(Part 2) Top products from r/Catholicism

> What's the point of attending mass if I don't understand it and can't participate in the sacraments?

The most important, and probably the least convincing, thing that I can say is that Jesus really is present in the Blessed Sacrament. When the priest says the words at the altar during the part of the Mass that my children find the most boring, something very interesting really does happen to the bread and wine. The tabernacle containing consecrated hosts really does have Jesus present in a different way than God is present in the world, in his creatures, in you and me. For a long time I was willing to believe this without evidence, in the usual "well I guess I'll try to believe it although it makes no sense" way, but within the past year I have become absolutely certain of it. So that is the point of attending. Because he is there (even when you don't understand the language) and because you love him. Just like you would visit a beloved relative (maybe a grandparent when you were a child, or a parent for those of us who are older), and spend time with them even though you could be doing something else, you are in the presence of someone who cares about you very much and who likes to see you. People ask "can't I just watch Mass on TV" and that is like "can't I just Skype with my grandma?" This is not a great metaphor (anything we use to describe God falls apart into nonsense almost immediately upon close inspection) but it is the best I can do to explain.

> I don't understand why I would ask their intercession when I could ask God directly

I was also pretty "meh" about saints. The missing piece is relationship. You do not usually ask strangers to pray for you. If a particular saint is very interesting to you and you are drawn to their life as something that you want to imitate (what we should want to imitate is Christ, but sometimes it is hard to see how to do that directly and so we look at other people who have done a very good job of it in slightly different ways to look for a way that "fits" us), then eventually you will just naturally start to ask them "hey give me a hand here, you were so good at this thing that I am having so much trouble with". This is not the only direction to come at it from, but I can mostly only give advice from my own experience. (Then you end up doing things that sound maybe a little silly or disrespectful like asking St Joseph to intercede for you when you are assembling IKEA furniture; but part of it is about not being too proud to ask for help with little things that other, more competent, people seem to not need any help with.) We can absolutely also ask God directly (a friend of mine pointed out that, you know, Jesus was a carpenter too and I was like "doh! I forgot".)

> The role of Mary. Once again, she was certainly blessed, but to say she was born without original sin seems too much for me. Likewise, although I know we don't worship her, Marian devotion feels hardly distinguishable. When I try to pray the rosary I feel like I'm committing a grave sin, but I may be praying it in the wrong spirit.

Defending the immaculate conception is above my pay grade (I need to understand it better myself.)

As for praying the rosary, what you are actually doing there is meditating on the events in the life of Jesus, and the reason (or "a" reason) to do this is to bring you to a greater love of God (everything else follows from having a very great love of God, as you know from reading about saints); meditating on the sorrowful mysteries in particular is something that I-forget-who recommended doing daily because it is so effective at that. I think that (confining ourselves to "how much does a creature love Jesus") Mary loves Jesus more than any of the rest of us do. The central part of a "Hail Mary" is Jesus. But also Jesus loves Mary, for various reasons (he loves all of us; and, imagine him when he was a little kid... every little kid who has a good mother loves their mother) and so even the last two mysteries (the assumption of Mary and her coronation as queen) are still about Jesus. If we died before our mother did, and we were in heaven, we would be glad when our mother joined us there, having done well in her earthly battles, so it is like that except more so. He brought her there and he crowned her, because he wanted to. If you would like to try having a greater love of his mother, then you can ask him for that and trust that God will not give you anything that is bad for you.

> Likewise, if someone can't access the sacraments, are they condemned despite their love for God and willingness to obey? I'm fine with the idea of God working through matter, but is it necessary? Shouldn't the Spirit in us be enough?

We are body and spirit. For some reason God thought it would be a cool idea to make us a body/spirit composite (he didn't have to). Knowledge comes to us through our senses. Matter, and our bodies, are not bad. I have the impression from reading the Ramona Quimby books (a children's series in which she takes off one rear wheel on her tricycle because she wanted a bicycle like her friend had) that it is possible to ride a two-wheeled tricycle, but I do not think I could do it... they work better with three wheels; and, I know that I function better when my senses are engaged.

If someone loves God and desires to obey him, remember that God loves them so much more that I don't have words for it, and in difficult "edge cases" I expect he would work something out (also the Catechism says some stuff about people who do not have the opportunity for baptism but have the desire, and also about people who have perfect contrition).

But...

sometimes things aren't impossible for us to access; they are just very hard for us to access, or sometimes just inconvenient or embarrassing for us to access. We should be aware of the distinction. People here talked about going to daily Mass, and at first I was like "I can't possibly go to daily Mass; too bad." Then after a while it became important enough to me to go that I discovered that, after all, it was not impossible; it just hadn't been important enough to me, something else had been more important.

> My biggest example is confession.

Without a priest you would need perfect contrition (you can also have imperfect contrition at the same time, which is fear of punishment / desire for reward.) It's kind of hard to know for sure whether we have that. If I go to confession, I do not need to second-guess myself and assess what kind of contrite I am (imperfect contrition, and an intention to amend my life, would be enough.) I have, through my senses, heard the words of absolution, so I know that I am absolved regardless of how I feel.

There are other aspects to confession that are overlooked whenever people start talking about types of contrition and whether it is "necessary".

First, I would assert that Jesus is there in a particular way. (Now we are back to the territory where I talk about things I am convinced of that do not sound compelling to anyone else.) So if we like to be with him because we love him, then actually we should like to go to confession every so often, whether we have mortal sins on our conscience or not.

Second, this sacrament gives you grace to better resist temptation. Personally, I consider that worth the price of admission (the price is, essentially, humility.)

yeah I should probably say two words about humility. There is a big difference internally between saying "oh my Lord and Savior I am really sorry for what I did and I trust that you will forgive me and I will try never to do it again", versus having to list our sins to another human being. A BIG difference. It makes more of an impression on us about the gravity of what we have done. It humbles us. It is a deterrent to succumbing to the same temptation repeatedly (because we imagine that the priest is going to remember what we confessed two weeks ago or something. We only imagine this because we are incredibly self-centered and think the world revolves around us, incidentally; it does not.) These are all things that keep people from going to confession, because wow scary. But they are exactly reasons why we should go to confession.

Apropos of nothing, I will also recommend reading Fire Within (Dubay) https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Within-Teresa-Gospel-Prayer/dp/0898702631

This is a long post, so I'm putting this up front; if you read nothing else I've said, read this: Not talking about this with him is the wrong response. You absolutely must talk to him about this. Clear communication is crucial to a healthy marriage, much less a good sexual relationship.

Now, from what you say, there are probably issues for both of you here. I can't talk too much about his motivations, because we haven't heard from him, only from you--but I'll make an effort from my perspective as a husband in a moment.

First, let's take a quick look at what you've said: you find sex with your husband tedious and dirty. "Dirty" is a problem--a significant one--because marital sex is anything but dirty. To live chastely within marriage is to have marital sex. Marital sex is a reflection of Christ's love for the Church, and the love within the Godhead. It's a sacramental act of unity and life. You absolutely must abandon this notion that sex with your husband is dirty, but it won't be easy. Labeling sex as "dirty" is an easy way we repel our sexual desire when embracing it is sinful (e.g., as teenagers and when we're engaged). Forget that label. Sex isn't dirty. Extramarital sex is sinful; sex within marriage is a gift from God to express love and intimacy with our entire selves (body and soul).

The tedium of sex may be tied to several different issues. I do want to ask about the frequency of your intercourse: from what you say, it sounds like you're having sex regularly (daily a few months ago, several times per week now). Does that mean that you are not practicing NFP and periodic abstinence? Are you instead trying to have children now, or are you using artificial contraceptives?

I ask because artificial contraceptives, aside from being sinful, are known to have detrimental side effects in your sex life. Condoms reduce sensation for both parties. Hormonal contraceptives reduce your sex drive and (based on studies in other primates) may reduce your natural desirability to your mate. If this is the situation, it could contribute to his disinterest and your boredom.

Are you experiencing painful intercourse? My wife struggled with intercourse for our first year of marriage because she had conditions called vaginismus and vestibulodynia, which caused the whole experience to be excruciating rather than pleasant. We made a joint, sincere effort using multiple methods to reduce those conditions and improve her experience for months before we saw any real progress. That can be another factor.

What is your general attitude toward sex? Have you ever found it remotely pleasurable? If not, have you spoken to your husband about your experience in the bedroom? Or are you treating sex like a solemn duty you must perform so that he feels fulfilled? The entire process of human marital sex is for both husband and wife to enjoy it. In a technical sense, neither one of you "must" enjoy it in order for the other to do so, but it is more enjoyable for both of you if you both enjoy it. If you have ever felt pleasure during intercourse, talk to your husband about that--ask him to pursue that before satisfying himself. Satisfying him sexually is easy; satisfying you sexually probably takes a little work, and that should be a worthwhile pursuit.

Now, on to him for a moment. My guess is that he loves you. If he was unchaste before dating you, then he didn't marry you just to have sex with you (because he didn't have to get married to have sex); from what you have said, he remained chaste while dating you and engaged to you, too. Which means he does love you, but he may not know quite what that means (or should mean). Again, talk to him about his actions, about how you feel, about how he feels. Talk to him about your marriage, about your future together.

On the pornography: it almost definitely predates your marriage and your relationship and is absolutely never your fault. That's on him. You didn't hold a gun to his head and force him to do it, and even if you had, he still shouldn't have done it. Never blame yourself for this. I know that's difficult to accept, but it's the truth. He, and only he, is responsible for his sins. If you're the coldest wife in the world who refuses sex for twenty years straight, watching pornography and masturbating would still be his sins.

The most important thing here is for both of you to come to a real, clear understanding of what married life within the Church is. You need to read about the Theology of the Body. Here is a short, relatively easy book on the subject. Here is the longer book behind that book. Here is a tome with the religious and philosophical underpinnings of it all. Here is a short video and here is a long one. Others will hopefully post other resources (podcasts, videos, books, etc.). This is critical. It sounds like you and your husband both are lacking important information about how marriage works in the Catholic Church.

The second most important thing is for you to improve your communication with your husband. Here is a box set of short books that can help with that (these significantly improved communication between my wife and I). I've also seen these at a local library.

Your husband needs to commit to improving your marriage as much as you do. You must talk to him as soon as possible. Don't put it off. He should know that something is wrong, especially if he's choosing pornography over you.

More details will enable us to help you more, but nothing will help as much as clear communication with your husband and a dedication to building the best marriage possible.

First of all, welcome back, brother. I am especially touched that your fiancée would even suggest to find a Catholic Church. (As an aside, you're not a convert; you're a revert since you're already baptized into the Church. I thought maybe you'd appreciate that factoid.)

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>I am looking for information about your Church, whatever you think is important to know.

There is a lot to know and many here would recommend a million and one things to study, especially since it sounds like you enjoy a good intellectual pursuit. I'm not going to discount others' recommendations, but I do want to highlight one thing: learn more about Jesus first. Find out what He taught, who He is, what His disciples and closest friends said about Him, what the Old Testament said about Him, etc. To that end...

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>I am looking for recommendations for a Catholic-approved version of the Bible, geared towards someone who appreciates philosophy and prefers something close to the original translations, or the most accepted by the Church.

First thing to note, all Catholic Bibles have 72 books. Protestants have 66. If you can't get a hold of a Catholic Bible, a Protestant one will do for now until you do get around to buying a Catholic one. Now, as for Catholic Bibles, if you speak/read Latin you can't go wrong with the Vulgate Bible. It's a Bible that was translated by St. Jerome who was fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; he had the original manuscripts -- some of which are lost to us today -- so his translations are widely accepted as authentic and faithful.

There's also the English version of the Vulgate Bible known as the Douay-Rheims. It's an almost word-for-word translation of the Latin so the English will sound archaic to our modern ears. It's not as frustrating as, say, reading Shakespeare but it's pretty close. I personally prefer (and currently use) a Douay-Rheims Bible that has the Clementina Vulgata beside it. It's essentially Latin and English side by side. You can find one here.

If want one with plain English, the New American Bible Revised Edition would suffice. (If you use this website, let me know. I have a discount code from my last purchase.)

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>I know nothing of the culture or norms of the Church, or what to expect as a new member.

One major rule to remember is that you can't receive Holy Communion until after you've gone to Confession. Given your situation, I would recommend setting up an appointment with a parish priest so he can give his full attention to you and your needs.

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>I do not know how to introduce myself to the congregation

There's usually no need to introduce yourself to the congregation since parishes tend to be big. If you would like to formally introduce yourself, however, give the parish priest a call and set up a meeting with him. It would also be a great chance to speak with him about your situation and get some pastoral guidance.

