RCIA - Second Doubts/Fears?

stacywva · #1 Sep 9, '08, 7:23 pm

I've been feeling second doubts and fears about my conversion to the Catholic Church and thinking about not attending RCIA...

I know that I'm on the right path... but have any of you who converted from protestantism ever feel these feelings as you got closer to finally being Catholic?

Miss Echo · #2 Sep 9, '08, 7:43 pm

Hi Stacy

I didn't have any second thoughts or fears about conversion, (long story, but I knew I had to be Catholic from the time I was a little child - it just took me a very long journey to get here - LOL.) but I wanted to offer you some support and encouragement.

Perhaps if you could fill us in a little more...? What first lead you to the church? Have you attended RCIA yet? What exactly are you having doubts?

RCIA, especially now, in the beginning of the class, is very much a "come and see" sort of thing, so people can learn more about the church and then decide where they want to go from there. It isn't a commitment exactly - no one should pressure you - and I know some people who attended RCIA for two or three years before deciding one way or another. But that's what the classes are for, to help you get informed.

I'm here if you need to talk, and I'm keeping you in my prayers as well!

God bless!
Tammy

Joe Kelley · #3 Sep 9, '08, 8:18 pm

From several years of directing RCIA I know that such fears are not unusual. Any time you are headed in the right direction Satan will try to rouse doubts in you. The closer you get to making the final step the harder he will work. That is why we have the several rites of blessings and special prayers in mass for those in RCIA.

It is similar in other situations. Everyone I know that went to Marriage Encounter had a heck of a fight on the way there. We all pushed on anyway.

With my prayers for your safe journey.

George C · #4 Sep 9, '08, 8:22 pm

None here. I want to take the RCIA. If I can find a parish which offers it and the Indult Mass.

Hopefully I've found one. More on that as information becomes available.

Cairisti · #5 Sep 9, '08, 8:29 pm

Doubts and fear are normal. I started RCIA and quit after two months, but went back a year later. Keep praying. I know that during Lent it was the hardest. Our Archbishop told the Elect at the Rite of Election , that the spiritual warfare would be hardest nearest Easter. And he was right. You don't have to convert if you are in doubt. In fact you shouldn't if you are! Pray. Pray and pray some more. If you can, spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament.

stacywva · #6 Sep 9, '08, 9:07 pm

By the way, the name is Brian... my last name is Stacy.

Well I'm a baptized Christian and grew up Pentecostal Holiness... So I grew up with the whole fear that Catholics were going to Hell and they would more than likely bust it wide open.

I've been attending Mass since school began at our Newman Center and have been trying to get very involved and hope to establish a certain time during the week when I personally go by myself for Adoration of the Eucharist in the Tabernacle. We who are members of the Newman Club know where the key is and are free to go anytime we want to just study or relax or pray.

I've taken a lot of major steps and I know I am heading in the right direction and want to be Catholic and feel Catholic at heart... it's just the devil really wants to give me a battle about it and it started making me wonder if the lady that prophesied to me before I came back to school was right... she told me that I would be worse off than I was before and I was afraid that in becoming Catholic it would bring that to light...

But I'm okay now... I've had a day to reflect and I know it was just Satan...

I just wanted to find out who, if anyone, has ever felt doubt or fear regarding converting to Catholicism...

George C · #7 Sep 9, '08, 9:12 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by stacywva

By the way, the name is Brian... my last name is Stacy.

Well I'm a baptized Christian and grew up Pentecostal Holiness... So I grew up with the whole fear that Catholics were going to Hell and they would more than likely bust it wide open.

I've been attending Mass since school began at our Newman Center and have been trying to get very involved and hope to establish a certain time during the week when I personally go by myself for Adoration of the Eucharist in the Tabernacle. We who are members of the Newman Club know where the key is and are free to go anytime we want to just study or relax or pray.

I've taken a lot of major steps and I know I am heading in the right direction and want to be Catholic and feel Catholic at heart... it's just the devil really wants to give me a battle about it and it started making me wonder if the lady that prophesied to me before I came back to school was right... she told me that I would be worse off than I was before and I was afraid that in becoming Catholic it would bring that to light...

But I'm okay now... I've had a day to reflect and I know it was just Satan...

I just wanted to find out who, if anyone, has ever felt doubt or fear regarding converting to Catholicism...

The way I look at it is this: Catholics were the original Christians when Christianity stopped being a Jewish sect.

historyb · #8 Sep 9, '08, 9:14 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by stacywva

I've been feeling second doubts and fears about my conversion to the Catholic Church and thinking about not attending RCIA...

I know that I'm on the right path... but have any of you who converted from protestantism ever feel these feelings as you got closer to finally being Catholic?

Yes I have and do right now, hence my signature line. I went back to Protestantism many times, I want the truth and some traditions in the Church don't jive with Scripture. I have those doubts all the time and right now I wouldn't consider myself a complete Catholic anymore.

