How the Church Fathers Made Me Catholic 

I will pray for you. Not a criticism but since you desire to become Catholic I think it's something you would want to know. The Catholic Church is not a denomination. Denominations came out of the Reformation. The Catholic Church is the one true Church.

leaving for mass in10 minutes will do

@@liztesta9088 thank you for the correction!

@@Nrev973 welcome!!! I hope your dream comes true 2025!!!

Do it!

🔥💪

Ask Mary to pray for you. Hope she hears you. She not doing anything about her child molester costume holymen.

I pray you keep searching and are lead to the truth. Some books which helped me better understand the Catholic faith, surprised by truth by Patrick Madrid, Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist by brant pitre, fundamentals of the faith by Peter kreeft. Any bishop Barron video. God bless you!

Read: The Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre. It will absolutely convince you of the true blood and true body in the Eucharist. Fantastic read!

@@johnbrion4565 I’ll be looking for it. ❤️Thank you and God bless..

Me too! Thirty-three years ago this Pentecost!

​@@kellyschroer2114 My journey started on Lent this year and starting RCIA this September.

Congratulations brothers and sisters! You found it! Welcome home!

​@@dankmatter3068 I feel like I'm home too.

God bless you! I admire the many Protestants who sacrificed worldly approval by family and friends, to seek truth at all costs.

Amen.. welcome home and praise to the Lord for your journey back home!!

God bless Andrew. The orthodox church is more organic and is more about the heart. And when you study history deeply it will make more sense.

​@@kianoghuz1033But the main thing is that ONLY THE SON OF GOD CAN BUILD HIS CHURCH. Jesus build ONLY ONE CHURCH through His Apostle Peter only not even to His 11 Apostles and the popes are the successors right from His Apostle Peter. But now there are thousand of churches build by men were reject and against His Church. When Jesus build His Church He gave the power and the authority to His Apostles. Luke 9:1-2 - "and He called His 12 Apostles together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal". Luke 10:16 - Jesus told to His Apostles "he who hears you hears Me and he who rejects you rejects Me and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me". Luke 10:19 -Jesus say to His Apostles "behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you". John 10:9-10 Jesus say to us "I am the door, if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly". John 6:64-65- Jesus told us "but there are some of you that do not believe. For Jesus knew from the first who those were that not believe and who it was that betray Him. And He said, "this is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the FATHER". John 8:51 Jesus say "truly truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps MY WORD, he will never see death".

@@kianoghuz1033 Not sure… Maybe we have to be careful about the superficial “organicity”. By reading Acts and the Pauline letters, for example, we see that St. Luke describes loads and loads of trouble in the very heart of the early church and Paul tries to address the issues within the communities to whom he writes. Some of the problems addressed by Paul have lasted until our times… The church has to be one… Nevertheless, we can see that, despite of their apparent organicity, the Orthodox Churches don’t want to be together with one another. But all of them are “organic” and “beautiful”, but separately.

You entered the Catholic Church or are still discerning?

Lots of good Catholic videos from these RU-vid channels: Catholic Productions, Shameless Popery, Ascension Presents. Have you come across the Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz? Changed my life! 🙏

@@jhamberg8968 love fr mike

How to Be Christian is a pretty fun resource for combating Protestantism. The Catholic Talk Show is awesome if you're looking for something a bit more laid back. Their chemistry is unmatched. Trent Horn, Jimmy Akin, Scott Hahn, John Bergsma, and Keith Nester put out some pretty great stuff as well. Pints with Aquinas can be profound when Matt resists his tendency to be a pesky little rad Trad lad. (I ❤ Mother Natalia!) Michael Lofton is an incredible source of legitimate information among all the manufactured anti-Pope Francis hype. Fr. Casey is good for the youth, even though he can be a tad liberal for my liking. His stuff with Fr. Pat is charming. *Avoid borderline schismatics like Michael Vorris and Taylor Marshall at all costs.* God bless!

@@jhamberg8968 yes I listen to the podcast on the hallow up every day

You love being catholic? That is not good. Aren't you aware that your baptism did not deliver you?

So were your sins paid for when Christ died on The Cross, perfected once for all or???

​@@dand4485Catholics believe jesus sacrifice was infinitely fulfilling

@@dand4485 One answer equally to your question.. shut up.

Converts make up some of the best Catholics like Steve Ray and Scott Hahn

I should have become Catholic as a child. I was baptized Catholic at 3. But my dad left the faith and I grew up Presbyterian and stayed there until 63, a total of 55 years. I was an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church. But their liberal teachings isn't in the Bible and that led me to go deeper and study the Bible, study the history of Christianity. Study the beliefs of the different faiths. That all led me to the Catholic Church. Now I defend the faith and been doing so since my first RCIA class

Likewise. Joshua is a perfect example of these awesome converts who strengthen the faith of the Body of Christ.