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>or tell a good Catholic church from a lesser one

Many here would recommend a more traditional parish. If that's not available, I'd say any Catholic church would do. If you're unsure about a particular church's standing, just give us the details on this sub. I'm sure someone here would be able to double check for you.

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>I know nothing of the Saints or the miracles, or what has been confirmed by the Church and what hasn't.

These are things you can learn later on. Focus on Jesus first. Rebuild your relationship with Him. Start with the basics; if you don't, you might burn yourself out. There is A LOT to learn about the Faith. Some say it's a lifelong endeavour. :P

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>I am also looking for a reading list to explore Catholic philosophy beyond those you typically encounter in standard philosophical reading, such as Aquinas or Pascal.

Hmmm... this depends on what sorts of things interest you. A good one that lightly touches on philosophy is Socrates Meets Jesus by Peter Kreeft (anything by this guy is pretty good, by the way).

A book that may be more pressing to your current situation is Why Be Catholic? by Patrick Madrid and Abraham Skorka, Why We're Catholic by Trent Horn, as well as Why I am a Catholic by Brandon Vogt. (They might need to work on a more original title, though :P) Since you have an Evangelical background, Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray might be helpful (although it can be a bit dry; also, it mostly deals with the Church's teaching on Baptism and the Eucharist) as well as Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn.

You can never go wrong with classics such as a collection of C. S. Lewis' works, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, and Confessions by St. Augustine.

If you want a historical examination of Jesus and the Early Church, a good place to start is The Case for Christ by Brant Pitre, The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine by St. Eusebius, and The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin. I'd like to thrown in Jesus, Peter, and the Keys by Scott Butler, Norman Dahlgren, and David J. Hess. This last one pertains to the Catholic claim regarding the papacy (and which I think is one of the strongest arguments in favour of the Catholic Church being the original one that the Lord founded).

Finally, there are YouTube channels you can follow/binge watch such as Bishop Robert Barron and Ascension Presents. Also, an amazing video about the Catholic Faith is a series made by Bishop Barron when he was "just" a priest called Catholicism.

I'm sorry if that's overwhelming but you raised some good questions. :P Anyway, I imagine it may be a lot right now so take it slowly, don't dive in through all of it at once. Find a local Catholic church, call up the priest, set up a meeting, then take it from there. And remember, you can always pray; God's always willing to talk with you.

If you are coming from an atheist background I think you should start with some more foundational material before checking out the Bible. The Catholic Church is the sole keeper of the complete truth that has been revealed by God to humanity.

However, like other truths, new conclusions can build upon previous knowledge. Just like modern mathematics has built upon Gauss and Newton and Pythagoras etc. If you did not understand geometry it would be difficult to understand calculus. If you just started reading about calculus but had no concept of finding the area of a rectangle you might not understand calculus or assume you are being expected to just accept calculus as true using "blind faith". In the same way, God has revealed to us that we should not murder people (10 commandments), and the Church was able to build upon that foundation the conclusion that abortion is a sin since it is ultimately the killing of an innocent human (murder). If however, you just read somewhere that the Church opposes abortion but had no knowledge of the 10 commandments you might not understand why that conclusion was made and instead assume it is just some arbitrary religious teaching.

The foundation you need to first establish is that God exists, and this can be known (in the same way you can know 1+1=2) through reason. Even Aristotle was able to know this. The most famous proofs of this are St Thomas Aquinas' "5 ways". There are many resources including books and good YouTube videos exploring this topic, I would recommend Answering Atheism as a good start, or if you want to try a college level, more rigorous book, check out Aquinas for Beginners. Check out this quick 17 minute video for a great start.

So that is where I think you should start, and after you convince yourself that atheism is false you should come back here to learn why the Catholic church is God's true church.

To address a few other things. First, the Bible is not a book in the commonly used sense of that word today. The Bible is actually a collection of books written across a wide time range in different genres. So a more accurate question would be: "do I have to take the library 100% literally? The answer is of course no. That does not mean the Bible is not 100% true, it just means that the truth is not 100% conveyed directly via literal interpretation. Some evidence would be this quote from Jesus "If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother...he cannot be My disciple" which seems to be in direct contradiction with the 4th Commandment "Honor thy father and mother". So if the Bible is 100% true, and things that are true cannot lead to contradictions, then at least one of the quotes must have some other meaning than the literal text. So how do we know what is the case here? That is what we have the Catholic Church for, so again when after you convince yourself God exists you should come back here to understand why you should trust the Catholic Church to interpret these questions and more.

If you are specifically concerned that becoming Catholic means you have to literally believe the universe was created in 6 days I can assure you the short answer is no, you do not need to believe this.

1 more thing Ill add it about the word "faith". A common atheist position is that religions are based on blind faith with no evidence. This is not the Catholic definition of the word. Faith is not about making true/false claims. Evidence is REQUIRED for True/False claims. Now not ALL evidence is in the form of scientific experimentation, but that does not mean the Church requires you to just hold certain things as true on "faith alone" with no evidence. Instead, think of the word confidence. The latin roots are "con" "fide" which means "with faith". So faith has more to do with confidence or trust than true/false certainty. An example might be that we use reason and logic as evidence to know God exists, or historical testimony as evidence Jesus rose from the dead. Then, knowing these things as true, we have faith that the teaching God has revealed are true and in our best interest in things we should do. There is no way to proof scientifically whether or not we should steal something, and if we are even in a situation where we are tempted into doing that we may think that we should do it because we really want to or don't think we will get caught or whatever. Faith means trusting in God's recommendation to not steal things even if we think it would be a good idea or seemingly justify it to ourselves.

Hi! Wow, well, it sounds like we've been in similar places. I was raised in a Reformed Protestant household; we were ostensibly Reformed Baptist, although we also attended an OPC congregation nearby. If you had told me a year ago that I would be a Catholic, I would've absolutely laughed at you; I was an obstinate Baptist! God gradually worked in my life over June-July 2018, preparing my heart for the Catholic Church.

My encouragement would be to take your time, to take each step in prayer, and be committed to searching for the truth. Ask lots of questions, especially the difficult ones. I sat down over coffee with a priest, explained where I was theologically, and then tried to ask the most difficult questions I could. It was incredibly helpful! And you know, he couldn't always answer the questions; sometimes, I'd contact a professor at a seminary or Catholic college, othertimes a Reformed convert to Catholicism, to track down the answers. One optional step is buying books; I probably bought far more than I actually needed, mainly because I wanted to find the best work on each topic or doctrine I could. I genuinely wanted to give Catholicism a fair shake, while asking the toughest questions I could muster up.

>Once saved always saved

Well, that's a Calvinist doctrine, as you might know. Not only has it not been the teaching of the universal Church, East and West, for 2,000 years, it's not even compatible with the teaching of Martin Luther! Here is a really solid reply to OSAS on Catholic.com, as well as a fascinating piece on Called to Communion titled, "Persevering Most Assuredly: One Reason To Prefer Luther Over Calvin".

>Praying through saints (i understand reveering them)

That's a really good question! There's several wonderful resources on the intercession of the saints, but off the top of my head, these are the ones I found most useful:

• "Do The Saints Pray For Us?"
  
• "Intercession of the Saints" over on Catholic.com
  
• "Saints" on FishEaters
  
  >Purgatory
  
  Oh boy, don't we all have problems with that! I think that it's probably one of the most difficult doctrines to grasp. Here's a couple of articles off of the top of my head. I'm expecting these to be starting points; when you have more specific questions about purgatory, I'd encourage you to feel free to DM me (full disclosure, I'm just a normal 21 year old, not seasoned apologist or anything), start a new thread here on r/Catholicism, ask a priest, or call in and ask Catholic Answers Live.
  
  
• "CS Lewis Believed in Purgatory" - this might seem an odd article (I mean, C.S. Lewis, the Protestant? Why would we bring him into a discussion on Purgatory?), but I think you'll find it a really interesting engagement of the Catholic doctrine.
  
• Lawrence Feingold on Purgatory - someone must have recently paid for a transcript of this, because I only remember finding the audio! This was wonderful, and really dug into the Jewish roots of the doctrine.
  
• "Purgatory: The Final Theosis" - sounds the title for a baller sci-fi film, but this was perhaps one of the most straight forward and helpful pieces on Purgatory that I found.
  
  >The Pope
  
  Woo boy! This has been the largest issue for me, and the main grappling point between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Catholic Church for me. There is so much misinformation on this doctrine, even among Catholics! I'd encourage you to check out this book; it's inexpensive, and really worth your time. In fact, if you were to choose to buy one paperback, this would be what I'd suggest: The Early Papacy to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 by Adrian Fortesque. It sounds really dry, but it was honestly amazing; it really established for me the biblical nature of the Papacy, as well as its historicity. He also helpfully shaped the limits of the papal office!
  
  
• The articles over on CalledtoCommunion about the Papacy really helped answer a lot of the questions I had about the doctrine beyond what Fortesque addresses.
  
  
• "Was Peter the First Pope?" over on FishEaters
  
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  I'll answer some more here if I can; this is just all off the top of my head, tbh, and I'm sure that everyone else will be helpful!

I actually deconverted from Catholicism in college. I'm a revert.

I never got into into the party culture. I'm really against drinking and doing drugs, and I've always been skeptical of sex outside of a committed relationship and those morals stuck with me even after I deconverted from Christianity. What I did encounter was a lot of intellectual arguments against religion that I couldn't answer. However, what I also eventually discovered was that most of those objections had been heard before and responded to, at least in some manner.

So, here's my semi-comprehensive list of apologetics apologetics resources that I've accumulated over the years.

IMHO, the following books cover all the essentials very well and are probably must reads. You can buy used or online copies of them relatively cheaply, under 20 dollars if you're in the US. Check out Trent Horn's Answering Atheism, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civ, Mere Christianity by CS Lewis (you can probably get Mere Christianity at your at public library), and What is Marriage? Man and Woman a Defense for defending the concept of natural marriage. You should also read How to Argue which is a free pdf. I haven't researched abortion apologetics as extensively as other areas but I know Trent Horn has some books on those.

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I'm not going to say you should read all of my remaining recommendations but I'm putting the rest out there for you so you know they exist.

Now, no list of apologtics is going to cover every argument about Christianity so I would also recommend some online resources. www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism is an amazing forum. It has tons of Catholics who are way more knowledgable and experienced that me who can answer questions and stuff. You may or may not have heard of it ;). I also recommend William Lane Craig's site: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer. Again, Craig is a protestant so don't look to him for a defense of Catholicism. However, he's good when it comes to defending the basics of Christianity from atheism. Catholic Answers is good. Fr Barron is good. Strange Notions can be good, I link to it in my last paragraph.

The exact relationship between faith and reason was my biggest stumbling block on the road back to Catholicism, so I have some good recommendations on that topic. I recommend the papal encycle Fides et Ratio and How the Catholic Church Built Western Civ. Plantinga's book Where the Conflict Really Lies is also popular and uses evolution to make an interesting argument against materialism. Plantinga's not a Catholic so I don't know how well they would square with Catholic philosophies like Thomism, but, yeah, he exists. He also wrote this giant essay on faith and science, which was helpful. The book God and the Philosophers is pretty good too, it's an anthology of different Christian philosophers and talks about how they converted to Christianity.

Some comprehensive (but expensive) books by non-Catholics include The Blackwell Companion to natural theology by William Lane Craig (not a Catholic). I've heard good things about Richard Swinburne's apologetics trilogy The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason. Swinburne is Eastern Orthodox, just for the record.

I want to give a special shoutout to Edward Fesser. He's a secular atheist philosopher who converted to Catholicism. You can read his conversion story here. He also has a blog that you can google. Fesser also wrote a bunch of books that are highly recommended by people on this sub, although I haven't read them.

If you are praying Morning, Evening, and/or Night Prayer, I'd recommend you starting with Shorter Christian Prayer. It's the one I started with before moving on to [Christian Prayer](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0899424066].

The St Joseph Guide to Christian Prayer is very helpful in navigating this book (note that there is no St Joseph Guide for SCP).

Christian Prayer gives you room to learn how to more fully pray the Hours. You'll also be able to pray a one-week psalter for Daytime Prayer. There's also a four-week psalter for the Office of Readings, but the 1st and 2nd readings are just a selection (I use iBreviary for the OR). You'll also learn how to use the ribbons and learn how to flip around the book. Not too hard to learn, but it takes patience and experience to learn how to get through certain seasons (such as the period between Christmas and Ephiphany -- though the St Joseph Guide helps a lot).

