Yesterday during mass my toddler became a bit chatty, she was not yelling. She was mostly trying to sing while the chorus was singing and then she was saying the names of the colors of her crayons. My husband and I were reminding her to lower her voice while all of a sudden an usher rushed to our pew and angrily shushed us. I was embarrassed and shocked by how she approached us. She was loud enough that a gentleman 3 pews in front of us heard her and said "that's not nice" to the usher. Then she proceeded to stand next to our pew staring at me and my child during the reading of the Gospel. It became a very stressful situation for us having the usher "policing" us during mass when all we wanted was to enjoy mass as a family. It was an uncomfortable situation and we didn't feel welcomed. I don't know if my toddler sensed the usher staring at us but she started to get upset so we ended up leaving right after the reading of the gospel because the whole situation became very uncomfortable for us and I didn't want to make mass difficult for the other parishioners.

On the walk home I was telling my husband how upset I felt and he said we should call the Parish office to make a complain because her approach was a bit unprofessional but I don't know if this is the right call.

I'm heartbroken that this happened because we've been coming to this Church for almost 2 years and we never had an issue in the past and we've been to other churches with our toddler and never had an issue. I don't know if I'm being sensitive or if the usher was rude.

Also I want to add that my child is almost 2 and she was not running or crying she was trying to sing like the chorus and then she was naming the colors of her crayons.

Thank you for your input and God bless you.

Imagine the Lord loves you so much He gives you a lot of gifts that would help you come home to Him.

He gave us the Blessed Mother as a mother that comforts us, a role model in trusting the will of the Lord in our lives, a loving Mother who intercedes for us and we understands our human sufferings.

He gave us the saints to look up to, to remind us that we too can become saints in our simple ways, to encourage us that faith can really transform people and that we are each called upon with our own responsibilities.

He gave us the Eucharist. To know that we are partaking in one of the most important moment in salvation every week is bewildering. To realize that by taking in the Eucharist in communion we get to be renewed and sanctified by having Christ in us.

He gave us guardian angels, to always remember that we are protected. Imagine having the Heavenly Father look at us from above to protect us, Jesus Christ being with us, and the Holy Spirit within us, and then having a personal angel guide. we are so divinely protected everyday.

He gave us the Holy Rosary as a weapon, as a thing that we use to walk the life of Jesus. To understand and carry the lessons, emotions, and reasoning as to why these events happened.

I just feel so loved by Him. How He uses His creation in every way that He can so that we’ll be able to find Him everywhere and everyday. His love is so engulfing.

People on this sub insist that Canada isn't persecuting Catholics, but the fact that so many Canadians want to ban religious institutions from running hospitals tells me that Catholics are at risk of persecution.

I am also starting to see people argue in favor of banning Catholic schools. A decade ago, this would have been unthinkable.

So... I've been feeling ever closer to the Lord and wanted to take a big step and go to confession. It has been almost 50 years since my last confession.

I don't know what I was expecting but when I got in and sat down, I said, "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." It has been 50 years since my last confession and I'm a little out of touch with exactly what I'm supposed to say. He told me to be as specific as possible so I began talking. The words were coming out of my mouth but kind of slowly because I had some shame.

The priest said there were a lot of people waiting and that I needed to come back. There were a lot of people waiting for sure but I just felt so vulnerable in that moment because it had been so long since I had done this. I had begun sharing some things that were really against my values and uncomfortable to confess. As you can imagine, with a history that long, there were going to be some things.

I didn't feel any compassion or empathy. It felt cold. The process itself isn't what I remembered or imagined. I thought I might have been met with a little bit more warmth, like "Welcome back to the family" or "Welcome back home." I know I was there to confess sins but I just thought that it would have been handled a little bit more tenderly.

At one point he asked me if I had done an examination of my conscience and I said yes, not realizing that that is some type of formal procedure. I checked in with myself and with my own heart about things that I wanted to share but he said to Google an examination of conscience. Maybe I'm taking it the wrong way. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. I don't know. I just know I went to the church and sat and cried and then I went to my car in the parking lot and sat and cried even more.

Good morning to everyone reading this. I’m a 23 yo emt who has been in the game about 4 years working in a busy 911 system. I constantly battle with faith as I think everyone does but I feel like it’s very hard for me sometimes. Seeing the things I see to people on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis makes me question why. And with a recent health scare of my own, it makes me even more scared. I hear and read stories of supernatural encounters, events, whether it be good or bad from people and I am envious in a way that they have that proof, experience, connection whatever you would call it. Meanwhile my life is mostly consumed of seeing people die, sick, torn apart, you name it. I was just curious how you can keep it as a first responder, military, what have you. My job and my recent health crisis scares me and has weakened my trust as of late. Ik I’m fighting the good fight with what I do, I am just tired, scared and worn out. If anyone can give me some support and guidance I would really appreciate it.

