D
dnewbern
Guest
Please help! Here’s my situation:
I’m 46 and cradle Portuguese-Catholic, my wife is 42, African American and fundamentalist charismatic.We’re both college educated–I have an MPA and she has a B.S.
We get along fine in many ways, and love each other.
We have six children aged 6 months ro age 14. Our two eldest are from her previous marriage and her ex-husband doesn’t support or contact them, but sends an occasional card. I work two jobs to support our family, and am the sole breadwinner.
When we married in 1996, I was a lukewarm Catholic. I agreed to attend her church with her, and went along with not baptizing our future children–after all, she already had 2 children and was raing them Protestant, though they were not “baptized” in her church.However, I never agreed to joing her church and still claimed my Catholic faith.
What a difference children make!!! As our children were born, I’ve become “on fire” for my faith. I openly attend Mass, and sometimes take the kids, but may wife doesn’t like it when I do.
She had a good Mother’s Day, but we had a discussion about “worshipping” Mary. She said that she preferred that I not attend the Mother’s Day Fatima procession, which I haven’t attended in years. I said that because I had to work, I only planned to go to regular Mass.
She said that she could not understand why Catholics “worship” Mary. I explained to her the difference between “worship” and "devotion", and that “devotion” meant the same as being devoted to the memory of a loved one or historical figure and building a monument or visiting their grave…
She exclaimed…“well, those are just excuses! Paul admonished his followers NOT to worship him, but to worship God only!” I explained that an accusation of worshipping Mary is accusing me of idolatry, a serious sin. I also expained Luke Ch. 1 again when the Angel appeared to Mary.
She said that " I’ve read Like Ch.1 many times! Your just making excuses! There’s no reason to worship Mary!" I should pray, yes, but what else can I do??
I’m 46 and cradle Portuguese-Catholic, my wife is 42, African American and fundamentalist charismatic.We’re both college educated–I have an MPA and she has a B.S.
We get along fine in many ways, and love each other.
We have six children aged 6 months ro age 14. Our two eldest are from her previous marriage and her ex-husband doesn’t support or contact them, but sends an occasional card. I work two jobs to support our family, and am the sole breadwinner.
When we married in 1996, I was a lukewarm Catholic. I agreed to attend her church with her, and went along with not baptizing our future children–after all, she already had 2 children and was raing them Protestant, though they were not “baptized” in her church.However, I never agreed to joing her church and still claimed my Catholic faith.
What a difference children make!!! As our children were born, I’ve become “on fire” for my faith. I openly attend Mass, and sometimes take the kids, but may wife doesn’t like it when I do.
She had a good Mother’s Day, but we had a discussion about “worshipping” Mary. She said that she preferred that I not attend the Mother’s Day Fatima procession, which I haven’t attended in years. I said that because I had to work, I only planned to go to regular Mass.
She said that she could not understand why Catholics “worship” Mary. I explained to her the difference between “worship” and "devotion", and that “devotion” meant the same as being devoted to the memory of a loved one or historical figure and building a monument or visiting their grave…
She exclaimed…“well, those are just excuses! Paul admonished his followers NOT to worship him, but to worship God only!” I explained that an accusation of worshipping Mary is accusing me of idolatry, a serious sin. I also expained Luke Ch. 1 again when the Angel appeared to Mary.
She said that " I’ve read Like Ch.1 many times! Your just making excuses! There’s no reason to worship Mary!" I should pray, yes, but what else can I do??