What Do You Do When Your Catholic

 I thought I would share this from one of my blogs as I thought it may help someone in some way.
 I am Catholic and was raised in the Catholic Church. There was a time when I was young and did not think too much about church. I met my wife and ended up in the Assembly Of God Pentecostal Church. I spent a few years there and then decided to leave do to personal feelings associated with judging others just because they were not in this particular church or had no recited a little prayer accepting Jesus as my personal Savior.
 After time we ended up in the Lutheran Church. It had similarities to the Catholic Church and to the Protestant Church. This attracted both my wife and I. We raised our three children in the church when they were young and enjoyed our time there. There came a day when the Pastor was giving communion and he said something that caught my attention. Basically he used the word symbol and I knew that the host was more than just a symbol. This set me on my journey to determine where I should be.
 You see I wanted to know if it was okay to be in various churches. I did not want to read books just written by anyone, because I would get their view. I decided to search through history to see where it would lead me. Well it seemed to always come back to the Catholic Church. I asked my mother to pick up any books on religion at garage sales. She brought me a bunch of books and one in particular caught my attention.
 The book was called 30 years with Christ. As I read through it I came across a page where the author made an interesting statement. She said basically that there are so many different denominations someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong. She made a point of how various churches will say something different about the same subject. She said this can't be true, because the Holy Spirit can not be telling everyone something different. The Holy Spirit speaks the truth and is the mouthpiece of God. So he either does not know the truth or is confused, we know this can not be true.
 So I set out to find out who was doing what in the early churches. I found books on the Early Church Fathers. These were men that some were directly associated with some of the Apostles. I knew they had to have been doing what Jesus taught them. Well the only church that was doing these things was the Catholic Church. I then happened to watch EWTN by chance and the person was a convert to the Catholic Church due to the Eucharist. I now knew after praying that I had to return to the Catholic Church.
 Yes I came back to the Catholic Church and have never left. I told my wife I could not tell her what to do. She started praying and decided to become Catholic. Also all of my children became Catholic as well. In fact my oldest  daughter was married in the Catholic Church. My advise to anyone is to pray and ask for guidance. You will be amazed at what can happen and what you will learn, so buy books written by Catholics and get the correct facts. There is alot of misinformation out there and someone is always trying to destroy the Catholic Church. This will never happen as Jesus said the gates of Hell shall not prevail and this has been proven through many trials and tribulations.

    

The Problem With Self Interpreting The Bible

 I can remember deciding on what church to go with back quite a few years ago. I was brought up in the Catholic Church and then stopped going regularly in my late teens and early twenties. I met my wife and ended up in the Assembly Of God Church until I realized something was wrong when I judged my own mother. I came to the realization that she believed in Jesus and had always believed in Jesus. I knew it was time to leave there and follow my journey to where ever The Holy Spirit would lead me.
 Well we went to numerous churches and ended up in the Lutheran Church. It was very nice and the Paster was awesome. It got to a point one day when listening to what they were preaching about communion I knew something was not right. I did alot of searching through history and kept ending up at the Catholic Church. I was trying to understand about holy communion and happened to watch ewtn while channel surfing. The subject that night on the Journey Home was about the Eucharist and how it brought this person back to the Catholic Church. I knew I had to go back to the Catholic Church and that is what I did. My wife did a lot of praying and decided to become Catholic and all my children became Catholic.
 Okay so who is interpreting the Bible correctly. I remember remember when I was trying to decide what to do I happened to read a book called 30 years with the Christ. The person made a good point, she said that there are all these different denominations and they claim that the Holy Spirit said different things to them about the same subject. Well basically either the Holy Spirit is lying to people or does not no what he is saying. Well we no that neither of these can be true, due to the Holy Spirit being the mouth piece of God.
 So it all comes down to only one can be right and the others are incorrect. So I looked into the Early Church Fathers to see what they were doing. You see I realized that some of them were directly associated with the Apostles. Therefore they had to be doing what the Apostles taught and they were taught by Jesus. One of the main factors was the Eucharist. Was it only meant to be a symbol ? I looked at the response of some of the Apostles that left because they could not accept the teaching of Jesus that this was His Body and His Blood. If it were only a symbol would Jesus not have rebuked them and told them it was a symbol. No he did not do that, so he meant what he said. I am following the True Church, The Catholic Church and I receive the Eucharist, so I will be raised on the last day.
 There are many other places in the Bible where individuals misinterpret what the scripture is saying. The problems is that there are millions of people that are being mislead and may never know the truth.