Welcome, Catholic faithfuls. We can share our views about the church here. Announcements about changes, activities affecting the church generally can be shared here. Sometimes too if we have questions we can post and anybody can answer (please references should be posted along with answers). Non-catholic Christians can also post questions here (no fanatics and criticism please!).

Angelgirl: thanks for your foresight in making this announcement. However, catholics should note that issues affecting the catholic church can be posted directly in the Religion section. There's no need for a special thread yet.

However, you can use this thread to introduce yourself to other catholics in the forum! So if you're catholic, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your faith here!

I am always happy each time I come across people who share the same faith as I do. I have been a catholic all my life and I pray nothing, I mean absolutely nothing seperates me from my church. What I love and cherish most is the celebration of mass in Latin so Angelgirl, In nomine patris et filii, et spiritus sancti. Amen.

Tayo, although I'm Anglican by birth, I completely identify with you. Nothing beats the services, the communion and the closeness you feel to the supernatural when blessings are being said. Some parts of our liturgies are in Latin as well and however much I go to Pentecostal churches, I always need a touch of my home church once in every while. Absolutely nothing in the world beats carols at Christmas or Easter renditions, not if it's St. Paul's choir rendering it. I was 10 minutes late last year and met hundreds of people in the same shoes outside the church. It was too full to allow us in. I practically cried all the way home and consoled myself with the TV version on getting home. This year, God willing, I’m going to be an hour early.

well i'm a catholic since birth. my secondary education was partly in a seminary, but priesthood wasn't for me so i'm here today. my mates all things being equal will be priest in about 4-5 years time. and man what a time that will be. i served mass, taught cathchesim and all that Catholic stuff...although presently i wouldn't say i'm very religious but i still keeps it positive.

it's a pity posting fever on this forum is not picking up as fast as it did on Mobilenigeria. i miss that forum now. no body goes there much these days...and they ain't coming here that much. i just pray we won't regret this switch to Nairaland in a months time.

In my own case, I am a lapsed catholic (because I believe I have found so many contradictions in the theology)

Anyway lets not spoil the fun for you. I like the sense of brotherhood that being a member of one of the largest churches in the world creates, but I don't really like orthodox churches.

Anyway see you! In case you want to discuss contradictions, buzz me.

kodewrita: In my own case, I am a lapsed catholic

Kodewrita, I think you're trying to say that you're a 'backslider'!

Catholics visit www.wau.org for daily meditationals and mass readings.

Like Ra, I'm Anglican by birth but I most frequently attend the Catholic mass in school at the Our Lady Seat of Wisdom(well, let's say the timing is convenient)-I don't get the communion though 'cos i'm not a communicant.

Angelgirl:

Catholics visit www.wau.org for daily meditationals and mass readings.

Thank you, Angelgirl. I have always known they have a site but never visited it. I buy the monthly edition in my parish@ Lekki, now you have given me the opportunity to visit the website. What parish do you attend?

Trish going all cozy on another Catholic sister. Quite good!

@ Allenpowered.

Will it be "quite good if I go on cozy" with you? Oh what am I doing? This isn't a flirting thread. But you asked for it!

May Devotions

Ave Maria.

This post is coming a little late, we have few days left in the month of May and remember brothers and sisters that this is the month of Mary our Mother. But it is never too late in the house of the Lord, so please do remember to say your rosary and meditate on them. Glory be to Jesus, honour to Mary.

trish:

May Devotions
we have few days left in the month of May and remember brothers and sisters that this is the month of Mary our Mother.

What's so significant about Mary and May?

IMO, MARY / R = May is it?

@seun   I am  not a backslider as I am still a christian but I have encountered many irregularities and I find it hypocritical to still call myself a catholic in spite of my disagreements with the faith (which sadly cathechism has not healed)

@practising catholics  answer the following questions?  What is the relevance of the bible verse in one of the gospels which names the brothers of jesus? if indeed they   were named is Mary still EVER VIRGIN.

even if she did not give birth to any other kid, does that mean she was chaste forever in light of the jewish tradition of reconsummating marriages every friday.

Is church tradition superior to the bible? if not then why does the bible claim that mary did not die when it is only church tradition that came into the common consciousness close to 2 centuries after Jesus crucifixion?

Where in the bible is it stated that catholics get to absolve their sins after death (In purgatory)?

there are more questions but I believe you won't be able to answer them because like me u have been bred to believe that " blessed are those that don't see but believe" when a different verse states that we should test what we are told (check thessalonicans or search for berea in any online bible.)
Half of you don't know if there is any biblical basis for your beliefs.
Check these topics
1. the trinity
2. purgatory
3. jesus being the only way (christianity) to the exclusion of other ways (or religions)
4. sainthood and whether it agrees with no 3(jesus the only intercessor)
5. bowing to the statue or painting of jesus at easter

@kodewrita,
I think you better take cover cos I can sense flames coming your way from our Catholic Faithfuls........
I'm not a Catholic but I respect you guys & I gotta say I've heard so many things sha, some good, some well.......