@@emoore1439 Don't forget John Bergsma and Peter Kreeft too, very humble men.

My Priest once said that converts are the best Catholics!

Newman, the poster boy of the catholic church, had himself buried on top of his boyfriend so he could be with him forever.

@@peterzinya1 No…. Newman’s Soul is in Heaven. Try again.

Get behind me devil

@@WT-Sherman Make no mistake ,homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

@@peterzinya1you’re a fool.

🙏🔥

Congratulations. Welcome and may God bless you and may you continue to grow in holiness and love for the Lord and others.

Some great books which helped me and my friends and family are surprised by truth by Patrick Madrid, fundamentals of the faith by philosopher Peter kreeft, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by brant pitre. And of course anything by GK Chesterton.

Excellent recommendations from @johnbrion4565. I would add Scott Hahn's Rome Sweet Home, plus watching the Coming Home Network videos as well as Bishop Barron here, and the CatholicAnswers website.

Good talk, let us know how he responds.

I like this man’s style, it is easy to follow, logically presented and he makes so many good points.

E X C E L L E N T.

One of the best and most exhaustive books on the Church Fathers. ❤

Great analogy.

Yeah, very apt analogy. One way or another you have to justify why you left, and explain it to people who are trusting you to guide them. So there's a pressure to perpetuate lies about Catholics, and a big disincentive against doing research that might prove them to be false, since then you or your flock would find out that you were wrong. People are disinclined to admit being wrong about anything, even such transitory matters as political beliefs. But this is one particular belief where the stakes could not possibly be higher, the eternal souls of you and everyone you know, and all your ancestors. Who wants to believe that their parents might be suffering in hell for eternity because they happened to be born into a phony schismatic church? Of course, we hope no one is damned for something like that, but it's impossible to have _confidence_ that it won't happen. It's so much more comfortable to just carry on believing that you and your parents and your parents' parents just happened to be born into the true church that, through the power of reason, managed to recover the true faith of the Apostles after over a thousand years of suppression and marginalization by the united Church of all of Christendom, so there's nothing to worry about and you'll all go to heaven. And to defend those who defected, who effectively brought you to whatever protestant church you were born into, it's not effective to say "our church is just as valid as yours," since if it's just equally good, then why leave? The decision to abandon a united church demands a more serious justification; something must have been positively _wrong_ about the original church. So every little difference between Protestant and Catholic (and even some fake differences that don't actually exist except in Jack Chick tracts) is magnified a thousandfold and ripped out of context, so that the Catholic Church begins to appear like this intolerable, demonic tyrant. Locking Bibles up with chains so they can't be read is a great example of how something noble the Church actually did - creating Bibles and letting anyone read them for free, in a time when each copy cost the equivalent of thousands of dollars (or even millions for some illuminated manuscripts) to produce - is distorted into something almost cartoonishly villainous - rather than tying the Bibles to chains so you couldn't walk out of Church with them (the same thing tech stores do today, chaining down phones and laptops so you can try them but can't steal them), we hear they were chaining down Bibles so only the priests with the keys could read them. It's hard to imagine anyone believes this, since if the Church didn't want people to read the Bible, why bother producing so many Bibles and tying them to the floor, when you could just... not leave Bibles out in the open of every chapel, cathedral, and library. But this is a persuasive myth because it's recounted to people when they are still children. Once the lie is locked in, it's rarely ever reevaluated. And in that sense, the analogy to divorce is very strong, since it's exactly why children can be poisoned against their fathers. Some beliefs are reevaluated in adulthood, but not all of them. People employ a scattershot approach, spamming the child with so many lies that it's just a numbers game; it's statistically impossible to reevaluate all of them, and perhaps psychologically impossible to do so without deconstructing your entire personality. Anyway, it's a good thing Catholics have a great answer to Protestants' fear that accepting Catholicism means acknowledging that hundreds of their ancestors are probably damned to eternal torment: purgatory. It's true that Protestants know the Catholic Church exists and can engage with the arguments and historical evidence to see that it's the original Church that Jesus established and has not committed some great apostasy, so they do technically sin by remaining in schism. But Catholic soteriology incorporates a nuanced philosophy of culpability. Someone who has been taught hundreds of lies about Holy Mother Church from early childhood has diminished responsibility for remaining in schism. Even if it's technically possible that he could have sorted through all those lies and figured out the truth, the sheer difficulty of such a task ensures he is less culpable. And diminished culpability is generally considered to be one of the reasons for purgatory to exist. You also can't repent of a sin you don't know you've committed, so you have diminished culpability for failing to repent also. So it's entirely possible that most protestants are redeemed through fire rather than damned. Which means you don't need to live in denial of the obvious testimony of the early Church Fathers and the words of Christ vis-a-vis the Eucharist and the appointment of Peter to avoid the unbearable thought of everyone you know being damned. We also believe that one person's intercession can save many. If you do convert, you may be able to persuade God to save all your ancestors, especially if you ask the saints to intercede for them as well. After all, the Bible clearly says that the prayers of the saints are more powerful than the prayers of sinners. It doesn't mean that you're doing the saving. God almost always works through his creatures, to give them an opportunity to be charitable, loving, and faithful of their own accord. He's trying to teach us something. Perhaps interceding with him on your ancestors' behalf is one of God's purposes for you: to be the final linchpin in God's plan to save all those people, and in so doing to become Christlike yourself. Pure conjecture, of course. But it's worth thinking about before you dismiss Catholicism as a live option on account of what it would mean for all your forebears.

