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?

[trisham]

LOL!

[Mad Dawg]

Thanks! As the artist said, “I paint what I see ....”

[Judith Anne]

Makes ME itchy just hearing the word “dermatologist.”

[1000 silverlings]

you end up with spectacles like Jeremiah Wright (not to mention the crazy stray priest who jumped up there and screamed his vitriol).

This actually comes from not teaching the word of God , when the pulpit is used for political and social causes. That is the reason why so many of us insist on going to churches where only the Word is taught.

[maryz]

The passage, cited as scripture by Christ, is from a book which did not make it into the Septuagint

How did you ever know that?! (If you recall which book, please let us know!)

[OLD REGGIE]

I never had the idea that Catholics hated Protestants until I came to the Religion forum on FR.

You are giving your age away. I remember Protestants and Catholics, close relatives, hating each other simply because of their religion. Even my own children were subjected to "propaganda" from either side.

[dan1123]

You are giving your age away. I remember Protestants and Catholics, close relatives, hating each other simply because of their religion. Even my own children were subjected to "propaganda" from either side.

I guess I'm religiously sheltered being under 30 and growing up in Northern California

[maryz]

the Church on earth (the "on earth" part is important to us) being a mixed bag, in our view.

Yes! I always feel that strongly reading medieval lit -- esp. the Canterbury Tales: we're all in this together, members of one Body . . . some (to all appearances anyway) doing rather better at it than others . . . but utterly united and in one Church, because there's nowhere else to be -- literally.

[Judith Anne]

Definitely. My sister in law, raised in a staunch Lutheran Mo Synod family, married a Catholic. In Wisconsin, in 1968. It was almost WWIII. By the time her brother married me, from a non-religious family, they’d shot all their ammunition, and we got off lightly.

[Petronski]

You are going to be hated for your conversion, US, and frankly, you are going to be hounded and attacked for even POSTING A THREAD about conversion.

[Uri’el-2012]

“Elohim” the plural, is actually often used in the OT to denote God. Many Christians take the meaning to be the Trinity, because Christ said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

Actually, in some instances the word is used to refer, in the OT, to the multiple gods of the Philistines, Canannites, and others. It is also used with a singular verb and modifiers, 9even though it is a plural word, which tends to give it a singular meaning) to refer to God Almighty.

Just one of those things I thought was fascinating, and since I don’t often read the NAsbU, I thought I’d ask what you meant by the honorific. Yod He Voh He are the four letters that make up the name God gave to Moses, in the burning bush, iirc, though on that I could be mistaken.

704 posted on May 30, 2008 10:49:41 AM MDT by Judith Anne

The argument for the Trinity can be supported by the Elohim as a plural.

Anytime Elohim is used and not modified by reference to tribes other than the Chosen People it always means the the G-d of Israel.

In the Beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matthew. 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Y'shua,
[Yahoshua is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the YHvH saves.]
because he will save his people from their sins.”

"YHvH saves" as in Psalm 118-14 is Yahoshua

followed by "He saves" in the same verse which yields Y'shua

Our hope is in Y'shua HaMashiach ( Jesus the Christ )
or the anointed one who is YHvH who has become our salvation.

If we look into the Holy Word of G-d , we find:

Psalm 92:15 ..... "YHvH is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

and

Psalm 118-14 YHvH is my strength and song, And He(YHvH) has become my salvation(Y'shua).

But

Deu 6:4 "Hear, O Israel! YHvH is Elohym, YHvH is one!

and repeated by Y'shua in Mark(Peter)

Mark 12:29 Y'shua answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! YHvH OUR Elohym IS ONE('echad) YHvH;

Echad means one as in "one flesh" as in :

Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai

[Rutles4Ever]

Nothing is impossible for God,

...except, as you state time and time again, His prerogative to work through the hands of the priest to confect His body and blood under the accidents of bread and wine. Nevermind that He, the King of Glory, came to His Incarnation as a scandal, born in a cave, surrounded by filthy animals and bottm-rung shepherds. That's not a "vile contortion" of the due esteem of the Creator of the universe, but transubstantiation is?

Why do you believe that the "remembrance" refers only to giving thanks and not also the breaking of bread and the words He spoke over the bread? There's zero foundation for your interpretation...

Transubstantiation denies the word of God and the spiritual truth He has given us, only to replace it with a materialistic side-show.

The "spiritual truth" he's given us? Or the "spiritual truth" He's given you?

Likewise, the Jews think the Incarnation is nothing but a materialistic sideshow, too. Your thoughts?

The one-time sacrifice of Christ on the cross has been offered and accepted by God for all the sins of His flock. It is over. Our job is to be grateful for His gift by glorifying the Giver.

No, actually, the one-time sacrifice of Christ on the cross has been offered and accepted for the sin of Adam, which barred all of mankind from heaven, regardless of their holiness. The never-ceasing re-presentation of that sacrifice, in the Holy Eucharist, is offered and accepted for the sins of all humanity. Thus, it is through Christ's sacrifice and baptism into that confession of belief that all who are saved are saved. But salvation isn't gratis. It must be "worked out in fear and trembling", in addition to being grateful and glorifying to God. Christ created His Church to shepherd us through that working out of our salvation, and calls each of us to enter into that ark of salvation, by which no man by any other means can be saved.

[1000 silverlings]

Looks like there was a reason for the “007”

[Dr. Eckleburg]

LOL. Amen. And it helps to have a spouse around who intercepts the keyboard as we’re about to smash it into the monitor as they tell us to calm down and remember God is in control of it all. 8~)

[OLD REGGIE]

Wasn’t it you who coined the phrase “the right boot of fellowship”? ;)

I doubt it. It seems new to me. On the other hand I just returned from the kitchen empty handed because I couldn't remember what I was there for. :)

[1000 silverlings]

You went to feed the cat, remember now?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Caustic sarcasm is not thin-skinned. Rather, if done properly, it can be part of an effective, withering rebuttal

lol. Sarcasm is the lowest form of rebuttal. In fact, it's an absence of rebuttal.

And I don't see anything "withering" the truth of God's word.

[Marysecretary]

Exactly. Our church is very careful about not being political in the pulpit. When you are fed with the Word of God, you don’t need the Jeremiah’s of the world or his buddy the stray priest.

[Petronski]

Sarcasm is the lowest form of rebuttal. In fact, it's an absence of rebuttal.

Spoken like someone who isn't any good at it.

And I don't see anything "withering" the truth of God's word.

I don't see any sarcasm directed at the truth of God's word either.