There is, of course, the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours, but I wouldn't recommend that for beginners. I've been praying the Hours on-and-off again for about fifteen years and I still don't have a copy of it; I'll probably get one when the revisions are done sometime around/after 2020. I use Christian Prayer for MP, EP, and NP and iBreviary for everything else (Office of Readings, Daytime Prayer -- though I recently acquired a standalone book for Daytime Prayer that has the 4-week psalter).

Praying the Hours through an app is great. iBreviary is excellent and free and super easy to use.

For more about the Hours, I'll recommend three books: Daria Sockey's Everyday Catholic's Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, which is a nuts and bolts approach to it (her blog Coffee and Canticles is good reading); Fr Timothy Gallagher's Praying The Liturgy of the Hours: A Personal Journey, which is a great testament to the power of this prayer; John Brook's The School of Prayer: An Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians, which is a bit of nuts and bolts but with a commentary on all the psalms and canticles of MP, EP, and NP -- it also deals with the spirituality of the Hours and more topics.

Note that my recommendations are assuming that you are attending the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The Mass is the jewel, and the Hours are its setting. If you go to the EF, you'll probably want to get the older form of the Hours, which I don't have a clue about.

EDIT: link

Hi there! Also a former raised-Catholic-but-not-really-former-atheist/agnostic revert here.

There are numerous - almost endless - amount of resources out there, regarding the Church. (Considering the age of the Catholic Church, it's not surprising.) If you had more specific topics you were looking for, I'm sure people here would be more than willing to point you in the right direction.

For more general sources by platform:

 

BOOKS

• There actually is a "Catholicism for Dummies".
  
  
• Mere Christianity is a classic read for all Christians. It is not explicitly Catholic, but it gives a good foundation.
  
   
  
  YOUTUBE
  
  
• Father Mike Schmitz does a great job of explaining things concisely and with enthusiasm.
  
  
• Bishop Robert Barron is also extremely popular on social media among Catholics. Great content.
  
   
  
  PODCASTS
  
  
• Catholic Stuff You Should Know is one part goofy banter and one part reflections/discussions on Catholicism. I listened to them regularly when I had 1+ hour commutes each way :)
  
  
• Catholic Answers is also a well-known podcast among Catholics. Haven't listened to them yet, but I always hear good things!
  
   
  
  MISC
  
  
• Regarding mass and its structure/meaning. Here is a link to a USCCB page that breaks down the mass structure and explains the significance of each section/prayer
  
  
• On how to pray the rosary. Learning the rosary can be a big hurdle for neophytes, but it would still be fruitful to begin with perhaps just one decade.
  
   
  
  
  This subreddit is generally good at giving solid answers and advice, if you had specific questions/doubts/inquiries. It was actually probably quite an instrumental player in my reversion to the Church. And like you said, head to confession ASAP! Welcome back home, friend.

"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." -Luke 15:7

You are never further away from the Church than one confession. Take 20 minutes and do a solid examination of conscience. This is not an exercise in beating yourself up. It is a way to do a thorough job of taking out the garbage, because we don't want any of it around anymore. One of the amazing things about Christ is that while we can give him beautiful gifts, we can also give him our baggage, and it its place he will give us peace. Don't be anxious if you're not sure how many times you committed a sin or if you can't remember other exact details. God knows your heart and what you are repenting of. Your local parish should hear confessions every Saturday, but you can probably also call them up and request a confession by appointment (face to face or in private) at another time.

"Once, St. Teresa was overwhelmed with God's Goodness and asked Our Lord "How can I thank you?" Our Lord replied, "ATTEND ONE MASS."

In addition to going to confession, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you begin attending mass on Sundays. Christ is the center of our faith, and he is present with us, as though he were standing behind a veil, at every mass.


I don't have a quote for this last bit of advice, but ask questions! I have at times had questions which gnawed at me like a junkyard dog, so I gnawed at the Church with the same tenacity, and I have always eventually found a completely satisfying answer.

This applies your political beliefs in particular. Our obligation as Catholics is to continually form our conscience, not to simply parrot the Church line. You're not a bad Catholic if you aren't immediately on board with everything the Church teaches. I'd suggest turning your energies to charitable but forceful questions on these topics.

The answers you receive might be a good way to explain your change of heart to your friends and family. For example, "I thought Dawkins and Hitchens were pretty convincing until I learned that they don't even engage actual Christian scholasticism." I'd recommend Edward Feser for those two.

Before I began dating my [Catholic] wife, I told her that I could never in good conscience agree to baptize or raise my kids in a Catholic Church. If she wasn't able to accept that I completely understood and I told her we would remain as we were--good friends. For better or for worse, she agreed to baptize and raise our kids Lutheran (I was Lutheran). For the sake of family unity, she agreed to attend Lutheran services with me as well.
We were married in her parents' Catholic Church in Poland a year later. She became pregnant and we bought a home together. We looked at joining a LCMS church in our new town. I had been raised ELCA and she was still technically Catholic so we had to go through a kind of RCIA thingy with the pastor.
He took us through Luther's Small Catechism, the Commandments, and the Creeds. At one point I expressed my concern that we weren't going over what separated the Lutheran church from the Catholic Church. I wanted my wife to become a Lutheran because she was really convinced (as I was) that the Lutheran church was the body of Christian faithful that best reflected Biblical Christianity. He agreed to dwell more on some of our differences in future meetings.
Our first born was baptized in the Lutheran Church. My wife's mother was devastated. And since my own family was still ELCA Lutheran, neither my family nor my wife's could participate in the communion service at our child's baptism.
We had our next meeting with the pastor and he still didn't touch on the reasons why someone should be Lutheran rather than Catholic. I decided then that I was going to have to be the one to educate my wife on why the Lutheran church was right (or more right) and the Catholic Church was wrong and un-biblical. So I got a Catechism of the Catholic Church that I had purchased years before but never read down off my book shelf and began to read from the front cover. I started by marking the things I disagreed with from a Lutheran perspective.
I was maybe a third of the way through when I said to myself, "this book is amazing!!! If the Lutheran church really is the true church, why don't they have a book like this.
By the end of the second third of the Catechism I was convinced. THIS WAS THE TRUTH!!! THIS IS BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY!!! THIS IS THE CHURCH CHRIST FOUNDED!!!
Months after I had begun reading the Catechism (we had quietly stopped having meetings with the pastor but I never told my wife why--or that I was reading the Catechism), I realized I HAD TO BECOME A CATHOLIC. I COULD NOT <NOT> BECOME A CATHOLIC. But I had to tell my wife.
I came home from work one day and sat her down. I was afraid she'd be angry with me or else (I hoped) happy. I told her, "I made a terrible mistake. I have to become Catholic." Rather than anger or joy, she was was afraid. Afraid of what it would mean for my family. It already been so hard on her and her family when she told them she was becoming Lutheran. Finally, she was happy. And she told me that even if she had become a Lutheran in name she would always have remained a Catholic at heart.
I have been a happy, joyful member of the Catholic Church for four years now. Every day I'm filled with new joy at being a part of Christ's Church. I pray for my family's conversion.
The truth matters and religious differences matter!
I can't defend my wife's decision from a Catholic perspective. She took an awful risk or else she did something very foolish. It was certainly the wrong thing to do from an objective standpoint. I can only thank God that He was able both to bring about a unity of faith in our family and to do so by bringing us into the Church.
The two biggest issues I had after realizing I had to become Catholic were Mary and the Papacy.
--Besides the Catechism (which I recommend wholeheartedly) I can recommend two other books that helped me with those two issues:
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Papacy-Synod-Chalcedon-451/dp/1586171763
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Evangelicals-Toward-Understanding-Mother/dp/083082569X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369236327&sr=1-1&keywords=mary+for+evangelicals

I can relate to your story in some ways, as I was raised Catholic, then became agnostic during high school and university. I came back to the Catholic Church after the positive witness of my family and friends, and having an encounter with Christ in my second year of college.

After that personal experience in prayer I knew that Jesus was real, but I still had a lot of unanswered questions about Catholicism, as well as no intellectual foundation to undergird my newfound faith in Christ. So I devoured a couple of good Catechisms, and over time, studied philosophical, Christian and Catholic apologetics to get solid answers to the questions and doubts that anyone with critical thinking skills will have. I am now a Catholic priest.

Here are some resources I would suggest:

• Pints with Aquinas by Matt Fradd - Great podcast with the tagline "If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him a question, what would you ask?" Addresses many topics covered in Aquinas's writings wtih engaging and entertaining commentary. You might start with the several episodes focusing on various philosophical arguments for God's existence.
  
• Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas by Matt Fradd and Robert Delfino - Written as an entertaining, but informative set of dialogues between Lucy (a Catholic) and AJ (an atheist) in a coffee shop.
  
• The Magis Center for Reason and Faith by Fr. Robert Spitzer - Good resources on the meaning and purpose of life, happiness, and the relationship between science and faith. Fr. Robert was recently interviewed by Closer to Truth on diverse arguments for God's existence
  
• Recent atheist to Catholic conversion stories of Jennifer Fulwiler, Leah Libresco, and Robert Bullivant
  
• Strange Notions - A place of dialogue between Catholics and atheists, built around reason, faith, and dialogue.
  
• Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity: by Trent Horn
  
• The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ by Dr. Brant Pitre
  
• CSLewisDoodle - Hand drawn doodles of BBC broadcast talks from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

I'd suggest Jimmy Akins The Fathers Know Best which compiles quotes from the Church Fathers and Akins enumerates them based on subject. It's not comprehensive but it's a good start and touches on a lot of things such as doctrines and dogmas, teachings and long held Church belief like contraceptives. It's a great book if you just want to look up what the Fathers have said and it's a great apologetics tool if you want to back up your positions. Either way, I think the following three books might be more inline with what you're looking for.

• Reading the Early Church Fathers: From the Didache to Nicaea by Jim Papandrea.
  
  I haven't read this one, but I do know the author and it looks like it's right up your alley. Papandrea is a Catholic professor and this book covers important documents from the Early Church period and dissects the texts and explains them to you.
  
  
• [When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers] (https://www.amazon.com/When-Church-Was-Young-Fathers/dp/1616367776/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479111666&sr=8-3&keywords=church+fathers) by Marcellino D'Ambrosio
  
  Another book that is similar to Papandrea's book.
  
  
• Father's of the Church
  
  Similar in content to the last two. Worth checking out.
  
  And here's if you want to read the Church Fathers directly
  
  I've constantly heard that the Jurgens 3 volume set was one of the best physical sets to buy. It's pricey, but I do know that it's cheaper on ebay so might be worth looking for it on there. (That is assuming you're within the US)
  
  
• Complete Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers Collection by Phillip Schaff.
  
  I suggest you buy it digitally for next to nothing, it's great on Kindle and works well as a more comprehensive resource for studying the Fathers. His set is also digitalized online if you'd like to read it there for free. Absolutely no difference in content. Word of caution though, Schaff translated this in the late 19th century and was a Protestant, so his commentary may not always be historically and theologically sound. He does provide an exhaustive amount of footnotes that maintain the citations the Fathers used which is a task of its own. A great resource but with certain limitations.

Important

I will start with the important point first: BE VERY CAREFUL; preferably even avoid this whole area to begin with. You are driving into areas that at the least are a big fruitless distraction and at worst can be pretty dangerous.

Are you a practicing Catholic Christian? Honestly I am not sure what your beliefs are from what you mentioned previously. If you are trying to live a strong life with God, my advice is don't waste your time with all of this. I give you this advice, since it was given to me when I started my walk with the Lord. When I started, I was very distracted with the spiritual world and demonology. My mentor at the time made it clear to me that this is a distraction. Honestly after that point I realized that that topic should not be taking any serious part of my time. I realized that there is so much to LEARN AND EXPERIENCE about God and the trinity. It is really much more fruitful, practical, applicable and helpful to my life than anything else. It is only after years of being with God have I once in a while read some books by exorcists.

Responses

> I personally think they should ask for Lay Ministers of some sort to practice guided Chaotiks

I think this is at the least a waste of time (no offense) and at worst a risk to these ministers. The concept that Chaos Magic talks about according to the Wikipedia page is problematic in my view according to Catholic teachings. Even superficially, it focuses the person's faith on their abilities instead of on God and our need for Him. Christianity focuses on us letting go of our old man and filling ourselves with God; letting God create and mold us into a new man. God is the center. All magic sets the person at the center. That is a fundamental issue right off the bat for me. This is not even talking about the fact of using magic or spiritual interactions.

> The whole belief is a tool was mad convincing to me and I am guilty of considering reading the book that explains it all

If it will get it out of your system, read the book for information and don't spend too much time on it. But be very clear, this is not just a tool. A system/faith the relies on belief to control the environment around you is at best a fantasy and at worst dealing with spiritual entities that are best avoided. They can be very dangerous and invite demonic attacks on the user.