Kodewrita's comments are null and void because Angelgirl clearly said "no fanatics and criticism please!" in the first post. Please ignore them or discuss them in a different thread.

kodewriter was trying to express his inner self, in seeking answers maybe that would heal his inner conflicts.

without criticsm, there can be no progress in any society. and believe me kodewriter all bliefs have there own 'inconsistencies', only faith makes one pull through.

man u must have bottled those your thoughts in for years,the way they came ou was hot

I used to resent going for mass when i was in my teens. In school i would stay in dormitory o sundays and i wouldn't care when all those holier than thou folks would try to give me grief. During the Holidays i would have to deal with long masses in the village, God forbid if we had harvest, we would be their through lunch. Now that I'm older and i can make my own decisions with regards to mass, i enjoy going. I find comfort in the readings and i look forward to it. When i leave, its with the hope of applying what I've heard to my daily routine through out the week.

Thats just a personal reflection on what being a catholic means to me.

What does it mean to u?

ezinne i'm happy for u. but sha one advice to our priest: they really need to work on their preaching skills. many of them sorry to say are poor preachers. if they were in the protestant section and couldn't preach, talk less of perform miracles i don't think their churches would be growing at all.

i agree with angelgirl and seun that there should be no criticism. It is only allowed in objective areas and not issues of faith.

@allenpowered you school in IB. i might run into you one of these sundays. i worshipped there for a while and i still visit from time to time (especially when i am late for other church services or when i am travelling.)

@angelgirl holding convictions or beliefs is easy but the true test of your belief is being able to stand up to an attack on those beliefs.

Yes, kodewrita, go ahead and analyse/criticize the faith but not in this thread. That is all I am saying.

Since the person that created the thread has said clearly that she's not interested in the debate you should show her that respect and create a new thread to discuss those issues!

@Trish, sorry i have not been very regular on this forum lately, am just reading your post today, my parish is in Festac Town, 'Holy Family'.

@Kodewriter, sorry,  am just reading your post today too, When i started this thread, we didnt have up to a hundred members, but i had a foresight (expected) of questions like yours springing up as membership increase, that was why i said  'no critisizms', please this thread is a meeting point for 'catholics' who know why they are catholics, you have questions, i have questions too, its a challenge for us if we claim to be catholics  but if you are too keen on answers then sacrifice some time to see your parish priest/ elders in the church/ or go make enquiry in the church library (i know the church is good at keeping records), or better still start another thread, maybe you will get the answers you need.
@Traez, Everybody has their individual gift, so also every leader in the church, a pastor/priest gifted with healing powers will do well in healing ministrations, while the orators do well in preaching, i know a handfull of our priest who do well in preaching, we as parishoners are supposed to augment some of their weak areas, that is why we have the charismatic renewal (have you discovered your charisma/spiritual gift?), You dont have to be a pastor/priest before you can preach, heal, you will do well if you are gifted.

@ Angelgirl you can never be too keen. but in deference to seun i'll leave the thread and if moved i'll start one detailing links and topics buttressing my points. anyway, congrats, the church has sucessfully forgotten the crusades, the al Aqsa massacre and the Holocaust(where they stood by)

kodewrita,you seems to know little about religion. read the following
The "Bible" means books where ''written word of God'' are kept by the traditions of catholics
- The "Tradition" is the word of God becoming real in the life of the Church. The Tradition is the word of God lived and preached in the Church.
This Tradition is transmitted "orally", and often it is printed (Luke.1:2). In Christ's time there was no printing, so, very few people could read anything from the books and the Gospels were not yet written... and they were very good Christians those in the Catacombs, without the New Testament written!... and, in fact, until the sixteenth century very few books were written. When was printing press and computers came?

Some Protestants argue they only have the Bible, and no Tradition. But they deceit themselves, because the way they celebrate worship is usually Tradition, very different from one denomination to another... the services and songs of the Lutherans are different of those of the Methodists or Pentecostals... they understand and live the Sacraments in very different ways from denomination to denomination, but the same denomination practice them usually in the same ways, as a Tradition taught by the founder or leaders... and that's Tradition.

Every branch, or denomination, or cult add to the Bible the scriptures of their founders or leaders. And these added scriptures are often very important, usually the ones followed by the denomination or cult to carry their religious services and to guide the actual life and stile of their members. Look at Holy Scriptures

For the Lutherans, for example, the Bible is the Holy Scripture... however what rules and regulates their rituals, administration, and the practical way of life is the "Book of Concord" and their many rules and regulations of their synods.