So who appointed the church fathers? Why should we treat them as authorities? And please don't tell me one of them knew a guy that once talked to a guy that went to school with an apostle

@@kevinkelly2162 The Church Fathers show the continuity of the apostolic teaching. Plus if someone was a disciple of an apostle, don’t you think they have a better chance of getting the full teaching of Jesus than someone who’s hundreds or 1500 years later?

@@TrixRN If you read Paul it is obvious that there was no clear church techings in the early church(es). You are doing history backwards to give the early church leaders an authority they did not have. I used to be a catholic and have seen church teaching change immensley just in my lifetime not to mention 1500 years. Don't kid yourself your beliefs resemble the teachings of Jesus.

@@kevinkelly2162 “who appointed the early church fathers, but don’t tell me they knew apostles”. Titus, Timothy, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna were all made bishops by apostles. There are more as well. Titus, Timothy and Clement are all mentioned in scripture. Yeah, who cares what they say?! I do and so should you. Definitely don’t read them if you want to stay Protestant.

@@mikelopez8564 Atheist actually. And 'apostles' is not really a good enough answer. Which apostles? Paul never met Jesus and of his 14 letters only 7 are considerd genuine. Not a ringing endorsement for a qualification as scripture.

Which saints would you recommend?

@@gfujigoI just read a short piece just a couple days on Maximillian Kolbe. Had heard about him on another podcast. Fascinating story and life.

@@jmfrmf5342 Thanks. I will look him up.

@@gfujigo I recommend St Tomas De Torquemada.

I agree. I’ve always felt a big difference is that Catholicism is a call to holiness where as I’ve heard so many Protestant friends say they’ve done enough and are saved. That seems to miss the point to me. The point is not for us to be whisked away to heaven. It’s to have fullness of life by turning away from sin and aligning our will with God’s. There have been Protestant saints I’m sure. But it seems there are so many more Catholic saints throughout history who lived lives of complete devotion to God regardless of circumstances. In fact offer despite horrible circumstances.

May Lord Jesus bless you and your family. Amen.

May Mother Mary, intercede for you and your family. But remember they're in Heaven

Love it

He really is.

It's always the converts who understand the truth of Catholicism more. Bless you Joshua Charles. As a cradle Catholic, I feel I need to learn more.

And it is sadly those ex-Catholics those with the sharpest of tongues, they add “when I was Catholic we didn’t read the bible or they didn’t let us read the bible” or many other untrue comments. It’s like spiritual warfare, the fallen angels can grab a hold of an ex-Catholic in a stronger way. There is a quote somewhere in the bible that says, if you were with us and you turn away from the Church, it would have been better for you to have never known. I am totally paraphrasing and I think it was Jesus that said. But please do not quote me on it. I just remember something like it.

@@rc72e 2 Peter 2:20-22 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

@@rc72e But there is hope. Pray for their return & for repentance. Pray as St Monica did for her son.

@@Fraevo10 I prefer Lk 15 - the parable of the Prodigal Son - to understand this.

Praying for them now! My son came back after 8 years away St. Monica novena Divine mercy chaplet! I just stopped talking and debating and went into hard prayer!