> I don't consider the spiritual repercussions of going to their temple because I don't want to be alone. I asked my best friend if he want to go and he simply said no.

Follow your friend's advice. Do not consort with people who deal with spirits or magic. It seems like a distraction that is stunting your spiritual growth with God.

> Also there is a universal law of 3's in Wiccan Practice and I wonder how that relates to the Holy Trinity and the whole Passion of the Christ. And if that could be manipulated in some way.

There is no relation. God is Holy and a Trinity. Numbers are very common across many religions/philosophies. Three is a very common number that shows up in many places. Do not try to find a relationship where none exists.

> Ah yes my dreams are way to vague for my liking. I wish I didn't drop out of college or at least choose a non-secular college.

Honestly this is still confusing. Are you having lucid dreams? Are you having nightmares? Also not sure how college relates here.

> I am afraid I am gonna have to ask for a source

For a good understanding on the Catholic Church's teachings on the matter, I would recommend books by Father Gabriel Amorth. Fr. Amorth is the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. he has two books:

• An Exorcist Tells His Story
  
• An Exorcist: More Stories
  
  The books give a clear explanation on what types of demonic influence there are including possession, oppression and obsession and curse (that was surprising to me).
  
  > If curses are real, than could not the Holy Father help the Vatican profit off of who we consider Pagans or those that consider themselves Atheists. If it is in sanctified space with proper protections in order then should we not let our Human Brothers practice the Darker Arts (for science and greater wisdom) under the watchful eye of the Lord?
  
  There are way too many wrong things in these statements. First off, the Church only deals with removing evil influence from people's lives to help save people's souls and NEVER FOR A PROFIT. Also dealing with this area is not for testing or scientific purposes. THERE IS NO GOOD MAGIC.
  
  > Just a theory in my Pseudo_Dreamworld. But I hold the belief that all elements have multidimensional properties that have yet to be discovered. Just like there are more than one measurable dimension. I have a Professor friend at UTA that is working on finding the 5th dimension and that is what gave me the whole idea.
  
  There are theories in physics that speak of multiple dimensions. These are pretty well accepted by the physics community. This does not mean that spirits are involved or witches or Wicca. This is purely science. Do not try and mix them in ways that really have no foundation here.

> I want to start going again, but dealing with his anti Catholicism and New Atheist Facebook posts, etc as a practicing Catholic just sounds emotionally exhausting. Plus I'd have to attend church alone with our toddler, who tries to make a break for the altar every time she's set loose.

Going to mass without your husband is better than not going at all. Moreover, other people should not inhibit your ability to practice the Faith. Concerning the New Atheist Facebook posts, if your husband finds that kind of material even remotely convincing, I would recommend he read Edward Feser's The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.

> Then I start wondering what the point even is because she will probably just end up being an atheist because of his example.

Set a better example than your husband and make an effort to show your child that there are good reasons to be a Catholic. Read and study apologetic books like William Lane Craig's On Guard and/or Trent Horn's Why We're Catholic: Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love so that you are better equipped to defend the Faith. When your daughter is old enough, she can read these books and other apologetics books for herself. Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea for your husband to read these same books. Although, William Lane Craig's On Guard for Students was written specifically for non-Christians; so it might be a better option than On Guard, which is intended for Christians.

> You can only pray for the same thing over and over so many times with no change before it starts feeling hopeless.

Keep praying. If you are not already doing so, pray the Rosary. Even if God is not granting you the request(s) made in your prayers, know that there is a good reason for doing so. The reason(s) may never be known during your time on earth, but do not allow this to damage your relationship with God.

> The prospect of returning just feels so lonely. Our parish is huge and no one ever says a word to me. Does anyone have any advice or encouragement?

Many parishes have bible studies or meetups of some kind that would give you the opportunity to meet other Catholics. It is better to feel lonely and do what is right than not feel lonely and fail to do what is right.

I'm not sure how much my words will be of use for you, as I am myself not yet Catholic (I'm currently going through RCIA). However, I can relate with regard to a lack of Catholic friends. I'm an immigrant from India who was raised in a Hindu family; most of my friends are Indian and nominally Hindu. I've had only a couple of Christian friends in my life and never a Catholic friend. Reading and researching through books, articles, podcasts, videos, etc. have led me to the faith.

Oftentimes, in defending the faith, I have debated my family, my friends, and others close to me. It became clear to me that I needed a systematic plan if I was going to do this with any shred of ability. Here's mine. Perhaps it will be of use to you or somebody else who clicks on your post because they can relate.

1. Learn logic. I'm working through Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft right now. It's clear, readable, has plenty of examples, many of which are from interesting works, such as those of G.K. Chesterton or C.S. Lewis. It's an investment, to be sure, as it's running for ~ $20 online, but it's well worth it.
   
   
2. Study Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas is the universal doctor of the Catholic Church. You're not going to find a better source of philosophy, theology, and wisdom than this saint. Now, I don't recommend jumping right into the Summa Theologica or the Summa Contra Gentiles, at least not without a study guide, primarily because modern thought holds assumptions which Aquinas would have rejected. Therefore, to understand Aquinas' arguments, and really the arguments of any philosopher before Descartes, you need to understand the basic metaphysics (the understanding of being as being) of the classical (Aristotle, Plato, etc.) and medieval (Augustine, Aquinas, etc.) philosophers. Edward Feser is an American analytical philosopher who is also an orthodox Roman Catholic. He's written two books which I would highly recommend. First, and foremost, I think you will be well served by his The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (I'm sure you can see why). It's very readable but also deep. It's also polemical; you'll laugh out loud quite a bit. Second, I would recommend his Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide. This is an introduction to Thomistic philosophy. It goes over the metaphysical foundations, Aquinas' Five Ways to demonstrate the existence of God, Aquinas' philosophy of ethics, and Aquinas' philosophy of psychology.
   
   
3. Once you have worked through these three books, I think you'll be ready to work through the more difficult works. However, and this is key, the vast, vast, vast majority of atheists and skeptics you'll come across and meet in your journey through this world can be easily and completely refuted if you familiarize yourself with and understand and think through the arguments laid out by Feser in these two books. Depending on your intelligence level and the availability of time, going through these three books might take you a bit of time. Don't worry. Take it slow. Once you understand their relevance and validity, you'll be able to both defend the faith and also show how atheism is false, incoherent, and dangerous.
   
   In summary, I'd recommend reading the following books in this order:
   
4. The Last Superstition by Edward Feser: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism-ebook/dp/B00D40EGCQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504537006&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+superstition
   
5. Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide by Edward Feser: https://www.amazon.com/Aquinas-Beginners-Guide-Guides-ebook/dp/B00O0G3BEW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504537006&sr=8-2&keywords=the+last+superstition
   
6. Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft: https://www.amazon.com/Socratic-Logic-Questions-Aristotelian-Principles/dp/1587318083/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
   
   God Bless and take care.

First and foremost. God loves you. This is the most important thing anyone here can relate to you. Just know that God loves you and He made you with a purpose.

Now, to make inroads to the Catholic faith, you need to approach this in a logical manner. Since you're coming from the perspective of an atheist, the common approach to recognizing the truth of the Catholic faith is as follows.

1. Does God exist?
   
   
2. Has he revealed himself?
   
   
3. How do we know?
   
   There are many classical arguments to answer the first question. The most basic and simple argument is a thought experiment that goes as follows. Where did I come from? If I was created, or caused, then who created me? If I say my father created me, then who created, or caused, him? If his forefathers created him, then what led to their existence? If the universe cause their existence, then what caused the universe? Continue in this manner, and the result is an infinite regression of causes. But an infinite causal regression is impossible because we can't have infinite temporal relapse. In other words, there must be an "uncaused cause," or what Aristotle referred to as an "unmoved mover." This primal cause is the cause of everything else, because everything regressed back to it, and we say it is infinite being, because everything that exists can trace its existence back to this one being. The unmoved mover, as such, is God.
   
   You can read more about other proofs for the existence of God from the following author (who also is a former atheist, turned Catholic).
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Five-Proofs-Existence-Edward-Feser/dp/1621641333
   
   Once you have convinced yourself that the universe cannot be infinite and must therefore have an infinite Creator, you can perform another thought experiment. If the Creator is infinite in being and all powerful, can he, and has he, revealed himself to mankind? Well, if the answer is "yes," then we must search for the evidence of that revelation, and by nature of the history of human perception, we must find such a concrete revelation in the annals of human history. We read the Bible for the evidence of this revelation. In particular, the resurrection of Jesus brought to its completion the fullness of this revelation. Even secular historians agree on several main aspects of this story. A) Jesus died by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. B) Early Christians testified that they saw the risen Jesus in the flesh. C) Many of these witnesses were martyred for proclaiming this. To summarize the argument for the resurrection, we look at what the alternative possibilities are and rule them out to draw the conclusion that the mainstream story is most plausible and therefore the accurate one. Gary Habermas, an evangelical Christian scholar, has made good work on this subject.
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Case-Resurrection-Jesus-Gary-Habermas/dp/0825427886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518533326&sr=1-1&keywords=the+case+for+the+resurrection
   
   Finally, you need to come to the recognition that the Catholic Church has the fullness of the Christian faith. To be brief, we as Catholics believe that Jesus Christ established this Church during his earthly ministry and made Peter the first Bishop of Rome (the Pope). Suffice it to say there is supporting Biblical scripture for this, and ample evidence that the early fathers of the Church regarded the Catholic Church as the one true Church, and further evidence that they observed the same traditions we Catholics carry on today. The supporting literature and apologetics for this subject are numerous, and I won't yet post them all. For starters, you could read Trent Horn's book. He's a relatively young Catholic apologist, and I really like his approach.
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Why-Were-Catholic-Reasons-Faith/dp/1683570243

What you have experienced is what is known as a Spiritual Consolation. I have personally experienced it myself in different ways in various levels of intensity. For example at times after saying the Rosary I have experienced then strong scent of roses. During Eucharistic Adoration I was felt an encompassing peace other time I have been brought to tears from experiencing the Lords passion. I am sure others can share similar instances.

St. Ignatius Of Loyola describes spiritual consolation in his third rule of discernment of spirits:

I call it consolation when some interior movement in the soul is caused, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord; and when it can, in consequence, love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but in the Creator of them all.

In other words, spiritual consolation gives us a palpable experience of God’s loveableness, and that experience acts like a magnet, drawing us to desire greater union with him and putting good order in our affections towards all other merely created realities.

I would like to suggest the following book to you that will help you to understand and to grow deeper into you faith

Check this out: Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and the Gospel on Prayer

A nice small volume is the Youth Catechism (YOUCAT). It's really directed to young adults, so maybe too young depending on your preference or learning style.

If you're OK with a little more depth, but still very high-level, try the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Best part about this book is its Q&A format. Of course, you may need to do deeper diving as you'd like, but this is great for reacquainting yourself with the basic questions and teachings! The Compendium is also available free online, but the book is pretty cheap and easier on the eyes than the Vatican website.

Welcome home! Good luck with your recovery!

> What are some good books to read about it?

A good, thorough book on what we believe is The Catholic Catechism by Fr John Hardon. It doesn't directly confront the attacks that would be familiar to someone from an evangelical background (like a book such as Catholicism and Fundamentalism), but just calmly, clearly sets forth what we believe on the assumption that the reader accepts Catholicism and wants to understand it better. Another helpful book to have is Midwest Theological Forum's Handbook of Prayers, which includes the text of the parts of the Mass that are the same every week and many other traditional prayers and devotions.

> How do I go about getting involved in a Catholic Church?

MassTimes.org is a good tool for finding a parish close to you. Call the rectory and make an appointment to introduce yourself to the pastor. Although we are unable to invite you to receive Communion yet, you are welcome to go to Mass and participate to any other degree you are comfortable with.

1 There's heaps but a good example is Pope St. Celestine's deputization of St. Cyril (easterner) so he could judge Nestorius in his place. Check out Fortescue's The Early Papacy (pdf link) and Dom John Chapman's Studies on the Early Papacy for good discussions of the early papacy.

2 Strictly, no. You could make an argument that it was not prudent from a fraternal POV for Rome to follow certain other western churches and add it to the creed. You could definitely also make the arugment that Photius and Michael Cerularius (important Patriarchs of Constantinople) made their big fusses about it for political reasons rather than out of noble love for orthodoxy. Either way the filioque is true and it was legitimate for Rome to add it to the creed.

3/4 I don't think these questions are really relevant to the religious question but we definitely don't think it was "necessary" to sack Constantinople, just like EOs wouldn't think the Massacre of the Latins was necessary (I hope).