The same rule is applicable for each one of the many Christian Denominations... it is actually what the Catholics call "Tradition", and it is what actually makes the difference between one Christian Denomination ant other.

The same rule applies to each Branch or Denomination of Judaism, Islam, or Eastern Religions. Stop that act please.

@HNDHolder If I know anything about religion, I do know a lot about the catholic faith. I have read extensive reports written both by insiders and outsiders.

Why I used the word tradition is simple. In catholic church, traditions are usually based on the following principle

1 that the tradition is something to be expected


2 because it is expected then it is right.

example: the belief that mary being the earthly mother of christ cannot be allowed to die by god (refer to 1).
Therefore because that was concieved to be the right thing then it was called church canon. HNDHolder, you point fingers at people but you forget that it also holds for you too, you follow the traditions of Abdrushin, founder of the grail message and as such your thinkiing is colored by that.

As to the writing of the scripture, they were already in written form at the time of Christ. Read Early Isreal And Surrounding nations on www.gutenberg.net for more information about the culture of writing.Reading and writing was already present, though many could not read in either hebrew or greek (like many muslims can't read arabic in nigeria). The fact still remains that they held the scripture to be the sole arbiter of all disputes but the church maintains that tradition is superior. Take for example, the church talks about purgatory but ignores the idea of the existence of hell when purgatory can be proved to be non-existent and hell to be existent based on biblical fact. We Xtians hold the bible to be complete and believe it's writings were inspired by God and anything outside it that does not agree with anything inside it is not biblical.

I am not Catholic, Protestant , Mormon or anything. I AM SIMPLY CHRISTIAN.

Good luck

For me, I think one of the things that have kept me in the catholic church is the selflessness of the religious. Not only have they remained celibate for christ, they have also dedicated themselves to go and evangelize anywhere there is a need.
The words of St Teresa of Avila always makes me emotional. On travelling through dangerous terrain for evangelism, her cart broke down, and she said to God jokingly "Lord, if you treat your friends like this, its no wonder you have so few"

funny you would say...ca tholitism and tradition, what is tradition? I believe would be the most reasonable question to ask in the worship of God, who can not be faulted?

There are rules. God expects to be worship in a certain way,......they that worship the Lord, must worship in in truth and in Spirit..(emphasis Spirit in caps)

The second question is what does tradition(way of interraction) got to do with the Spiritual nature of man? noting that He(Spirit) is the third person of the trinity with a mind of His own.

I would just encourage that you all spent time and study the great resemblance between now Catholicism(Roman catholics) and the Babylonian religion, wherein a whole country by order[b][/b] of the Roman leader became Born again', 'christians' and 'catholics' in one day. The greatest revival in the history of Christianity you would say?

The funny thing was that the Leader before him had already declared the same people into the Babylonian worship now immediately after him another is declaring the same people into Christianity, jugding by the complex nature of man, all please try to imagine what would really really result from these declarations. Do you now have an idea why it is a bit cumbersum to try to separate 'Roman' Catholicism from Babylonian religion? ....yes all these is as a result of intermedling tradition with the worship of God.
'...the latter killeth but the Spirit giveth lift.....'

I am a catholic and I will die a catholic. It’s the only church where I know the in and out of her working and am sure we don’t use any ungodly power; I was once a mass servant, there is no hidden thing. Most of these so called new generation churches are based on the principle of what the owner/founder can get. But the Catholic Church is quite different; fathers don’t have children/family so the incentive of them being corrupt is not there.

Money realized get plowed back into the community and to people that are suffering around the world, but where do other churches put their money?

I was a mass server too.
Where do those pastor founder put their money............... Good talk

been absent from this post for a while.

objibb:

I was a mass server too.
Where do those pastor founder put their money............... Good talk

joftech:

I am a catholic and I will die a catholic. It’s the only church where I know the in and out of her working and am sure we don’t use any ungodly power; I was once a mass servant, there is no hidden thing. Most of these so called new generation churches are based on the principle of what the owner/founder can get. But the Catholic Church is quite different; fathers don’t have children/family so the incentive of them being corrupt is not there.

Money realized get plowed back into the community and to people that are suffering around the world, but where do other churches put their money?

interesting how both of you referred to the money angle. Let me inform you that the catholic church remains the richest church in the world and aside from a few organisations like the Jesuits and The Daughters Of The Holy Spirit, they have done less when compared to some churches like the Salvation Army. You are simply parroting what we are told every sunday in church by Rev. Frs anxious to maintain church populations. What shd you be concerned with? your money or your soul. If you are as catholic as you claim, answer the questions i wrote up there in the earlier posts.