Why are you catholic

[Guest T-Bone]

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Jun 13 2005, 11:19 PM']This reminds me of a story that a seminarian told me.

He was picking up his bishop from the airport and was driving back to the chancery (sp?) They had stopped to get a bite to eat and afterwards the bishop needed to visit the little cleric's room. As he was in there, a girl came up and started to speak with the seminarian. She found out that he was Catholic and asked this very same question. Well the bishop apparently overheard the seminarian fumble over his answer as he was washing his hands. When he came out, he walked up to the girl (and in a very dignified and profound voice) proclaimed, [b]"because it is the one true faith."[/b]  He then proceeded to walk to the car and wait for the seminarian.

I will go with that answer.
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That's what I was going to say!!


(I thought myself into the Church)

[Didacus]

[quote name='ardillacid' date='Jun 13 2005, 11:28 PM']It would depend which it was.

Alien: It is the religion founded by the Creator of all who wants us to be happy for all eternity.

Protestant: Go to hell  

Unbeliever: This would take a while
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I had the same type of reply, though a little more polite for the protestants...

Alien:
Because it is the church founded by Christ, the faith that holds the seat of St-Peter. Because of all the christian faiths it is the original which held to it's truth, unwaveringly for thousands of years.


Protestant:
Because I'd rather believe in the faith rather than protest against it. After 450years+ of protesting I'd figured you'd get tired of that game, but nooooooo, it's part of your tradition to protest now. Think jesus will appreciate having to entertain protests in heaven?

Atheist:

Besause: THERE IS A GOD! And wether you like it or not, you'll meet Him someday - good luck with that.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

GK Chesterton has a good quote that I always use (well, I shorten it to "because it's True") but Chesterton's quote is something like "there are 10,000 reasons to answer the question why am I a Catholic, all amounting to one reason: because Catholicism is true." (that's not the EXACT quote, cuz I can't find it, but it's pretty close)

[Dudette]

[quote name='Cam42' date='Jun 14 2005, 01:34 AM']Because it is the only way to salvation.  There is no salvation outside the Church.
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yep and

[quote]This reminds me of a story that a seminarian told me.

He was picking up his bishop from the airport and was driving back to the chancery (sp?) They had stopped to get a bite to eat and afterwards the bishop needed to visit the little cleric's room. As he was in there, a girl came up and started to speak with the seminarian. She found out that he was Catholic and asked this very same question. Well the bishop apparently overheard the seminarian fumble over his answer as he was washing his hands. When he came out, he walked up to the girl (and in a very dignified and profound voice) proclaimed, "because it is the one true faith." He then proceeded to walk to the car and wait for the seminarian.

I will go with that answer.[/quote]

yep.

[thessalonian]

By the grace of God. It is impossible to find it on our own.

But in particular because the Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Christ. Because the evidence, biblical and historical, confirms it.

[jezic]

personally if for nothing else because our liturgy rocks! (there are a whole bunch of other reasons to, but this is my favorite right now)

Protestant services are really strange. Nothing against them but there is more to it than just singing and a minister saying "may God bless us" and then giving long homilies. Then there is very little tradition in it as well.

Ooh there is daily Mass. I just found out that protestants don't usually have daily services, how wierd :S . Daily mass is like life....

The final reason is that the entire movement was about faith "my" way. Considering that it is a gift from God, it is His way and will always be.

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='jezic' date='Jun 14 2005, 09:34 AM']Ooh there is daily Mass. I just found out that protestants don't usually have daily services, how wierd :S . Daily mass is like life....
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Daily mass is AMAZING!

What I would say:

1. The Eucharist (how I talked about it would depend on the tone of the conversation)

2. Catholics have THE WHOLE Bible (as a former Protestant who was misinformed about this issue, it's a big deal to me)

3. Becoming Catholic is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Truly!

By the way--I'm assuming, or hoping, that the less-than-tactful, shut-down responses to Protestants are jokes. Several years ago I timidly asked a strong (formerly Protestant) Catholic a question about the faith, and the snotty answer I got put me off investigating the faith for a couple years more. The Holy Spirit was still wooing my heart, but if I'd gotten an explanation, I would have felt free to do more reading. As it was, I was so petrified about investigating the claims of the Church in the first place, that I figured there WAS no explanation.

