I guess my severe anxiety has been a factor in stopping me doing anything & I'm always scared of doing new things on my own. And that question mark over animal souls has always bothered me. Also, there's the scandals in the Church which have been quite off-putting. We'd heard rumours about abuse long before it came out in the news. I know there are good priests but I guess a few rotten apples have spoiled things a bit. Plus I haven't been vaccinated so I'm trying to avoid contact with as many people as possible. Having a kidney transplant means I'm immunocompromised & at higher risk of dying from Covid. My doctors keep putting pressure on me but I just don't trust the vaccines. So I'm pretty much self isolating as much as possible. I'm quite a flawed person so after I become Catholic, I guess I'd be needing confession every day I remember a Catholic lady who married a Protestant, then in old age she went back to the Church after 40 years & she joked she'd had to take a cut lunch to confession My mother never became a Catholic.,.. Dad wouldn't have allowed it anyway. I have wondered why if Jesus really appeared to her, then why didn't He tell her about the true Church? He sent a priest to talk to her before she had her experience & she was open to talking with him. I guess because she believed Catholics are fellow Christians.. she wasn't one of those Protestants who think "Catholics aren't real Christians" If Jesus had've asked her to become Catholic, I don't think she would've been able to do it because Dad wouldn't have allowed it... or if she had've defied him, it might've ended their marriage. Maybe that's why Jesus didn't ask her. Plus Jesus gave her a mission to talk to Protestants about God's Mercy, and many of them might not have listened to her had she been Catholic. Sadly Mum didn't carry out the mission the way Jesus asked her to.... she didn't write the book He asked her to & she didn't travel around giving talks ... but she did talk to individuals about God's Mercy for the rest of her life. I guess she'd been worried about not being believed. But if it wasn't for her vision in 1976, I probably wouldn't have been led to the Divine Mercy devotion & to the Church. And I've been telling other Protestants about my mum's vision & the Divine Mercy. So some good did come from her experience. I think she went to Heaven even though she was a non-Catholic (or at least a high level in purgatory). She'd been saying the rosary for the last 2 to 3 years of her life. My mother's father Malcolm had been friends with Catholic archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix (1864-1963). Malcolm had been Archbishop Mannix's postman & get invited inside for a cuppa & he said to Malcolm that he ought to become a Catholic as they had so many things they agreed about. But Malcolm told him he preferred to talk to God out in nature, than inside a church. My mother's first job was at a local shoe store in the 1940's, and the Hamilton family who ran it were like a second family to her & they were Catholic. Mrs Hamilton used to play organ in St Mary's for weddings, and Mum would sometimes accompany her. So Mum had no problem hanging around Catholics or going into their Church when she was young.... or even singing Catholic songs. She'd been a fan of Deanna Durbin's & used to sing many of her songs including "Ave Maria". Mum was also a fan of Scottish tenor Father Sydney MacEwan and one of her favourite songs of his was "Bring Flowers of the Fairest". In my mind I can still hear her singing "Oh Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today. Queen of the Angels & Queen of the May". I hope she's singing that in heaven now My mother had a very good singing voice & had been learning operatic singing when she was young. She used to sing at local concerts to raise money for her Presbyterian church. When she got sick with kidney failure, she wondered if God had been punishing her for not using the singing talent He'd given her... but I thought wouldn't God think getting married & having children a greater achievement than having a singing career? Well, I guess I'd have to do a course to become a Catholic... like RCIA. I'll pray about it & see where God leads me. I know I'll have to become one one day... but I guess I've just been putting it off. That reminds me of what Our Lord said to St Faustina "How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off?"
My father's mother Mary had been a Catholic but she left the Church to marry my grandfather, a Presbyterian. But Dad used to say "Catholics have their own secret language". I asked him what he meant by that & he said he read the letters that his mother & her sister used to write each other and he couldn't understand them. I joked "Were they in Latin?" He said no but there was a lot of words in them he couldn't understand
That's amazing St Francis would make peace with a wolf that had killed humans. I'm not sure even I could be that forgiving (our society usually euthanises animals who kill or attack humans). Animals don't know right from wrong but I guess dangerous animals may need to be put down so they don't hurt anyone else. There's a scene in the movie Francis of Asissi (1961) where he tames two leopards in the desert. I guess the way Francis interacts with animals is the way Adam & Eve would've been able to interact with them in the Garden, and the way all humans were supposed to interact with them.