@Z25MikeD I've experienced nondenominational churches, too. Heartfelt, but lacking theological coherence (more emotion than reason) and historical context, and oddly very anti-Catholic, almost as justification for their separation. When I visited several different nondenominational churches, I asked why they've splintered so much and how they resolved differences in interpretation (final human authority) and couldn't get reasonable answers. They kept pointing me to the Early Church, those closest to Christ, "before Constantine". So, I read about the Early Church and found Didache, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, and I learned more about the "sacraments" and hierarchy in the Early Church. I thought about how the Apostles spoke to their disciples about Jesus' teachings, sharing verbally until the first Gospel, Mark, was written about 20 years after Jesus' Resurrection. And I realized that before the New Testament was written (through Revelation), it was faithfully transmitted and taught verbally by the Apostles and their chosen disciples (bishops and priests) to early Christians across generations. This oral transmission and teaching is called Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition determined what should and shouldn't be included in the official canon of the New Testament. Hundreds (later thousands) of bishops gathered in councils, called by the Bishop of Rome, to debate and decide the canon, dogma and doctrine, not just one man. The councils condemned heresies (untruths), which often come from one man who breaks from the Church to start his own church, like Montanus (a new "prophet", who spoke in tongues, appointed himself above the Church, and predicted Jesus' imminent Second Coming to his hometown), Arius ("Christ was merely human"), the Gnostics ("Christ was not human", because all Creation is evil), and Pelagius (God's grace is not needed--we can save ourselves by our own efforts). In light of what I found about the Early Church, and after some further research into the beliefs of a number of nondenominational (and Protestant) churches, I could find no reason to belong to anything but the Catholic Church.

Hello, please listen to EWTN radio and Relevant radio in the morning- Patrick Madrid on Relevant- I’ll pray for you.

For some reason I couldn’t post on the other post. I’m not really sure why. Sometimes channels discriminately block repeated post from certain biased oppositions. I’m not really sure why they do that. Then again sometimes it’s just RU-vid being stupid Paul John and all of the apostles do not use free choice language. They use absolute language. You’re either one, or the other. Where one has certain attributes the other has the opposite. They never say you must do this or you must do that. They never say- choose to do. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10). We have been saved by grace through faith, and not of works. No man has any cause for boasting. We are not saved by good works, but we are in fact saved to good works. We are created in Christ Jesus to good works, works that were ordained beforehand for us to walk in. As foreordained works, this means that they necessarily follow salvation by grace. And, as such, there is no inconsistency when God uses them as an infallible indicator that salvation by grace has in fact occurred. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12-13) We are to work out our salvation, but this is only possible as we are working out what God is working in. And so it is that we are saved by works the work of Christ on the cross, and the works of the Spirit within us, which works are, from our perspective, entirely and utterly gracious.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean? What do you mean by the Bible being a liturgical book? What do you mean taking the Bible outside of the church? Thanks.

@@gfujigothe Holy Bible is a collection of books the Catholic Church put together. The Bible is a Catholic book . It was compiled by the Catholic Church for Catholics . It was read by the ordained clergy in the Catholic Church . It didn’t come from the sky and drop into the hands of random people to interpret it anyway they want .

⁠@@gfujigoin addition to what Benjamin said, I remember being quite shocked to find out that one of the primary criteria’s used by the Catholic Church in determining whether a competing scroll was to be considered inspired scripture or not was whether the book they were reviewing was historically read during mass. It gave the book more credibility because of its historicity which made it a more reliable source to be considered since it was already being read “as scripture” from the very beginning.

@@Lawdawgsteve Thanks for answering my question. I appreciate it.

@@gfujigo hope that helps my friend. God bless you on your faith journey. A good couple of books on the canon of scripture are “Where we got the Bible, our debt to the Catholic Church” by Henry Graham and Why Catholic Bibles are bigger by Gary Michuta. God bless you.

I’m studying them in online class for 1st time. So interesting!! But I’ve fallen behind in reading & thinking I should quit… Cradle Catholic.

@@marybeth1747 That’s too easy. Endure until the end. I deal with family and friends/acquaintances who are mercilessly against the Catholic Church, to such a degree, I won’t even bother talking to them about it, and if they bring anything up to me, in spite or in some sense of mockery.. well.. they get chastised for it. . They are Protestants who think they know it all for the most part. Cant reason with them.. only pray. Trying to reason with that, it can burn you out. Idk if you deal with that but a lot of us do.

Love it!

