Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Catholic Living in the Modern World => Topic started by: Dawn on November 23, 2010, 03:55:41 PM
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Are converts to the Faith. If so, from what did you convert and when?
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I was baptized Catholic. Never any other religion. We stopped attending Mass when I was young. But, I went off and on during my 20's and then from 31 on and now of course I am 50.
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I converted from LCMS Lutheranism, and before this I had converted from BGC Baptist.
A circuitous route, but a necessary one.
Thank God for His patient kindness and mercy.
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The way things are now, I'm sure that a lot of Catholics who were born into Catholic families, fell in the mud of the sinful world as it is now, and had to eventually wake up and "convert" to the faith truly and in their hearts and way of life.
It's easy now to be born "Catholic" but have no concept whatsoever what it means to live it or love it because of the sewer of the world around us that poisons us constantly just by being in it. Many have probably lived lives they will regret, who felt like they were just meeting the Faith for the first time in their late teens or twenties or even later, when they had at some point an "aha" moment of realizing that they were complete hypocrites... going to Mass and maybe even saying the rosary, but having next to nothing of the love of God, truth and the Faith in their hearts... realizing that essentially they were complete strangers to God, to Mary and the saints, to their own Faith, and to what it means to live a genuinely Catholic life.
In the end, everyone, Catholic or not, has to "convert", and for ever more and more of us, I think it's feeling a lot more like we are real converts... like we came from a completely worldly life to something completely foreign to us, even if we'd had the ten commandments in our heads and went to Mass every Sunday. But absolutely everyone must, at some point, choose to really convert in their hearts or not. Whether this Faith is to them just something they do, and that means nothing to them, or whether they really want to see God face to face for eternity, and learn to love Him and live for Him in this life in such a way that it will be possible to reach that goal.
It's the hardest thing in the world for someone of a completely worldly (and sinful) life and mindset, to wake up and realize that eternity is a reality, and that every second, every thought, word and action, are in actuality choosing for them heaven or hell, and that if they want heaven and God, they will have to completely change the way of life they've known all of those years before, to one that will ask of them to give up everything sinful, everything of sinful pride and everything of their lusts of the flesh and of things, food, etc, that they've embraced, wallowed in and been addicted to for all those years as a way of life. But even many Catholics living less mortally sinful lives can reach a place of indifference and lukewarmness, where they think they're doing "enough" and don't care to go 100% and shoot for absolute perfection (sainthood, our universal calling or vocation). But all have to make the choice eventually. God knows whether or not we're taking Him, and our sainthood (not our "good-enough-hood" or our "nice-guy-hood", but our SAINTHOOD... our perfection) seriously. And taking it seriously... really seriously... requires a conversion, or waking up, where we realize that this is really the one and only thing that matters for us, and the one thing that's worth living and dying for, and where we make the choice that no matter how painful it may be to take it seriously, we have to choose, because in reality, we ARE choosing... that deciding to just go on without thinking about it, or living like it's impossible or doesn't matter, is really choosing not to try for it.
All have to convert... first to the Faith, but then to the path that leads them ALL THE WAY, to heaven and God: to aim and fight for their sainthood... their perfection... and nothing less.
I guess if you think of it that way, the better question might be, have we all really converted yet? Or are we still just living comfortably, lukewarmly, with the idea that sainthood, and seriously, really, truly TRYING for it... is something that just doesn't apply to us? That may be the most important conversion of all. After all, Catholics can go to hell, just like anyone else.
"Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway...
For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food, And all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased... "
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That was not my question Dulcamara. It was just a simple Who converted from another faith.
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Cradle Catholic, attend in youth NO, then a few TLM, then Byzantine for many yrs, then for several sat on the couch and practiced not at all, then TLM for last several in a Trad Church in a Diocese
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Mine: old story. repeatedly mentioned in this forum :turban:
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Me. My path was a long and arduous one. My father had been raised Catholic, (something I NEVER knew) but left the Church when he married my mother in 1959. My mother was a Southern Baptist and apparently my father's priest refused to marry them in Church or even offer blessings. They married instead at the home of my mother's parents.
I never really went to Church as a child, until my parents divorced. My father began attending a United Methodist Church where his brother was a member. That lasted about 3 years, until my father found a new wife.
I grew up pretty much agnostic and experimented with different religious practices. I have attended Holiness Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian, etc.
Eventually, after I married and began having children, my husband and I began attending a fairly liberal NO parish. He had been baptized Catholic but had fallen away long before.
We both went through RCIA. We left the NO and then returned. Over the course of many years we have grown to where we are now.
We left the NO Church last March. We now attend an SSPX chapel about an hour from our home.
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My step-fathers family is heavy with Pentecostal's. That is a real experience. They sent some preacher man to our house when I was about 19. It was a group of same age persons really. And, as soon as we were away from my house he launched this attack on me. I was scared to death as they are very dramatic. I was a basket case when I got home. My father went to their meeting the next day, walked to the front of their little meeting house and told them all that if any of them bothered us again they would deal with him. His cousin Lynn was the head preacher there.
