Question for Hardcore Roman Catholics.?

You are correct that Jesus, the Son of God, authorized a single church, which survives today, 2000 years later, as the Catholic Church. It is the church of the apostles, and every priest and bishop today operates in apostolic succession, i.e., with the authority Jesus gave the apostles. No Protestant church is similarly authorized.

Pray is a very ancient word that once meant ask and now means worship. It is only in the archaic sense that we ask, not worship, Mary and the other saints. We take Jesus at his word that God "is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive" (Luke 20:38). If Mary and the saints are alive in God and care about us, we can ask them to pray for us, just as we ask our Christian friends here on earth to pray for us.

Cheers,

Bruce

As a Roman Catholic of 55+ years now, I can refer you to the Apostle's Creed, and you'll find exactly what I believe, to some extent. Enroll in the RCIA classes and you'll learn more. Just because you enroll in those classes doesn't mean you have to become a Roman Catholic, but you'll surely learn more, much more than I can outline here. You're feeling of the Roman Catholic Church being the right one is excellent. I will quickly address why we pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints. We like to have people praying for us, just as you ask us to do here. We figure the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints have a LOT of extra "pull" with Jesus, so we like to make our pleas to Him a little (or LOT) more emphatic or "influential" when we get the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints praying for us as well. You MOST DEFINITELY have my prayers for your conversion to Roman Catholicism!! God Bless you always!!

And "ditto" here on how "David" represents someone else, but not Jesus our Christ. And that "My dog don't like liberals" is just as bad from the sounds of it, as is "johnno". Stick with Christ and His Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and I'll pray most heartedly for your vocation to become a Priest or Monk. That would be so wonderful. Again, God Be With You Always!!

1.) You are in my prayers.

2.) I am not free right now to give you a better answer than this brief encouragement. Perhaps that is one way that we sometimes must show our faith - a brief encouragement to others.

3.) The Catholic Church really is the Church that Jesus Christ established almost 2,000 years ago. The Church did not come from The Bible. The Church came from Jesus Christ, and The Catholic Church, established by Jesus Christ, gave the world The Bible. That is neither biased nor boastful, but merely the truth.

4.) As Bruce so rightly warned you, David does not represent Christianity. He represents his own very distinct religion. I do not know that I would give it any name but "Davidism." Please do not regard a well-written answer as necessarily correct. David writes well enough, with enough citations, that a person could be persuaded that he is correct - but he is wrong, and very wrong at that. There is a reason he cites so many Bible verses - he wants you and everyone else to read only those isolated verses, separate from the Catholic Church that produced The Bible that records those verses for the world.

5.) If anyone tells you the Catholic Church is mistaken about any matter of theology, be sure to ask yourself whether the person telling you that is a member of a church that is almost 2,000 years old. If not - and only The Catholic Church is the same age as Christianity, then you can know that the dissenter's church is something other than fully Christian. If it's not almost 2,000 years old, then it's not the fullness of Christianity.

6.) Jesus Christ really is genuinely substantially present in the Eucharist in a Catholic Church. Outside of The Catholic Church, a celebration called The Eucharist might have some truly beautiful intentions, but it does not involve the full and True presence of the Body of Christ that you can find only in the Catholic Church. This is a very important difference between what we Catholics experience at mass, and what other Christians experience in their church services.

7.) It is a grave sin ever to give up hope for the salvation of any particular person. That is found in our catechism very plainly. For that reason, you and I, and all other Catholics must hope and pray for the eternal salvation of all persons. I hope and pray that David, for example, and many others who choose to stay separated from the Catholic Church - the fullness of Christianity, will somehow receive the eternal mercy and salvation of Jesus Christ. I don't know how that will happen, but I pray for it sincerely, knowing that what God does is a genuine mystery to us mere humans.

8.) Do what Father Joseph above recommended. Go to his blog and read well.

9.) Read what "whiskey" above wrote. That creed tells the faith. You may consider yourself well-informed if you understand that creed.

10.) The catechism of The Catholic Church is available in a very easy-to-use format on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. That website is usccb.org, and you can also find the Bible there in a very easy-to-use format.

11.) If you have access to EWTN television, try to watch at 7:00 Eastern time in the United States on Sunday nights. Father Benedict Groeschel is on, and he is great, a truly peaceful and beautiful example of what a great modern, very well educated Catholic monk can be.

You would do well to grow up to be a lot like Father Benedict Groeschel.

I am glad that you plan to join us.

I will pray for you when I next go to communion,

which is likely to be tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon.

I am Roman Catholic.

Peace be with you.

EDIT: You might be surprised at how many more answers you get if you keep this question open for several days. Others are likely to answer. Just try not to forget that you asked the question - like I recently did. Remember to check back every day. I think the question stays open for five days unless you extend it.

