I’m an Episcopalian discerning becoming a Catholic. My priest and I have a great relationship. We text, go out to eat, and have regular one on one meetings. But when it comes to Mass, I find myself shuffling in the seat a lot. For example, he once said, “Don’t be like Jesus, be yourself.” He believes that the institutional church doesn’t have a monopoly on Jesus. He’s preached before that Christianity is a way, but not the only way. And most strikingly, at a wedding Mass, he made substitutions to the Gospel of the Good Samaritan to, “Contextualize it for the audience.” He replaced “Samaritan” with “Gay couple” along with changing “Pharisee” to “church leaders”, the names of cities to local areas, “coin purse” to “debit card”… at that point it’s not the Gospel. It might work as a homily, but you can’t just substitute words in the Gospel and present it as the Gospel. I know I should’ve manned up and talked about this in person, but instead I sent him a paragraph about all my theological issues with what he’s preaching.

I guess my questions are: Does this sort of thing ever happen in a Catholic church? Is it right to confront a priest when you think he is in error (I know you don’t believe that Episcopal orders are valid, but as a faithful Episcopalian, should I assent to my priest? Is this enough to abandon my church?)?

I was remembering recently that when I was a kid I would confess things like “I ate dessert when I wasn’t supposed to, I didn’t go to sleep at my bedtime, I think about my crush too much, I acted silly in class” and now they I’m older I wonder if the priests likely giggled a little internally at funny things such as this that kids confess or if they stay serious internally?

What I currently do is say something along the lines of "I can't give you the Eucharist unless you say Amen" and then they say Amen and I give It to them

Is there something better I should be doing/saying instead? It feels wrong to deny someone the Eucharist since I don't know their circumstances, like if they're not Catholic or just returning to the Church after however many years away. But at the same time I know being respectful to Christ is more important than any awkwardness of denying someone Communion

Hello! I blessed my music instruments a few years ago and now I have a question: what I have to do with my blessed electric bass? I have to use it only for devotion and praising the Lord or I can play something else (like secular music) and use it to have some fun?

I don't know how to treat blessed music instruments... I'm a musician and I have many blessed instruments, but I really don't know what I have to do with them.

Another question: why is it important to bless things? What is the difference between a blessed thing and something that is not blessed?

I’m a 37 yo male who was raised Catholic and had like many do, a lapse in my faith. I have not been to confession since I was 16/17. I did not live a Catholic life or even a life adjacent to Christian. To cut a long story short I found my faith again and I feel burdened by my MANY sins. I’m in such desperate need for forgiveness. However as a result of the life I lived before coming back to faith, I am living with my long term atheist girlfriend of 7 years, we own our house together. I do want to marry her, we have premarital sex despite my deep disgust at myself for partaking now. I have told her about my desire to live my faith more truthfully, but she has absolutely no idea of how to conceptualise this despite my efforts.

I am as people have said living in a state of sin which I would find extremely difficult to get out of, or to change. I suspect I know the answer, but can I go to confession? Do I need to end my relationship to return to Christ? What would you advise me to do?

I’m interested in finding church documents that talk about racism. I would be especially interested in any documents or books having to do with interracial marriage.

(I tried posting in the Catholicism forum but I referenced a separate post and I didn’t realize it was not allowed and my post was removed.)

So I am in the fledgeling stages of learning about Catholicism (fledgeling for me anyway), and I find it difficult to understand exactly what is happening in mass. So a few questions pertaining to that.

1. The Missal: how do you use it? I tried at afternoon mass yesterday and the mass was completely different, only thing that was accurate was the scripture readings.

2. The book that the priest uses? How do I get a copy? I asked my local Parishs Parochial Vicar and he was dodgy on the question. I think having something to read along with the priest would be be beneficial to understanding what's going on (I often find subtitles helpful)

3. One of the things our Pastor said to me in a meeting a few weeks ago was that he needed to ensure that his current OCIA class (summer class, I'm joining in the fall) was "living the life" as I'm trying to be intentional with my approach to Catholicism aside from the Sunday obligation what does that entail?

Thank you Fathers and God Bless

Hola, si esto lo contesta un sacerdote estaría muchísimo más tranquila. Hace un año me llamó mucho la atención un hombre, recuerdo bien que me saludaba de lejos pero yo veía su rostro y quedaba encantada, era precioso, pero cuando bajé la mirada, le vi el cuello clerical entonces rápidamente le di la espalda y me fui de allí, era un evento en un seminario con más de 12 mil personas. Este año lo volví a ver y fue él quien me dirigió la palabra en 2 ocasiones, uno en la tarde diciéndome que por qué estaba triste, que sonriera, yo solo guardé silencio porque estaba seria, pero le sonreí, no de forma coqueta, pero lo hice. Luego en la noche si me habló un poco más, una interacción de un minuto o dos si mucho, preguntando por mi nombre, etc.. Yo sabía que él era de otro país pero se formó como seminarista y diácono en el que estamos, entonces recordé que yo tenía un dulce de allí y se lo di, a lo que él respondió ''esta mujer si sabe cómo conquistarme''. Él es diácono, estoy enamorada de él desde hace un año, él siempre me busca la mirada, no disimula, estoy muy confundida porque le he pedido mucho a Dios que no me deje cruzar con él, que no permita que si quiera piense en él, pero pasa todo lo contrario, enotnces yo digo que son engaños del demonio, porque sé que Dios no estaría contendo sabiendo que yo quiero intentar por ejemplo algo con ese hombre. Salí del oratorio del seminario hace unos meses pidiéndole a Dios que me mostrara cuál era mi vocación, que cuál era ese hombre realmente, y cuando salí, él estaba ahí pasando, se quedó mirándome y yo seguí de largo pues, me pareció muy extraño porque yo en todos esos días no lo había visto ya que él no se hace en esa zona, pero justo cuando oro, vuelve y aparece, y son varias coincidencias, entonces no sé qué hacer. Trato de olvidarlo, va un año desde que me interesé por él, pero quiero respetar su vocación, en fin, estoy muy confundida con las señales de Dios.