Isn't it funny how every time I say I will be posting less, I manage to find time to post more?
An interesting read today ... Mommy Monsters Inc.: In the Company of God ... and Mary ... and Mom
All of us have been through this ... The painful discussions surrounding the real practice of your faith. You are wrong. You haven't read enough. You have read too much. (heard both of those) You hate me. You think I am going to hell -- You are going to hell.
I have to remember that Protestants in order to be true to their consciences will say things like this. I cannot stop that and I shouldn't stop that. I know they mean well but it hurts. It hurts more to comfort my crying six year old after someone tells him the Catholic Church is wrong or when the kids at school say that he is hell bound. I went through it when I was a kid. Its part of being Catholic. Of course over my life I left the faith. My years as a Protestant were good. I learned a lot of great things. That said, by the grace of God I am back in the Church and my children love the faith far more than I did at their age. I just hope the pain they experience from well intentioned Protestants who do not understand Catholicism is something that helps strengthen them rather than confuse them.
These arguments happen because people love you. When I converted back the people that I respected the most were the ones that at least considered that there were SOME stakes involved in converting. It isn't like switching from one church to another over slight nuances in doctrine or mere preferences. You are taking a stand swimming the Tiber. You are saying Jesus founded a Church and we can know which one it is and that the truths of the faith have been faithfully carried down to us over 20 centuries of a sometimes vibrant, sometimes scandalous history. You are also saying very loudly that others do NOT have the fullness of the truth. Nobody else makes that claim. Everyone else says that we can't REALLY know but we are likely the closest to what Jesus intended. During our conversion the ones that invoked the relativist "whats good for you" line actually disturbed me more despite the fact that conversations with them were far more pleasant. In a way I know they are likely ignorant of the stakes so in that sense they might be in a good place. But if they DO know the stakes, they are playing with the fire of being lukewarm and that is not where you want to be.
Give me conviction over indifference any day ... That lets me know that it matters to you and lets face it, salvation matters.
An interesting read today ... Mommy Monsters Inc.: In the Company of God ... and Mary ... and Mom
All of us have been through this ... The painful discussions surrounding the real practice of your faith. You are wrong. You haven't read enough. You have read too much. (heard both of those) You hate me. You think I am going to hell -- You are going to hell.
I have to remember that Protestants in order to be true to their consciences will say things like this. I cannot stop that and I shouldn't stop that. I know they mean well but it hurts. It hurts more to comfort my crying six year old after someone tells him the Catholic Church is wrong or when the kids at school say that he is hell bound. I went through it when I was a kid. Its part of being Catholic. Of course over my life I left the faith. My years as a Protestant were good. I learned a lot of great things. That said, by the grace of God I am back in the Church and my children love the faith far more than I did at their age. I just hope the pain they experience from well intentioned Protestants who do not understand Catholicism is something that helps strengthen them rather than confuse them.
These arguments happen because people love you. When I converted back the people that I respected the most were the ones that at least considered that there were SOME stakes involved in converting. It isn't like switching from one church to another over slight nuances in doctrine or mere preferences. You are taking a stand swimming the Tiber. You are saying Jesus founded a Church and we can know which one it is and that the truths of the faith have been faithfully carried down to us over 20 centuries of a sometimes vibrant, sometimes scandalous history. You are also saying very loudly that others do NOT have the fullness of the truth. Nobody else makes that claim. Everyone else says that we can't REALLY know but we are likely the closest to what Jesus intended. During our conversion the ones that invoked the relativist "whats good for you" line actually disturbed me more despite the fact that conversations with them were far more pleasant. In a way I know they are likely ignorant of the stakes so in that sense they might be in a good place. But if they DO know the stakes, they are playing with the fire of being lukewarm and that is not where you want to be.
Give me conviction over indifference any day ... That lets me know that it matters to you and lets face it, salvation matters.
This is a "fresh" blogroll. It tends to list blogs most frequently updated at the top. It will also drop blogs not updated for a few days. Never fear though, if you post, it will show back up. If you are interested in how I did it see 
Calendar
So many of us have family who have a visceral reaction to the mere fact that we are Catholic. They still love us (In my mother's words, "I'd love you if you were Catholic or Jewish or Buddhist.") But they don't understand ... and cannot understand until the Spirit shines that particular light that drives out this particular kind of darkness.
Let us pray for a special outpouring of the Spirit that will liberate the dark corners of the minds of those we love best, that they might not be bound by prejudice and willful ignorance.
Blessings,
Heidi Saxton