This entry is for my Catholic pals!
I seem to have a lot of them which many of my non Catholic friends tend to find amusing and a little strange on my part. I never knew friendships were to be defined by religious and political beliefs, but apparently, there are people out there who are that close-minded that they are unable to mesh with anyone who doesn't hold onto the same set of values, beliefs, and train of thought. (I don't understand it, but if you live in such a narrow world, I'm glad you are excluding me from it!)
Given it's the Lenten season, I thought I'd share a little. I tend to stay away from religion and politics as a whole, but sometimes it's ok for me to share a bit, especially when it might help others learn about me a little bit more.
So guess what Catholic friends!? I once was a Roman Catholic.
Now...I'm a laid back Roman Catholic!
Are you squinting at the screen and saying, "Um what the heck is she talking about?" Well, it's true. My dad is a Roman Catholic and my mom is a *gasp* Lutheran. I heard their path to the altar was no picnic. Apparently, a RC marrying anyone that is not an RC is frowned upon, but I digress.
I'm a catholic. Here is the proof in our Lutheran Apostle's Creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended to hell.
On the third day he rose again;
He ascended into heaven,
He is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
And there it is folks, what we believe as Lutherans. The SAME as you in a nutshell. Though, the "holy catholic church" does not mean the big "C" Catholic, but the little "c" catholic, which means the "Christian" church were ALL denominations from Roman Catholic to Methodist exist.
What do I mean when I say I was once Roman Catholic? Well, I was, until a man named Martin Luther deflected from the Roman Catholic Church. In short, he did not like how the RC was being operated. According to him, it was corrupt.The foundation was there, but at some point, it had taken (in Martin Luther's opinion) a turn for the worse and the Catholic church had strayed from God's true teachings. His biggest problem was with men and their (for a lack of better words) "power trip" within the church. The men had all the power, the men spoke to God alone, you had to go through men to be forgiven. He called Hogwash on the whole situation!
And he left.
It took many years for me to dissect the history and a lot of years figuring out if I aligned with Martin Luther's beliefs, or not. .
In my years of personal study as well as in a certification program, I see many similiarties AND differences. But the binding stone is in God and Jesus. Catholics and Lutherans alike are under the same umbrella of love. We just view that love...differently.
We believe, as Lutherans, the same basic things as Catholics do as stated in our Apostle's Creed AND the Lord's Prayer with THESE distinct differences:
We are saved by grace ALONE. Whoever believes in Him goes to heaven. If we repent our sins in our hearts, God will cleanse us from our sins. We do not need to physically go to "confession". We do not pray the rosary. We do not need to do good works, or deeds to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, we just simply need to believe and we are forgiven.
We do not need a priest to absolve us of our sins. All we need to do is confess them to God on our own time, in our own space, and we are forgiven.
We do not believe in purgatory. You go to heaven, or you go to hell. There is no limbo of indecision.
We do not believe in the Papacy. We can speak to God ourselves and do not believe that any human being is chosen by Him as a vessel to speak through. So Pope Benedict, Paul, etc. is just some man like any other man.
We don't pray to the Holy Mother, although we do acknowledge that Christ was born from her, a virgin.
We DO believe in the sacraments, Ash Wednesday, lent (although we do not follow the same rules of sacrificing, fasting etc.), Christmas, Easter, Saints (but we do not pray to them), The Transubstantiation, Transfiguration and on and on.
As listed above, we just don't have the same set of rules and strictness. We don't feel a need for it. Basically, we, as Lutherans, are Catholics...minus the guilt.
And there you have it.
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