Posted on 06/26/2015 10:18:59 AM PDT by Morgana
My grandmother celebrates 100 years of being a Catholic. She will most likely be a Catholic till her last breath as all my other grandparents were. Me? I’m a mere forty-year cradle Catholic. I own that it hasn’t been easy to remain a faithful daughter of the Church, particularly during my turbulent twenties. There was a period I disagreed with, questioned, and criticized Holy Mother Church. There were times I watched people I love abandon their baptismal promises. Still, I remained true to my heritage.
Why? Why am I still Catholic? It’s for the same reasons why people disagree, question, criticize and leave the Church:
1. The Eucharist. A mystery or a symbol to some, but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord in the host is clear as the Catechism 1376 puts it, “because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread.” I am more than happy to remain in the Church where Jesus is really and truly present, and where I can be united to Him in receiving Communion.
2. Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church exalts the Mother of God as the perfect apostle and bestows dignity to womanhood. Since Mary was “preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Catechism 966), she is the role model for every Christian. The scripture on the wedding feast at Cana illustrates that she is a powerful intercessor to our prayers and that devotion to her is the fastest, surest way to unity with Christ as she encourages us: “do whatever [Jesus] tells you.” Our Lady is, to me, all that and a mother who cares about my everyday concerns, with the end goal of the sanctifying my soul. “Don’t be afraid of loving Mary too much,” St. Maximilian Kolbe said. “You can’t possibly love her more than Jesus does.”
3. The saints. By the rigorous process of canonization, the Catholic Church venerates the saints as humans who blazed the path on how to live the Christian life and who “provide us with examples on holiness.” The saints also obtain favors for us as they “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as the proffer the merits which they acquired on earth.” (Catechism 956). Just like any good friend, saints inspire and pray for me. The journey of my spiritual life is easier with their assistance.
4. Penance and Reconciliation. Undoubtedly, the Church houses both saints and sinners. Knowing our fallen nature, which tempts us to sin and often characterizes us as Pharisees, Christ established the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means for contrite sinners to obtain absolution for our sins. Jesus told St. Faustina “When you approach the confessional…I myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden in the priest.” Never have I heard more powerful words than the merciful ones voiced at the Sacrament of Reconcilation: “I absolve you from your sins, may God give you pardon and peace.”
5. Purgatory. Purgatory is the place where all who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified undergo purification after death so as the achieve holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. (Catechism 1030). Purgatory as a manifestation of God’s mercy gives me hope that even if I can’t overcome my faults during my life on earth, I still have an opportunity to be sanctified by God’s justice so that I can one day enjoy the beatific vision.
6. Suffering. Suffering is inevitable in our lives because of man’s free will. The Catholic Church makes sense of suffering when it teaches that suffering can be untied with Christ’s passion in atonement for sins. According to St. John Paul II, suffering also increases our capacity for selfless love and hones the virtue of humility. Since scripture says that carrying my cross is necessary to share in Christ’s redemption, the Church not only explains suffering’s purpose but also offers me graces from the Sacraments to endure sacrifice.
7. Magisterium. Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church as the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” to sift through the muddled moral issues that confounds our modern age (and every age) so that she can provide clear guidelines on right versus wrong. “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles.” (Catechism 2032) In every moral issue it has addressed, the Church has illustrated wisdom that only comes from the Holy Spirit. I rely on this wisdom to guard my soul from evil and to direct me on the path to eternal life as much as I rely on the promise of Jesus that “the gates of hell shall never prevail against [the Church].”
I could go on and on. The truth in the Catechism and experience of millions of Catholics over two thousand years are inexhaustible. I don't know how far back my Catholic roots go. But I hope I am not the branch that withers and rots off a steadfast family tree and I pray that I leave Catholicism as a fruitful legacy to my children, and generations after them.
Catechism 2030: “It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized that the Christian fulfills his vocation.”
A Christian Sunday liturgy with a ritual re-enactment of the Last Supper dates from the earliest days of Christianity. The practice of the Apostles thus illuminates the bare words of the New Testament.
Please show the apostles teaching about the assumption of Mary and the requirement to believe it like the Catholic Church requires.
>>That Protestants interpret such passages differently does not make Catholics or Protestants into pagans.<<
The Catholic Church and it's apologists readily admit they incorporate paganism.
The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.[Cardinal Newman - Development of Christian Doctrine, pg 373]
God said do NOT do that.
Deuteronomy 12:30 beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?' 32 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God:
>>Modern Catholic teaching regards Protestants<<
So it changed over time? LOL
“But I always felt that the Catholic Church was an idea that was worth staying and fighting for, given the personal commission given to Peter by Christ.”
I puzzle as to why Catholics don’t feel this way about Paul, commissioned by the RISEN LORD to preach among the Gentiles (i.e. most Catholics). Why is the apostle chosen by the Spirit to author THIRTEEN (maybe fourteen) letters in the New Testament considered less authoritative than the one who authored two?
God continued to reveal truth after the Gospels and Acts. Much of it is to be found in Paul’s letters. Worth taking a look at.
God said He knew of no other Rock but Him yet Catholics claim it’s a man? Maybe God forgot or something? How does that work?
He's obviously in the background for Catholics.
LOL I was waiting for someone naive enough to try that one. She didn’t stop there with that thought. She tied it to earning grace and “sharing in redemption” as if Christ didn’t do quite enough. Catholics just can’t help but try to take some of the credit can they? Like I said vlad, not one point was according to scripture.
The ritual practices and vessels that you disparage originated with the Jews and are described in the Old Testament. Recognition of and veneration of saints is based on proof of a life of heroic Christian virtue and of miracles credibly attributed to them after their death.
The ritual practices and vessels that you disparage originated with the Jews and are described in the Old Testament. Recognition of and veneration of saints is based on proof of a life of heroic Christian virtue and of miracles credibly attributed to them after their death.
Galatians 1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
The Catholic Church teaches "another gospel".
Excellent! Please direct me to the Bible verses so that I may read it for myself.
I was hoping to read about the struggles of Catholics during the present crisis.
Sorry this is just not true.. Every Pope MUST AFFIRM the findings of the Council of Trent ...which curse/damn all protestants to hell
Canon 12 reads as follows: "If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema."
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-the-council-of-trent
Her article points out what I am no longer Catholic
That's one way of looking at it. But the practice of the early church, as recorded in the Didache, Hippolytus of Rome, Justin Martyr, and others, was to celebrate it weekly on Sunday, in honor of the resurrection.
To do this sacred testament more often conflicts with the example and makes it common and profanes it.
Your opinion maybe, but not something stated in Scripture.
“LOL I was waiting for someone naive enough to try that one.”
LOL I was waiting for an anti-Catholic to try and spin that one.
“She didn’t stop there with that thought.”
The anti-Catholic won’t stop there with the spin.
“She tied it to earning grace and “sharing in redemption” as if Christ didn’t do quite enough.”
The anti-Catholic will falsely claim the author said something about “earning grace” and claim “sharing in redemption” means “Christ didn’t do quite enough”.
“Catholics just can’t help but try to take some of the credit can they?”
Anti-Catholics just can’t help but try to fake things to attack Catholics.
“Like I said vlad, not one point was according to scripture.”
Like I said, CynicalBear, many times, Newman was right when he wrote, “To Protestantism False Witness is the principle of propagation.”
It's been explained many times on this forum why this statement is incorrect.
Today’s Catholics will say most anything to try to lure us into the paganism of Catholicism.
I always enjoy watching Catholics going into parrot mode.
Not only sad, but shocked as well. I used to be one.
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