I'm joining the Catholic Church next month. Advice/Books/Etc.?

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Hello fellow Freepers. I believe this is my first post on the Religion forum.

Over the past week or so, I put some thought into something I've been pondering for a while; my spiritual welfare. As it was, I had been part of the 'Sola Scriptua' school of thought (Evangelical Christian). By the Bible and only the Bible. Sounded good enough.

Well...what about before the Bible was put into word? It stuck in my head when reading an article earlier on FR concerning a deconstruction of Sola Scriptura and its inherent weaknesses as a foundation for one's faith.

This, combined with a genuine lack of churchgoing (as a family, we've been uncertain about going to various churches, given that top-down problems with Episcopal/Methodist/etc. churches and their increasing liberalization are a genuine problem for one's spiritual welfare), compelled me to make a decision.

I don't know if my family will follow me, persay, but I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge.

Next month, I'm going to the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle near my home, and I'm joining the Roman Catholic Church.

As is, I have a few volumes of the Magnificat pamphlet and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read.

Any other pointers from other Catholic Freepers?

[Wonder Warthog]

"The Baltimore Catechism - much easier to read (and memorize) the fundamental tenets of the Catholic faith than the one more recently published."

I can't agree. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" is a masterpiece of clarity and thoroughness.

[Not gonna take it anymore]

Congratulations to you. I was received into the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil 2008 and I am so thankful.

This is a great website for the mass and how it applies to scripture.

http://www.catecheticsonline.com/apologetics_mass.php

Excerpt:
scripture in the order of the mass

Nearly everything we say at mass has its roots in Sacred Scripture. This guide will help you if anyone you know is in doubt about that. Catholics quote scripture all the time, and their actions are deeply scriptural. After all, scripture flowed out of the early Church. The Church came first, the New Testament and the canon of scripture second.

Greeting

Priest: In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19)
People: Amen (1 Chr 16:36)
Priest: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:13)
People: And also with you.
Liturgy of the Word

Penitential Rite

All: I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault. (Jas. 5:16) In my thoughts and in my words, (Rom. 12:16) In what I have done and what I have failed to do; (Jas 3:6) and I ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the angel and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. (1 Thess 5:25)
Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. (1 John 1:9)
People: Amen (1 Chr 16:36)
All: Lord have mercy. (Tb 8:4) Christ have mercy. (1 Tim 1:2) Lord have mercy...

[Mad Dawg]

dan1123; Theo I get the same vibe from this thread.(dan1123)

It's not always clear where a vibe is coming from and, especially, whether it comes from the thing that triggered it, or from the person in whom it was triggered.

Yes, we think the Catholic Church is the Church in its fullness, and we think of it as our home and the home of all who join it.

It gets weird when we are told we are NOT "the" Church and, by some, that we are not even "a church", when some speak of leaving the Church as being saved from it, and yet when we are still happy and confident in where we are and delighted when others seek to join us that is also considered somehow vicious.

Theo:

We do NOT see you as non-Christians. Read Dominus Iesus. We do not view those who grew up Protestant as apostates. We DO see a very important difference in ecclesiology. Both sides can't be right, so at least one is in error. We think we're right. If we didn't we'd change our opinion. You think we are wrong.

But heresy requires a kind of "malice aforethought" that doesn't touch this situation. So we don't see you as heretics.

Mind you, that's the "official" "we". I bet there are some Catholic jerks floating around who do see you as heretics. Tares, Wheat, waiting for the harvest.

The lamentation of your first paragraph is belied by the cloaked accusations of your second paragraph. It seems that you are the one calling us heretics, and then saddened by our disagreement! And you mischaracterize some of what we teach as you do so. Believe me, Christ is sufficient for salvation.

So once again, is it shameful, cruel, condescending, and degrading to your estimate of us for us to think that your opinions are wrong, while it is just fine for you to think our opinions are wrong? Our crime of believing what we believe is made worse by our, uh, believing what we believe?

How DARE we!

[John Leland 1789]

Are you familiar with Epheisans 1:17-23 ? I am a member of that Church, the Church which His Body. Thirty-one years past, I was an unconverted (un-regenerate) member of an earthly local church. I learned of the all-sufficiency of the Work of Christ at the Cross, where Jesus Christ became sin for me (2 Cor. 5:18-21), and I repented of (repudiated) all hope in my earthly connections for eternal salvation. I accepted the Scriptural invitation to come to Jesus Christ as the only Hope of everlasting life. I believed upon Him as my Sin-bearer and only Saviour.

