During my confirmation today, Fr. Dem of St. Philomena Catholic Church gave 5 reasons why people return to the Faith. Here were the top 5 in a nutshell:
1. Hunger for the Eucharist – Catholics who leave find themselves longing for the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord in the form of matter, in the form of bread and wine for us to consume and receive life (and no, we’re not eating zombie Jesus, my non-Christian atheistic brethren, who have taken Left 4 Dead to another level.)
2. Desire to help people on a deeper spiritual level – Outside of the Church, good works make you feel good, but no amount of good works apart from the Church will give you the saving grace to enter Heaven (unless you’re completely and totally ignorant of the Church, which, even then, is a very bad thing). With the Church and Christ and the Saints in Heaven as prime examples and our prayer warriors, we can do the works necessary to build our faith and grow in our relationship with Christ.
3. Find a faith community instead of a group, club, or “prayer group.” The Sierra Club or the College Republicans or Democrats (boo) aren’t fulfilling. The human heart desires true spiritual nourishment that can only be found in the Church (or those who reject the Faith and the Church will seek dangerous alternatives in the form of Pantheism, Paganism, Wicca, etc.)
4. Raise children with spiritual grounding – Having children often changes the attitudes and beliefs of new parents. Parents want to raise their child the right way built from a indestructible moral foundation. Objective truth only exists because of God, a Higher Authority, and the Infallible Church that can teach no wrong because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit guiding our Holy Father, the Magisterium, and the college of Cardinals. (And before you begin to refute me, realize I said the Church can *teach* no wrong. Individual members and even our Infallible Holy Father can *do* wrong, i.e. sin.) In other words, objective truth doesn’t come from universities, the downstream media, and Keith Olbermann bowing before the eminence of High Priest Barack Obama.
5. Seek the fullness of the truth only found in the Catholic Church – Even when I was a wandering protestant (I’m thankful for those good people who have helped me seek out Christ, God, and the Bible to eventually lead me back to the Catholic faith), I wondered why you had laymen giving sermons and messages during Sunday services A good friend of mines asked me, “How do you know which denomination is the right one? There’s just so many.” There’s no way to honestly answer that question without leaving unfilled holes. As a protestant, there’s no reformation, but rebellion and quarrel and endless division (as I experienced at Berkland in Berkeley and now Gracepoint Fellowship Church in Berkeley). Thousands of denominations means that the rock Christ spoke of in Matthew 16:18 has crumbled and Hades has indeed overcome it and scattered all believers.
But that isn’t the case because the true Church Christ established on Earth is visible in Rome and all over the world. My faith journey began nearly five years ago. Today, I finally came home. No community of faith outside the Mother Church will grant me the same peace I have at its loving bosom, caring for me, and putting my anxieties to rest.
Thank you for your prayers and helping me see things through!
The Top 5 Reasons Why People Return to the Catholic Church
During my confirmation today, Fr. Dem of St. Philomena Catholic Church gave 5 reasons why people return to the Faith. Here were the top 5 in a nutshell:
1. Hunger for the Eucharist – Catholics who leave find themselves longing for the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord in the form of matter, in the form of bread and wine for us to consume and receive life (and no, we’re not eating zombie Jesus, my non-Christian atheistic brethren, who have taken Left 4 Dead to another level.)
2. Desire to help people on a deeper spiritual level – Outside of the Church, good works make you feel good, but no amount of good works apart from the Church will give you the saving grace to enter Heaven (unless you’re completely and totally ignorant of the Church, which, even then, is a very bad thing). With the Church and Christ and the Saints in Heaven as prime examples and our prayer warriors, we can do the works necessary to build our faith and grow in our relationship with Christ.
3. Find a faith community instead of a group, club, or “prayer group.” The Sierra Club or the College Republicans or Democrats (boo) aren’t fulfilling. The human heart desires true spiritual nourishment that can only be found in the Church (or those who reject the Faith and the Church will seek dangerous alternatives in the form of Pantheism, Paganism, Wicca, etc.)
4. Raise children with spiritual grounding – Having children often changes the attitudes and beliefs of new parents. Parents want to raise their child the right way built from a indestructible moral foundation. Objective truth only exists because of God, a Higher Authority, and the Infallible Church that can teach no wrong because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit guiding our Holy Father, the Magisterium, and the college of Cardinals. (And before you begin to refute me, realize I said the Church can *teach* no wrong. Individual members and even our Infallible Holy Father can *do* wrong, i.e. sin.) In other words, objective truth doesn’t come from universities, the downstream media, and Keith Olbermann bowing before the eminence of High Priest Barack Obama.
5. Seek the fullness of the truth only found in the Catholic Church – Even when I was a wandering protestant (I’m thankful for those good people who have helped me seek out Christ, God, and the Bible to eventually lead me back to the Catholic faith), I wondered why you had laymen giving sermons and messages during Sunday services A good friend of mines asked me, “How do you know which denomination is the right one? There’s just so many.” There’s no way to honestly answer that question without leaving unfilled holes. As a protestant, there’s no reformation, but rebellion and quarrel and endless division (as I experienced at Berkland in Berkeley and now Gracepoint Fellowship Church in Berkeley). Thousands of denominations means that the rock Christ spoke of in Matthew 16:18 has crumbled and Hades has indeed overcome it and scattered all believers.
But that isn’t the case because the true Church Christ established on Earth is visible in Rome and all over the world. My faith journey began nearly five years ago. Today, I finally came home. No community of faith outside the Mother Church will grant me the same peace I have at its loving bosom, caring for me, and putting my anxieties to rest.
Thank you for your prayers and helping me see things through!
This entry was posted on April 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm and is filed under Church/Apologetics, Commentary, Personal with tags catholic, church, conversion, faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.