[Gamecock]

I suspect this will resonate with many on the GRPL.

[SkyPilot]

However, no student could take an 'O' Level in Religion as every examination board required study of the Bible, which was not permitted. Instead, we were fed a diet of Roman dogma, the sacraments, sacerdotalism, history of the Jesuits, and the Church Fathers. Catechisms instructed that doctrine was not always to be sought in the Bible but in the infallible teaching of the Church. We learned much about Christological heresies, but at no time could we have explained why Christ had died - we supposed that it was that we might have the Mass. Every week the whole school gathered for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, where we worshipped what we were assured was the Lord Jesus Christ, in appearance as a consecrated wafer fixed into a golden sunburst-style monstrance, borne at arms length by a Jesuit priest amidst clouds of incense. This, we sang, was the 'newer rite' that had superseded the former 'types and shadows'.

I was raised a Roman Catholic, and he is 100% on the mark.

I found Christ in later life, or a better way of saying is that Christ found me.

[Mercat]

I’m RC. I took a similar journey as the writer and ended up back in the Church but now read the Bible every day and have gone through it multiple times. I also greatly value the Christian radio I listen to which is all Protestant as well as the devotional daily reader that I use. But I have to be a Catholic. I don’t know whether it is my upbringing but I think it’s probably the Eucharist as well as the Tradition. It’s a bit like CS Lewis saying he had no choice - he had to pray. I’m in the flood and have to swim along as best I can. Mercat stands for Mere Catholicism which is a play on Mere Christianity which I read every year.

[Persevero]

“My father quite genuinely enquired whether there were as many as twenty persons in the world who could possibly believe such things. “

Ha ha, I have had similar responses.

[metmom]

I was angered and stung into reading more Christian apologetics. The arguments seemed no more persuasive than before, but now the Scripture verses underpinning them came to me as hammer blows. Why should those sentences leap off the page like a battering ram against the strongholds of my mind? How could these mere words land such devastating blows? Prayer was being made for me, and the Holy Spirit was convicting me of sin, righteousness and judgment, yet also showing me the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ - not through the lens of Roman Catholicism, but through the Word of God. The force of truth was irresistible, and I was granted repentance unto life. 'Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD' (Psa. 25:7).

That'll happen when you're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Something I'm afraid that many Catholics cannot understand, having never experienced it.

Because when you do, you KNOW!!!!

[lastchance]

“However, no student could take an ‘O’ Level in Religion as every examination board required study of the Bible, which was not permitted. Instead, we were fed a diet of Roman dogma, the sacraments, sacerdotalism, history of the Jesuits, and the Church Fathers.”

So how the heck did he get through studying the Church Fathers without comparing their writings to Scripture? Calvin himself had great respect for the Church Fathers and their comments on Scripture. It would be impossible to understand the Church Fathers without examining the Scriptures. Oh and one big reason for the study of Greek was to prepare for the reading of Scripture in that language.

[lastchance]

“However, no student could take an ‘O’ Level in Religion as every examination board required study of the Bible, which was not permitted. Instead, we were fed a diet of Roman dogma, the sacraments, sacerdotalism, history of the Jesuits, and the Church Fathers.”

So how the heck did he get through studying the Church Fathers without comparing their writings to Scripture? Calvin himself had great respect for the Church Fathers and their comments on Scripture. It would be impossible to understand the Church Fathers without examining the Scriptures. Oh and one big reason for the study of Greek was to prepare for the reading of Scripture in that language

[Campion]

However, no student could take an 'O' Level in Religion as every examination board required study of the Bible, which was not permitted.

Little bitty old lie there, I think. It being the UK, the "'O' Level" exam in Religion requires study of Protestant exegesis from a bunch of Protestant, mostly Anglican, sources. (Example syllabus)

I don't recognize a single source cited in that syllabus as Catholic. Would you send your children to a Presbyterian school that encouraged them to study for an exam on "religion," which was really strictly Catholic doctrine and a Catholic view of church history, with a reading list of only Catholic sources? Didn't think so.

[common-sense-man-1776]

Since I am predestine by God to worship Him as a Roman Catholic, you will need to take up this issue with God.