The kneeling and praying before and after Mass, the singing, the ups, downs, the kneeling, the responses, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sign of Peace are all wonderful ways to participate in the Mass that a Protestants never experiences. I never felt as immersed in church as I do now.
@Davcramer
Жыл бұрын
Why become Catholic? I grew up in a very small Church of the Nazarene until I was 16 and my parents divorced. And remember we sang a song, the preacher said a prayer, read one reading of the Bible, and then preached for 30-40 minutes, and we sang another song, he prayed again, and then it was over. I was very anti-Catholic. I knew that the Mass was in Latin and no one knew what the priest was saying (not true at the time, it was the 1970s and Mass was in the vernacular) and Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible. Oh, and they prayed to statues. My very first Mass after marrying my Catholic wife was the Midnight Mass. It was in English, and I understood every word. I'd heard about the Sign of the Cross, but didn't realize that it was said at the beginning (and end) of every Mass. I'd heard of the Trinity, but had never heard of the Trinity spoken of familiarly as it is in the Sign of the Cross. I noticed the priest prayed a lot. There was a lot of symbolism, and I liked that. Just the fact that we were celebrating Mass at midnight, awaiting the birth of the Christ child, touched me in a way I'd never felt before. The readings were tailored made for that service, Isaiah 9:1-6, Psalms 96, Titus 2:11-14, and Luke 2:1-14. My old church would never have used Bible verses to portray a historical narrative in that way. Short sermon, too short my me at that time (and just right to me now). But not just the Bible readings, every word of the Mass was literally or symbolically from the Bible, that really struck me hard, thinking "I know where that came from. I know where that came from. I know where that came from...They had a communion, but in a different. more formalized way than my old church presented it (and it turns out that happened EVERY MASS... not just grape juice and wafers a few times a year). I didn't know anything about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Bread and Wine, but I did understand in a symbolic way that when the priest held up the Eucharist and said "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him to takes away the sins of the world" that he was referring to the wafer as being Jesus, and I liked that, the way they used verses from the Bible in new and inspiring ways. As a Catholic you hear that every Mass, but for me it was new and different and kind of exciting. Why become Catholic? Because everything in the Mass is Biblical, and because in a world of Christians who claim to take the Bible as the literal, inerrant word of God, only the Catholics (and Orthodox?) ACTUALLY take the bread and wine as the flesh and blood of Christ s Christ meant it to be, and the Catholics place it as the central focus of the Mass, not as some infrequent ritual to be practiced a few times a year. Mass feels like how worship was intended to be, not as a Bible study but as the actual worship of Jesus Christ.
@vilmasucy7579
5 ай бұрын
Beautifully stated.
@TheLjdevlin86
7 ай бұрын
Great content-being a convert from Protestant about 7 years ago-I still have many questions. Be blessed.
@Davcramer
Жыл бұрын
Reference confession. As a teenager I committed two sins that left me feeling ashamed of myself, and I never spoke of them to anyone, but I did pray about them over and over, without ever feeling forgiven by myself or losing that sense of shame. Years after I became Catholic I decided to confess those two sins. And like always before confessing, I prayed all week about those sins. And in the confessional, I told Father, "I'm a Catholic convert, and I have two sins that I have never confessed before." And he interrupted me angrily, and said "Everything that you did before you joined the church were forgiven at your baptism". I suppose if I had gone through RCIA with him I would have known that, but I had gone years before in a different church and not been catechized well. Anyway, in the end I never said those two sins out loud, but I must have confessed other sins because I walked out forgiven. And as I kneeled down to pray I realized those sins were gone. Not literally gone, but behind a thick curtain, and I knew if I wanted to remember what they were I could see them IF I WANTED TO. But why would I want to? I have never felt anything like that before, as if they had been wiped from my mind. And now, maybe 15 years later, they are still gone. I only confess once a year, but it is effective for KNOWING that your sins are forgiven.
@sitka49
11 ай бұрын
It's called catholic guilt. One thing the church good at is shame, and guilt.
@Davcramer
Жыл бұрын
I was very anti-Mary, which caused a lot of problems for my wife who was named for Mary. I would tell my wife that Jesus could have been to anyone or anything, even a rock. That of course Mary and Joseph had sex; my wife and I were newlyweds and had sex every other day, That was what men expected of their wives. That Mary had other children, the Bible said so. That we're all sinners, Mary too. My wife finally had enough and asked me "Why do you hate Mary?". And I was shocked, I didn't hate Mary, she was Jesus' mother. But I shut up, and thought about it, and realized I WAS antagonistic towards the Catholic version of Mary. And I began to talk less and think more, and to realize that Catholics had their reasons for believing as they did. Not just "she had sex because we have sex" or "she sinned because I sin." They had actual Biblical and logical reasons for believing as they do. And eventually, perhaps out of familiarity, those beliefs have become my beliefs.
@sitka49
11 ай бұрын
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Believe everything ,and dont ask questions. Sound a lot like tyranny?
@TheCordialCatholic
11 ай бұрын
This episode is LITERALLY all questions about Catholicism. 😂
@sitka49
11 ай бұрын
@@TheCordialCatholic That is a good question why would anybody want to be a Catholic? That was me dragged to church every Sunday, every holy day. When I was a kid it felt like I was being dragged to the catacombs of Rome: dark smelly and perceived to me like death. I like your joke about the bears eating the kids the Bible is full of those Charming Tales isn't it? I always liked Psalms 137:9 that's another Charming Tale - I never heard that one in CCD classes we only got the warm and fuzzy side of the Bible there
@aperson2368
Ай бұрын
okay, this is weird for me too, I just feel like you have a lot of hurt and anger in you, and I just want you to know that it't okay to feel like that, but do you want to feel like that for ever? I don't know why i write this but I just feel like i should, take it how you want, God bless you.
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