I heard something once - Protestants tend to convert because we don't know our own history or doctrines. I don't know where I'll end up but I know it will be somewhere, but I stopped swimming the Tiber for now

Rachel J · #9 Sep 10, '08, 4:22 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by stacywva

Well I'm a baptized Christian and grew up Pentecostal Holiness... So I grew up with the whole fear that Catholics were going to Hell and they would more than likely bust it wide open.

Same background as me. Same place as well, except that my parish hasn't yet gotten back to me about RCIA.

I'm definitely having doubts. As you said, it was drilled into as that Catholics are going to hell. Automatic.

No matter how much I am convinced about what the Church teaches, and that it is the right path I can't help but wonder "what if I'm wrong?" what if I'm one of the elect that ends up deceived? I don't believe it, but what if?

You are far from alone. In your doubts, or your journey.

One thing my upbringing has given me that I will be eternally grateful for is that my salvation is in the hands of God. Trust in him to guide you and keep you. He will guide you to the truth, and if you are going to make a colossial mistake (asking for and wanting the truth), he will show you. As I trust he will show me.

Rachel

wewhimsy · #10 Sep 10, '08, 6:10 am

Good Morning,

I converted to Catholocism when I was 25, now 44. I can remember feeling very overwhelmed and nervous as Easter drew closer and I would be baptized. One thing that always stuck with me was something a priest, whom I was taking private instruction from at the time, said to me. (You may have to had known him to appreciate the delivery and content, but it stuck with me) He said to me, "do you believe in most of it?" "Yes" I said. "Really believe it" he asked. "Yes, but some of it I just can't" I remember saying. He said "The rest will come" If you believe in most of it, the rest will come in time, through prayer and living a Catholic life. Believe it now, feel it later. It will take you a lifetime to FEEL it. A lifetime to build a relationship with Christ... He was right, some of the things I personally was hung up on came to me in time. Some of them, however small have yet to reconcile in my mind. But my hear feels it. Living my life as a Catholic has been a beautiful journey and not without it's doubts. I hope this helps you to understand that it is a journey, the feelings will come and go, get strong and fade at times throughout your life. But that is what building any relationship is about wheather with God or a person. I am not suggesting that you pick and choose what you want to believe in regards to Catholic teaching, but your heart will guide you, not your mind. God bless you for even exploring it in the first place.

bwhite06517 · #11 Sep 10, '08, 11:09 am

Hi Brian (original poster) and all!!!

It took me three tries - once while in college; once again while in graduate school and a final time to really become Catholic. There were definitely attacks from Satan ("this has to be the stupidous thing you have ever done"; "these are not your people"; etc.). I was a very active Protestant for fifty years and now have been "HOME" for ten years!!!

May God protect you on your journey!!!!

Bruce

akelios · #12 Sep 11, '08, 7:17 am

Hi,

Well, we've just started the RCIA program at my church, we've literally had one class so far. And I'll admit that I spent a good portion of the class thinking 'What are you doing?'. Part of me knows, without a doubt, that I'm doing the right thing, that joining the Church is what I have to do, what God wants, but part of me is just sitting back thinking, what if you're wrong? I've known that I wanted to convert for a little less than a year, but I do go through phases where I feel...silly, I guess. But then I remind myself how much peace I felt when I realized that I did, actually, believe, and that I knew what I needed to do. I've just got to work through the doubts, and learn. Because I know that a lot of my doubts come from just not understanding what the Church teaches. Which is why, I think, RCIA exists.

-Amber

Hope070408 · #13 Sep 11, '08, 11:13 am

I'm in a place of deciding whether or not to attend the upcoming RCIA classes at my husband's parish. We married there recently, and we've been going to Mass together for over a year. It would be really wonderful to be able to receive Communion together!

Being that my own church is quite a distance away, my husband's church is the one I attend weekly anyway. This has given me a chance to learn more about the Catholic faith. The format of Mass doesn't seem terribly different from what I'd grown up with, with the exception of some congregational responses such as the Nicene creed that were new to me.

It was on this website that it's become apparant just how many more formal teachings of the Catholic Church there are in addition to the things I'd been taught in mine. I'm not sure I do, or could, believe every single one of them. But, one never knows. There's so much to think about in terms of beliefs, as well as my family and ties to the church I've grown up in!

stacywva · #14 Sep 11, '08, 12:25 pm

Last night was first night at our parish's RCIA.

I knew for a fact I was doing the right thing... Fears and doubts still come but only because I know that Satan really fears a Pentecostal converting to Catholicism...

RebeccaJ · #15 Sep 12, '08, 11:48 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by stacywva

Last night was first night at our parish's RCIA.

I knew for a fact I was doing the right thing... Fears and doubts still come but only because I know that Satan really fears a Pentecostal converting to Catholicism...

RCIA is many things, including a time of discernment. Prayer, study, prayer, study, prayer.

God will guide you to where He wants you to be.