RCIA......

Joined : 12 Mar 2008 Posts : 115

Another strong in my heart thing would be RCIA. Honestly, don't know where to start. I know some seems so foreign and I know it shouldn't be... it wasn't that long ago.

Trying to start off from square 1. I don't have anything left from CCD or Confirmation. I do have the Catechism from 1994 and didn't print out the updates for it & add them. Maybe eventually or just keep listening to it online via TTS.

Places I've found that I've been going through slowly...

CIS Catechism and Faith Formation Courses
Catholic RCIA Treasures
AND The Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults Resource Site,

That last one I have to probably restart as it's been a while, it's in Powerpoint & have to reinstall Office yet... I know there was a part about the altar & didn't know a lot of that. Keep thinking I should know all this already right? I don't.
____
adding, got your site too btw

Subject: Re: RCIA...... Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:45 am

There are a lot of things, I mean a LOT of things, that Catholics should know, but don't.

I have caught priests who didn't know. That is most sad.

I see you have a lot of material to read. Pick one and read it through first, then the next. Don't read it all concurrently. Save the powerpoint one for after you read the first few books. Books generally have tons more info than any program can deal with.

I would pick a simple book to read first. Then build on it.
_________________

Joined : 12 Mar 2008 Posts : 115

If I can copy and paste it into Cyberbuddy then I can listen to it. Takes me a while to actually 'read'. Used to read a lot more but had to spend so much time figuring out which of the two paragraphs to focus on. I forget when I first started buying eye patches but that made it easier... I think that was when the hemorrhages started but don't have those now. It's real easy to see double images... even with the prisms. Odd. My other goof that I just did again, reading the same line twice. :-( But that's why I usually have to use a card or something & then just go down with the text. It's been like that most of my life, thought it was normal for everyone.
Smile

Subject: Re: RCIA...... Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:53 am

See, and I thought it was normal for everyone to hear their guardian angel when they talked and stuff like that too.

It's not. We are the different ones.

Audio, huh...

EWTN Link 1

or EWTN by Subject
_________________

Joined : 12 Mar 2008 Posts : 115

You're talking to someone who was dumb with a ouija board & had familiar spirits for a time and was beginning to 'hear' them... I could go into a story about that but no point really... is that junk real? Yeah, is it from God, no. Not the junk I was into & doing, not when I was giving readings to people. Though after I left all that junk I remember an interesting thing... well before I even considered Catholic again... I think both long before I was at CP&F...

I remember once I was getting worried and had asked God, do I hear from You? Do I know Your voice? and it was troubling me... there's a song, "The Voice of the Lord" (is calling His children, the voice of the Lord is shaking the earth, the Voice of the Lord echoes like thunder...." I could listen and type out all the lyrics but too late, I love this song though. I kept praying & asking and then 3 mornings consecutively I woke up with the lyrics of that song, almost hearing it from beginning to end.

I remember too the night I battled with everything as to whether or not I was going to come back to being Catholic... I fought with it as I'm sure anyone there could imagine knowing how I was before... there's been other things.

Not sure how I missed so much... or seems I did but I know my thoughts were elsewhere when I was a teen. Feel so out of place yet but I'm sure that's just me being me. I'll never forget the day I was pushed out of the way of that car... was still a dabbler back then thinking (or hoping) I had a gift from God that I was using when in reality I was a necromancer... goofy dabbler... probably was my guardian angel as you all said way back... I could've been killed by that car. It was headed right toward me & speeding fast. Couldn't see out of my right eye yet & didn't see it coming and something (someone) pushed me back on to the curb & there went the car.

Still hard to believe, 5 yrs out of that junk now, that went by quick yet it seems like it was a few months ago at most. Once in a great while I'll still get a prodding like a thought popping in my head to try my old ways... but I know where that's coming from & not ever going back to that junk.

My point being, I think knowing my past I'm probably being dealt with patiently as I don't want to slip into my old ways, can't imagine I'd ever want to do that again. I probably need to stop being so worried that I could fall back into it... I know what it was. Just need to practice what I preach, trust in God. As long as I do completely I'm not going to fall into those goofy dabbler days again.
_____
necromancy
–noun
1. a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art.
2. magic in general, esp. that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; sorcery; witchcraft; conjuration.
_____
That's exactly what I was doing then, as the dabbler but wow, 2003 was 5 yrs ago already. Do I still get temptations every now and then... yeah but I know where it's coming from. Need to lift my eyes up as that Psalm says, to the mountains, where my help comes from. I know this. And need to remember JPII, be not afraid... don't need fear.