If you find the repitition of the rosary hard to focus on, try doing the scriptural rosary. It has a verse from scripture between each hail mary, For me, it allows me to meditate on the mystery more and feel closer to God. Usually my mind will wander between beads but this helps me hone in. I use a little blue book for the prayer and it has the history of the rosary in the front along with images for the mystieries.

Just sharing this here as many Catholics I talk to have not heard of this. It is also a great way to get kids started with the rosary as it adds more for them and is not so "boring".

So I'm 21M.

In highschool I was completely emo. Long hair, eyeliner, layered clothes, earbuds in 24/7. Since then I've calmed down but I always had a hard time looking at myself in the mirror.

Also in highschool, I used to be what we know as a "femboy". You know, a man who dresses feminine purposely. And some of these clothes were definitely immodest.

When I converted back to Catholicism, I dropped the Femboy title, and between the years, I tried to make myself more "masculine". Cutting my hair shorter, going to the gym, trying to give a more masculine presentation. Except I hated it.

I hated looking at myself at the mirror, I hated seeing the "masculine" me that my family applauded thinking I finally "grew up".

That's when someone told me that modesty in Catholicism was based around a few things, and it wasn't necessary the traditional masculine look I was imagining.

I was told to look at the catechism where it said that I can't dress immodestly, and I can't dress out of vanity. So if it's not with the desire to tempt, or deceive others? And most importantly, it doesn't get in-between me and my relationship with the faith, then there isn't really anything wrong with it.

Hearing that, I grew my hair down to my neck again so I could at least get the hairstyle that felt like "me" again. I still didn't like my masculine features though. Which I why I went on to wear more baggy clothes to give my frame a softer appearance. And yknow, thing after thing after thing.

I don't wear the immodest clothes of my femboy days. I don't want to convince others I'm anything but male, and I doubt people would think that anyway. I still see my eye liner though, my black nail polish and I still really want to use it but my mind goes into this massive fight on if it's acceptable for me as a boy to do it or not.

So yeah a lot of weird things go in in my head and I really want some input on how I should view this.

This hasn't hindered my relationship with God, and if anything it just gave me another question to ask to be lit whenever I'm praying the rosary at night. It's more so that fact that I don't want to be an abomination to my God.

I moved to a new state a couple months ago and I don’t have any family in the area or close Catholic friends. (I know of a few Catholics at my grad school but I don’t know them super well.)

Basically, as the title says, I’ve been going to mass alone because I have no one to go with. Up until this point in my life, I’ve gone to mass with my family or friends in college.

I’ve been feeling very alone at mass and in my faith lately and just looking for encouragement/advice.

​

St Jude's Feast Day is 9 days away

St Jude Thaddeus is the patron saint of difficult and seemingly hopeless causes. For centuries, people have turned to him in moments of uncertainty, desperation and hardship, finding comfort, strength and renewed hope through prayer.

I've found praying to St Jude to be an incredibly positive experience, and I would encourage anyone facing difficulties, or simply looking for a little guidance and peace, to consider doing the same.

His feast day is 28 October, which means today, 19 October, is the perfect day to begin his nine-day novena.

Whatever challenges you may be facing, perhaps give St Jude a place in your prayers over the next nine days. You may find the experience more meaningful than you expect.

I’m a Catholic who has recently (about 3 months ago) been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I’ve been eating all gluten-free foods with no contamination since my diagnosis. Or so I thought…

I asked the father (the priest) at my parish if I could still receive communion even though I had Celiac, and he said yes. So I began taking the low-gluten communion wafers (I thought they were no gluten) every Sunday as instructed. So apparently that’s the reason I was still not getting better even after going ‘gluten free’. I was willingly glutening myself.

Has this happened to anyone else? Also what do I do? Do I just not participate in communion anymore? I can’t have any alcohol so I don’t think taking the Blood of Christ (the wine) is acceptable for me. Can someone point me in the right direction?

hello everyone. i recently went on a date and i am 25F and met up with a guy from Hinge who was 31M. we had texted for a bit before meeting and he had mentioned his family being very involved in his local catholic church. he mentioned wanting to be someone who values God and Catholic being very important to him. we got coffee and went to mass afterward. while getting coffee, i brought up how i had just went to confession yesterday but that i hadn’t been in a month. he told me he hadn’t been in a year. i mentioned that before i had really learned more about catholicism, i didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to have communion if you weren’t living in a state of grace but now that i knew that, i try to go to confession more often. to my surprise, he made a comment about how he always takes communion and that he felt like he could be his own judge. this last comment really rubbed me the wrong way, i was just surprised to hear this as it seemed he was very involved with his faith until we started talking about the sacrament of reconciliation. i’m more than likely not going to see him again, but would be like other people’s thoughts on this particular talking point.

Thank you

(First, I do want to say that, although I may ask questions, I believe there is a reason, and that the nearly 2000 years of church history is correct)

1.How do I convert, is there some process I have to do?

2.Are there different catholic churches, I have seen some labeled just as catholic, and some as roman Catholic

Questions:

I really only have one question, and why are prayers repeated, I know in Matthew 6:7, it says do not pray in vain repetition, I believe that the repeated prayers, (Such as those in the rosary) are not in vain, so why are they repeated

(Also, I have no problem with any Marian traditions, and the views on Mary, saints, and intercession, I already believe it to be true.)

