I am thinking about joining a church family, and right now I am thinking about the Roman Catholic Church.  I have been attending mass for about a month now, talked to some people and will probably start RCIA in the fall.  I am still unsure which church family to affiliate myself with.  Any suggestions?
134008
Why don't you attend other churches before you make your finial decision, to see which church gives you a better understanding of the WORD of God.For you to progress you have to understand what the WORD means to you and how you can best apply it to your daily life
104499
I'm Lutheran, but I don't hold any hostility toward Catholics. I do worry that certain practices have crept into the church that Christ wouldn't have approved of (praying to Mary and the saints, for example). Still, your beliefs are a lot closer to mine than many other Protestant groups are, so I think we ought to be able to get along just fine. :)
194070
Anyone can join the Catholic Church\n\nCatholic stands for universal and it is ok for only you to join the Church\n\nThe best thing to do is talk to a priest that is at a Catholic Church, he could probably tell you about any RCIA (right of christian initiation for adults) program that would work for you
144208
My rebellious story......I was Catholic for about 35 years and had trouble in believing that an all loving god would condemn people to hell for what he determined to be indiscretions.  \nShoot...I love to master bate, have pre marital sex with men and women and sometimes a freak fest or two with a couple of friends of mine.  So I guess I was going down to the fiery brimstone pit.\nThe clincher for me was that I was signing up my kids for another year of CCD classes and they told me I had to pay $150 for the classes (which is about double what it should be) because I didn't use the "envelope system" every week, even though I was a registered member of the church and would throw in $1 or two when I would have it.\nI took the CCD applications and ripped them up into tiny pieces and threw one right at the lady and the other one I threw up in the air so it landed in a million pieces all over the floor.\nI've been a practicing eclectic witch, but lately I've been leaning more towards Hinduism and spirituality with a little bit of quantum physics
534353
Greek are you? I believe everyone, Christians included have become more and more of this world instead of trying to keep themselves in touch with God or their loved ones. How many of us only see our families (extended) once or twice a year. When I was a child my father and my uncle spent a great deal of time together and his 3 boys and I and my 2 sisters would play and have a great time. Today I live 30 miles from 1 sister and only see her a couple of times a year. I think God intended us to spend more time cultivating our relationship with Him and with our family and instead we cultivate our wallets. When do we take our families back and leave the worldly things to the world to handle?
112915
I was baptized Catholic as a baby and raised that way throughout my early childhood. After a while my family stopped going to church, and I went on a period of self-exploration. I studied different religious ideas, beliefs, doctrines, etc. and pieced together what made logical, rational, reasonable sense in my opinion. From that I formed my own personal path. I followed it, and preferred not being a part of organized religion because creating my own path meant that my faith could grow and change as I grew and changed (and learned more) instead of remaining fixed and never evolving into something better.\n\nThen a friend of mine introduced me to Wicca. It takes a lot of work and study (I am still), but it allows solitary paths. Its lack of dogma also allows for your faith to grow and change. The more I learned about it, the more it coincided with the beliefs I'd already put together through my soul-searching. Since then I have considered myself a solitary Wiccan.\n\nI think this is the proper way to go about finding religion. Everyone's always saying things like, "I've found religion," or (specifically), "I've found Jesus," but more often than not, IT finds THEM. They believe it because they were raised to believe it, and/or people told them to. They didn't find it for themselves, or even bothered to figure it out. I formed a religion to fit me, rather than conforming myself to fit a religion.
301955
I think it is asking too much from you. Catholic or Jewish or protestant, no matter what the faith and activity if a person can't make it to a wedding, baptisme etc...because it will cause a hardship then no one should be a judge on them showing up or not. Each one of us have to do what we have to do in life. Some of us have to work harder to stay on top of bills, some of us may be ill that day and can't come. Truly the family Catholic or not are asking too much from you.
277744
Catholic Church routine mass & sermon! Blah! blah! blah!\nWhy?\ncoz i been a catholic before ^_^
663657
I was raised Catholic my whole entire life until 11 years ago after my mother suddenly passed away.  I wanted to get my life in order so I met with the Catholic priest and as soon as I told him that I had 2 step children he stopped me.  I'm not married to a Catholic and didn't get married in the church and he said that I couldn't take communion and that my husband had to get an anullment.  Really broke my heart.  They keep these priests that molest little boys and just move them to another church.!  That's okay?  But me not being married to Catholic isn't okay?!  Sad huh?  So to answer your question, no!
