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?

[netmilsmom]

>>Much of it is very simple and clear<<

Not to me! I’ve been led astray before.

[Rutles4Ever]

The Eucharist is some Pagan Fable created following Constantine the first Pontiff of the Roman church created sunday worship and the Pagan feast of easter

Do you just say what comes into your head, or do you have anything of substance to back up these fantasies?

[netmilsmom]

>>I honestly don’t care if you believe me or not. M<<

Wow. Do you care what I think at all?

[dan1123]

You’ll have to ask God why he didn’t save all the mohammedans. But it may well have been His purpose not to so that end times prophecy could happen. Dunno. Lots of things are mysteries and will remain so until His return.

I think many Christians operate under the false notion that God's highest purpose is to have everyone be in heaven. We need to bring Christ to all people as Christians, but God may choose to have people act in unsaved ways according to higher purposes (as with hardening Pharaoh's heart).

[1000 silverlings]

Or, just maybe, in late great free America, there was a Truth that was understood to be objective and not subjective, and was used as the moral compass in our justice system.

There was a reason we didn't swear by Mary or any of the saints, or on ourselves.

[Judith Anne]

The same thing happened to me, but it was years ago. I had another FR screen name and password, and then stayed away for a while, then came back and everything was changed, computer, ISP, etc.

[maryz]

Yod He Voh He are the four letters that make up the name God gave to Moses

Not exactly -- God said, "Ehiyeh asher ehiyeh" (I'm just going phonetically here) -- without getting into the grammar, "I am Who am." The tetragrammaton (yod, he, vav and he) is the third person form corresponding to "Ehiyeh," which is first person, though the form is used in direct address in the OT. Of course, it's read "Adonai" (Lord in small caps in the KJV and others). Orthodox Jews won't even use "Adonai" except in prayer -- they read "ha-Shem" (the Name).

[Petronski]

The Holy Word of Elohim says it was Passover.

Your personal interpretation of Scripture says so.

The Eucharist is some Pagan Fable created following Constantine the first Pontiff of the Roman church created sunday worship and the Pagan feast of easter

Holy Eucharist was instituted by God, and we are instructed by Christ to continue. Constantine was never a Pope of the Catholic Church. The first pope was Peter I, St. Peter, apostle of Christ.

[Uri’el-2012]

We’re in substantial agreement.

That is saying a lot on this forum.

Thank you for the questions.

I hope I answered them to your satisfaction.

Blessings on you and yours.

shalom b;SHEM Yah'shua

[netmilsmom]

>>There was a reason we didn’t swear by Mary or any of the saints, or on ourselves. <<

I think you’ve got it!
Bible worship by the Protestant Founding Fathers! I never looked at it that way.

The way I’ve seen some Protestants stand behind their books, it all makes sense to me now.

[Rutles4Ever]

Sin is a direct attack on God. Therefore, it is impossible that God would encourage anyone to sin, since it is an assault on His own substance of being, which is Love.

God hardened Pharoah’s heart as a punishment for his sins. Pharoah still had free will to reject his desire to destroy the Hebrews. God simply let him be a tool in His plan to bring the Hebrews to the Promised Land, since he (Pharaoh) had already chosen a future marked by reprobation.

[OpusatFR]

“You do not know my heart Opus. You really don’t.”

And you cannot know my or anyone else’s relationship with God. To think you do, makes you god.

The angels would tremble at that.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Just so there's no more misunderstandings regarding 'duplicate accounts', here's post activity.

Posts by Ultra Sonic

Last post was on July 09, 2005.

Posts by Ultra Sonic 007.

Scroll to the bottom. My first ever post was on July 10, 2005.

This should assuage your concerns, no?

[OLD REGGIE]

An otherwise brilliant Jesuit priest, the late Leonard Feeney, SJ, made the mistake of reading and interpreting Scripture on his own and without adequate submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. He took the Scriptural passage that "outside the Church there is no salvation" a tad too seriously and then some. Feeney concluded for several decade that all non-Catholics were, as you suggest, lost (regarding their salvation). The Church answered Fr. Feeney on this point by severely punishing him and IIRC separating him from the Church by excommunication (which does pose an interesting dilemma for the exclusivist crowd, doesn't it?). Fr. Feeney eventually repented his sinful preachings in that respect (whatever his unreconciled followers may claim) and was restored to full communion with Rome.

Do you remember Father Feeney and the controversy that boiled around him. I do. I lived in a Boston suburb and was very interested in the proceedings.

As I remember, and I could be wrong, he did not base his "no salvation" teaching on Scripture but, rather, on the "infallible" Unum Sanctum - Pope Boniface VIII. which concludes with "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

Further, it seems odd that Father Feeney could be "excommunicated" and "un-excommunicated". But that's just my thinking.

[1000 silverlings]

And we worship the 10 commandments too, notice that? We used to hang them in the schools and in judges chambers, but thankfully those days are done, except the scripture says they will be back.

[Antoninus]

Good heavens. They can't deal with the fact that you want to become Catholic--now they begin trying to paint you as a troll or a liar or something? What a disgrace!

Whenever such attempts at character assassination happen to me, I reflect on the words of Christ:

"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

[Judith Anne]

Yes, understood. My mother was Jewish, but as you can see, I didn’t get much of a religious education, nor a bat mitzvah. I don’t actually see how my post differs substantially from (Tetragrammaton) asher (Tetragrammaton) but if you say it does, I’ll accept that.

[netmilsmom]

>>And we worship the 10 commandments too, notice that? We used to hang them in the schools and in judges chambers, but thankfully those days are done, except the scripture says they will be back.<<

Yeah, really! I never put 2 + 2 together like this.
I guess some are really bowing down to the Ten Commandments too.

Geez, guess we’re more alike than what I thought.

[Clemenza]

Haven’t looked at the other suggestions, but “The Faith Explained” by Leo Trese is very good.

[Rutles4Ever]

I, too, had a password mishap several years ago. At the time, it was easier just to take a new name and start over. You don’t have to justify yourself to Dr. E.