5 I actually don't know that much about this topic, sorry.

6 Yes, it bothers some but not all, especially now that many Catholics are not even familiar with the old liturgy (I prefer the old rite even though I'm a young guy and a convert). There has always been groups that have been opposed to the new liturgy and remained attached to the old rite, though. See Marcel Lefebvre , the Ottaviani Intervention, the Una Voce International Federation, etc. as examples. Thanks to Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum I'm hoping the usus antiquior will become increasingly popular as time goes on, enough so that perhaps eventually the Novus Ordo will become unnecessary.

7 I don't really know. Honestly, I converted after the scandals had already hit their hardest.

I would recommend that you read Deep Prayer/Deep Conversion by Fr. Thomas Dubay. He is an excellent writer on the spiritual life, and this is one of his lighter, more accessible books. (Fire Within is, in my opinion, his best, but it's hefty and can be a bit academic at times, which can be rough for some people.)

He talks about this very issue in one of the latter chapters. Very often, we will find ourselves confessing the same sins every confession, even if we are regular in devotionals, attending Mass, and even receiving communion daily. The spiritual life, to become deep and intimate, requires both prayer and conversion, and when both are actively pursued, each aids growth in the other. When we confess, God wipes our sins and gives us grace to persevere, but coming out of it, we must do our own part to grow.

How often do we confess, and then continue to allow ourselves to fall to the old habits, old routines, old vices, that enable those same sins? To truly grow, we must persist in prayer, avoid occasions of those sins, and also strive for the opposing virtue. Do we gossip? We should be mindful and cautious when we are with those we tend to gossip with, and should actively strive to speak words of charity. Do we act selfishly? We should take up little self-denials and actively seek out opportunities, even small ones, to freely act for the benefit of others.

That's a bit of the general idea in Deep Prayer/Deep Conversion, and I hope it benefits you in some way, but I would recommend you read the book to be better informed than from what few words I can give you.

Edit: Broke up my second paragraph, which was waaay too long, into three.

There are literally entire books written about this type of thing (see Love and Responsibility). There isn't enough room here to do it justice, but I'll try to address some of your concerns.

> I believe love trumps all

I think that you should begin by examining what you really mean by this, and if that is really what you believe. This is a view that has probably become quite popular because of American culture. In all the romantic movies, the guy and the girl usually end up running away together and everything works out because they "love" each other. But that's now the way real life works, and I think it's a poor depiction of what real love is. Does love in fact trump all? That's a personal question about your own beliefs that I can't answer for you, but that you should think about.

I also want to mention that I think you should read Genesis 2-3. When I read that passage it helps me understand that men and women are, in fact, not "equal". They are not exactly the same. They are two completely different beings with different body parts and traits, who are both created in the image of God.

I too grew up (80s, 90s) with some pretty lousy CCD; it was a little better after switching to a Catholic high school, but I still went into college with surprisingly little knowledge about the content of Catholic doctrine.

In trying to rectify the current crisis in catechesis, I've seen plenty of people advocate for a return to pre-Vatican II CCD, i.e. the Baltimore Catechism for children and even dogmatic manuals (e.g. Ludwig Ott's Fundamentals of Dogma) for adults. After all, such sources are chock full of content, which is precisely what has been missing in much of the empty catechesis that has been going on for the past few decades.

However, I'd strongly advise against reverting to these sources. While they may have plenty of content, it's content that misses out on many of the wonderful developments and insights at and since Vatican II. E.g., they treat "revelation" as a propositional body of truths, rather than more fundamentally as God's relational self-disclosure to us (cf. Dei Verbum). It's for reasons like this that an entire generation of the 20th century's greatest theologians (e.g. Ratzinger, de Lubac, Rahner, von Balthasar) had major reservations about the manual-style theology that produced the Baltimore Catechism, etc.

Thankfully, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was a big step in communicating content of the Catholic tradition in a non-manualist sort of way, taking into account many of the rich developments which occurred at and after Vatican II. However, it's so voluminous that using it as a "textbook" for catechesis, even for adults, is pretty impractical.

I'd steer you toward using Card. Schönborn's YouCat, a simplified youth catechism based on the CCC, as a textual resource for teaching CCD. It has many of the advantages of the Baltimore Catechism (succinctness, Q&A format, content!) without the outmoded theology.

TL;DR - As far as textual resources for catechesis, rather the trying to slog through the voluminous CCC or reverting to the (clear but outdated) Baltimore Catechism, look into using YouCat.

Hi! I'm a gay Catholic, and there is certainly room for you in the church! I think everyone else here has done a pretty thorough job of repeating the Church's teachings on same-sex attractions, so I won't bother getting in to them, but I will say that it is totally possible to live faithfully and happily as a Catholic while being LGBTQ+. (Also note that using those terms tends to incite some heated discussion simply over terminology for some reason, which I don't feel like getting in to right now.)

If you want some reading on the intersections of (Catholic) faith and sexuality, I highly recommend looking at:

• https://spiritualfriendship.org/
  
• https://universityideas.wordpress.com/
  
• https://www.patheos.com/blogs/evetushnet/category/gay-catholic-whatnot
  
• Made for Love by Fr. Mike Schmitz
  
• Building a Bridge by Fr. James Martin (this one gets a lot of hate due to the first edition leaving out the church teaching of celibacy, but people tend to miss the point that it isn't intended to be a treatise on church teaching, but rather a suggestion on how to start having such conversations)
  
• Gay and Catholic by Eve Tushnet
  
  Also, feel free to pm me or respond here any time if you have more questions or want to talk about it.
  
  Good luck on your journey in faith, and I'll keep you in my prayers!

Drops a truckload of Trent on you

Jokes aside, the Catholic Church has the advantage of writing down basically everything she's ever done, so you can look to those sources for details on what she says (like the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus which declared that Mary's Immaculate Conception was to be held as doctrine).

However, popewords can be hard to understand, especially if you don't have a background in Thomistic thought, so there are other books that may interest you, perhaps conversion stories like Rome Sweet Home and No Price Too High - it's interesting to see the similarities and differences between their paths.

For details on what Catholics believe, there is the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church which is written in a pretty easy language, with lots of references.

There's also the various creeds, of which my personal favorite is the Athanatian Creed which goes into so much detail on the Trinity that we've had very few Christological heresies since.

If you're interested in a non-Catholic take on the history of early Christianity, which was written against the New Atheism, you may like Atheist Delusions - if you want someone to absolutely demolist the New Atheists, you're looking for The Last Superstition, which is also a good introduction to Thomism.

I should also warn you that Catholics believe that baptism by beer is invalid:

>447 Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present that, since according to evangelical doctrine it is necessary "to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit" [ John 3:5] they are not to be considered rightly baptized who are baptized in beer.

If you want to understand our Mass, you can watch this 2 hour video about the Latin (Extraordinary Form or old, Tridentine) Mass, much of what is said will apply to the newer OF.

We are here to support you on your journey home, brother/sister.

First, you should know that the Canon of Scripture (the Bible) is not meant to be read from cover-to-cover as a coherent, linear story. Scripture is a collection of books, some of which contain poetry, some song, some pre-history myth, some parable, some wisdom sayings, some history, and some letters to a distinct audience.

One resource I have heard good reviews about is the Quick Journey through the Bible series by Ascension Press. It is intended as a course of study with a group, though.

Other good resources for reading Scripture are:

• Bible Basics for Catholics by Dr. John Bergsma
  
  
• You Can Understand The Bible: A Practical And Illuminating Guide To Each Book In The Bible by Peter Kreeft
  
  
• The Lamb's Supper
  
  For other good resources on returning to Catholicism, I recommend the following:
  
  
• Rome Sweet Home
  
  
• Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic
  
  
• Reasons to Believe
  
  
• Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist
  
  Do not be afraid to go to study groups. As someone who has led study groups, my favorite people are those who come in eager for Truth and ready to ask questions.

The common belief in ghosts—say an ill-fated woman who still appears at the site of her death—isn’t supported by Catholic teaching.

Angels (and demons) are spiritual beings, and they both can influence events on Earth. Saints are people in Heaven who can pray for our needs. The presence of angels and the intercessory prayer of the saints are both used in exorcisms, but Fr. Gabrielle Amorth, in his books on exorcism (check out the first one here), talks about how the image of the Crucifix, because it profoundly represents God’s love for us, is the single most effective tool for exorcism.

I’d suggest reading that book—it’s the book that convinced me of the importance of Mass, prayer, and resisting temptation. It also made me see the sacrifice of the Cross in a new, beautiful way.

If you liked Theology of the Body, you'd probably also enjoy Love and Responsibility, which he wrote first. It's a bit dense, but if you study philosophy you shouldn't have any trouble.

I absolutely agree with your sentiment! It's a shame that these ideas aren't more widespread. I think the best thing we can do is to 1) keep talking about it, making it appear as exciting and truthful as it is, and 2) living it out to the best of our abilities.

Here is an article detailing several early church fathers and their thoughts on Mary.

>St. Ephraem (d.373), the great Eastern doctor and deacon, directly addresses the Blessed Virgin in several Marian sermons. Direct prayer to Mary is also found in a sermon of the great Eastern Father, St. Gregory Nazianzen (330-389). (9) By the last part of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth, we have numerous explicit examples of direct prayer to the Mother of God, for example in the writings of St. Ambrose, as well as by St. Epiphanius. (10)
>
>As already referred to, the most complete ancient prayer to the Blessed Mother historically preserved is the Sub Tuum Praesidium (250 A.D.):
>
>We fly to your patronage,O holy Mother of God,despise not our petitionsin our necessities,but deliver us from all dangers.O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.

That prayer is what the Memorare is based on.

Here is an article on early church fathers and why they do ask saints for intercession. They talk about praying with the saints, and that it is good.

Here is an article detailing quotes demonstrating the early church fathers knew celibacy was better, especially for priests!

>St. Epiphanius
>
>Holy Church respects the dignity of the priesthood to such a point that she does not admit to the diaconate, the priesthood, or the episcopate, no nor even to the subdiaconate, anyone still living in marriage and begetting children. She accepts only him who if married gives up his wife or has lost her by death, especially in those places where the ecclesiastical canons are strictly attended to (Panarion [A.D. 376]).

Celibacy is better, just like Paul says.

I recommend reading more of the early church fathers to get a better understanding of why their faith and these things are so Catholic. These sites all list citations you can chase down, but maybe you would also be interested in this book and this book?

Encyclicals are solid resources but without proper theological backing you might have a hard time grasping them.

Probably the greatest book for discernment is "To Save a Thousand Souls" by Fr. Brett Brannen

Definitely check it out, it's a great resource.

http://www.amazon.com/Save-Thousand-Souls-Discerning-Priesthood/dp/0615345514

I also found that the Rule of St. Benedict is a helpful resource as well.

What Archdiocese or Order are you thinking of joining?

Some of these have been mentioned in this thread, but I wanted to make a thorough list, so here goes:

• Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn (as you've already experienced)
  
  
• Evangelical Exodus by Douglas Beaumont
  
  
• Crossing The Tiber by Steve Ray
  
  
• Evangelical Is Not Enough by Thomas Howard
  
  
• Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David Currie
  
  
• The Protestant's Dilemma by Devin Rose
  
  
• Navigating The Tiber by Devin Rose
  
  
• Why We're Catholic by Trent Horn
  
  
• Surprised by Truth: Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, compiled by Patrick Madrid
  
  
• No Price Too High by Deacon Alex Jones
  
  If you would like books on various topics (The Eucharist, Mary, the Sacraments, etc.), let me know and I'd be happy to provide. Also, feel free to PM at any time. :) I'll say an extra prayer for your journey right now!
  
  DK
  
  
  

I converted in 2006 based on my belief in Jesus and the scriptures... Read lots of good books. As a former Baptist, my favorite book was Catholicism and Fundamentalism: https://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Fundamentalism-Attack-Romanism-Christians/dp/0898701775

Also pray lots and get comfortable with intercessory prayer -- that is asking others, even those who have gone before us, to pray for us... (e.g. Mary, Saints, and lower-case saints). "Praying to Mary" was my toughest thing to overcome, and once crossing that hurdle, I adore asking the Blessed Mother to pray for me.... Who better to capture the Lord's ear.

I recommended this collection to her http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Early-Fathers-Three-Set/dp/0814610250

I converted 3 years ago and for awhile it was really a nightmare with my mom. I didn't think it would ever get better. But now the emotions are finally starting to settle and we're beginning to be able to have civil discussions about it. I have no idea where all of this will go, but I'm really happy that she's getting interesting in hearing why I converted and looking into some of it herself.

