prayer
.
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Oh that’s not bad at all. 🙂
 
porthos11 said:
Quite frankly, there isn’t that much. The must-haves are basically the following:

The Creed.
The Ten Commandments and Precepts of the Church.
The Sacraments and the Christian Life.
Christian Prayer
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Coincidentally (but not really ;)), those are the four main sections that the Catechism is divided into:

scborromeo.org/ccc.htm
 
well, i’m studying to become catholic and it is really difficult but i’m not so negative when it comes to difficulties because these may actually make you stronger.
but the church need to be better at speaking with people. there are certain things the church takes for granted that outsiders may not even know so the church are not too good at speaking with people.
 
To understand Catholicism there are a few things that one must first believe.that the Church was founded by Christ,that the Pope was left in charge to guide and direct It through the interworking of the Holy Spiirit and that the Pope is infallible when making statements on faith and morals.If one believes this then they can gradually learn why the Church does what it does.The Pope was given much leeway in how He was to bring the world to salvation.
 
Catholicism is hard to understand because it has had to reflect of every world view in its presentation. It debates other religions, heretics (gnostics), pagans (greco-Roman), Jews, Muslims, philosophy, agnostics, athiests &c.

Essentially our Gospel begins at creation, goes thru the Israelites until the perfect Israel (Jesus) becomes the suffering servant and the faith and sonship of Abraham is opened to everybody. THis economy of salvation is worked out over the walk of our whole life.

Initially, there is no requirement for knowledge because infants could not meet any requirement but as we grew (whether we are in the faith from infancy or an adult convert as you are Truelight) we are educated and introduced to the sacraments and taught what prayer is and who famous Saints were.

In asking how much is enough, you may as well ask that about any education. How much do you need to know about computers to use a PC? Unless you want to work in that Industry.

If you’ve come from a Protestant Church, this was still pretty much what you would’ve experienced. First you hear that Jn 3:16 is enough, then there is always something else to learn and consider, including history and significant Church heroes.

It will take our whole lifetimes to understand Scripture itself. An eastern book, translated into our languages and cultures. over centuries. good luck trying to get it all… but then again, if you just keep reading and studying and being humble enough to learn as you go then you will be greatly blessed and receive God’s blessing in each part of your life.

In Sum, Catholicisms difficult because all of life is difficult.:highprayer:
 
TrueLight said:
But at the same time is one also missing out on the beautiful complexity of the faith if one only does the above?
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In a way - yes. But knowing everything does not guarantee that we will be immersed in the faith. I know a few people who have a good knowledge of the Catholic faith but don’t have faith. It is an intellectual thing for them, nothing more. Ideally, it all goes together but sometimes people focus on knowledge but don’t go deeper. If I were you I would read a lot but also pray a lot. You might discover that you are interested in some acpects of the faith more than in others. Prayer will lead you.
 
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