Joined : 12 Mar 2008 Posts : 115

Yeah, it was June 26th 2003 I was in an auditorium listening to a speaker and heard "there's someone here with familiar spirits, I command them to leave in the name of Jesus" and that was it. Haven't given any more 'readings' since that date. Am I still left with an awareness of such things, yeah to a degree. I need to remember who's in charge though, who wrote the book... who already knows the ending. Trust in God, lift my eyes up, to where my help comes from.

Subject: Re: RCIA...... Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:34 pm

I understand what you are talking about. I too have dabbled in some NAM stuff. The Ouija board is old news. Psychic readings and fascination with how others do it/ did it. But the reasons for me getting into it were somewhat different than for most.

I never really strayed from Catholic. My whole family in varying degrees is 'weird'. My mom and I probably have it the worst of all of them.

We know when certain people will die.
We see the dead from time to time.
She sees angels and can sometimes speak to them.
I hear angels, voices, and have spoken to certain forces.
We 'see' internally.
We can predict certain things in the future.
We are told certain things and commanded at some points to do things.
We have inexplicably dropped into prayer for no apparent reason and just as easily dropped back into reality. That scared the crud out of some of the most religious around us.
We both have had auricular and inner locutions.
I see images.
She has dreams.
I interpret the dreams.

The list goes on...

I have been like this since I was a little girl, just like my mom. I never could understand why no one else could feel this or hear that, as I always assumed the rest of the world did and chose to ignore them... and that was why they always got into trouble, ran amuck, and the like.

It wasn't until I was 14 that I realised it was only me. By 16 I was in Me, Myself and I mode and didn't trust more than a small group of two or three friends to know what was going on.

I had a friend that knew better than to play with the Ouija board, but she was all over it and not liking the answers coming off of it. Everyone else went on to something else but she couldn't 'leave' it.

Weird. I told her to just take her hands off the dang thing. I could see her trying to pull off of it. So I went over. The urge to get to it was incredible. To me it was a stupid board and a great big joke associated with a negative feeling. Hard to explain it in words.

I told her to shut it off and get back. It said no. It wouldn't tell me a name. She asked if I would help her by putting my fingers on the board. Ok, I thought. I don't know what the heck she was thinking, but the sensory perceptions rolling off the board were huge. After a fight, I finally got it to disconnect. The questions she had asked of it, and the answers she got rattled her cage pretty bad. And it came true too. Years later... it certainly did.

So I can understand to an extent the addictions of the NAM. People are reluctant to just accept an unknown if there is a promise of knowing there is a safe, wonderful future. You have a feeling of controlling your own destiny. Others want to know what to expect of the future (funny how they also think they can change a negative one if they know its coming).

God doesn't give us those assurances for THIS life. People don't like to hear that. They also don't like to give that much control over something intangible or invisible.

You typed in song lyrics about faith in another thread... and the last lines were why can;t one have the same faith in God. Everything else in the song was something visible in this world, something we can see and have control over. God isn't one of them.

Man rebels over that. It takes more faith to believe there is a God than it will to believe I still live and breathe in this world.

Story
_________________

Joined : 12 Mar 2008 Posts : 115

You know exactly what I'm talking about. Had a relative two generations older that knew when deaths were coming, when I heard that at home I blew it off until something happened to me. There's other things, a lot that I know was a result of my dabbling days... that was more real to me when I was on my own and I won't get into the details of why, that would be too much info. I have a friend who isn't Catholic but he is Christian and has had some of his own happenings. I don't know why I stopped going to Mass. I know I had that exhausting bout of mono where just a flight of stairs warranted a nap. I never thought about going to Church again after that. Once or twice when I was finally on my own but not committed. Then I did my dabbling because I knew there was more out there than what I could see. Now being out of the NAM and my friends still in it ranging from all the flavors, I pray for their running to God.
_____
Sorry, if I get an afterthought I'm going to add to it and really want to correct typos I know I did... grrrrrs. Anyway... the last year of my almost 10 yr job a good friend who was sick and had been into wicca was heavily on my heart but I did nothing about it. I kept thinking I should visit, should call, something. Should have had a clue when I received her last email. I don't hold it over my head, just feel like I let her down. Even back when I was soooo positive never ever Catholic again... I prayed for her several times... that's when I still was dumb & thought Catholic was all wrong.