For me, it's the discovery without having to face anyone's preset guidelines.

I may not be able to put on my fedora and grab my sidekick and travel around the world, ala Indiana Jones. But my explorations are not one bit less exciting.

I can appreciate the history and the spirituality of so many cultures and when the light clicks off each night and I put my latest adventure on the nightstand, we are more alike than different, spiritually.

I find it very rewarding on a deep level.

Jennifer

That I don't have to get up early on Sunday morning to be a part of it.

The best thing is the endless possiblities and that there is not just one path I can take, I can find different ways to go about it and the acceptance and respect I receive for what I am and where I am on my path and the pace that Im going.
The deeply spiritual people I get to meet are so loving and caring and yes full of humour too!
The precious moments when I get in touch with the holy spirit and feel the presence of a higher intelligence and power and to be able to share them!

The best thing is the endless possiblities and that there is not just one path I can take, I can find different ways to go about it and the acceptance and respect I receive for what I am and where I am on my path and the pace that Im going.
The deeply spiritual people I get to meet are so loving and caring and yes full of humour too!
The precious moments when I get in touch with the holy spirit and feel the presence of a higher intelligence and power and to be able to share them!

I totally agree. And in places you would never expect to find spirit.

I also used to be nervous about exploring, in person, different spiritual people, places and things. But it's truly an open door if you come with good intentions.

Jennifer

I totally agree. And in places you would never expect to find spirit.

I also used to be nervous about exploring, in person, different spiritual people, places and things. But it's truly an open door if you come with good intentions.

Jennifer

I feel that its amazing that this can be within just one religion! I love the fact that there are many layers to discover and grow from too!

Mine is the religion of "spiritual growth".

What I appreciate most about is that it is inclusive, rather than exclusive.

What makes me most excited about my religion? That I have nothing to be excited about. :D

:biglaugh:

Kimberly

burning heretics at the stake

:biglaugh:

Now that's funny......

You'd be justified, nobody could avenge enough on Jesus' death :D

What makes me most excited about my religion?

That I believe very little - not that I disbelieve very much, either. I just don't know. Which means I am totally free. And that means I'm in for a big surprise. Or maybe not!

What makes me most excited about my religion?

That I believe very little - not that I disbelieve very much, either. I just don't know. Which means I am totally free. And that means I'm in for a big surprise. Or maybe not!

I like the fact that God has given me free will! He is not forcing anything down my throat, I can choose for myself! :)

burning heretics at the stake

Which denomination are you Wand?

Just in case I happen to be in your town, near a load of wood?

I get to go around smacking people in the forehead and saying

"You are heal-Ed"

Now it doesn't heal anybody .... but they let me smack em on the head without calling a cop. :yup:




This probably answers your other question too, right? :hmm:

What makes me excited about my religion?

That someday I will meet - in person - the creator of heaven and earth!

What makes me excited about my religion...???

The fact that the lions are winning... :D

.

What makes me most excited about my religion? That I have nothing to be excited about. :D

:biglaugh:

Kimberly


THAT should be on a plaque...:thumb:

Jennifer

I have decided to give this a try, to see if I can contribute some good to this particular part of the forums.

I am a Roman Catholic. I was baptized shortly after I was born, I attended parochial schools through my primary education with the exception of a couple years in TX which were in public school. I have been confirmed, and I graduated form a Catholic High School.

I was a strong agnostic from about when I was 17 until the time when I was married at 22 – and from 22 to about 37 I was a ‘practicing adult Catholic’ which I jokingly explained as making Mass on Christmas and Easter.

This was brought on when I found out that the major complication with my birth defect that eventually resulted in my amputation was caused by a Doctor’s error during the 2nd corrective surgery attempt when I was 18 months old.

Growing up I was told, like most kids of any faith, that we can pray to God for help with challenges, etc. I took that too literally, and I prayed for years for some positive outcome with regard to my disability and in my Junior year of High School, amid the pressure of being a teenager and such, many things came to a head with me and I began to blame God for allowing me to born with the defect in the first place, then for not ‘fixing’ it like I had repeatedly prayed for.

Because I wanted to be married in the Church I began attending Mass more regularly, and WifeyGrande and I went through the Engaged Encounter which is a weekend retreat the Church requires to ensure that couples truly understand the nature of marriage as seen by the Church. The retreat is given by other married couples and a couple Priests – and it touched me quite deeply in terms of spirituality, but no so much in terms of practice.

