Beautiful! Glad praying the rosary brought you peace.
Don't we all do that with so many things? Project what we're feeling or what we think we would feel in another person's situation onto them, even if that's not what they're feeling at all?
People talk about Catholic guilt, but Puritans seem to have been way, way deeper in guilt and anxiety (Am I elect?! Am I predestined to go to heaven or hell?! That one woman threw her baby down the well so she could know she was going to hell and have certainty around the question, so it was clearly an intense stress), and in some areas American Protestant culture draws on Puritan roots. (Albion's Seed is a great historical look at four early groups of English settlers to America.)
I don't doubt people's experiences when they say they were raised with "Catholic guilt," though I do wonder if whomever taught them the faith focused more on sin and not as much on forgiveness...? Because we can go to confession and be reconciled to God and know that we are. The Sacraments (like the Holy Eucharist and Confession) and sacramentals (like the rosary) are there to help you in your walk with Jesus, not meant to stress you out.
I've been doing some reading (Sources of Christian Ethics by Pinckaers) and I think for several hundred years there had been a focus on "obligation" in Catholic moral thought, so maybe that was part of the "Catholic guilt" phenomena? I don't know, I'm a convert myself and haven't experienced it.
I prayed my first rosary as a Protestant. It was in a moment of anxiety and of a call to show true repentance. (This is how I discovered “once saved, always saved” doesn’t really prepare us for the moments we need the strength to truly repent!) I looked online for different ways to pray, found the rosary, and prayed it. Little did I know that 2 years later the Holy Spirit would lead me to the Catholic Church to fulfill my search for deeper faith, and I would say yes to converting. My extended family is still Protestant but they’ve never discouraged me in my following God’s call.
Also, I can’t wait until you discover the Seven Sorrows devotion. I’ve never broken down in sorrow over Christ’s suffering for us as I much as I did during those seven simple “Hail Mary”s. It strengthened my faith!
Beautiful! Glad praying the rosary brought you peace.
Don't we all do that with so many things? Project what we're feeling or what we think we would feel in another person's situation onto them, even if that's not what they're feeling at all?
People talk about Catholic guilt, but Puritans seem to have been way, way deeper in guilt and anxiety (Am I elect?! Am I predestined to go to heaven or hell?! That one woman threw her baby down the well so she could know she was going to hell and have certainty around the question, so it was clearly an intense stress), and in some areas American Protestant culture draws on Puritan roots. (Albion's Seed is a great historical look at four early groups of English settlers to America.)
I don't doubt people's experiences when they say they were raised with "Catholic guilt," though I do wonder if whomever taught them the faith focused more on sin and not as much on forgiveness...? Because we can go to confession and be reconciled to God and know that we are. The Sacraments (like the Holy Eucharist and Confession) and sacramentals (like the rosary) are there to help you in your walk with Jesus, not meant to stress you out.
I've been doing some reading (Sources of Christian Ethics by Pinckaers) and I think for several hundred years there had been a focus on "obligation" in Catholic moral thought, so maybe that was part of the "Catholic guilt" phenomena? I don't know, I'm a convert myself and haven't experienced it.
I prayed my first rosary as a Protestant. It was in a moment of anxiety and of a call to show true repentance. (This is how I discovered “once saved, always saved” doesn’t really prepare us for the moments we need the strength to truly repent!) I looked online for different ways to pray, found the rosary, and prayed it. Little did I know that 2 years later the Holy Spirit would lead me to the Catholic Church to fulfill my search for deeper faith, and I would say yes to converting. My extended family is still Protestant but they’ve never discouraged me in my following God’s call.
Also, I can’t wait until you discover the Seven Sorrows devotion. I’ve never broken down in sorrow over Christ’s suffering for us as I much as I did during those seven simple “Hail Mary”s. It strengthened my faith!
I am so happy you wrote this piece. lt is priceless.
So happy for you Madison. Amen and amen.
Thank you, Chris!