AboutGriff Ruby Expertise I focus on the "why" and "how" questions of the Faith and one`s need for the Church to overcome sin, live the life God wishes us, and to become what God wants us to be. I seek to provide insight and information such that you are then able to see for yourself the answer to your questions.
Experience Years of extensive research, thought, and prayerful meditation on many of the issues that trouble Catholics today, taught catechetical classes to teenagers and adults, answered many questions already.
I was born and baptized a Catholic, raised in a Catholic home, and have been raising my girls as Catholics. I am a semi-practicing Catholic, meaning I go to church when I can and on Easter and Christmas. My oldest daughter attends CCD through the school year.
I have not attended reconciliation in over 20 years simply because I do not believe in it as a 'third party situation'. I firmly believe that if I have done wrong, am truly sorry and ready to be repentant, that I do not need a priest to tell me this. I will feel God's love and forgiveness in my heart and will know what I need to do to move past that transgression.
I am also having some trouble with the limited options there are for Catholic services. I am looking for a service with more of a Bible study type atmosphere and for some sort of children's program like Sunday School.
I have attended a First Christian service numerous times and like that atmosphere quite a bit. I have also attended a non-traditional Christian service and was not crazy about their set-up.
My issue is, I would switch to being full-time First Christian but I am terrified to completely give up the Catholicism. It has been such a huge part of my life (I attended a Catholic school until high school, one brother even attended a Catholic high school and Catholic college but he is now a total non-practicing Catholic and even denies that heritage). I am not sure what to do at this point. I want to raise my daughters spiritually since they were both baptized Catholic, but I am not sure about the Catholic faith any longer. But like I said, I am terrified of giving it up completely. It's a combination of 'what would my family think' and an eternal damnation sort of thing.
Any thoughts you might have would be helpful.
Thank you,
Holly
Answer My apologies for the delay. There is a lot to learn about why the Catholic Church teaches and does what it teaches and does. All too often, a person's learning in catechism class only provides the outlines of what is believed and what is expected, but all too little focus as to why and where based.
First of all, let me give you some insight on some of the immediate issues you raised herein, so that you can better understand what is going on here with these.
Confession: This really is little different from baptism in which someone (a human being) does it to you, you don't get it directly from God. Teaching and instruction is likewise the same way, even if using a book (such as the Bible), since humans wrote it, preserved it, translated it, and published it. It is simply the way God has set things up. We don't all just get Divine revelations straight from the beyond, but rather God founded a Church to see to these things and to provide accountability, continuity, and reliability as to what must be believed, done, and who does or does not qualify, given their present practice and state of soul. This is about knowing where we stand instead of living in some "grey country" in which nothing is ever certain, one person has one opinion and another has another and no one is authorized to arbitrate. Arbitration between truth and error has been one of the Church's key missions throughout Christian and Catholic history.
So, though God can forgive sins before confession, going to confession (or at least the intent and plan to do so, even if one cannot do so) is intended to be part of that forgiveness process. For if a person takes the easy way out with a mumbled "I'm sorry, God" then what does that cost? What occasion does that provide for showing and proving that you mean business and that you truly are sorry for the sin and really do resolve to avoid repeating that sin in the future? Confession also provides an opportunity for some helpful counsel for avoiding the sin and growing spiritually. It provides accountability as you realize that if you sin again you will have to tell it again, and that too provides and incentive not to sin.
Finally, in accepting the penance for the sin, you accept the consequences, making them now only temporary (though some may last all of this life), and again showing true sorrow for the sins.
Next, as to something more like a Bible study format - Sunday worship is meant to be worship, which is to say, what we owe to God in all justice, and not much for us (though the Church may give us something at this time in the homily, or in music etc. as part of the liturgy). It is the Mass, which is central to worshipping God. Think of the ancient Jews with their Temple. The altar and most holy and so forth were for worship, not for Bible study. The synagogue was for Bible study, as were other classes available elsewhere. Likewise, the Church uses the Mass for worship, for some small amount of study, but the main study is conducted elsewhere. You will just have to check to see if any Catholic Bible studies are organized in your area, or even attempt to organize one (with the help of a priest) yourself.
There is something to understand about these "Christian services" you have attended. There are reasons why the Church forbids attendance at false churches, except where truly necessary for some special circumstantial reasons as may arise. At these services one is taught wrong interpretations of the Bible that can only serve to confuse one. I know they seem to be talking Bible and perhaps much of what they say may well be worthwhile, but along the way there are the "mines" of false assumptions carefully planted to make the Faith seem incomprehensible to you. You notice that the "non-traditional Christian service" leaves you cold. These non-Catholics, having deprived themselves of the Mass, have no real worship among them, but merely replace it with singing songs and with (as I explained, distorted) Bible study and such things tailored at what the people want instead of what God wants. Church becomes a chance to learn something interesting (perhaps, and possibly wrong), instead of a chance to worship and adore the one true God.
Two easy books I can recommend would be "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating and "Rome Sweet Home" by Scott Hahn.
There is a great deal more I could wish to share with you about what has been going on with the Catholic Church and Her overall sense of identity, but right now you seem to be at a more basic level of trying to decide whether even to be Catholic or something else. For now, do not let the "dryness" of much of what goes on under the auspices of "Catholicism" fool you into thinking that Catholicism is wrong or in any way inferior to these man-made churches. Any one of them can be figured out in a fortnight, but Catholicism is a deep well of Truth that no one can ever get to the bottom of in this life for being as infinite and inexhaustible as its Author who is God. But that will take some digging, and first of all we need to get you digging in the right place.
Do let me know in a follow-up how things are going and what you are finding, perhaps in a couple weeks or so. Hope this helps, God bless!