That night I was saved by the grace of God and knew for the first time, from Authority of the Scriptures, that I was a child of God. Christ is all-in-all. I learned that He deserves the fruit of His sufferings, that men believe on Him. The glory is all His. The Holy Spirit baptized me into Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 2:11, 12), making me a member of His Body, and sealing me (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30).

That is what I recommend to the man. And yes, it is “nice.” I've been enjoying His indwelling presence. “Nice” and more than “nice.”

[Mad Dawg]

not that silly piece of modernism known as the New American Bible.

So many Protestants think devout RCs are mind-numbed robots. But all they'd have to do to know otherwise is watch our faces when that fabulously comic translation is read.

The boss-lady watches me percolate weekly as some new and totally bizarre translator's delerium is foisted upon us.

I'd have a lot less to laugh at in Church if we didn't have the NAB. What a joke!

[Petronski]

Is that like an honorary doctorate or something?

Sounds like an induction letter.

Dear Jesus, you been drafted!

[Mad Dawg]

Let your conscience be your only guide.

But make sure you feed that conscience up real with by prayer, sacraments, and study - Bible and others.

[fetal heart beats by 21st day]

I, too, have experienced the power of conversion and the comfort it brings. Yet, that is not the end of the journey. Nor are we churches unto ourselves, or isolated, independent interpretors of His Word.

Christ established the Catholic Church to guide us to the fullness of Truth, Christ Himself, and to provide us with the sacraments to nourish us on that journey.

I pray the scales will fall from your eyes so that your good intentions will be made fruitful in the fullnes of His truth.

Pax Christi.

[Petronski]

So once again, is it shameful, cruel, condescending, and degrading to your estimate of us for us to think that your opinions are wrong, while it is just fine for you to think our opinions are wrong?

"Indignation for me but not for thee."

[Mad Dawg]

I was received into the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil 2008 and I am so thankful.

(Happy dance here.)

[John Leland 1789]

Not a church unto myself. I am a member with millions. The scales were removed 31 years ago when religion ceased to veil Christ. Nothing on earth can make His Person any fuller (Col. 2:9) or more complete, and we are COMPLETE in Him, which is the HEAD of ALL principality and power (Col. 2:10). We can be no MORE complete. That is our standing IN CHRIST before the Father.

[ChurtleDawg]

I think it is hilarious that many of the more extreme protestants can come here spouting nonsense that has it’s origins in Hislop’s ridiculous screeds and call Catholics “pagan idolators” and then get upset when Catholics welcome a new convert.

[Petronski]

We only blather on about the lies of Hislop, Foxe, et al. because we love you.

[Not gonna take it anymore]

;-)

[dangus]

Actually, it’s not the translations that bother me nearly as much as the footnotes, which are still steeped in 19th-century German-school skeptical analysis. Even as a purely secular document, you’d think that a century and a half of archaeological validation never happened.

From the introduction to the gospel of John: “[John] is the product of a developed theological reflection and grows out of a different circle and tradition [than the synoptic gospels].”

Here the authors don’t explicitly state anything horrifically heretical, such as that the gospel wasn’t actually written by John, and that it substitutes later theological constructs for the teachings of Christ. But if you’ve previously heard such abominations, as were formerly prevalent in the 70s AmChurch, does this not seem closer to supporting such notions than it is to refuting them by insisting on the actual articles of Christian faith that the gospel contains actual historical events witnessed by the text’s single author who wrote them in his own hand?

[paterfamilias]

Congratulations and welcome.

There have been many great suggestions, to which I have little to add.

However, if you get EWTN on TV, check out the replays of “Life Is Worth Living” by Fulton J. Sheen. He was a great preacher, and his instructions first broadcast in the 50’s and 60’s still speak to me today.

[vigilo]

“Please leave this thread. Thank-you.”

I quoted the words of the Lord Christ Himself and for this you’ve ask me to leave? Do the Lord’s words offend you?

I warned a person to make sure they understand what they are doing (wise and kind advice for every one of us at ALL times and in ALL situations) and for this you’ve ask me to leave?

We all believe that which we are willing to believe, and what we are willing to believe displays the condition of our minds.

[Between the Lines]

I don't know if my family will follow me, per say, but I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge.

By family do you mean your brothers, sisters and parents or wife and children?

[pgyanke]

May God richly bless you on your continuing spiritual journey! Welcome home!