Posted on 05/28/2008 6:05:04 PM PDT by 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?
” 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.”
Amen and Amen! Christ the King reigns!
We acknowledge our Beloved’s Kingship over all Creation and Everything every single moment of every day in the Mass and the Eucharistic feast!
Marana tha Our Lord Jesus!
And, yet, to not leave such a downer in such a positive thread: Is it not amazing the extent to which the Catholic Church has survived, and is indeed rebuilding itself, after such horrific leadership as the corrupt bishops who published the NAB? (Indeed, current editions are far better than previous ones.) Who cannot help but to see the Catholic Church shaking the dust of the 70s from its feet? Do not such errors seem confirmation of the legends of the dreams of Pope Leo XIII; do not the trials of the 21st century church seem like a purging of such evils?
That's not all you did.
Do the Lord’s words offend you?
You suggested that this new Catholic convert is going to hell. Those are not the Lord's words.
I’m so sorry you feel that way.
A bit ago, after much angst from a group of non-Catholic FReepers, I posted a thread asking if Protestants think that Roman Catholics are Christians. The response was heartening.
I also posted this thread...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2018399/posts
You can see the responses.
When we say welcome home, it’s not Against your religion, but like a party where someone is coming to join us. We like where we are (as I’m sure you do) we want to share the joy.
Now, if you saw “It’s about time you brightened up, doofus” I could see your offense. No one says that because we understand that no matter how we feel about what we do, Our Lord knows your heart. You can be saved through your church too.
Oops.. the first half of what I wrote is gone, about what is so wrong with the NAB. Maybe God wishes it that way.
Brother, stepmother, and father (I definitely know my father’s next church will be a Catholic church, so only the first two then). I’m still only 20.
“You suggested that this new Catholic convert is going to hell.”
I did no such thing. You jumped to that conclusion. I only warned him to understand what he is doing and that there will be many (not limited to Roman Catholics) who will prove, in the end, to be pious yet lost. Therefore, he/she needs to have understanding and not just piety. I only gave him the SAME warning that Christ gives to ALL of us.
First of all, congratulations on your decision! My own dh converted 10 years ago, two months before the birth of our first child.
A lot of good books and websites have been suggested...another good site is catholic-convert.com. It is run by Steve Ray, another convert and a great apologist. I was raised Catholic, but I learn something new there all the time. The people there are very welcoming and for the most part conservative. You can ask all the questions you want without impunity (although they may razz you—it’s part of the territory). I have been a member for almost 4 years myself.
According to Christ Himself, hell will be full of many very religious people. Many who call Him Lord and do many wonderful works in His name. Do you understand this? If not, then you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re headed for serious trouble.
The reader can decide for herself what you meant.
Thanks for the additional info. I believe that husbands/fathers should be the leaders of their families and was concerned why your family would not follow you to church.
Sometimes our children (or in my case my granddaughter) can lead us to God. Prayers for you and your family.
>> See, when you say “Welcome home,” ... The arrogance is just tiring. <<
My earthly father hated the song, “(Oh, there’s no place like) Home for the Holidays,” because the song came out when he wasn’t home; he was stuck in Korea. But, then, that was because he wasn’t happy with where he was. Do you mean to tell us that we can’t express joy that someone has joined us? Or are you such a big proponent of indifferentism that you don’t think it matters what denomination one belongs to?
>> And many of us find too much heresy within the Church of Rome. <<
No, I didn’t think you were indifferent. Which is good, since indifferentism is a particularly sticky heresy.
Come on, Theo: Do you not recall the original post, wherein the 007 acknowledged he hadn’t had any denomination? Unless you see us as “as non-Christians, as apostate, as heretical, as anathema,” wouldn’t you even be happy for him finding a spiritual home?
For the record, any Catholic who knows his Catholic doctrine knows that Evangelicals are neither apostate (since they are Christian), nor heretical (since they are not Catholic).
As for “anathema,” the word literally means “offered up to God.” While it does connote that the anathematized are separated from the Catholic Church, that’s a position that the 16th-century Protestants who were anathematized voluntarily undertook. Thus, anathema is an insistence that Catholics offer up in prayer the correction of the anathematized, so that unity may be restored. Vatican II, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict have undertaken great pains to that even though Protestants have defected, they are still part of the body of the Christ.
And this Catholic is a little surprised that you would suggest that the Catholic Church does not believe in or teach the Bible. That is not true. Who do you think canonized the new and old testiment bible in the first place?
This Bible-believing Christian is laughing at efforts to create some false dichotomy between “Bible-believing Christian” and “Catholic.”
I am both.
Is it possible, or does it happen often, that in Catholic teaching sessions (wherever they might take place), the Bible is taught using Scripture with Scripture (that is, passage with passage) without reference to anything else?
An INFORMED conscience. One formed and informed by the teachings of Christ. E.g., I am sure that Islamic homicide bombers are sure that what they are doing is correct, i.e. their conscience is clear. But moral?
My favorite audio book, read by the authors, Bob and Peggy Lord:
http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=841236056&T1=Saints
It really is worth it to LISTEN to this book. The authors read it with such a love in their voices. I pray my wife and I sound like them when we’re their age. :^D They not only explain the fantastic things that saints have done, but they SELL it so well by the richness of their empathetic reading that you feel the love that inspired the saints. (Some more encyclopedic books make the saints just seem nuts to me, because I don’t FEEL what motivated them.)
I can understand how someone who is not Catholic could come to believe that, but rest assured that the Church uses and teaches the Bible everyday. Every mass said contains readings from both the old and new testiments and the priest usually bases his homily on those scriptures. I went to Catholic school and believe me we read the bible.
Memere! That’s what we always called my maternal (French)grandmother, the only grandparent I ever knew. Yet even in four years of French, I never encountered that word, so in my heart its more her name than her relationship.
Random memory: As kids, she’d always threaten us, “Don’t make me take my shoe off,” referring to using the shoe to spank us. The point was to let us know she was getting angry. It wasn’t much of a physical threat, since it almost always was made while chasing us to bed... while she was wearing slippers. And she couldn’t have been 5’.
No, it is not the words of the Lord Jesus himself that offends me, it is how you treat a person who has decided to come into the Catholic Church, which Jesus himself founded as doing something wrong.
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