Do they think that we are literally praying to the statues? Like at the most basic level, do they think that we think the statues are God or something? I think I never got it because that sounds so ridiculous so I figured I'm missing something.

St. Luke, Evangelist

St. Luke, physician and evangelist, wrote the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles. Tradition says he also painted icons of Our Lady. Patron of physicians and artists.

St. Luke, the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, was a physician from Antioch and a convert from paganism. He was the companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys, as evidenced by the 'we passages' in Acts.

His Gospel, written for Gentile readers, emphasizes Christ's compassion, mercy, and universal salvation. It contains material found nowhere else, including the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and the most detailed account of the Infancy of Christ.

Tradition holds that he was also a painter, and several icons of the Blessed Virgin are attributed to him. He died about the year 84, probably in Greece. He is the patron saint of physicians, artists, and painters.

I feel like I have to share this somewhere, because it just felt amazing. For context, I am a Protestant who is very heavily inquiring Catholicism. Honestly, my heart has already accepted Catholicism as the truth, the only thing stopping me right now is my mind.
I decided to pray a rosary today, and asked for the blessed virgin Mary to pray for my pagan friend throughout it.
The rosary was dedicated to said friend.
I must say, that might have been the most spiritually uplifting prayer I have ever done.
This may be the very thing that helps me fully accept Catholicism and submit to Rome.
God bless!

Hello everyone. I apologize but I felt like I had to get this off my chest. For background i (20M) grew up Protestant but fell away when I was a kid because of Covid and my family not being able to attend. I decided to look back into Christianity about 2 years ago. About 1 year ago I started to learn about Catholicism and decided this was the path I wanted to go down.

Fast forward to now I began OCIA a little over a month ago and to be honest it seems so lackluster. We were given reading material for the entirety of the course and during our 1 hour sessions all we do is go around the room and read paragraph by paragraph. Then one of the people running it just repeats what was said and moves on.

I was just wondering if this is how it’s supposed to be or not. I may be in the wrong but I expected more passion and excitement for this process and it just feels upsetting. I apologize if im being ignorant, but any insight would be helpful. Thank you and God Bless.

The Priest at the parish I’ve been attending is fantastic. Really an awesome Pastor. The Deacon is equally amazing. Both are Protestant converts and have been incredible in my journey. Just wanted to give a shout out to the fantastic Catholic clergy out there.

I (27F) and my husband (28M) have struggled with hyper fertility throughout our entire marriage. We have 6 children ages 6 and under, all singleton pregnancies. In every pregnancy, I have developed preeclampsia. This last delivery resulted in a c section to avoid a high likelihood of post partum hemorrhage.

I love my husband and think he’s the handsomest man in the whole world. He is head over heels for me as well. Friends and family assume we are active almost constantly due to the pregnancies being essentially back to back. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth- on average we have sex maybe once a week.

Even with consistent and obsessively tracked NFP, we’ve gotten pregnant. With my health history, I’ve had providers ask me about birth control hundreds of times. I’ve been asked about a hysterectomy or a tubal litigation as well.

I want to live faithfully with the teachings of the church and I want to safely engage in sex with my husband without surgically removing or altering my body. Can I please get some perspectives or suggestions?

For note: I’d love to have more children in the future and want to remain open to life.

Please no hate as this has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind for quite some time.

This is just a little bit of happy sharing with you all.
So to provide some context, I’m a Captain in the U.S. Army and, since I’m currently a Staff Captain, I normally only interact with the rest of our Headquarters element on the daily instead of the rest of the Battalion. That said, I’ve been more than open to talk about the faith with other Catholics in my unit and share my story with some of the questioning Protestants in the formation since my office door stays mostly open unless I’m having to minimize distractions.

That said, one of my medics has been a fun guy to share stuff with and I found out two things last week:
First, that he’s from a predominantly Catholic family from Haiti (despite being raised protestant by his parents). Second, that he is about to PCS to Germany (only a little jealous because I would love very much to attend Mass in a cathedral 4+ times the age of my country). He mentioned that he related heavily to why I left Protestantism so I invited him to mass at my small parish just 20min from post. He actually showed up this morning, which was awesome, and he was very respectful regarding the Holy Eucharist and my guidance for his procedures as a non-Catholic. After mass ended, he waited on me to finish my prayers and he got the chance to talk with both my priest and my deacon (both are great people). Overall he said it was a very positive experience and even took down a couple book recommendations I had for him (“Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” and “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary,” to be exact) as well as my recommendation on the Douay-Rheims Bible (love history and older English verbiage). I plan to follow up with him tomorrow to see what his thoughts are and hopefully further encourage him to explore the faith.

If anyone else has stories of bringing others Home, I’d love to read them down below!

Thank you for reading!
The post has ended, comment in peace proclaiming the love of God.