You asked a great question.

Be thoughtful when you read the answers, especially the good advice from people like Father Joseph (Cristoiglesia) above, and very important warnings from people like Bruce. It is not easy to learn the truth.

Your faith is not a one-time decision. Your faith is what you believe AND what you do, how you live. Your faith is a lifelong activity and lifelong achievement, for which I pray that God will say to you a very long time from now,

"Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Peace be with you.

EDIT

EDIT: I looked at your profile and noticed that you have not enabled your "Yahoo!Answers" email. That is separate from your main Yahoo! account. You might want to enable the email function of Yahoo!Answers so that people could send you further information. I have no such information right now, but I know that some people do send extra information that way sometimes, and it often can be helpful.

Peace.

.

I will pray for you, and I hope that your spiritual journey leads you to the Catholic Faith.

We believe everything that is written in the Apostles Creed, despite what some of the fundamentalist bigots around here will try to tell you. We worship God and Him Alone, and we believe that the only means of salvation is through the Precious Blood of Jesus, shed on the Cross as the perfect Sacrifice for our sins. We DO NOT believe in a "false gospel of works," nor do we worship statues, Mary, the Pope, or anything else except God.

We ask Mary and the Saints to pray for us, just as you might ask a friend or family member to pray for you. Everyone who is a believer is either on earth or in Heaven -- what we call the Communion of Saints. Mary and the Saints are a part of that great Body of believers, and because they lived holy lives, they are in a better position to know what we really need.

God bless you!

Hey, I just want to let you know that I would suggest you go to the website http://forums.catholic.com/ and put this same question there and any other questions you have. I will pray for you and continue to cherish, consider, and form your willingness towards a religious vocation... make sure you find out the necessary steps to get there Baptism (if not baptized, confirmation, school, etc.)

Also, I would suggest you prayerfully consider an education at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS or Steubenville in Colorado.

Benedictine College has a Benedictine Monastery on its campus and the monks are active in the students' faith formation... I have some great friends in that monastery.

My beliefs can best be summed up by the Nicene Creed:

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit

was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

For our sake

he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,

and rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated

at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,

the giver of life, who proceeds

from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son

is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

And one, holy, catholic

and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism

for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection

of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Catholics believe in the Communion of Saints. That is a kind of fellowship that believers have with one another in the Body of Christ. And this fellowship extends to those saints who have passed on. The bible says that nothing in all creation, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38-39). The Communion of Saints recognizes that we are all connected through Christ, through His Body, and not even death can separate us from Him or from each other. So it is no different to ask the saints or Mary to pray for you than it would be to ask your Christian friend down the street. Because in Christ, not even death can separate us.

As to how the saints can hear us that is a mystery. But with God all things are possible. I once was watching a Christian TV program and they had this guy on that claims he had an afterlife experience where he died and went to heaven. Now this wasn't a Catholic program but even so he did say that while he was in heaven he could hear people praying from the earth. His experience seems to confirm Catholic belief that saints can hear our prayers. I can not vouch if the guy really went to heaven or not but our belief in the Communion of Saints goes back to the early Church. Ultimately we don't know how God does it, but he does because we are in the Body of Christ.

Our beliefs are what we proclaim in the Nicene/Apostles Creed. Just know that EVERYTHING about the Catholic Church is in the bible.

We ask the Saints and the Blessed Virgin to pray for us.

The bible tells us the Prayer of a Righteous person does much. Who more Righteous than the Mother of God and the Saints?

Proverbs 15:29

The Lord is far from the wicked: and he will hear the prayers of the just.

James 5:16

Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.

Revelations 8:4 And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.

I will pray for you and welcome home!

Peace be with you

<<<Devout Catholic>>>

You are one Christian marrying another Christian. Yes, a Protestant marrying a Catholic can marry in the Catholic Church. In fact, the Catholic person must marry in the Catholic Church for the marriage to be valid. If you study the Bible (which the Catholic Church compiled from its own writings) and Christian history you will find that you are not giving up anything by converting to the original Christian Church. Rather, you will be turning away from the false teachings and doctrinal chaos of unauthorized denominational semi-Christianity, and believing what every Christian on earth believed from apostolic times until the 16th Century when Protestantism began - the fullness of Christian truth. You are not required to convert in order to marry in the Catholic Church however.

I will keep you in my Prayers.

When Praying to the Saints, the prayers are intercessory prayers. Just as if you ask a friend to pray for you, for the Saints and Our Blessed Mother are very much alive.

"He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." [Mark 12, 27]

A couple of good sites for you to look through:

http://www.olrl.org/

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/

http://home.inreach.com/bstanley/

http://www.traditioninaction.org/

You will get a better understanding after looking through these sites.

1 Timothy 2

1I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

2For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

7Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

8I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.