Why does d rc church look to the church fathers MORE than to the Bible? Why be so afraid of different / varied teachings in Protestantism on the minor issues, when that is to be expected with respect to the uniqueness of each man/woman made in the image of God...n... Why MAKING of THIS UNIQUENESS as if it's TO BE SHUNNED??? In Truth, true Biblical Christianity as opposed to mandated christianity is NOT A RELIGION but a way of life thro which God reaches down to each man thro the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of individuals...unlike religion where man adds their own ideas, wants n instructions...that are then "OFFICIALISED" by men of religion ... n then forced upon OTHER ("lower class"/ laity in contrast to clergy) MEN TO HV THEM COMPLY failing which, the man/woman is accused of being a HERETIC...but hv U EVER thought "heretic with regards to WHAT / WHO ?"...n this is KEY to Right N Wrong, Truth n falsehood according to God...not to man...unless that man / those men ARE THEMSELVES FIRSTLY IN LINE ACCORDING TO GOD! So, hv U CHECKED WHY ONLY THESE (that are commonly known / named as church fathers by rc itself) ...are used almost like a YARDSTICK TO FAITH N TRUTH that is taken to be about at PAR WITH The Word of God Itself???...WHY???

@@christlyn1830 Protestantism is basically all ancient heresies, long refuted, rolled into a ball and brought back into the modern world with the “age of enlightenment” Gnostic nonsense , refashioned and redefined. Mainly gnostic/Manichæism… 1 Timothy 3:15 it’s the CHURCH that is the pillar and foundation of the truth. 2 Thess. 3:6 We are commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to depart and have no fellowship with anyone among the churches that forsake and abandon the tradition, the sacred tradition passed down from the apostles. You need your footnotes and commentaries and favored pastors to read through the Bible. To even know anything about cross referencing/exegesis/hermeneutics, fulfilled prophecy and so much more… Bible does not make the claims of itself, that Luther imposed on it: “You can be your own pope.. you are your own church…” And without Luther’s ideologies being the head of all Protestant theology.. there would be no Protestant theology. Protestantism would not exist. But for Protestants, all of you claim the novel “sola scriptura”, yet have continued factions after factions splitting from one another. Still unable to settle on key doctrine/dogmas and elementary principles of the Faith. Yet all are claiming to be “hearing from the Lord” And ironically are the very group (Protestants) that played your own pontiffs, with no authority and removed the deuterocanon as per 1820s-1880s, whereas there was never a distinction in the Old Testament… All of it is inspired scripture, divine revelation from the Holy Spirit of God. (Try the channel: ‘Apocrypha Apocalypse’ and ‘Patristic Pillars’) Also, “Apocrypha” is a title from the ancient SAINTS for the damnable Gnostic “gospels” and your peoples knew that when they began calling the “Deuterocanon” as “Apocrypha..” An utter blasphemy… But see.. you can’t know any of that, apart from knowing the very history and tradition of a faith you claim to believe with your whole heart, mind and soul. You can’t know the history of how you get a Bible to begin with without a tradition to look to. You can’t know about the author of Hebrews. You can’t know about 2 Peter. Luther challenged James as not from an apostle, therefore, you can’t know about James.. Luther even challenged Apocalypse of John, as “not apostolic” whereas these are all utilized and written extensively on, as divine scripture by the ancients! And your self appointed group, guided by your secret pope: Luther and his theology.. Can’t know any of that with “sola scriptura” “If it isn’t in the Bible, I don’t want anything to do with it..” You can’t know about the Arian heresy and how to properly deal with heresies when they begin influencing a lot of people in Protestantism… Because these days, an Arian and a trinitarian Protestant are both still.. PROTESTANT.. Both still have “only Bible” to argue about, between the two of you. Neither party has a consensus/history that supports anything about “your interpretation” No matter who “wins the argument” between either. No matter if both parties have “doctorate degrees” Luther had a doctorate’s degree.. and wiped his arse with it… like Bart Ehrman.. like a lot do indeed…. Shamelessly. ”Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation-as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.“ ‭‭II Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭18‬ ‭

There’s a reason the Orthodox Church does not appeal to the early church fathers - they’re too Catholic.

"Anglo Catholic" is not Catholic. Even if an Anglican body acquires apostolic succession through Orthodox ordination, like the Orthodox they still lack the unifying and authoritative office of Peter.

Another option is the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. They are actually Anglo Catholic.

@@mikelopez8564 No, The Ordinariate is not "Anglo-Catholic". Anglo Catholic is a contradictory term, a myth. The Ordinariate is Catholic.

Please consider the Ordinariate, lad. Praying for your conversion

It will if you know that the Catholic Church is the true church and refuse to enter it.

My son returned to the church after8 years of atheism. Pray the st. Monica novena and the chaplet of Mercy. Praying for you now!

I shall , have masses said for her! Send her some good catholic conversion stories- Scott Hahn”Rome Sweet Home”.