My advice to you would be to pray and pray for patience. Your parents might be really upset for years, but the more patience you have, the better it will be. And at some point things will settle down again. Always keep hope, you'll be amazed how much things can change with time!

Awww yeah!

• The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn. Excellent read to learn about the Biblical foundations of the Mass and an explanation of the Church's understanding of the oft-misunderstood Book of Revelation of John.
  
  
• The Soul of the Apostoalte. Words can't really express the spiritual treasury in this book. It basically describes how rooted we must be in prayer for any apostolate to survive.
  
  
• Introduction to the Devout Life. Another spiritual classic by St. Francis de Sales. A classic piece of literature that EVERY faithful Catholic should have in their home! St. Francis teaches us how to pray and meditate in very simple, accessible ways.
  
  
• The Confessions of St. Augustine. This isn't a novel about a saint airing his dirty laundry, this is entire piece of literature is a prayer and an introspective, philosophical examination of why we tend to choose evil over good. It may be a challenge for new readers, but it's an incredible work.
  
  
• An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories by Fr. Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist of Rome. Two excellent works on demonic activity, spiritual warfare, and the Rite of Exorcism. More Stories has a better format than the first work, but both are worth reading.
  
  
• The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. Though told from the perspective of a journalist, and including a ridiculous armchair psychological examination that attempts to disprove demonic activity (chapter 13 I believe), it's a good book worth reading on spiritual warfare. NOT at all similar to the movie, and a good read.
  
  There are more books, but I'll have to go into my memory-vault to remember what I would recommend.

I’m glad to hear you’re genuinely discerning. Not enough Catholic men are. I highly recommend the book To Save a Thousand Souls by Fr. Brett Brannen. One of my favorite books on discernment.

https://www.amazon.com/Save-Thousand-Souls-Discerning-Priesthood/dp/0615345514/ref=nodl_

I was in a similar situation as you a few years ago. I desired both the priesthood and family life. This book, along with much prayer, helped discern my true vocation. Now I’m happily married with a 4 month baby boy. Couldn’t be at more peace. My brother also read the same book and went through a similar discernment process, he was ordained in June.

1- Bible: Any Bible with the word "Catholic" on the front (and without words like "Story", "Picture", "For Little Ones", etc) will suit your purposes. Your best bet is either the NRSV-CE or the New American Bible. Beyond that, it's completely up to you - different editions have different features. Just go to a Catholic bookstore and see which one you like best. This blog has some information on the different editions.

For the NRSV-CE, take a look at the Ignatius Bible

For New American, take a look at a St Joseph edition. I've also heard a recommendation for the Fireside editions.

Either one of those might fit the bill for "quintessential"

2 - For learning the prayers of the Mass, get a St Joseph Sunday Missal. Any edition will have the basic prayers. If you get the inexpensive paperback "2015" book, it will have the prayers of the Mass, but the Bible readings won't pick up until the new Church year starts in late November.

For learning more about the whys and wherefores of the Mass, the Catechism has a good start on this information. You might also like to check out Scott Hahn's The Lamb's Supper

3- printed Catechism - Get this one. If it looks intimidating, get one of its little sisters, the Compendium or even the YouCat

4 - Philosophy - The Catechism itself will have references. I like Theology and Sanity by Frank Sheed

Hope this is helpful! Welcome aboard!

It's important to be able to stand up for the Church, so you need to learn history and apologetics. This book points how indefensibly silly New Atheism is. Don't be afraid to ask particular questions on here as pretty much every accusation that can be leveled against Catholics has been used on reddit. Take whatever good things your oldest demands and show them how the Church nurtures them and maintains them. If he wants freedom, teach him of the slavery of sin.

Pray for strength, knowledge, and patience. It's your demonstration of Christian love that will be the greatest help in bringing them back to life. Otherwise you leave it to the Spirit to call them back in time.

I suppose I should reply to you directly since I've referred to you several times in lower comments.

What you are suggesting is true; there are many examples of gay children driven to drugs or suicide on account of how their christian or catholic parents treated them. I apologize that some parents showed their kids rules before they showed them love. It appears that God made every difference - whether it be skin color, ability/disability, language/culture, etc., in order to give us challenges or obstacles to love. It is said that if you take one step to Jesus, He'll take 5 steps to you. Many gay catholics have come to know the peace of God and ways to live harmoniously with Him. If you google "gay and catholic", you'll find stories like this one. My point is that stories like those prove that it's possible to keep someone reminded of how they are loved while issues they may have are dealt with one step and day at a time. I don't know if your comment was about your own sexuality or someone else's. I do know that you would be welcome in my group if I was traveling like these happy seminarians. Your criticism is justified. You're talking to a catholic who wants to do better.

Honestly, atheist to agnostic is a progression, and a good one. The book Answering Atheism may help as it details practical ways to (here's those words) "accompany" someone on this journey.

In the long run, the goal is not to provide the answers, but to provide the questions; faith is not opposed to reason but is beyond it; reason can help resolve some of the issues but is insufficient to know God (lest we could save ourselves without grace and solely by "works").

> If you want to know what me following exoteric Catholicism would be like, would be spending all day being bored, attending church and maybe following the Law just because I have to, hoping I die and am over with it since I don't want to live this way.

Faith is gift. We can't force it. But there is a strong tradition of Catholic mysticism which firmly believes that attending church and following the law is just a prerequisite for a deeper connection with God: a burning love, which enriches your deepest self and changes your outlook on those mundane tasks. Since you have expressed interest into Vajrayana meditation, and since you haven't just quit this sub for greener pastures, let me recommend the fantastic book Fire Within from Thomas DuBay on Carmelite contemplation. Maybe that's something for you.

I felt the same way after I first rediscovered my Catholic faith. I read a lot by the Carmelite mystics, and I even thought about the Carthusians. As I continued to discern my vocation, I eventually saw my attraction to those orders as God growing my interior life rather than a vocation (I'm now happily married with my first child on the way!). Before diving right into St. John of the Cross or St. Theresa of Avila, I recommend reading Fr. Thomas Dubay.

Or better yet, if you have some theology or philosophy background already, read Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange or Fr. Adolph Tanqueray.

Carthusians: http://transfiguration.chartreux.org/
Benedictines in Norcia: https://en.nursia.org/
More Benedictines (I think): https://clearcreekmonks.org/
Fire Within by Thomas Dubay https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Within-Teresa-Gospel-Prayer/dp/0898702631/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486491394&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+dubay+fire+within
Three Ages of the Interior Life by Fr. Garrigou Lagrange https://www.amazon.com/Three-Ages-Interior-Life/dp/1492390976/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1486491194&sr=8-3&keywords=garrigou+lagrange
The Spiritual Life by Adolphe Tanquerey https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Life-Adolphe-Tanquerey/dp/0895556596
Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Night-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486426939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486491335&sr=8-1&keywords=dark+night+of+the+soul
The Way of Perfection by St. Theresa of Avila https://www.amazon.com/Way-Perfection-Image-Classics/dp/0385065396

Welcome! I appreciate your genuine curiosity to learn more about Catholicism from Catholics.

I would recommend Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray. Steve has a Baptist background as well and wrote that book to explain why he was converting to Catholicism. I really enjoyed it and it combines Scripture and Early Christian's writings to support his reasons.

​

God bless!

>What is the general consensus on things such as the Little Office of Our Lady?

As a layperson, you can pray any office you wish. I love the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially the one from Baronius Press.

I started praying the LOTH with Shorter Christian Prayer. It's a good way to get into it without all the page flipping. I know priests who use this as their travel edition. ;)

You're welcome! Another piece of advice I have is that while I firmly believe conversion is a result of grace, breaking down intellectual barriers to belief is absolutely critical for many atheists. I found I had a lot of baggage and bad history/bad philosophy in my overall worldview previously. I didn't know what I didn't know or believe in. To me, God was a silly, antiquated idea used for control and comfort. Things like classical theism, divine simplicity, act/potency, essentialism, forms, four causes...were either completely foreign to me or unintelligible.

The first part of getting past that was classical philosophy, as I previously mentioned. I don't just mean Catholic thinkers like Aquinas either (though he's the mastermind!). It was studying the metaphysics of Aristotle, the forms of Plato, Ockam's pre-nominalistic, how enlightenment philosophers shifted the thinking towards epistemology and metaphysics; that I think really broke those barriers for me. It turned out that the materialism, reductionism, naturalism, and empiricism that I took for granted...were not on the strong ground I thought they were. Indeed, philosophers like Ed Feser, David Oderberg, Peter Kreeft, GEM Anscombe, Roger Scruton, Bernard Lonergan, James Ross, and even Thomas Nagel (himself an atheist!) have been articulating strong arguments against those things for years. I never knew the power of logic, deductive reasoning, and philosophy. I took the view of scientism as the default truth without ever challenging it. But just knowing how strong the intellectual arguments are against atheism/materialism are, and for theism; has helped immensely in growing in God's grace. And that is to say nothing for my moral realism, courtesy of Alasdair MacIntyre and C.S. Lewis, that was the initial crack in my previous worldview.

For those of us who are more head than heart, like I suspect you and your wife are, this kind of deep dive into philosophy is a crucial aspect of conversion. If you can articulate the strength of theism and weaknesses of atheism from just a purely intellectual standpoint, you may at least get her to be more understanding of your shift in thinking. I think reading this book is a good start and that this one is slightly more thorough. Feser isn't the world's greatest philosopher but he is very articulate. This book of his helped me greatly in beginning to solidify and defend my own epistemology and metaphysics.

Universalis (app or website) is a good resource for praying the office. There's 6 times per day that a professed religious stops and prays the psalms in the Office, but for laypeople the best ones are probably Lauds (in the morning), Vespers (after work), and Compline (before bed).

Breviaries like this one can help laypeople pray the office.

Personally, I think there's a lot of garbage, namby-pamby advice in this thread.

As Venerable Fulton Sheen said, "There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing."

If you believe the Catholic Faith is true, then presumably your end goal is their conversion. If it's not, it should be.

Perhaps the initial explanation won't go well. That's fine. Whatever happens, don't burn any bridges. Unfortunately, since it's today there's not much more prep you can do.

The best advice I can give is to come armed with what they think they know. Beyond the initial, emotional reaction, they will have arguments. Maybe not today, but they'll come. They already know what they're going to say. They already have their "Catholicism is the Whore of Babylon Talking Points" on a 3x5 index card (even if it's just a mental index card.) So what do you do? Surprise them. Steal their lines. Ask questions that they aren't expecting. Since you already know all of the anti-Catholic talking points, you are (hopefully) well prepared to counter them with clarity and charity, using Holy Scripture as your guide.

Also, remember you're not alone in this. LOTS of fantastic people have made this conversion. Here are a few book recs that are relevant.

Catholicism and Fundamentalism

Rome Sweet Home

Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic

Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church

I haven't read this one yet, but it also looks awesome. Dr. Brant Pitre also writes on this topic:

The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross

I was raised Evangelical... converted to Catholic in adulthood. There are a number of books that I could recommend. Here are some of my favorites - in order of importance/preference.

Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (only the NT though, they are currently working on OT)

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholicism and Fundamentalism (written in the 80's, but still very relevant and the best Catholic apologetics book to defend the faith that I've ever read)

Works of G.K. Chesterton Vol 3 (This volume explains why he converted from Anglican to Catholic)

Rome Sweet Home

The Fathers Know Best

Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic

Surprised By Truth

Youcat: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church and YOUCAT Bible It's filled with engaging photos, clever and fun illustrations, insightful sidebar quotes from great thinkers, Catholic saints and leaders, past and present, and young people living their faith today. It includes helpful introductions to the books of the Bible and short, easy-to-understand commentaries by some of today's top Bible teachers.

Hi, u/Atrum_Lux_Lucis!

This is admittedly, not particularly my area of interest so I won't even try to directly respond to some of your questions as some others have. I have enjoyed reading them though!

I am responding because I remember a person mentioning a similar dilemma and I believe they found their answers in a book called the "Early Church Fathers" or something like that. Here's a link to what I hope is the right book: Early Church Fathers

Good luck and God bless!

He's not wrong. The first week or two is the hardest part by far.

Urges never entirely disappear -- they are a part of being human, and indeed a healthy one in many ways! -- and, when they do arise, they can always be a challenge to fend off... but they become less frequent and (for the most part) less intense as you practice.

So keep practicing! Be patient! Can take years! Grace comes in time!

>How could I ask for God's forgiveness through confession if I'm unsure of my own chances of not sinning again, and further, would I have even been forgiven in the first place if I sin again?

Good God, man!

>Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven times."

("Seventy times seven" is Bible-speak for "infinity times."

