{"id":145353,"date":"2022-12-23T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-prayer-but-not-dogma-attracts-me-to-catholicism\/"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:41:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:41:58","slug":"ask-a-priest-what-if-prayer-but-not-dogma-attracts-me-to-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-prayer-but-not-dogma-attracts-me-to-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: What If Prayer But Not Dogma Attracts Me to Catholicism?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Q: I was born to a mother from a strong Catholic family and a father whose parents were Missouri Synod Lutherans. I was baptized as a baby in that Lutheran church, but then my parents joined an awful \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d house church, and I was raised in that context. It turned me off to Christianity, and I ended up converting to Judaism. Years later I left that faith and have just seen myself as a pagan or agnostic or something since. Recently though, through doing family research and getting closer to extended family members who are Irish Catholics, and through exposure to Catholic spiritual spaces through my daughter’s participation as a student in a Catholic college, I have been feeling a connection to elements of Catholic spirituality. I am not sure what to do with that. I have a hard time believing a lot of the dogma\/theology, but the contemplative and prayerful practices seem incredibly soothing to me. I am not sure what to do about it, what it means, or if this is a common thing you see. Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to see if anyone had thoughts on this. Thanks for your time. \u2013 T.S.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0It sounds as though you are receiving a great grace from God.<\/p>\n

You are on a spiritual journey, and like a lot of journeys, it takes a while before the destination starts to appear on the horizon.<\/p>\n

My suggestion is to follow your interest in the contemplative and prayerful practices that attract you.<\/p>\n

Dedicate time to prayer, and the Holy Spirit can use them to bring you in the direction he wants.<\/p>\n

For it is the Holy Spirit who enlightens and leads a soul. Prayer is an experience of God, and the most important first step is to ask the Almighty to guide you and to be aware that if certain means (like Catholic spirituality) are resonating, that might be the direction you should go.<\/p>\n

Two book suggestions that might help with prayer are Opening to God<\/em><\/a> and The Better Part<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Catholicism is deep and broad, and it has lots of treasures to attract people. Down the road, if you are more interested in the faith, you try reading other books.<\/p>\n

Some worth a look include Surprised by Truth<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> by Patrick Madrid; Why We’re Catholic<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> by Trent Horn; Theology and Sanity<\/em><\/a> and Theology for Beginners<\/em><\/a>, both by Frank Sheed; and The Case for Jesus<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> by Brant Pitre.<\/p>\n

You could also browse the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Above all, read the Gospels. Get to know the person of Jesus Christ better. And count on my prayers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145353"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=145353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}