Posted on 06/01/2013 2:23:13 PM PDT by NYer
I was Protestant for a time. I sang modern Christian music and swayed and held up my hands and loved the other members of the church. I found it difficult when there were divisions in the congregation and when some of my “family” decided to “plant a church” of their own. The trust was broken and there were allegations of “sheep stealing.”
In retrospect, I often wonder why it is “sheep stealing” to invite someone to another protestant church, but luring people away from the Catholic Church is encouraged. I always felt like something was missing there, but I didn’t know what was missing. I had been born and raised Catholic, but I was so poorly catechized that I had no idea that I was missing the Eucharist, the true presence of Christ. I didn’t realize what Catholics believe about the Eucharist, and I was raised IN THE CHURCH.
It wasn’t until I was reading an article in a free copy of Catholic Answers magazine that I came across the fact that the Church teaches that Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. It was an “aha” moment for me. Next I listened to Scott Hahn’s testimony about his conversion to the faith. I read Rome Sweet Home. I listened to more talks by Scott Hahn about reading the New Testament in light of the Old Testament. It was really only through the testimony of this Biblical scholar that I returned to the Church.
I am divorced and remarried. My first marriage was annulled, but my current husband’s first marriage was not. I am outside the fullness of Grace. This tears at my heart. I long for Christ in the Eucharist and for the graces of the Sacraments in which I cannot participate. I pray for my husband’s heart to change and I wait. Everything in God’s time, though.
My heart breaks for friends who have left the church because they, like I, were poorly catechized. They do not have the understanding of the truths the Church teaches to return. They have been changed by the time they have spent listening to protestant friends and protestant preachers who twist what the church is and does. Perhaps they have read a few too many Jack Chick tracts.
I try to direct them back to the Church, but I am not a very good apologist, despite knowing which scripture verses support what the Church teaches. I am afraid I am even less of an evangelist, so I pray. I pray that they will turn their hearts towards Christ’s words in the gospels and that they will listen with their hearts to His call. I know when I turned my heart toward Him, I came home. I try to live the Corporal Works of Mercy in my life.
I have been in both Catholic and protestant churches when there was no one there. The protestant churches were empty and FELT empty. While no other human person was in the Catholic Church with me, it never felt empty. I always felt and feel His presence there. I came home despite my exclusion from the sacraments because He is there. I offer to Him my imperfection and brokenness and pray that He will use me despite my flaws. I thank Him for His love and mercy. I continue to teach my children and attend Mass and to be an imperfect party of the Body of Christ.
Scott Hahn was a Presbyterian minister, the top student in his seminary class, a brilliant Scripture scholar, and militantly anti-Catholic ... until he reluctantly began to discover that his "enemy" had all the right answers. Kimberly, also a top-notch theology student in the seminary, is the daughter of a well-known Protestant minister, and went through a tremendous "dark night of the soul" after Scott converted to Catholicism.Their conversion story and love for the Church has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of lukewarm Catholics and brought them back into an active participation in the Church. They have also influenced countless conversions to Catholicism among their friends and others who have heard their powerful testimony.
thanks for posting. appreciated!
How many times must Christ be sacrificed in order to atone for sin?
Christ died for sins once, but the Catholic mass is a rememberence of Christ’s sacriface on the cross.
Hey TB
Of course, there is only ONE sacrifice — Our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a RE-presentation of that self-same sacrifice. Not a representation. The ONE sacrifice is RE-presented at every Catholic Mass.
I think of it as kind of a time machine — remember the TV program “You Are There”?
It’s kind of like that.
At the moment of consecration, you are there! — at the foot of the Cross — with Holy Mother Mary and Saint John — uniting yourself and your suffering with Jesus on the cross.
The word Eucharist mean thanksgiving — and we can never thank Him enough for what He did for us.
God bless you. (Some more.)
That's exactly my point. If Christ died once for all and totally paid our debt to a righteous God, why would it be necessary to re-sacrifice Him again?
I ask this with the understanding that your church considers the Eucharist to be a true but un-bloody sacrifice of the actual body and blood of Jesus.
As far as being at the cross with Him, I've gotten way past that. I've been raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly realms. (ref Ephesians 2:6)
All churches do not feel “empty” like you said. I do not understand why Catholics hate Protestants so much. Maybe it is just those on here. You would get more respect if people did not spout so much hatred. I really, really can not respect other points of view when hate is showed instead of love. I grew up going to many different churches and they all taught from the Bible. Try love instead of hate.
lPlease read post number 6, does a better presentation of what the mass is all about.
The Holy Mass is not a different sacrifice but the same sacrifice.
Are you saying it's a continuation of the original crucifixion? If that is so, what was Jesus referring to when He said "It is finished"?
I said RE-presentation, not RE-sacrifice, TB.
In the Holy Mass, you are PRESENT at that VERY moment that happened on Calvary 2000 years ago.
What is happening on the altar at that moment of Consecration is not Calvary happening AGAIN, it is Calvary happening STILL.
How can this be?
Because Christ’s sacrifice is ETERNAL, — eternally PRESENT to the Father — and to you, too, at that moment of Consecration in the Holy Mass.
Eternity is a concept beyond our understanding.
It doesn’t mean “forever” nor a long period of time. It means “outside of time itself”; a perpetual present, a never-ending now. God apprehends all events in time in a single glance of “now”. The “thousand years is a single day” suggests how different the Divine Perspective is from ours.
The sacrifice of Christ is not time-bound. That’s why the institution of the Holy Eucharist was possible at the Last Supper — hours before Calvary. It anticipates the Sacrifice on Calvary, because the future is PRESENT from God’s eternal perspective. Easy-peasy for God.
The Catholic Church believes, as you do, that there is no need for a subsequent sacrifice since the first is infinitely more than sufficient in itself.
And infinitely more than we deserve.
Happy feast of Corpus Christi!!!
As far as being at the cross with Him, I’ve gotten way past that. I’ve been raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly realms. (ref Ephesians 2:6)
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+1
You are misinterpreting the words. “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Each Mass is a re-presentation of the MEMORY of the Last Supper. We are following Christ’s instructions.
Do you have a problem with Judaisim REMEMBERING the Passover by having a special meal? Same thing.
When Jesus comes back, this is one of the things he’s just gonna slap us upside the head with and say “do you guys just not get the concept of metaphor? Really???”
Apparently, the early Christians so disliked metaphors that they left Christ due to not liking the metaphor.
A gentle correction is in order.
First of all, there is no hatred at all coming from the Christian Catholics in regards to the form of worship, just explaining what takes place.
Second, any attacking that does take place comes from those who accept the Bible. Love is not being shown when Bible based Christian Protestants attack their Christian Catholic brothers and sisters.
Please do not forget that it is one common baptism that unite us as Christians.
No, the King of Kings will not do that.
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