Confession is one of the great gifts Christ gave the Church. The whole point is that it gives us a chance to have our sins forgiven -- permanently, irrevocably -- despite our inability as human beings to ever be fully contrite for our sins, plus our notorious habit of committing the same sins over and over again. That ability to confess our sins even when our confessions aren't perfect is one of the best parts of being Catholic. Avail yourself of it, and never ever worry that your sins have not been forgiven! Unless you deliberately lie in the confessional, absolution is complete and covers all your sins (even forgotten ones) the moment the priest finishes saying the words.

tldr: GO TO CONFESSION!

>I'm pretty much plagued with homosexuality

You mention at the start that you are homosexual and trying to figure that out at the same time. That can be tricky! My sister is gay and Catholic (and living the Church's teaching of chastity), and figuring out what that means for her life and vocation has been very tough on her. Plus, for some reason, the gay Catholics I know tend to beat themselves up over sins a lot more. I don't know why that happens, but it seems you're no exception. But know that the Lord has prepared a place for every one in His house, gays included, so have some peace in that. Christ loves you and looks forward to spending eternal life with you.

And then maybe go buy yourself a copy of the wonderful book by celibate gay Catholic Eve Tushnet, aptly titled, Gay and Catholic.

A few resources for you:

How to be Christian is a bible-based YouTube channel that goes through scripture systematically. I think you would like it.

Catholic.com is a resource with all sorts of questions, including citations to the early church fathers. They have a 2-hour radio show every weekday just answering everyone's questions. They stream it on facebook and on YouTube (Here's their YouTube Channel), and many of their old shows stretching back to the 2000s are either on their website or on YouTube.


Edit: I forgot about the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is available for FREE online (linked). It's like the biggest teaching document of the Catholic Church (aside from the bible) and it's a great resource. I'd recommend it only a little bit at a time because it's so dense. There's also the Compendium of the Catechism (or the free, low-tech version) or the new Youth Catechism which are a little bit simpler, shorter, and easier to read.

I would highly recommend that you pick up a book by CS Lewis called Mere Christianity. It pulls together the philisophical and also human experience of the author's thought process of evaluating his faith. Lewis was an agnostic and at one point atheist who slowly came to faith later in life as a professor at Oxford. While not catholic (Although most think he was close to swimming the Tiber), I think it's worth a read if you're investigating the christian faith in general. As far as why Catholic, I agree with all below on the Church being the original church that emerged from the Apostles, and that the beauty of the sacraments and repetitive unchanging nature of the catholic experience is edifying and grounding to my otherwise crazy life.

I have a couple of book recommendations, which may or may not be too long for you. They're both clearly written and easy to understand.
Both follow the general structure of the Catechism. You can read them through, or choose to read or skip over topics depending on your interest. The first is only half the size of the second, and is probably a better one to start with.

A Well-Built Faith: A Catholic's Guide to Knowing and Sharing What We Believe - by Joe Paprocki.


YouCat by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn

I lost my faith as a Protestant and spent a while as an agnostic/atheist before becoming Catholic. My advice would be to really work at keeping an open, receptive mind and a real desire to know the truth. A little prayer wouldn't hurt either -- whatever you can muster, even to the God you're not really sure exists. Christians believe that Truth is a living person and He's reaching out to you. If you are seeking Truth, you will find Him.

I don't know if you're a reader, but a book that helped me immensely was Orthodoxy. It's G. K. Chesterton's recounting of his transition from agnosticism to Christianity. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Chesterton will change your life. Another good book --the best modern refutation of atheism -- is The Last Superstition by Ed Feser.

Edit: typos

Hi. Your questions were exactly my questions, only 3+ years ago. I came from being raised in the Orthodox Church, and began to think about St. Peter's headship after listening to an Orthodox Podcast by Fr. Thomas Hopko.

What I will say is that there is an abundance of Grace available in both Churches. That being said, I eventually decided that I needed to be in communion with the See of Peter and so converted to Roman Catholicism.

You might want to check out this book. I read it, among many other things, though I'll have to dig out my stuff to see what else there was.

I spent time reading information about the Great Schism. As well, I became aware of the Photian Schism as well.

I'd ask you to consider the position of each Church with regard to the reception of the Eucharist by members of the opposite confession. I found that the Roman position was much more charitable toward what they consider their sister Church (or the other lung of the Church), as opposed to the Orthodox position which essentially considers Rome heretical, without outright saying so.

There is no question that Apostolic Succession resides in both Churches, so for me the Orthodox position comes off a bit "protestant" if you will. Thus, I have come to view them as the first Protestants.

I'll be glad to have more discussion with you if you come up with some questions you want to talk about.

You should look into the story of C.S. Lewis, one of the most famous theologians and Christian writers in modern history. He, like you, was raised a Christian but became an atheist at the age of 15. When he was an atheist, he started reading about Christianity and asking some of the same questions you are, but finding answers. Two of my favorite books that helped me confirm my faith are linked below. Give them a read before you make any decisions.. Mere Christianity is a little tough to get through, but I have a copy with plenty of pencil markings in it next to my bed.

- Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

- The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Also, about where you were born.. Catholics believe God knew us from the day he created us. Even if you were born in a Muslim family, you would have found your way to the same place somehow.

Best thing to do:

Speak to a priest at a local Roman Catholic Church.

Highly recommend reading:

• Lee Strobels A Case For Faith, Case For Creator and A Case For Christ
  
• To get a brief idea of what the Catholic Faith believes in...the YouCat.
  
  I say talk to a priest first though :)

You deny the Primacy of Peter, that's fine. However, I'll stick to the apostolic tradition as recognized by both Catholics and Orthodox. If you agree with the opinion of our Orthodox brethren, that the Pope's function is merely honorary (first among equals), okay. If you want to delve into the Catholic Church's argument that Peter's Primacy is not merely honorific, but rather has jurisdiction over all churches, read the books I have quoted (here, here and here). They treat the subject with far more propriety than a layman like me. God bless you.

Here are good starts!

Horn's Answering Atheism

Horn's The Case for Catholicism

Pitre's The Case for Jesus

Spitzer's God So Loved the World

Tim O Neill (an honest atheist who puts good history first) on the Church and science, the Inquisition and the Galileo affair

Perhaps you would find find Trent Horn's Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity helpful for you. While it's primarily intended for those interested in apologetics, it can also be useful for those who are questioning or drifting such as yourself.

My impression from your post is that, while you want to believe, you are having difficulty dealing with Christianity from a logical perspective as well as answering the questions of those around you. If you want to delve deeper into the rational and logical forms (which are definitely there - Catholicism should never be confused with American fundamentalism), you might look into Aquinas, for example.

Hey, sorry I never replied to this! Aquinas is who I read, primarily. And the philosophers in his tradition who come after him. I think he probably presents the strongest arguments, but to consider them for what they actually are, you have to have a basic understanding of Aristotelian metaphysics. You're probably not looking for this, but I would recommend these books, in this order:

The Last Superstition

Aquinas (A "Beginner's" [quotes mine; not all that beginner-ish imo] Guide)

Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction

The first one is a polemic, so beware. But it lays out a pretty decent modern cultural context for Scholastic metaphysics. That last one is especially good if you're interested in how science plays out in Thomism. The second one (and the bulk of the last one) though is kinda meaty technical stuff. But I think that series prepares you to understand the arguments of all different sorts of metaphysicians quite well.

It is a lot of work though. I won't deny that. It sort of pissed me off at first, but truth doesn't necessarily have to be easy to comprehend. Of course that's not to say that the difficulty of all this is meritorious or anything in itself.

Steve Ray was formerly this type of Evangelical/baptist. He is now a devout apologist for the Catholic church. He wrote a book entitled "Crossing the Tiber." If you read this then you will learn the points that likely can get your type of Christian friend thinking outside of his very comfortable and judgmental box. Have fun.

A link to a used book sales summary on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0898705770/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

[Crossing the Tiber](http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Tiber-Evangelical-Protestants-Historical/dp/0898705770 "Also available for Kindle!"), by Stephen K. Ray. It's very well researched; sometimes the footnotes and references take up most of the page!

dessinemoiunmouton referenced this elsewhere in the thread, and I agree: [Faith of the Early Fathers](http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Early-Fathers-Three--Set/dp/0814610250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320271030&sr=1-1 "Also available for Kindle!"), by Jurgens. It's a three-volume set, and best used as a reference, instead of a straight-read. Of immense value is the doctrinal index, which lists various elements of theology, and then points you to the relevant historical writings!

Every single person on this earth has their own idea about what religion is and how it originated, and you will encounter many more people with many ideas contrary to what you believe, so don't let your friends discourage you. You seem like you have a genuine desire to believe in God, so believe in him. In this life we are constantly being presented with new ideas and new experiences that shape the way we view things, the question is how will you chose to go about interpreting these new ideas and new experiences? Will you let something that challenges what you believe mold you and change your convictions, or will you fight to understand what you believe to be true, that there is a God and Jesus is his son? I write this as someone who has doubts everyday. Someone who questions constantly, and struggles with what you are struggling with now. However, I have come to learn that there will be a time to choose. What is it that you believe? And when you know it, fight for it, and hold on to it. Relish in the questions, take joy in the challenges, you are not loosing your faith, you are on the search for Truth, follow His voice.

​

Specifically, I think the most important place to start when trying to understand the miracles of Christ is His resurrection. Bishop Barron has a really good video on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIbmCOm8jFs

I'll list some good books below which have helped me with these questions as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Journalists-Personal-Investigation/dp/0310339308

https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926

​

Whether it would work for you as a "beginner" probably depends on your temperament. It's very much in the style of a textbook or reference book. It's arranged topically, and will give a basic summary of the topic in question, along with notation of the strength of the teaching (whether it be dogma, doctrine, the general consensus, etc.) and references to primary sources.

As to the references, it typically refers you to Denzinger's Enchiridion Symbolorum, and I share the popular opinion that the two books are best read together.

As far as I know, seminaries don't do that anyway. In the book To Save a Thousand Souls, Fr. Brennan devotes an entire section discussing common sins and struggles that a discerning seminarian has. He reinforces the statement that simply having same-sex attraction is not enough to ban someone from the priesthood. Rather it is the degree to which they act on that attraction, or support the lifestyle associated with it, that would determine if a man is eligible or not. This can only be determined through prayerful consideration and personal discussion between the seminarian and spiritual director.

I definitely recommend Fortescue’s The Early Papacy for a great overview of the Catholic position on the Papacy and its support from the Fathers, etc.

For an intro to the Fathers, definitely recommend the 3-volume Faith of the Early Fathers by William Jurgens.

Faith of the Early Fathers: Three-Volume Set
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0814610250/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Qo.0AbD48WTXZ

As far as Church documents, Denzinger is a standard reference (Ignatius has a nice copy on sale for $40 on Amazon), but it’s arranged chronologically which can make it harder for study. For a bit less, you can pick up a copy of The Christian Faith compiled by Jacques Dupuis, which orders everything by topic. This volume is not as comprehensive as Denzinger, but I like it a lot.

Enchiridion Symbolorum: A Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations of the Catholic Church (Latin Edition) (Latin and English Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898707463/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Yq.0AbN6564B0

The Christian Faith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church https://www.amazon.com/dp/0818908939/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pr.0AbZBR1BD4

Another one that immediately comes to mind is how the Church was persecuted by the Romans, then somehow became the official state religion, and when the Romans try to take over the Church, the Church stood on the principle of separation of Church and State and actually prevailed. Later on, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, when the Huns invaded Italy, the Pope rode out to meet Attila the Hun. After that meeting, the Huns decided to turn around and not sack Rome.

There is another quote from soon to be St. John Henry Newman:

> To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant

Those who look at Church history realize the Catholic Church is the Church Christ founded and that we owe our assent to that Church.

So learning Church history will help. I recommend any book by Thomas F. Madden or Steve Weidenkopf. There is also a book by Trent Horn called Why We're Catholic which touches on this.

You can also check out the book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization for a lot of information about how the Church has been a constant force for the good of mankind. You can also read Lumen Gentium.

But the best evidence of this comes from the witness of people who have followed Church teaching. When people submit to the teaching of the Church, do their lives get better or worse? How do their lives change the deeper they get into the faith? Read the lives of the Saints and look at the example of what happens to schismatics.

At the root of all this is not simply obeying the Church, it is a relationship with Christ. If the Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ, then submitting to Christ presupposes submitting to His Church. Does following Church teaching help or hurt our relationship with Christ? For those who claim it hurts their relationship, the real question they should be asking is how well do they know Christ?

I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on it for a while, but I'll be sure to read that as soon as possible.