Fast forward to the past couple years and I was going through a business failure which effected my sense of identity, my sense of worth, my sense of direction, and I began to ask a lot of questions, some positive, some not.

What I found was that I sensed a profound absence, a hole so to speak. I spoke with some friends as well as my sure-to-be-sainted Mother. I talked about some of the doubts and other issues I had with going to Church (although I am a creature of habit, some of the more ceremonial aspects of Mass, as well as some of the common prayers caused me heartburn as I could not at that time reconcile my beliefs with the ceremony).

Talking about these things with close advisors of different faith backgrounds (Baptist, non-denominational and Catholic) was very relieving, and I decided to start attending Mass again to try and better understand and appreciate some of my own questions and my own beliefs.

I attended a beautiful parish in Albuquerque for a couple years, not every weekend but several times a month. And I found that the sense of loss or missing began to subside. I also found that my concerns about the future, about the mistakes I had made, and my sense of identity began to return to normal. Of course, during this time the Priest gave many sermons and homilies that I had political or philosophical differences with, some profoundly at odds with my beliefs – but they were thought provoking and they challenged my thinking, even if only to reconcile what was said with what I believe. I found this to be invigorating.

More recently, I have decided that now that DaughterGrande is old enough, and intelligent enough in my opinion to be exposed to religion and make up her own mind, I have been looking at enrolling her in religious education. I do not agree with early childhood religious education or involvement beyond baptism after birth – it is too close to indoctrination to me although I do not believe it to be negative.

In essence, it is the concept of the faith community, the forgiveness of sins, and the ceremony that excite me now about being a Catholic. I enjoy going to Mass as I know that I will probably have some of my beliefs or philosophies challenged, and I know that for that hour or so I am surrounded by people with a similar interest, to come together and give praise. I know that my donations to the church help to ensure that it can continue to meet it’s objectives of improving lives locally and worldwide, and of spreading the Word. I also appreciate the history of the Church, being able to trace literally from Christ’s birth to today, and the important part the Church has played in world history over that 2000 year timeframe.

I have decided to give this a try, to see if I can contribute some good to this particular part of the forums.

I am a Roman Catholic. .... and the important part the Church has played in world history over that 2000 year timeframe.


Great post! :thumb:

If you don't mind me asking, what was it that attracted you to the Roman Catholic church rather than a Protestant denomination? You obviously had a history with Catholicism, but you mentioned dabbling in Baptist and non-denominational changes. Was it a difference of opinion on theology or did you just feel comfortable in the Catholic church?

Does your parish have a returning Catholic class/program? That was very helpful to my wife when she was struggling with her faith- and she learned about Vatican II, and the reasons behind some of the beliefs, and even some of the area's where they question themselves. She found it helpful- perhaps you would, as well. Or not...... throwing it out as something you may wish to consider. Wifey-poo actually taught Bible Study there for years, until she went back to school for teaching Art.

Interesting about different beliefs on childrearing; my wife wanted them "indocrinated", baptized and the whole program up to confirmation. That was important to her, and I backed her up even though I am much more agnostic about faith- I feel that you need a touchstone of some kind when forming beliefs. (My family believed in Beer. Period.There's a reason both brothers are dead......) The girls are fine young women who currently only go to church when asked; but so did my wife when we were first married. I don't know if we did it right or not; but it seemed to work OK. One of those things where one size does not fit all.......

Great post! :thumb:

If you don't mind me asking, what was it that attracted you to the Roman Catholic church rather than a Protestant denomination? You obviously had a history with Catholicism, but you mentioned dabbling in Baptist and non-denominational changes. Was it a difference of opinion on theology or did you just feel comfortable in the Catholic church?I would say familiarity first and foremost, then tradition (think Topol singing the 'Tradition' song from Fiddler on the Roof as Rev Tevye).

After that, it is less theology (although I believe Catholicism to be a bit more tolerant of 'other paths to God' than some Protestant organizations), and more about history. The Catholic Church has a rich history, some would focus on the controversial and occasionally misguided history, I acknowledge that but taken in context of the contributions the Church has made over 2 millenia I think it has done a lot more good than bad.