572845
Actually, sadly i am "badgered" a lot about being a Christian by my MOM, yea I know, that is weird but true....... the person who has helped me so so much is the pastor of my present church....Mr.C is what we call him... or Pastor  C... he is an amazing person, I met him because he was my little sisters elementary teacher and when we went to this one church, he was the youth leader.  He would go around picking up the kids that wanted to go to church for about an hour and drive us about 45 miles to the church, but now he moved closer and is a pastor of a church in my town... he is like a dad to my sister and me, he is so inspirational and a really fun person, He helps keep me in line because i see him at school(since he is also a teacher) and hes always helping me when i'm down, since i fight with my mom a lot...I really thank the Lord for him and his family being in my life :) well ttyl
627134
I can go to another country and still go to Church and know exactly what's going on! Or maybe my favorite thing is having amazing Catholic brothers like you! :)
463421
Hi, Roman Catholic here.\n1. the baptism thing was up to the priest. Some are more harsher then others.\n2. I have no idea about the annullment process, but I do know that since Vatican 2, it's gotten easier. Sorry your grandma probably tried to get annulled in Vatican 1, which was very strict and even more male-orienated then it is now.\n3. You wanted to be a female alter girl? Join the club. I wanted to be a priest, even held masses for my dolls. I learned that the chruch has been doing things a certain way for many years and won't change over night.\n4. Yes, you had some bad experiences with the church, but that is no reason to just stop going. I'm 26 too. I fell away from the church for five years and decided to go back.\n5. As long as it's for medical reasons and not because you want to have willy-nilly sex, the birth control pills are ok. YOu have a legitament reason for them.\n\nHowever, to be absolved of any sin, you must go to confession and tell the priest everything. After that, you may take the eucharist in mass. As a returning CAtholic, nothing felt better then to confess after five years of living in sin. It's scary, yes, but you do feel better when you leave.\n\nTake care.
237361
I used to date a guy who held church in his home.  His father was a minister without a congregation and his mother was disabled and physically uncomfortable in the traditional church setting so for this reason he held church in his house every Sunday afternoon and every other Wednesday night with his father preaching and his mother attending even though his parents had long since been divorced. It was the best "church" I have ever been to.  The service was meaningful and the singing was beautiful with every voice raised to God, there was no doubt everyone in the very crowded living room was there for God.  I continued to attend "church" at his house for awhile after we quit dating, and frequently think I should still be going there. I learned more there than I ever learned in Sunday school.  I recently took the Alpha class at a local church it was great but I still believe the best church is where you feel the closest to God no matter if it's in a house or a traditional church.
300493
You don't have to be Christian to receive help from a church.  They're not elitists like that, ya know.  :)  Have you thought about working from the home?
469704
Decide which church you want to have your servide in and then invite both the priest and the pastor to officiate.  The priest can give you a blessing.  As a graduate student I took as my research project the Pre-Cana marriage preparation course offerred by the Catholic Church for engaged couples and it is a solid, excellent program to sort out issues before they become difficulties after a couple is married.  Whatever church you eventually decide to settle in does not matter.  This Pre-Cana program will help you more than I can say and give you tools to deal with problems when they arise.  Peace and joy!
657728
YES,  I would like to say welcome into the family.  I have been water baptized years ago, but I have been speaking in my heavenly language for a few years now.  It is the one true way you can talk to God and no one else knows what you are saying but Him.  It is your inter most thoughts and feelings about your wants, needs and desires.  Make it a point to do so everyday to stay connected to Him in a special way.
74396
I am a Jewish female in the U.S\nMy mother converted from Catholisism to Judaism about 20 years ago when marrying my father. Her side of the family is still Catholic. I feel that Catholicism is very interesting. I don't know a whole lot about the religon, but I do know that there leader, or head priest (correct me if I'm wrong) is the Pope. My Rabbi in my synagogue is moving to Israel next year to work closely with The Vatican (spelling?) and learn about Catholicism. The project is called the Jewish Catholic Connection. To sum it all up, I think that we are all human beings, and deserve the right to study one's faith/religon freely. If everyone's religion was the same, we would all be bored to tears. Some day, when I retire, I would like to form an association called Faith and Religons of the World, and make a foundation where all faiths of the world would come together and learn about every single faith known to mankind, and make peace throughout the planet.