Only one other time did they come. This time it was his wife and Church ladies to visit my mother. They suggested we all pray whatever comes to mind. My mother and I naturally began, " Hail Mary..." Cleared the house in record time we did.
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I've been practicing Catholic all my life. I was raised in the novus ordo, but all of my teenage years have been spent in Tradition. I did, however, willingly jumped into heresies and modernism at age 11-12. The guidance of Tradition pulled me out.
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I was baptized and confirmed in 2009. I did not really convert from another religion as I was not practicing anything at the time.
As for my conversion to traditionalism, my RCIA was completed at a very liberal/modern parish. We were taught that Hell is empty, that no one really sins, women priests will happen within 10 years, etc. I had been reading the Catechism and when I discovered that everything they taught was different from what I was reading, I did some research and discovered the TLM and traditionalism.
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I was baptized and confirmed in 2009. I did not really convert from another religion as I was not practicing anything at the time.
As for my conversion to traditionalism, my RCIA was completed at a very liberal/modern parish. We were taught that Hell is empty, that no one really sins, women priests will happen within 10 years, etc. I had been reading the Catechism and when I discovered that everything they taught was different from what I was reading, I did some research and discovered the TLM and traditionalism.
See what I mean, Oremus?
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I was baptized and confirmed in 2009. I did not really convert from another religion as I was not practicing anything at the time.
As for my conversion to traditionalism, my RCIA was completed at a very liberal/modern parish. We were taught that Hell is empty, that no one really sins, women priests will happen within 10 years, etc. I had been reading the Catechism and when I discovered that everything they taught was different from what I was reading, I did some research and discovered the TLM and traditionalism.
See what I mean, Oremus?
I do see what you mean, Alexandria. But it's one thing to accuse the RCIA team of being wrong. It's a bigger step for me to say that Pope may be too. Pretty nerve-wracking stuff.
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Look at it this way. The RCIA team wouldn't be teaching this heresy without the consent of the bishop. The bishop couldn't give the okay without the consent of the Vatican. Even if you complained, all they would do is make a pretense of admonishing whomever and continue on teaching the heresy. The only one who would get the boot is you.
It is all a big sham.
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I am a cradle Catholic but we all need to always work on a "true conversion of heart" and grow daily in our Faith and thus in grace. True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie Montfort is the best way to increase in this daily "conversion of heart", or in other words, working daily on giving up our own base natures to increase in love and union with Jesus through Mary. I have thought of starting a thread on this devotion (I know it has been brought up in other threads), but I have hesitated to start a thread by itself on True Devotion or as it's also called "Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary", because it is a devotion to take on very seriously (wholeheartedly) and so bringing it up on the world wide web, has the danger of throwing pearls to swine. I trust that those reading this post are serious about working out their salvation and growing in devotion to Jesus and Mary, so if indeed you are, read the book, if you haven't yet done so.
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It is all a big sham.
Wolves in sheeps's clothing, guarding the sheep. Most of the sheep are asleep all day. Now and again the wolves' clothing slips and some of the sheep who are not asleep at the time see that there are wolves underneath. But the sheep are scared and they do not know where to go for help. They stay where they are and settle back to sleep, hoping that the wolves mean well and that they will somehow convert to being true shepherds.
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It is all a big sham.
Wolves in sheeps's clothing, guarding the sheep. Most of the sheep are asleep all day. Now and again the wolves' clothing slips and some of the sheep who are not asleep at the time see that there are wolves underneath. But the sheep are scared and they do not know where to go for help. They stay where they are and settle back to sleep, hoping that the wolves mean well and that they will somehow convert to being true shepherds.
You are absolutely correct How many have awoken from their slumber recently? Some will stay awake and finally face the reality of the situation in the church; the rest will, as you say, go back to sleep.
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I was baptised Greek Orthodox. My mother's parent's were Greek Orthodox born and raised. My mother left that faith by involving herself with my father who was a lapsed Catholic. And she never went back. His family stopped going to church after my father had received First Holy Communion. His mother was raised Catholic, his father was not.
Even though I attended the Greek Orthodox church occasionally, I was not taught much about the Christian faith. There was no catechism in other words. And because my parents were not involved, I only went through the motions to please my grandparents.
I married my H, who is a cradle N.O. Catholic, in 1990, and agreed to raise our children in the Catholic faith. After I had had our two children and my mother died, I began listening to Protestant radio programs, among other talk radio formats of a conservative nature and began to formulate my opinions about politics and religion more definitively.
I began studying the Christian faith, reading books, listening to preachers and others ... and then we began going to N.O. Mass ... I converted to Catholicism in 2000 and in 2002 I first heard of the Traditional Mass. We are Traditional Catholics stuck in a Novus Ordo parish, and that's where we remain for the time being.
God willing, someday, we may be able to belong to a traditional parish near our home.