Thanks, Kelly. This parallels my journey and thoughts in several respects!

I have since found out that the Catholics have a different bible! I had no idea growing up that we had 14 more books than we should have. The OT apocryphal books have an unquestioned historical and literary value but have been rejected as inspired by non-Catholic Christianity. In fact they were never accepted by the Jews as Scripture and were not accepted as Scripture by the Catholic Church until 1546 AD! And the reason they did this because nowhere in scripture does it say
there is a purgatory
we can pay for masses or indulgences etc
There were doctrinal reasons behind the Protestant refusal to accept the Apocrypha, for it was in these books that the Roman Catholic Church claimed scriptural authority for the doctrine of Purgatory, for prayers and Masses for the dead (2 Macc 12:43-45), and for the efficacy of good works in attaining salvation. (Tobit 12:9; Ecclesiasticus 8:33). (Wikipedia – There were doctrinal reasons behind the Protestant refusal to accept the Apocrypha, for it was in these books that the Roman Catholic Church claimed scriptural authority for the doctrine of Purgatory, for prayers and Masses for the dead (2 Macc 12:43-45), and for the efficacy of good works in attaining salvation. (Tobit 12:9; Ecclesiasticus 8:33).

I remember visiting statues of Mary that were passed around to different homes especially deacons etc and these holy statues of Mary wept blood or tears. Spooky stuff.
I also remember watching my father nod off every night when we recited the rosary as a family 🙂 The incessant droning of repetitious words like we were buddhist chanting the same words over and over

How refreshing it would have been to study scripture as a family and apply it to our daily life! The youth groups were terrible for teens and still are today. I went to all catholic schools all my life and we were all catholic but it was more of a culture thing for most. I wanted to be a christian first and now I am finally free from the bondage of this false religion. Jesus DID NOT come to establish a religion but a relationship with us!

And now I start every morning worshipping, praying reading scripture and the Holy Spirit is revealing Hi s truth. Mary is not the mediatrix as the catholic church teaches only Jesus is. I have joined a church with my family and we are being fed! This confounds my parents who don’t understand what I mean by being fed. All I can say is that when you have been wandering around the dessert seeking God by chanting rosaries, doing countless novenas, fasting every chance you can, offering up your pain for the salvation of others, praying to hundreds of saints for intervention, going to confession every month making sure i remembered every sin,attending daily mass, reading the mystics of catholicism because every other christian book about real life and real faith in Christian book stores is looked down on as fluff, all I can say is hallelujah I am free from all of that work! and guilt! Now guess what? I am free to actually be involved in more ministries helping others because I am not worrying about every little imaginable sin I might have to confess. I simply turn to Ou Father and ask Him for His forgiveness in Jesus name and rest in the peace and knowledge that He has already forgiven me and that I am His daughter and nothing and none can take that away!

“Lutheranism” (Brother Martin would be mortified to learn of the label!) encompasses such a wide stream, sometimes a particular church doesn’t feel like home to me, either. I love our musical heritage, which includes centuries of works composed for use in european cathedrals and chapels, and folk music, a tradition started by Luther himself, who wrote music borrowed from local beer gardens. Many mid western churches were transplanted by agrarian immigrants, and did not even use the English language before WW1. Some local churches offer both traditional worship and more contemporary “Praise Worship.”

Hi Evangeline, I haven’t really sought out particular churches, just worshipped in the best Evangelical church of whatever town I’ve found myself in–so Presbyterian, Baptist and Anglican. I did check out a Lutheran church for a few Sundays when I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but it didn’t really feel like “home.”
Will keep them on my radar, though.
Thanks for commenting!

Jesus said, “upon this rock” indeed, but it was the rock of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ that his church is built!
I am confused, Anita, that your faith journey has not included the original evangelicals, who spread the truth you quoted from Martin Luther. We are saved by faith, and this is not of ourselves, but a gift of the Holy Spirit, nothing of ourselves, but grace alone! As Lutherans who understand his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, we are free to enter the very throne room of God, and to minister to each other, even our pastors, as we are called. I think Luther’s understanding of our freedom in Christ led in a straight line to our freedom in America. And we have kept the “mystery of worship.” The worldly views of our culture are resisted by the North American Lutheran Church, and by Lutheran Core. Check it out!

God bless you too.
I am glad you have found a sustaining faith which makes you happy 🙂

Good, I am glad you have found a sustaining faith which makes you happy 🙂

The Eucharist is the greatest treasure of Christianity because it is Jesus Christ Himself. Faith is a treasure! And that treasure is Jesus present in the Eucharist:

“13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ”

For the most up to date conversion stories to Catolicism, visit: WHY IM CATHOLIC: http://www.whyimcatholic.com

…and the Rosary is one of the most important tools I have, and I pray it almost every day….

I’m so happy and grateful that Jesus brought me home – to the Holy and Apostolic Church…

I’m sorry about you all negative experiences you had, but I must say that your article just proves how much misunderstanding and emotional bias you have for the teaching of the Church. The understanding of the sin and other theological notions (all are based on Bible – but this is for a separate discussion) is completely wrong and the perception of Catholic Church also is very shallow….

“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:19]”

As you know Peter was the first pope and His Church is called Catholic Church:

“There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood.” – Cyprian of Carthage

Optatus

“You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head—that is why he is also called Cephas [‘Rock’]—of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all” (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).

There is nowhere such celebration and cumulation of love as during The Holy Eucharist: “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.’

The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life…The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch

The Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking

I’m so happy to be Catholic and so proude to be…Jesus I trust in You

God bless you

Thanks, Jack!
Anglicanism has a conservative branch which is pretty inerrantist, and my church belongs to that (in theory, but not in practice).