Eleana said:
Why is Catholicism so difficult to understand? I have been learning hard to be a catholic from my protestant background, yet everytime I have been facing alot of new terminologies used in catholicism and many symbols, traditions, doctrine...
Why cant catholicism be as simple as christian faith?
Why must we be so exaggerated in so many things and cant be just worship in simplicity?
I'm about to give up. Someone pls help.
Well a couple of thoughts . .
One, coming from a Protestant background, if you try to make it fit into a Protestant way of understanding things, which is natural to try to do for a while, you start to realize how inadequate the old mold is . . and Catholicism doesn't fit, it overflows those boundaries . .
There is a culture shock . . most definitely .. like trying to learn a new language, a new way of doing things, etc . . like trying to immerse yourself into a different culture with little preparation . .
There are a lot of wrong ideas to overcome . . . wrong ideas that you were sure were right . . and when you realize they are wrong, you try to discard them, but they still persist in ways not immediately evident at times . .
It takes time . . you need to give yourself time . .you need to be easy on yourself and patient . ..
I didn't come at trying to understand Catholicism from a view point of wanting to become, or even leaning towards, Catholicism . .
I came from a view point that I wanted to be anything else other than Catholic . . what I wanted was to know the truth, but I didn't want it to lead me to the Catholic Church . . I spent 3 years learning, overcoming wrong ideas and beliefs . . it is NOT easy coming from a strong Protestant background
But I can say this . . it is worth EVERY MINUTE TRYING! ABSOLUTELY!
Do not give up . . keep putting it before the Lord . . it only APPEARS complicated . . it really is very, very simple . . . but you do not see the sheer simplicity of the Catholic faith until it all comes together . . and then you go This is it, this is all there is to it . .
And what is this "it" that is so simple?
It is GRACE . . that is all .. GRACE . .
The key to understanding Catholicism is to understand that it is simply all Grace . . the giving of Grace by God and the receiving of this Grace by us, and our response to that Grace which releases more Grace, and so forth and so forth . .
All these things you are finding so confusing in the Catholic Church are really only the rich diversity of avenues of God's Grace to us and our opportunities to respond to His Grace . . that's it . . that's all it is!
What happens when you are learning about Catholicism, and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, you will get a section completed here, another completed there, and you begin to see how it is going to look when it is done . . but it is not until you put in that final piece that suddenly, you see the whole . . Now that does not mean that you are going to understand everything perfectly . but you are going to understand what is essential to understand, and then, you are going to say .. . "aha . .that's it, that's all there is to this .. its GRACE!" And your understanding of Grace will have so deepened and broadened that you will wonder how in the world you tired to hold with the mold you brought with you from Protestantism . .it has to be discarded, it is too small!
When you surrender yourself to God in this whole thing, He begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together faster than you can imagine . .
Right now it is like looking at a forest, but instead of seeing the forest, you are concentrating on individual trees and are not seeing the forest yet . . when you step back and can see the whole, then all this will pass and you will understand what I mean when i say it is all worth it, don't give up!
When you get to this point, you will realize how very simple worship is in the Catholic faith.
You do not need any type of emotionalism, or making worship work . . it just does, it just is . . Just let it flow over you and through you.
Peace in Him!