I would ask your wife to accept a visit from/to a Priest since you are being gracious and willing to talk to two Pastors. Is that fair? What could any spouse say when their own spouse is willing to do the same thing?
She needn’t fear such a visit. If a person is as confident in their beliefs as they claim, they will not be deterred. I know in my heart of hearts that the Catholic Church is the Church Christ founded. There is literally nothing that anyone could say or do that would ever lead me to doubt that.
These two pastors are not merely pastors to us. They are our friends with whom we regularly do monthtly fellowship and bible studies with. They also have given us helpful advice about marriage. I’d thought I’d make that point because it is more casual than I may have given the impression on here. Yet, it is formal in a sense that they are our guests and have not visited us before due to the fact we live about an hour away and had moved a year ago.
I think a priest coming over would be a good idea and my wife had previously said she is open to attending RCIA classes with me when I start going to them in August, so she could learn more about the catholic faith as I do as well. However, recently because of the latest turn of events with her standing in opposition to me even converting and becoming a member, I am not sure how asking a priest to come over would be received. I hope she’ll be open to it and so prayers are needed.
My catholic bibles, catechism, and some tracts came in the mail yesterday, and even then I have had to keep it hidden for now as I ponder how to proceed. I like the suggestion that Underacloud gave where he said the lines of “thank you, I am aware of those issues and am reading widely from both the protestant and Catholic perspectives on them” and that I need to make it clear that I have considered (are considering) all issues, but are not interested in defending the Catholic stance.
I’m not sure how it would be received because I’ve spoken strongly to quite a few people about my convictions for the catholic faith, church and against protestantism and it’s teachings. I think it would be best to tell them I still reading widely from both perspectives and that perhaps this would be seen as good in their eyes. And then, with a bit of time, as this whole ordeal dies down a bit, I hope and believe that my wife would be more receptive and not so hardened. Perfect love casts our fear, as I recall.
Please pray for me that my japanese studies go well for me and I can have much success with learning japanese, memorizing lots of vocabulary, and have good memory recall for what I’ve learned. I need prayers for this, that I become fluent in japanese, and I’d like to take it even further than simply knowing it for communicatinf with my wife for her sake, but also to be able to translate and explain catholic teachings and sermons to her in japanese.
There is no japanese catholic community here where I live as far as I know and no japanese catholics too. If she were to attend mass, I’d probably have to explain everything in japanese to her. And these two things would go a long way in helping overcome certain issues I am facing.
Thank you for your replies and prayers. I’ll be lurking here as usual and should reply and update everyone on what is going on in a bit.