Catholic Church

Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is. -- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Yep, thats right folks. We've been going to Catholic Church. GASP! I know. Well, Mike and I were married in the Catholic Church and I was going to convert (though only because I wanted our family to go to church together) back when we first moved here, but Mike had a change of heart which I had been praying for. So we started going to our current, lovely, family integrated church right after that, about 2.5 years ago. We were growing increasingly frustrated with it though since I end up out in the hall for the entire service with Faith running around... so I started looking for a solution, of course there really isn't one, its just hard going to church with a little one. But I started looking into other local churches around here. We wanted something with young families and most of those churches don't have the kind of worship/formality we believe in. And, unless you go to a non-denom, how do you decide which denomination to go to? There are 33,000 (probably more, I don't know how old that number is) different denominations! I was raised Baptist, but who am I to say that those Presbyterian's baptizing infants are wrong when they use the SAME Bible to defend their beliefs too. So, how the heck can anyone decide which one is true when everyone is yelling "SOLA SCRIPTURA!"? I want to go to the Church that preaches the TRUTH! There can only be one truth, unless we're going to say, like some non-Christian worldviews say, that everyone has to find their own truth and my truth is different than yours, etc. So... maybe this sola scriptura thing isn't working out so well. Look at all the division, is that what Jesus intended? Plus, no one believed in using the Bible alone as the sole rule of faith until Martin Luther came along in 16th Century. Did they all get it wrong for 1500 years? Is Sola Scriptura even IN the Bible?! "all doctrine is inspired by God and profitable for reproof....." hmmmm. profitable. but I don't see where it says "the only thing profitable". And speaking of Martin Luther, did you know he wanted to remove a bunch of other books from the NT like James and Romans and Revelations. He even referred to James as the "epistle of straw" (maybe because it says faith without works is dead?;-). He also believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary and in the Real Presence of Christ in the mass (though to a slightly different extent). I was surprised! And there wasn't even an official Canon of Scripture for the New Testament until 300 something AD. 300 years! What did those people do?! Obviously they couldn't rely on the Bible alone to teach them what to believe, they were taught from oral tradition! You know what the Bible says is the pillar and foundation of truth? The church! (1 tim 3:15)

Needless to say Michael was a little more than surprised when I told him I thought we should maybe go to Catholic Church again. He's very on-board though. He was going through a faith-crisis right before this and I could tell he was very relieved when I mentioned it.

Ok, well I'm not going to go into every single theological reason why, but another huge factor was that we already believe in the cultural aspects of Catholicism. We don't have to search for some fringe fundamentalist church to hear that contraception is wrong or that radical feminism is destroying families. They are actively against abortion. children are welcome & encouraged to be in the service with their parents. Many of the prominent breastfeeding, natural mothering, gentle discipline books are written by Catholics (Kippley, Popcak) - heck, LLL was started by 7 Catholic women. Sears' are Catholic too. huge points for Catholicism in my book ;-)

This was the first thing I listened to after I started reconsidering Catholicism - Household of Faith its by two formerly Protestant women. sooo great and its free so you should listen to it!

A great book by a Presbyterian Minister & his wife on their journey converting to the Catholic Church

An awesome defense against every anti-Catholic argument

EWTN audio from The Journey Home - a show interviewing Protestant Pastor's that have converted to the CC

And yes there are Catholics who don't know squat about the Bible or what the Catholic Church teaches... but there are also Protestants who are the same way. The Catholic Church doesn't teach that we are saved by works or that we should worship Mary or that Mary is equal to Jesus or that everyone outside the CC is going to hell, or ... probably most everything you've heard isn't true.

So... there you have it. I used to listen/read tons of anti-Catholic stuff, so don't throw that at me thinking I haven't seen it yet, I know all of the arguments. I even grew up in a Church where the Pastor was an ex-Catholic! I've really been putting off telling people because I'm so afraid of what people will say/think/ask and I'm a total conflict avoider in real life because I'm so so so bad at thinking on my feet. I know a few of you are very anti-Catholic so just be gentle and read some things from a Catholic perspective instead of only anti-Catholic. "There is no meaner, more hateful person on earth than a Christian who suspects you have gotten your theology wrong."

Ok, well... I'm really excited about it! I'll be received into the Catholic Church at Pentecost. I'm in a conversion class full of other adults with protestant backgrounds, its been so encouraging to be able to fellowship and discuss with others in the same boat. We have a reconciliation retreat tomorrow.... yay!!

Please don't hate me. I'm so scared to post this! ahhhhhh :-|

Church!

Faith and I went to church alone today (not this church, just a pretty picture I found)! First time thats ever happened, only because Mike worked last night and obviously wasn't going to get up 2 hours after he got home to go to Church and I just felt like going :) I almost didn't go, because I must be insane to try taking her by myself!! But, she sat through the entire service!!!! I can't even believe it! Granted, it was only an hour but I didn't have to take her out at all. well, once because she said she needed to go potty, which is also a HUGE deal because she hardly ever tells me before she goes. and she kept asking for food (of course I brought none) and nursed like 5 times and wanted this girl's baby doll in front of us. But she was pretty good! I haven't been able to sit through an entire service since she was like 3 months old. I still got nothing out of it because I was trying to occupy her the whole time, but its progress!

I'll say more about WHERE we went to church later, but I'd like to save the reprimands and concerns for my soul for another day ;-)

Sick baby

lots of puking :( Thankfully I think its over now.

Edit: not over. As soon as I posted this, she started fussing in her sleep on the couch so I was going to move her upstairs to our bed and go to sleep myself. I take her up there, I had already pre-planned so I had everything ready and certain lights on that needed to be on, I go up there (meanwhile she is gagging on the way up the stairs) and none of the lights are on, none of the light switches work (keep in mind Mike is working nights this month so he's not here). So, she threw up on the floor/me 3 times in the span of 30 seconds while I'm helpless because I can't see anything! AHHHH I'm not even going to try to clean it up since there is no light and its scary up there! Vomit on carpet for 8 hours will be fine right? Why does electricity not work in half my house?!