Sharing with others about staying in faith communities

Post Reply New Topic

Hi,

My name is Ritagail. I'm 48, Catholic convert (in 1995), not real happy about the current trends, am the weekly bulletin editor for our parish along with a few other volunteer duties such as the ministry schedule.

I've gone through a lot of anger and sadness, but think I'm getting better at it, with God's help, of course. Not so much help from fellow parishioners, though.

I would love to hear from and share with others who are struggling to stay in their faith communities.

This coming week I have to do THREE bulletin files, plus get a working ministry schedule, plus my own creative project for the holidays, but, I hope to make time if anyone responds to this.

It helps if you can better spell out what your specific issue is.

Is it a matter that you feel your fellow parishioners haven't been there for you based on what you feel they should be doing?

I don't belong to a faith community, but I am interested in your thread because the last couple of weeks, for the third time in the two years since deciding to believe in god, I have been semi-seriously thinking about going to one, or the other, of the local/village churches ( precisely to find a "faith community" ).

The reason that I haven't gone yet is because I "imagine" and fear/dread the kind of deathly dreary/dutiful/joyless and empty/"artificial" or hyper-NT social ritual that it has often ( though not exclusively ) seemed to be the few times that I have attended any kind of religious activity/event in the past.

Am curious, why did you convert to Catholicism? And was it a conversion from "nothing at all"/atheism/agnosticism, or from another faith/persuasion? I don't know which one of the two, Catholic or Protestant, churches in the village to go to if I do. I keep weighing up the pros and cons, and not going.

.

Hi,

As I'm sitting here, I'm waiting for it to get closer to time to drive to church in a small town a few miles from here. My husband and I haven't had a car in many years until just last month, so we were stuck in the local Catholic drama here, which is 2 churches in a medium size town that should support only one Catholic church, but, that drama was set up long before we moved here. It was made worse when the Popes changed and our Bishop decided to go more traditional.

Very Long Story.

Anyway, besides realizing that I've walked into a 40 year liturgical/ideological war within the Catholic church, which is disheartening in itself, the local stuff drives me up the wall, not to mention as one person wrote here the usual NT things that I've only become aware of in the past few years.

I just want to worship Jesus and receive Him in Holy Communion. But, there is also a communal desire in my heart, which is where I get discouraged. In other words, not with God or faith, but God's people and religion.

It's a long story "why", very briefly, I was in Protestant seminary, trying to answer the call I felt from God on using my writing and art for God and God's people, when I found myself reading from the Lives/Writings of the Saints down in the library stacks. As a child, I'd wanted to be Catholic, but had a violent father who was against any church and proclaimed himself an atheist (though he would sing country/gospel songs around the house). It's been a very long and difficult faith journey for me.

I got married at a young age and my husband was brought up Catholic but didn't want anything to do with it, until I dragged the poor man through lots of different Protestant denominations. Now he's back to Catholic, but the new emphasis on old tradition is about to drive him away.

I've read Thomas Merton, Teresa of Jesus (Avila), Therese of Lisieux, Gertrude, etc. , as well as the Bible, of course. The vast difference between faith in Jesus and how religion plays out became so vivid to me that I nearly walked out of any religion at all.

BUT "The Big Guy Upstairs" (meaning God/Jesus) won't let me off the hook that easily.

On top of it, I have weird family of origin stuff where my Mother went back to her denomination after Dad died and her side of the family is always trying to convert me. (There's more to this but I won't write it now.)

One specific that drives me completely nuts in our parish: I can't attend most social functions. It's just too much stimulus for me, my nerves overload. This parish lives for their social functions, I think most faith communties do, and, persons who don't attend are basically "out". I've even been told that I "don't like people" because I don't attend their social functions/parties.

I think the fear of "loners" is getting out of control in our society, and it's being magnified in faith communities.

Ok, that's all for now.

Maybe we can all pray for each other here and encourage each other.

One more thing, for the person who is considering joining a faith community. Most of the time, a person can just visit, or sit in the back for services and not be noticed. Although, sometimes there are places who want visitors to stand up an introduce themselves, which I can't stand.

If you are a young adult, and if there is a college nearby, there may be some open college campus services that wouldn't be as intimidating.

Brief update: We went to the little church. It was a very good experience.

We've decided it will be one of our "getaway" places.

I was able to participate with my heart and haven't been able to do that for a long time. I'm guessing that means I'm over the line on "burnout" at the drama of the parishes in town.

We know some of the folks there, and that they have their own problems, but, the people there are more "down to earth". I'm so very grateful we got to go.

When we lived in a bigger city, it was easier to find a parish where we felt more comfortable, because there were so many of them. I'm more of a rural person, but, there are advantages to living in a bigger city sometimes, especially if/when a person has no or limited transportation.

That sounds really good! I hope it goes well for you.

I have just found a "faith community" ... online! It's called St. Pixels! And I went to my first service "there" just now. They seem very friendly.

And the christmas carols were lovely!

.