There's a bit in St Faustina's Diary where she wrote "When I began this big novena for three intentions, I saw a tiny insect on the ground and thought: How did it get here in the middle of winter? Then I heard the following words in my soul: You see, I am thinking of it and sustaining it, and what is it compared to you? Why was your soul fearful for a moment?" Faustina sounds very compassionate... she was wondering how a tiny insect was surviving in the cold of winter. And Jesus told her He was sustaining it. Wow! I guess that bit "what is it compared to you?" is like "you are of more value than many sparrows" in the Gospel... I guess reminding us not to place animal life over human life. I'm a bit like Faustina... I see an insect, a snail or even a spider (not a big scary one) and I say to them "Hello, what are you doing here?" I remember sobbing one night when a slug I'd been feeding died... I smile about that now but at the time it was quite upsetting
Well, as a convert, I can say that the Lord uses attraction. He calls us to become Catholic and receive Him in the Eucharist. The pull is strong.
Yes, there is a calling but never a command. I would like some sources of where he told someone to become Catholic . . .I'm pondering this.
To clarify I have always been a believer that Our Lord Jesus will do as He wills with each person, my additional two cents worth, to the mix, would only be negative or counter productive! Therefore I will leave it all up to Jesus and the divine graces He wishes to install. Therefore the searching people I encounter will receive direction only by Jesus and He will inspire them in due time! But maybe God has called me to be the voice to invite them to the fullness of truth and faith! This remains a hard call for me, in every encounter, I must just trust! We all must trust! God will supply for our weaknesses! Blessed be God forever.
Well, I know my grandma was praying for me. And when I was in the 8th grade, one of my friends showed me her large St Joseph daily missal and I found myself at Mass with her on Holy Thursday night. I knew the minute I walked in that church that Jesus was truly present. I didn’t even have time to debate myself.
But what if telling someone to become Catholic means it breaks their marriage up? Is God into breaking up marriages? Even Protestant ones? My parents were married in a church by an ordained minister for whatever that's worth. My dad wasn't a believer... he'd rarely talk about religion but I think he was agnostic, and he was anti-Catholic. If my mother wanted to become Catholic, Dad wouldn't have allowed her to anyway... did she need his permission? And if she had've defied him & done it anyway, I think he might've left her. My mother had actually thought of leaving him when my sisters were young (1950's) because he'd been a bit abusive... but she decided to stay because she wanted her children to grow up with a father. And when she had her NDE & vision experience in 1976, Jesus told her He was opposed to divorce and quoted that scripture "what God has joined together, let no man put asunder". I guess He was telling her He hadn't wanted her to leave him. She was actually told during her experience that Dad & one of her 3 daughters was in danger of going to hell and she had to do what she could to save them. That was another part of the mission she was given. I said the Mercy chaplet as Dad passed in 2003 so hopefully that helped him. Another part of her mission was to talk to people about God's Mercy... but maybe Protestants wouldn't have listened to her if she'd become a Catholic. But she ended up not properly carrying out that mission, probably partly because of Dad's unbelief, and I can't figure out how she could've carried it out without his help. God wanted her to give talks (I guess to congregations) but she did spend the rest of her life telling individuals about it. The question is, do Protestants have heavenly NDE's? Does Jesus appear to Protestants & speak to them and give them missions? Sometimes the Catholic sites Spirit Daily & Spirit Digest link to Protestant NDE stories & healings.... so why didn't Jesus tell those NDE'rs to become Catholic? I agree the Catholic Church is the true church & the one founded by Jesus... but are Protestants condemned if they don't know any better? Is being Catholic necessary for salvation? My mother didn't know that... she didn't know that she needed Confession or the Eucharist. But she did end up saying the Rosary. I sometimes wonder why He didn't tell her the truth... or maybe it was something demonic which appeared to her posing as Jesus. But it's hard to believe something demonic would use the sign of the Cross. And Mum's vision did end up leading us to the Divine Mercy devotion so maybe that was Jesus' way of telling us the Catholic Church is the truth? I think it ended up being a good thing. Jesus promised St Faustina that even the most hardened sinner would receive grace from His infinite Mercy through the Chaplet so I think there's hope for anyone....even a Protestant LOL. Jesus, I Trust in You!
