>>Merely your opinion, CB.<<
Yeah, right. That’s why I’m the only non Catholic there is any more. LOL
I never said it wasn’t an opinion shared by many, many others who are just as wrong as you.
I will give you an example of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from my own life.
When I finally answered the calls from God that I had been having and ignoring for a while, I still wasn’t sure what faith was or where to find it. I just knew that I wanted a relationship with God and wanted to teach my children about Him and His Son.
I flirted a little with different groups as my circle of friends included Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostal Evangelicals, Presbyterians and Baptists. No Catholics that I knew of, and my husband was a lot like you.
A trip to my home town for my grandmother’s funeral found me in the church of my youth. Now, I had been to all these other places with friends and had been reading the Bible on my own, a kind of feeling out and exploring.
Well, dear CB, being there in that Church felt more like home than anything I have felt, ever. I was confused. I had not even considered a return to the Church.
I returned home, and like Mary, pondered quietly in my heart all that I had seen and heard and felt there. I knew my husband would be resistant to the Catholic church, so I kept my thoughts to myself.
I prayed, studied and read whatever I could get my hands on and finally, I knew I had to go to another Mass, one that wasn’t my beloved grandmother’s funeral. I though maybe I was just overcome with emotions of sadness and the comfort I found at that Church was from that and not from anything else.
So, here I am, back at Mass, not sure of anything. I prayed to God to show me that I was in the right place and doing the right thing. I cried as I did. My desire was sincere and my doubts just as sincere.
As I exited the church, there in front of me was a huge window with a picture of our Lady and the words, Ave Maria.
My grandmother sang that song at every midnight Mass in my childhood. Looking at that, I could so clearly hear her singing it from the choir loft, beautiful and soaring.
Now, dear CB, I had lived down the street from that church for 21 years before that day and had never set foot in it.
I knew when I saw that, that God was telling me that I was in the right place.
I went home and told my husband that I was going to the Catholic church and I was having the kids baptized and taking them with me every week. He looked at me and said, “Okay, I know you have been searching and if that is where God has led you, then that is where you should go.”
After that the Holy Spirit placed in my path people of deep faith and great knowledge who have been such dear guides to me. I cannot tell you the joy and happiness I find there or the good things I am a part of there.
The Holy Spirit is a comforter, a consoler, a teacher and guide and an advocate. For over eleven years now He has been all of those things for me. He comforted me so that I knew I was right to return to the Church. He consoled me when I lost people dear to me because of it. He taught me how to find the truth and guided me to that truth when I need His guidance. And He was my advocate with my husband. First when my husband readily accepted my return to church and then when I needed him to agree to a marriage in the church so that I could receive the Eucharist.
Familiarity and emotional ties to the past are not the Holy Spirit.
>>As I exited the church, there in front of me was a huge window with a picture of our Lady and the words, Ave Maria.<<
I can assure you that did not come from the Holy Spirit. The devotion to Mary is contradictory to what Jesus spoke. Mary is definitely not the “queen of heaven” and by Jesus own words is not to be considered more blessed than any other believer.
The Holy Spirit does not lead you to any error and the simple fact that you attribute the thing with the image of Mary is indication that the entire story was not from the Holy Spirit.