I also feel personally that the structure of the Roman Catholic Church and the way it communicates concepts of ethos, forgiveness of sins, etc. fits in with my belief system. I prefer being called upon to live within a set of objective right and wrong as I believe the challenge of living in accordance with a set of rules highlights the concept of free-will - I have to choose to behave in a way that is consistent with my own rules and the rules of the Church.

Hope that helps.

Does your parish have a returning Catholic class/program? That was very helpful to my wife when she was struggling with her faith- and she learned about Vatican II, and the reasons behind some of the beliefs, and even some of the area's where they question themselves. She found it helpful- perhaps you would, as well. Or not...... throwing it out as something you may wish to consider. Wifey-poo actually taught Bible Study there for years, until she went back to school for teaching Art.

Interesting about different beliefs on childrearing; my wife wanted them "indocrinated", baptized and the whole program up to confirmation. That was important to her, and I backed her up even though I am much more agnostic about faith- I feel that you need a touchstone of some kind when forming beliefs. (My family believed in Beer. Period.There's a reason both brothers are dead......) The girls are fine young women who currently only go to church when asked; but so did my wife when we were first married. I don't know if we did it right or not; but it seemed to work OK. One of those things where one size does not fit all.......Most parishes now have a program called 'Remembering Church', my sure-to-be-sainted Mother facilitates these back in Kansas. I have not undertaken any of them as I prefer to find my own way. I am going to offer to Lector as I am pretty good with the spoken word.

Religious education is viewed in many ways. My commitment when DaughterGrande was born was that I would raise her in the faith, and I have done that (she was baptized, and I have lead by example in terms of ethos, morality, free-will, and basic tenets of the faith), but I allow her to go to Mom-In-Law-Grande's non-denominational services when she stays there - I am not worried about that.

I only now feel comfortable having her take on religious education so that she can freely choose and learn and question as a thinking person rather than learn by rote, which I explained above was I think a significant part of my falling away from the faith for quite some time.

FWIW, WifeyGrande is very non-religious. She goes on Christmas and Easter, and any time we go with family, but she is not a religious person insofar as organized religion is concerned.

Very interesting. I said before that I always thought of Catholicism as Protestantism unevolved ancestor that should move to the side and fade away. But recently I've seen that this isn't at all true. There's still a lot of things that I believe need to be changed or (for want of a better word) 'modernised'. Vatican III perhaps?

I've never been to a Catholic service (not a safe thing to do here and am not going to run the risk of being capped in the knees) but the view I get from television is they're very dull services and have a heavy emphasis on sacraments. Although I don't agree with its theology, the Penecostal churches (such as Hillsong) have gone a long way to making their services interesting and exciting).

Is this fair to say? I'm not talking about 'Charismatic Catholicism', just a bit of music and excitement.

Very interesting. I said before that I always thought of Catholicism as Protestantism unevolved ancestor that should move to the side and fade away. But recently I've seen that this isn't at all true. There's still a lot of things that I believe need to be changed or (for want of a better word) 'modernised'. Vatican III perhaps?

I've never been to a Catholic service (not a safe thing to do here and am not going to run the risk of being capped in the knees) but the view I get from television is they're very dull services and have a heavy emphasis on sacraments. Although I don't agree with its theology, the Penecostal churches (such as Hillsong) have gone a long way to making their services interesting and exciting).

Is this fair to say? I'm not talking about 'Charismatic Catholicism', just a bit of music and excitement.I would counter that the Church continues to evolve and grow without the need for a full-on Vatican Council type overhaul, specific examples are the outreach to Jews and other non-Catholic Christian denominations, even Muslims which began under John Paul II and continues under Benedict, or the Church position on evolution (which is far more positive than my own - me being a fan of intelligent design).

You are spot on in terms of the 'boring' nature of the Mass - which is deliberate and I think important (at least to me). I find flashier services like at my mother-in-laws non-denominational church to be distracting - I love her Pastor, he is great, but the service seems disjointed and unfocused to me.

I want the content to be insteresting and exciting, not the light show or the musical selection. But I completely understand that others feel differently.

Comes back to me deliberatly choosing to follow the Church teachings, attend Mass and learn from the service, rather than the Church trying to find the combination of lights, overhead projectors and electric guitars to get me to show up and whip out the magic checkbook.

I know it may seem a bit cynical but it is what I feel and believe. FWIW there are many Catholic parishes that have flashier music and such, but they are not what I am interested in - I could care less what others choose to believe or follow, that is between them and God.