Just in case you would also like to do some research, this book is very popular in gay Catholic circles: https://www.amazon.ca/Gay-Catholic-Accepting-Sexuality-Community/dp/1594715424

Totally normal to feel that way, friend. Do you have a spiritual director? Have you spoken to your vocation director?











I’d recommend reading this:











https://www.amazon.com/Save-Thousand-Souls-Discerning-Priesthood/dp/0615345514










It’s a great book for those discerning

Get Shorter Christian Prayer and start praying Compline (Night Prayer) -- there's even a book with just Night Prayer in it. Once you get into the habit, add another hour, such as Morning or Evening Prayer. When you get comfortable with this, you may want to get Christian Prayer, which has more page flipping involved.

Or you could pray The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's very simple and lovely. All the hours are the same for each day. There is a slight variation during Advent and Christmas.

I've done both the LOTR and LOBVM. Currently I pray LOBVM's Matins/Lauds every morning and Vespers most evenings. I used to pray Compline, but I haven't done so in a while.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to say the LOBVM Matins/Lauds and about 10-15 mins for Vespers.

Denzinger is a compendium of dogmatic/doctrinal/important statements of the Church. It has a scriptural index in the back, which allows you to look if there's an official interpretation on a certain Bible verse. It may not have every verse, or every authentic interpretation (and it's only magisterial statements, not interpretations of the Saints) but it is pretty good.

I would suggest the shorter form of the Divine Office for starters! It can be found on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Shorter-Christian-Prayer-Four-Week-Containing/dp/0899424082.

I personally have loved it.

If you read the book To Save a Thousand Souls, the author spends the last few chapters discussing the life of a seminarian all his years in seminary, as well as the life of a diocesan priest. Wonderful book!

The St. Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer really won't be of much help since it is for Christian Prayer and OP is using Shorter Christian Prayer. If I was ambitious I would put together a short .pdf guide for Shorter Christian Prayer for Lent next year, since that seems to be when everyone gets interested.

Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtła

This book is based on Bl. Pope John Paul II's pastoral work as a priest and bishop in Poland before becoming pope. It is a philosophical treatment of love and family and is very dense but very good in my opinion. I first came across this book in a philosophy course. The other main texts utilized in this course were Plato's Phaedo and portions of St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. I've been meaning to go back and reread this book for years.

I know people who got pregnant while using birth control.

If you confess fornication and struggle with accepting the Church's teaching on sex, may I suggest digging deeper? I've had to do that to understand more than one topic. Theology of the Body, Love and Responsibility, and Humanae Vitae are great places to start. If you're anything like me and you suck at theology, Christopher West and Edward Sri might be helpful.

I recommend the divine office, a.k.a. the Liturgy of the Hours. Mainly because praying Morning, Evening and Night Prayers tend to keep you through the day. If you add a rosary somewhere to that, you'll be in good shape. Here's an online link: http://www.divineoffice.org.

and of course /r/divineoffice

Good resources, but I'd recommend picking up a copy of this:

http://www.amazon.ca/Shorter-Christian-National-Conference-Catholi/dp/0899424082/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411429333&sr=1-2&keywords=shorter+christian+prayer

...because it has Morning, Evening and Night prayer and you don't need to go online. Just avoid going online as much as possible, if you know where it's going to head when you do.

This, confession, and jogging.

I remember reading your original post. I'm glad you went to your first mass and will be studying Catholicism.
Have you heard of the book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Dr. Brant Pitre? It explains the Eucharist from a Jewish perspective. I highly recommend it to anyone studying Catholicism.

Came here to recommend them too. Can find at Amazon, Volume 1 here. Really neat thing is that they have a doctrinal index too, so if you want to read up on a particular topic amongst a representative sample of the Fathers, you aren't chasing all over the place.

The best book by far for you would be Catholicism and Fundamentalism. https://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Fundamentalism-Attack-Romanism-Christians/dp/0898701775
It is comprehensive and has to do with exactly what you are talking about. It is protestant convert Scott Hahn's recommended book.

I read Rome Sweet Home by Scott & Kimberly Hahn and I thought it was a very good tale of conversion. There's a bit of light apologetics throughout and it was compelling enough for me to finish it in a day. (I hardly read.)

Next up on my list are The Lamb's Supper by Hahn, The Love Chapter: The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 13 by St. John Chrysostom, and An Exorcist Tells His Story by Fr. Gabrielle Amorth, exorcist of the Vatican.

If you know any young people, the YOUCAT is an invaluable resource if they don't want to sit through the entire Catechism. Of course you want to eventually point them to it but I find, at 22, it's more suited to me poor attention span.

Canticle for Leibowitz is my favourite Catholic fiction but that doesn't mean much because I haven't read anything else. If you're looking for a good Catholic writer, I hear Flannery O'Connor is one. Of course Tolkien is a giant as is Chesterton (literally).

If you really want to learn a lot about the differences, go to YouTube and start listening to Steve Ray and read his book Crossing the Tiber. I have a friend who grew up in the Church of the Bible and they switched the Catholicism. He said this book along with listening to Steve Ray, and another book called Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating really helped him understand Catholicism when he was still surrounded by Protestant friends.

That book is an excellent resource for the lay person. Another good one is by the same author.

Quite frankly, I don't know why this isn't more popular amongst more academically inclined Protestants/high Protestants/Catholics. Or perhaps it is, but I've only seen it mentioned here once, about a week ago. It's great if you're at a cross roads between Orthodoxy vs Catholicism, and contains a monolith if information and Early Church & biblical citations. It's between 300-400 pages, with I swear half of every page being footnotes. Not your typical bedtime read, I suppose.

http://www.amazon.com/Upon-This-Rock-Scripture-Apologetics/dp/0898707234/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0GMBK4GZ7EFQC9653N6X

"And why the Church has a rule about being in the Church for 3+ years before making the plunge."

Who told you it was that long? The Program of Priestly Formation says 2 years, not 3. Still, we will pray with you for a diligent discernment. I suggest getting a copy of the book To Save a Thousand Souls by Fr. Brett Brannen - it's an invaluable guide for priesthood discernment. You can buy it here or order it for free here if you're in a diocese that pays for it.

Also, the r/Discerning subreddit is devoted to people such as yourself. You'll have to contact the mods of that subreddit to enter, but your activity on r/Discerning will be hidden from public view.

Spiritu tecum!

Edit: adding links for the book.

/u/Hurrah_for_Karamazov, I'm still following the discussion, and I'm impressed, I'm already looking forward to buy this book to start somewhere on this topic of metaphysics.

Do not feel bad or hurt by the unnecessary and pointless mean things this folk writes in some paragraphs of his replies or get impressed by the things written to play the victim card, as you may know already, it only shows how much he needs Christ in his life (because, some happy person wouldn't use such resources in a discussion; obviously there is something wrong with the anger of this friend). This folk should be keep in our prayers.

Please do not give up! I'm learning a lot of things with this discussion!!

As you continue your research, I think you will be surprised by just how Jewish the Catholic Church is. Many of our traditions and liturgical practices find their roots in Jewish traditions. The Church, the new Israel, is the fulfilment of the covenant. I would suggest Brant Pitre's Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist for a great explination of the Catholic Church's ties to Judiasim.

You might want to check out this book: https://www.amazon.com/Upon-This-Rock-Scripture-Apologetics/dp/0898707234

The youtuber LizziesAnswers here stated how it really helped her decide between orthodoxy and the Catholic Church. Hopefully it might help you too!

Scapular and beer. Scapular flavored beer!

You might try the Christian Prayer liturgy of the hours for a real gift that he could come to like.

Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin


When the Church was Young by Marcellino D'Ambrosio

He has a new book coming out soon - http://www.amazon.com/Scholastic-Metaphysics-A-Contemporary-Introduction/dp/3868385444 - so it might be a good opportunity to get people exposed to his work and get those book orders rolling in.

I'm currently reading When the Church was Young by Marcellino D'Ambrosio. It's about the first 800 years of the church and so far is a great read.

This book is an indispensable starting place for research for thoughts of the Early Christian Fathers. I'm on mobile in the car right now but I think you'll find something in St. Iranaeus about how agreement with the See of Rome being necessary.

Lol you sound like my family.

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History https://www.amazon.com/dp/1599475367/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bfhNBb5VJRK76

Eusebius: The Church History https://www.amazon.com/dp/082543307X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UfhNBb1P8XHR2

Upon This Rock: St. Peter and the Primacy of Rome in Scripture and the Early Church (Modern Apologetics Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898707234/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fghNBbFWXATPK

If you like to read, please check out

Upon this Rock This book is about the Papacy. & Crossing the Tiber, a Protestant conversion story, which includes a lot of Church history, and quotes from the early Church.

Here are a few that might interest you.

https://strangenotions.com/wright-conversion/

C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity
http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450724094&sr=1-1&keywords=mere+christianity+by+c.s.+lewis


Catholicism & Reason: Creed & Apologetics by Edward J. Hayes

Anthony Flew's "There is a God"
http://www.amazon.com/There-Is-God-Notorious-Atheist/dp/0061335304

Thank you again. It sounds like I should combine that work with this one, since the latter one seems to be more introductory than the former.

Currently in the middle of reading Fr. Adrian Fortescue's The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon in 451. It has been a good read so far on understanding the papacy in general.

I also got His Broken Body. I heard it gives a good understanding of the schism between East and West, albeit from an Orthodox perspective. Not exactly what you may be looking for, but may contribute as well.

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant James Pitre

This is an amazing book. Every Catholic should own a copy.

I recommend reading The Early Papacy to the Synod of Chalcedon in 451 by Fr Fortesque. It is a fantastic historical account of how the papacy was regarded in the earliest years of the church, by accounts of those who lived in those times. The year 451 and the Synod of Chalcedon were chosen arbitrarily, due to the arguments of those he debated in the Anglican church who insisted that the church became corrupt after that synod and the papacy did not exist until after 451 AD. He proves very definitively that this is not the case. Give it a read!

If you want a good history of philosophy with responses to basically everybody, Fr. Frederick Copleston's A History of Philosophy is pretty good.

Here's the first volume: https://www.amazon.com/History-Philosophy-Vol-Pre-Socratics-Plotinus/dp/0385468431/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579301&sr=8-4&keywords=frederick+copleston

Edward Feser deals with both the New Atheists, Enlightenment thinkers, and Old Atheists in The Last Superstition, Aquinas, and Neo-Scholastic Essays. Fr. Garrigou Lagrange's Reality is also worth it.

The Last Superstition: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism-ebook/dp/B00D40EGCQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579343&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+superstition

Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Aquinas-Beginners-Guide-Edward-Feser/dp/1851686908/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1543579366&sr=8-6

Neo-Scholastic Essays: https://www.amazon.com/Neo-Scholastic-Essays-Edward-Feser/dp/1587315580/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579366&sr=8-5&keywords=edward+feser

Reality: https://www.amazon.com/Reality-Synthesis-Reginald-Garrigou-Lagrange-P/dp/1477582401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579439&sr=8-1&keywords=reality+garrigou-lagrange

Honestly, I tend to think Van Til's Presuppositionalism is a better system than a lot of Catholic philosophy. His book Christian Apologetics is probably his easiest to read, though I'll admit I've had more access to his ideas from his defenders than his actual writing: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Apologetics-Cornelius-Van-Til/dp/0875525113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579550&sr=8-1&keywords=christian+apologetics+van+til

In a less theologically charged but similar category are Alvin Plantinga's Where the Conflict Really Lies and Warranted Christian Belief: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Conflict-Really-Lies-Naturalism-ebook/dp/B005X3SAHY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579615&sr=8-1&keywords=where+the+conflict+really+lies+science%2C+religion%2C+and+naturalism

https://www.amazon.com/Warranted-Christian-Belief-Alvin-Plantinga-ebook/dp/B0059EQ4DY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543579634&sr=8-1&keywords=warranted+christian+belief

There is a book called Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (link). It goes into how Jesus' sacrifice mirrors the various sacrifices of the OT (particularly the passover lamb and the bread of the presence). While this book doesn't really go into all the details that you could pull out of Leviticus, it does show that if you don't understand the context of the Jewish ritual sacrifices and offerings, you can't really understand the Sacrifice on the Cross. Or put another way, you can't understand the New Covenant without understanding the Old Covenant and how the Old was fulfilled (and so superseded by) the New.

You could also look up the various commentaries by the Church Fathers (like Ignatious, Irenaeous, or Augustine) on the OT and Leviticus in particular. There is also Aquinas' commentary. All of them see types of Christ in the OT sacrificial rituals.

Finally, it's important to note that many Catholic rituals (particularly pre-Vatican II) were heavily based on ancient Jewish rituals.