Posted on 01/17/2014 4:45:21 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
I'm most likely an atheist, leaning to the agnostic side of the spectrum. I know I'm a sceptic, in the true sense of the word. Or shallow. One of the two.
[snip]
About five years ago, work took me, my fellow-journalist wife and our then three-year-old child from eastern England to southwest France. We enrolled our little girl at a local Catholic school, selected purely on the recommendation of a colleague for the quality of its education.
[snip}
Being a Catholic school, an hour is set aside each week for catechism. A friend takes the class. She has often told us that our daughter is keen to learn and is visibly moved on holy days when the pupils are taken to church.
[snip]
Our little girl, however, has made a life-defining decision by herself: not only does she believe in God (capital G), but she also wants to be baptised into the Catholic faith.
[snip]
Looking back, we realised we had regularly discussed our differing beliefs. Our daughter brought us Genesis. We gave her the Michael Bay-friendly Big Bang. She brought us the Nativity and peace and goodwill at Christmas. We gave her family, friends and good food. She brought us the crucifixion. We gave her the Easter Bunny. She brought us heaven, god and an afterlife. We gave her 21st-century life and a brief future as worm fodder.
... she still had the courage of her convictions to say to both of us, to our faces and again in front of the priest, that our world view isn't enough for her. She believes. She wants to be baptised and she wants to be Catholic.
[snip]
She's taken a first step down a road that, ultimately, she'll have to travel on her own. ... She's heading where I cannot follow.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Yes, I am...and it’s a small g.
RCIA for children?
It ‘s always a joy to find pastors as you’ve described......
I’m teaching “RCIA for children” this year, but the students are all from Catholic families who have missed receiving the Sacraments in the usual time from for various reasons. I think some of the parents are getting a lot out of it. I’m throwing everything I know at them, what with having students from 8 to 15 years old, plus the adults. It’s not like teaching 3rd grade and having the curriculum laid out for that age group.
http://www.amazon.com/An-Atheist-Defends-Religion-Humanity/dp/1592578543
It’s by a high school classmate of mine.
I recommend “A Father Who Keeps His Promises” by Scott Hahn.
God bless.
Unfortunately you may have to have your very own fox hole moment to get your attention, or more than one like so many of us did...
But it's a lot more pleasant trip if you just look around are able to realize that the creation you see could not just be an accident...
You mean a CINO???
That is often how whole families come into the Church, via the children, young people.
I am doing RCIA on the adult level and 3 of the 5 folks coming into the Church have kids.
I have the book myself.
One year when my husband and I were RCIA sponsors in Oklahoma, the group included a couple and their four young children. All the children were baptized at the Easter Vigil, but I think only one was old enough for Communion.
If you can start by believing in God first, that is a WONDERFUL start.
Don't be so quick to reject the church, though. Jesus founded it, and He did not found it for "no good reason." Paul explains that the church is His Body and we are all members, such that the foot can't say to the eye, "I don't need you," or the ear say to the arm, "I don't need you."
We are alive in Him and in essential, vital, contact with each other spiritually, since He is the Head and we are the body, His cells, tissues, organs, systems, limbs and senses.
To say you have just a "Jesus and I" existence, misses the point of being in a "People" (plural) who are called, the People who pray "Our" (plural) Father."
Are you not in agreement with Jesus, then, who in the middle of His ministry sent his 72 disciples out two by two, to preach conversion throughout Judea and Galilee? Are you in agreement with the Risen Christ, who said "Go out and make disciples of all nations"?
Sincerely --- you've met "that" Jesus, haven't you?
She’s 15, and is actually not an official catechumen. She’s just “sitting in on” the class, and the Theology of the Body class for teenage girls as well. She can’t aim for receiving the sacraments until she turns 18, or gets her grandfather’s permission (the grandfather is her guardian.)
(Spoken like a bookaholic...)
It’s helpful to read the article before commenting, Olivia, for then you would have read that the parents are in no way hindering their daughter’s conversion, they are in fact supporting it.
I always use this example to atheists. If you look at a building you know there was an architect, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. You have not seen one of rhem but you KNOW they were all rhere to build that building. So why can’t you say that about the natural world. Everything has a designer.
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