Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Catholic and loving it. Like Methodism it helps get me out of my head. What you do, how you live each day - very important. Belief is important, too. But Catholicism heavily stresses that if you have faith then you will also have good works.

Also, it is a very beautiful expression of Christianity through the rituals and sacraments and sacred art. Beauty is an important component of our faith, too.

Might say more later.

I am Catholic also. I was first astonished at the thought of a loving God. What an amazing concept. The priest that led my classes for conversion was very open minded, said you don't have to believe everything the church teaches. They also accepted my C of C baptism.

Grace wrote:I am Catholic also. I was first astonished at the thought of a loving God. What an amazing concept. The priest that led my classes for conversion was very open minded, said you don't have to believe everything the church teaches. They also accepted my C of C baptism.

Right! Of course, they would like us to believe everything they teach and they don't want priests and RCIA leaders teaching something contrary to Church teaching. But there is room for debate. There is room to discuss. And there is room to put it on a shelf to think about later.

And isn't it refreshing about the baptism, thing?! So many refreshing things about Catholicism. Especially since Vatican II. I know there are people who say that nothing has changed. Certainly doctrine hasn't changed. But practice has! And for the most part, they've been very good changes.

We are coming up on All Saints Day. One of my favorite times of the year! A very vivid reminder that Christ has ONE CHURCH (one body) and it is ALIVE! No such thing as a dead church and a live church. We have brothers & sisters who pray for us and who help us in this life. Love it!

I am going to be starting the RCIA period of inquiry soon. I was amazed the first time I went to masd. The Church, the Eucharist, everything came together and it all made sense. I am so ready to get started on this path and learn more!

The Church, the Eucharist, everything came together and it all made sense

That was my experience, too. And now, 20+ years later, it still holds true. So, congrats, and God bless.

I will never forget sitting in a "Music Appreciation 101" class many years ago. The prof was lecturing on the historical development of polyphony in the monasteries, etc etc. Some guy in the class kept trying to argue that it, the religious music, was just for the Catholics of the day. The prof stopped, looked at the guy, and said: "Look, I'm no friend of organized religion, Catholic or otherwise, and this is a music class not a history class per se. But being educated means understanding that history is history -- and until the Reformation in the 16th century, there WAS no Christian church other than the Catholic church" The guy, probably a good Baptist, looked like he'd been slapped hard in the face.

( As a caveat, this is not to say Luther's was the first heresy. Heresies of one stripe or another have been a constant down thru the centuries, beginning in New Testament times ("I am of Paul", "I am of Apollo"). But none of them lasted very long or had the historical significance of the Reformation, which flourished for a variety of reasons, most of then non-theological. )

Though my mom does not identify as Catholic, she reads lots of Catholic books and regularly watches EWTN. Since she has left the coC, she has been trying to convince me to go Catholic for years, even though she hasn't. I have lots of respect for the Catholic church and what they have done for the arts, but the more my mom tries to convince me, the more ridiculous it seems. I wish she could try to find her own way, instead of simply trading one institutional belief system for another.

It is still one of my goals to attend a Catholic mass in Spanish.

Ashes wrote:Though my mom does not identify as Catholic, she reads lots of Catholic books and regularly watches EWTN. Since she has left the coC, she has been trying to convince me to go Catholic for years, even though she hasn't. I have lots of respect for the Catholic church and what they have done for the arts, but the more my mom tries to convince me, the more ridiculous it seems. I wish she could try to find her own way, instead of simply trading one institutional belief system for another.

It is still one of my goals to attend a Catholic mass in Spanish.

Ashes, please try to attend a mass in Spanish. I speak some Spanish, and the mass seems even more meaningful in Spanish than in English.

Opie wrote:

Ashes wrote:Though my mom does not identify as Catholic, she reads lots of Catholic books and regularly watches EWTN. Since she has left the coC, she has been trying to convince me to go Catholic for years, even though she hasn't. I have lots of respect for the Catholic church and what they have done for the arts, but the more my mom tries to convince me, the more ridiculous it seems. I wish she could try to find her own way, instead of simply trading one institutional belief system for another.

It is still one of my goals to attend a Catholic mass in Spanish.

Ashes, please try to attend a mass in Spanish. I speak some Spanish, and the mass seems even more meaningful in Spanish than in English.

How does hearing the exact same thing in another language make it mean more?

How does hearing the exact same thing in another language make it mean more?

This touches on something that is kind of hard to explain.

The Mass -- "the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass" to be more precise -- is more than just a church service. It is something Catholics experience inwardly as well as participate in.

We believe it's a small foretaste of Heaven. You're involved in something so ancient, so beautiful, so full of meaning, involving intimacy with the Divine, with God Himself. And when the priest offers the sacrifice of bread and wine and says the words of consecration exactly as our Lord commanded, we believe that that same bread and wine are transformed into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. There's quite a bit about this in the Bible, in the 6th chapter of St. John's Gospel especially.

And as you file down to receive this Holy Communion, you keep thinking "This is the real deal; this is the Creator of the universe, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity here, offering His very body and blood to me in communion . . . am I up to this?"

I don't speak Spanish but I know people who do, and they tell me certain parts of the liturgy translate even more beautifully in that tongue. Of course the essence is the same -- there's the old saw about the Mass still being the Mass, whether it's being said in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome or in a grass hut in deepest Africa.

I would love to be at both!