I had no idea that there was such a thing as Catholic apologetics. I didn't know what the Catechism was, and I didn't know about Phatmass. I didn't have any idea how to get an answer to my question.

Maybe cradle Catholics don't understand this, but if you're raised Protestant, the Catholic church can seem totally forbidding, mysterious, and even un-godly. For most Protestants, it is utterly foreign at best. Calm explanations of the truth (and biblical backup is particularly helpful) is what is needed.

I know it can seem like people are always trying to argue, and not actually listen. But please, be alert to people who might be searching.

MG

[MC Just]

but LORD, to whom shall we go?

[jezic]

why woudl the Catholic Church seem forbidding?

Years of separation and bad feelings between both groups didn't help things any, but that shouldn't affect you so much today. As a Christian above all you should seek the truth, that may not always be easy but why would that stop you?

I wonder that about a lot of Catholics and Protestants. It is like they are scared of each other. :S

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='jezic' date='Jun 14 2005, 11:07 AM']why woudl the Catholic Church seem forbidding?

Years of separation and bad feelings between both groups didn't help things any, but that shouldn't affect you so much today. As a Christian above all you should seek the truth, that may not always be easy but why would that stop you?

I wonder that about a lot of Catholics and Protestants. It is like they are scared of each other. :S
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Jezic--are you a cradle Catholic? Just curious.

I will try to explain, as I realize it seems strange to many people.

1. The liturgy can be completely foreign, depending on which denomination you were raised in. In the churches I was raised in, the order of service basically was this: about half an hour of praise and worship music (sometimes went on longer, sometimes people spoke in tongues); announcements, as well as baby dedication, graduation, or any other special ceremonies happening; whatever Bible verses the preacher was preaching on that day; and about 45 minutes of sermon. Then communion if it was the one Sunday a month we had it; then an "altar call" (inviting people to come forward to pray and receive Jesus into their hearts), during which we would sing a closing song.

Church lasted about two hours (more, if you went to Sunday school). We almost never knelt in my church, and we only stood to sing, and to read the Bible (whether it was a Gospel, or another book).

Now think about how many different things get done in Mass. Knowing when to kneel, stand and sit, ALONE, can be utterly confusing. Walking in as a Protestant, you don't have any idea how the people know which part is standing, sitting, or kneeling. No one tells you that the order of service is in the front of the red Worship book. Why are those people bowing when they get to the front of the sanctuary? Why are they kneeling right before entering the pew? What's with the water? How do these people know exactly what to say, and when to say it?

2. The look of the churches
My church looked like a big auditorium, basically. We'd decorate for Christmas or weddings or missions week, and occasinoally there were banners that stood on the stage. Catholic churches, on the other hand, have statues and a great big crucifix (whereas we only had a cross), and the stations of the cross (some of them very gory and dramatic to unaccustomed eyes). They play organ music (we had an organ at my old church, but most of the music was played by a very festive band with drums, guitar, bass, piano, etc., and the lyrics to songs were displayed in PowerPoint form).

Are you starting to get the picture?

That's just externals. Then you have doctrine. In most Protestant churches, Mary is only discussed at Christmas, and she is only peripheral. The "veneration" and "honor" given her is totally foreign, and can seem like idolatry to an outsider who's never had the theology of it explained (and that's not even getting to the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption).

Salvation: it's very hard to give up the idea that your salvation is secure because you've "given your life to Jesus" and change over to the concept that you have to "work it out with fear and trembling" and "hope" you get there. In my old church (as in most Protestant churches), great emphasis was placed on the certainty of salvation if you just "give your heart to Jesus".

Purgatory: we never believed in that. If you're "saved", you go directly to heaven when you die; no questions asked. And you don't do penance for your sins; you ask Jesus to forgive you, and that's that.

The Sacraments: the way I was raised, all sacraments were *only* symbolic, and there were two: baptism and communion. They were really treated as "ordinances", I believe the term is. Baptism was for adults, as a symbol of your commitment to God (I know this is different in other Protestant denominations), and communion was "for everyone who believes that Jesus died for our sins".

