Then the church changed. It was no longer a solemn place of worship. The Latin was gone. The guitar took the place of the majestic organ. It had lost its calm.
And the final straw....I returned to the church after many years. The priest greeted me and I told him of my return. He welcomed me with a box of envelopes. I never went back.
I pray every day....most of it aimed at my family.
I give to St. Jude instead of the church.
The Last Supper is in reality Christ's very sacrifice on the cross, they cannot be separated. And as Jesus said, if you do not drink his blood and eat his flesh, you have no life in you.
The music and the behavior of the priest are secondary.
I pray that you come back to the church. Paper envelopes? Not a reason to quit in my estimation.
Remember, God loves you.
There are lots of stories like yours. And while your’s may be “legitimate”, the vast majority are not. Most of those who have abandoned the Church have done so out of ignorance, laziness or just plain sinfulness. But admitting things like that even to one’s self is often difficult. It’s easier to blame others like the priests or the bishops. But Mcgavin999’s suggestion (which you buy into) is sheer Protestant/atheistic nonsense. Satan loves it, but you fool no one but yourself.
Nevertheless, everything you have said about your experience with the Church rings true, regardless of the details behind your departure. For in truth, it was the bishops who abandoned you. It was the Modernist bishops of the Catholic Church who decided that humanism (in the form of humanitarianism) was the path they would follow after Vatican II. They ceased talking about sin, heaven, hell and the Sacraments. They changed the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into a meet-and greet, Protestant sing-a-long each Sunday (or Saturday if that works better for you), and they set the Church up as their camp of socialism, illegal immigration, global warming and many other leftist causes, all in the name of God.
Yes, and it sure is all about money for most of them. When they sing their song about the re-distribution of everyone’s wealth, it’s hard to tell the bishops and priests from Obama or any other progressive politician. Read some of Cardinal Dolan’s old speeches sometime. You’d think he was running for public office as he touts the “great charitable work” the Church has done. Holiness and the true worshipping of God Almighty in the Modern Novus Ordo Catholic Church (not in the Traditional Catholic Church) is a thing of the past.
Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and charged the pope and bishops with one mission––to do everything within their power to lead all souls (which would include yours) to salvation. But they have abandoned that responsibility, and without question, they will pay a very heavy price. But you have foolishly decided to pay that price as well. In spite of the Protestant advice that was given to you by McGavin999, remember that you do not get a free pass just because you were led astray by the Modernist bishops. As Christ said, “when the blind lead the blind, they both fall in the pit”.
Unfortunately, it appears that you may have abandoned Jesus Christ long enough for Satan to convince you that harming yourself makes sense. I certainly hope not, but if you have, you join a long line of Catholics who have left the Church and think that same way. And unless they repent before they die, they risk the almost unfathomable punishment of eternal damnation in hell’s fire, where the “worm never dies”. It is not a wise choice you are making. But like the rest of us, that choice is entirely yours.
This is not an advice column, but a public forum where the comments are fairly anonymous and the thoughts are for everyone. Still, some good advice would be to go to confession, get back to Church, ignore the Modernist bishops and priests, and live your life as you would if you thought you might be facing Jesus Christ tomorrow––because you might.