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Posted on 04/26/2025 3:18:23 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
...The trend that we are seeing is a very positive one. People are seeking tradition...It's a learning lesson for a lot of pastors I talk to. If you are not creating an environment where the people that come to your church can find holiness and meaning and be elevated, you're not doing your job.
There was a time in the nineties where people were hungry for a personal encounter with God, and Evangelicalism I think offers that better than some Catholicism circles. Maybe that's to be debated, but times change and needs an appetites change. And I could tell you on Saturday evening, I wanted to honor Our Lord the night before the Resurrection, so I knew the local Catholic church was doing an Easter vigil. Mind you, this goes from eight pm to midnight. An Easter vigil is a very long standing tradition in the Catholic Church, where they read basically almost the entire Bible.
I go there and I couldn't find a seat at ten pm at night on a Saturday night, and over half the people there were people my age. It was like a selfie line just trying to get in there...I said, is this a Turning Point rally or is this an Easter vigil?
I'm not Catholic, but I went there because when I walk into that specific Catholic church, it points up. It's not a Costco with a rock band and a Ted Talk and good coffee. To be honest, I've had enough of that. I don't want to go to Sam's Club to go to church in a school gym. Kind of enjoyed the holiness, the beauty, the pageantry, the structure, the tradition of the reverence. So I totally get it. God bless those churches for elevating our soul.
(Excerpt) Read more at omny.fm ...
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
People are seeking tradition..
People that start really reading the Bible leave the RC.
The Biden administration, the government , and the media make it clear they hate Catholics most of all. Remember, the FBI leaked a document last year saying 90% of terrorism in the U.S. is from Catholics. Warren Buffet has put his financial resources towards, “overthrowing the Catholic Church.” I guess young people see the one thing that the “powers that be” agree on is that Catholics are bad?
Maybe you should talk to them, instead of adopting the “Biden position.” And a Protestant pastor once compared their services with a Catholic Mass, and there was more Bible in the Mass, to his surprise. You need to wean yourself from the mainstream media.
“Protestant apologist Javier Perdomo has also done of a deep dive on the Pew study and shows that there isn’t a colossal shift among Protestants in becoming Catholic. Among those raised Protestant only two percent now identify as Catholic whereas among those raised Catholic, 14% of them identify as Protestant. That means there are seven times as many converts to Protestantism than there are to Catholicism between the two groups.”
-https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/protestantism-is-winning-and-the-lesson-for-catholics
You got that precisely wrong, my friend. If you read the Bible, and you read the early church fathers, you will reach the other conclusion than the Catholic Church is the true Church. Nevertheless, I extend my gracious welcome to all my protestant friends.
Your observation is different than mine, maybe because I've worked with so many converts. People who join the Catholic Church as adults often do so for intellectual reasons. Vice President Vance is a good example.
On the other hand, people I know that leave Catholicism for Protestantism do so for either emotional reasons ("Some priest was mean to me"), or because they never knew their Faith in the first place. Of course, individual mileage may vary.
As a former Catholic, my position is that they are attracted to Catholicism because of their desire for tradition and stability. They are not being attracted to it because of doctrine, because many of the doctrinal positions of the RC church are not supported by Scripture.
I don’t think that condemns the Catholic, because all will be forgiven once all is said and done.
Satanists love the tradition too.
Why anyone would leave one organized religion only to join another is beyond me. Like a fish escaping the pan into the fire, I suppose.
It’s the reason I became a Lutheran 35 years ago.
My church is about to be converted to a mission and moved to a growing community, away from its present 100yo sanctuary, and my work there will be finished. I envy the power of the Holy Spirit that is found in the rockband-preaching-and-prayertime church I have gone to from time to time, but the power of Christ found in confession, the Word, and Sacrament is essential to my walk with the Lord, so I will either stay Lutheran or go Orthodox, and I’m waiting on His leading.
?????
So are you opposed to all organized religions? What are you trying to say?
It’s rapidly becoming the official US Government religion now. 7 of the 9 Supremes, we sent that religion an embassy, etc.
Holy See is contemptible.
There’s a big problem.
How does one rationalize being Catholic with the actions of the Holy See.
It seems like cognitive dissonance.
“People are seeking tradition..”
That’s true. That’s how, after 75 years of being Baptist, we have attended a conservative Presbyterian (PCA) church for the last year.
Every Baptist Church here in eastern TN that we visited was a dumpster fire of entertainment and disrespect.
Even though we don’t agree with all of the tenets of the church now we like the dignity of the service.
No screens flashing
No applauding
No “amen corner”
No “howdy and handshake” time
No worship leader or worship team
No drums, electronic keyboards, microphones
No contemporary “Christian” music
Traditional old hymns
A lot of Scripture reading
People dress respectfully
After listening to Catholic Answers in afternoon rush hours for years, I only had AM. I started checking their citations in the Bible and finally reading the full text. That lead to the Didache and other early writings. We converted six years ago.
The Catholic Church WROTE the Bible, changed it, pulled out parts they didn’t like, added to it and change things to their liking. That is not to say it is inspired by God. With all this, it is still a Holy Book—that is the power of God.
Oddly, the things you seek are in the Catholic Mass. You ought to attend one, just for comparison.
The Mass is Heaven on Earth!
St. John Paul II describes the Mass: We “become part of that great multitude which cries out: ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ (Rev. 7:10).” As we are raised to heaven, heaven itself comes down to us. Indeed, the sacrament of the Eucharist, the most wondrous fruit of the Mass, is the sweetest taste and “glimpse of heaven on earth.”
There is NO higher form of worship on earth than at Mass.
I have a picture of Raphael’s ‘Disputation of the Holy Sacrament’ in my bedroom. Midway on the left, a Church is being built. All in heaven is present at every Mass.
Many of my friends came out of the RC church and said that the Priests discouraged them from reading their Bible.. When they read it, they realized that when Jesus died, the Temple Curtain keeping the commoners from the High Priest was torn in two!
Jesus became our High Priest... we can now go directly to God.
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