3. If you are raised Protestant, and you are devout, you think you already *have* the truth--you don't necessarily feel the need to go looking, unless the Holy Spirit draws you. If you want to grow closer to God, you read your Bible more, you go to church more often, you pray. That's what you know to do, so you do it.

Given that my parents were raised Catholic, I had far more exposure to Catholicism than most Protestants, and yet I never thought to consider so many questions that I now feel are elemental. It was just ignorance. I didn't even know to ask, because I actually knew very little about the church.

Here's something else that's just a theory of mine: when you walk into a Catholic church, and the Host is reserved in the Tabernacle, the presence of Jesus is there. Now, since I was already Christian, I knew what that would feel like; I had met with Jesus before. But the Eucharist is so powerful that I believe Satan will do whatever he must to keep people from realizing that it is, indeed, the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus, he puts fear into the hearts of those who would otherwise recognize their Lord right away.

It's the only weapon he has, really, because once the fear is gone, one's eyes are opened to the truth, and the Church's claims ARE, of course, true.

[By the way--it's not Catholic *people* I feared. It was the idea that--what if it IS true? What then? What's it all about? Is it biblical? Why do I feel so drawn to this thing that, to my knowledge, *isn't* true? How can I find out?]

I *wanted* the Church's claims to be true, long before I believed and knew that they were.

MG

[FranciscanRocker25]

[quote name='Fides_et_Ratio' date='Jun 14 2005, 08:38 AM']GK Chesterton has a good quote that I always use (well, I shorten it to "because it's True") but Chesterton's quote is something like "there are 10,000 reasons to answer the question why am I a Catholic, all amounting to one reason: because Catholicism is true." (that's not the EXACT quote, cuz I can't find it, but it's pretty close)
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my really good friend who is agnostic asked me why i was catholic on saturday and i told her because there is truth in catholicism and i found answers to every question in my life in the catholic church.

[sweetpea316]

Wow.... Mickey's Girl... you basically put everything I've been thinking into words. I absolutely agree... As someone who is considering converting and is learning and praying in the meantime, I can relate 100% to what you wrote. So thanks! For me, the hardest part is the fact that I've grown up in a very Lutheran family and just never thought otherwise until recently. I know that if I did convert, my family would freak out, not to mention the people at my church. Yikes...but lets not get into that... I can only hope and pray that someday I can answer the question of this thread myself. God bless.

[Didacus]

I was born catholic.

I apologize if I offended anyone. My intentions was to show some of the ridiculous aspects of the Protestant church (sorry, I ain't no Homer Simpson).

I had no idea that some protestant viewed the church in this way. Most of the protestants that I have encountered where very critical and offensive when it came to talking about the Cahtolic church. (actually anoyone I encountererd thart where religioius and christian where overwhelmingly critical of the Catholic church).

Please accept my apologies.

I shall now repent and proceed to whip myself silly like the good, faithful little catholic boy that I am.

[catholicmomof4]

I was just asked this yesterday by a friend that was just "astonished" that we would convert to Catholisism ! This is how I explained it to her....

I told her that if I came to her extremely thirsty, I would want her to give me a FULL glass of water with ice not a half empty cup of lukewarm water. I want something cold and wet to quench that thirst !

Well, churches are the same. We go to church to quench a need, a thirst for Christ and I want a church that will fill my entire need and quench the thirst I have for our Lord ! Most (and I said most) protestant churches teach "truth" but it is only part of the truth. You can only find the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church. No other church offers the real and physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I want that! I want to recieve the Lord EVERYDAY ! You can not find that anywhere else !

Thanks and glory be to God forever !

[franciscanheart]

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Jun 14 2005, 12:19 AM']This reminds me of a story that a seminarian told me.

He was picking up his bishop from the airport and was driving back to the chancery (sp?) They had stopped to get a bite to eat and afterwards the bishop needed to visit the little cleric's room. As he was in there, a girl came up and started to speak with the seminarian. She found out that he was Catholic and asked this very same question. Well the bishop apparently overheard the seminarian fumble over his answer as he was washing his hands. When he came out, he walked up to the girl (and in a very dignified and profound voice) proclaimed, [b]"because it is the one true faith."[/b]  He then proceeded to walk to the car and wait for the seminarian.

I will go with that answer.
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stole my words.