To Paul

  I’m not „spouting” anything – if you call me friend at the end why treat me as an enemy?… Always present truth in charity. I try, I’m fallible, but I keep trying. The devil is the one that breeds conflicts, I was clear on that one. You keep not understanding the authority though. Jesus established the Church, and He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us to the whole Truth – you probably know the verses – the fact that people don’t follow that truth is another matter. Do you not see? All the examples you gave on how authority “fails” in the Catholic Church are misplaced – the fact that people are sinners and do their own thing doesn’t mean the Church is wrong in its teachings. It’s like saying that Apostoles where wrong because one of them betrayed Jesus. And besides, if you know Steve Ray and really listened to him with open mind and read his books, and still disagree with him, there’s nothing I can say that would convince you otherwise, even if I start quoting Scriptures, like John 6.

As for me, I know his conversion story, and heard him maybe a couple of times, but I prefer to listen to Trent Horn, Jimmy Akin, Tim Staples and Scott Hahn. And yet, most of why I even listened to them, was not for the reasons you think – I was never a Protestant, never even met one (I met an ex-Protestant who was later a militant atheist). I only listened to the guys above for two reasons – conversion stories, and because I was searching for some answers myself at some point. And why in English, because I enjoy that. I’m Polish, we don’t lack resources, but my degrees, including PhD are in English Philology. I am NOT a theologian. I searched for me. And if I answer some questions, it’s extremely rarely online. I learned to avoid YouTube comments long ago, mostly because of atheists, woke lefties and… yes, Catholic trads. So there – divisions everywhere, but still not of the kind you have problems with, I’ll get back to that later. I was learning stuff to defend my faith if necessary, so if I was personally accosted. And also to teach my children, so that they wouldn’t be as ignorant as I was in my childhood (though I’m sure my atheist mum had a lot to do with that).

I don’t understand what you mean by leaving your pastors out of the comments – why? You didn’t leave out priests and bishops. I mean no disrespect, but I heard countless stories – you may always verify it and listen to them yourself, and see where is it that I misrepresent them or something. As for the fact that a given pastor devoted his whole life to Jesus – I never denied any such thing. But then so do priests. And you have scandals on both sides. Just like you have sinners on both sides. We are all sinners, so why do you seem to hold that against the Catholic Church and it’s authority?

PhDs and seminaries mean little to me – I have one, it means little in my opinion… Many professors are woke, too – so for me it’s of slight importance. One may just read tons of material at home nowadays and by leading a holy life become a lot wiser than a professor who values knowledge about Jesus more than Jesus himself. Paraphrasing Thomas A’Kempis, of what use is the ability to define humility if you are not in fact humble. Or that you write a treatise on Trinity but live in sin and not care about it. I’m not saying that about anyone in particular, don’t get angry – it’s just never appealed to me. In fact, once a friend of mine was trying to persuade me about something concerning our faith and giving me a link to a priest where it started with the fact that he had three PhDs – for me that was instantly turning me off – since when is that an argument in the matters of faith? Were the Apostoles not fishermen too? Look how the Pharisees and those that knew their Scriptures best in the time of Jesus – how they reacted to Jesus?

You also claim that the pastors were given their office by Christ. Here’s what you said: “Protestant churches are characterized by authoritative governance. Within congregational churches, for example, pastors/elders exercise their office with the authority delegated to them by Jesus Christ, the head of the church.” I beg to disagree. Jesus established one Church, Peter got the keys to the Kingdom, and power to absolve people from sins. Read the Gospels and the Acts closely, then Church Fathers – it’s all there. We have the Apostolic succession – the Protestant churches do not. What you wrote there about is not a fact, it’s a belief.

Same with this: “Scripture possesses magisterial (leading) authority for Protestant churches, while tradition possesses ministerial (serving) authority. Whereas Scripture enjoys ultimate authority, tradition enjoys presumptive authority: given the fact that it is grounded on Scripture, rightly summarizes Scripture, and has been cherished by the church from the beginning, tradition is to be regarded as a true secondary authority until proven wrong.”

This is wrong because you claim the Authority to be in the Bible, which again, is not biblical, Sola Scriptura has long fallen… How can you say it has ultimate authority in Protestantism and have conflicting doctrines in your world? And the church from the beginning – which church, which beginning? Do you now talk of 40000 Protestant denominations? Or the Catholic Church, as that is the only one that was there at the very beginning? And for almost 4 centuries there was NO New Testament! Please dwell on that. And look up in your Bible – what is “the pillar and bulwark of truth”?

Even „until proven wrong” doesn’t hold in your world. When one pastor is proven “wrong” then you just split…

One more thing, just as you look at sinners in the Catholic Church and disbelievers in the Eucharist to dismiss my Church or my faith – it’s again like looking at Judas to dismiss the Apostles. So why don’t you read up on the Saints of the Catholic Church. I’m not saying to pray to them or whatever – just biographies and how they lived and loved and what THEY believed. Are all mothers bad, because some yell and beat the kids or abandon them? Are all men bad because some are rapists? Look up the saints, and Eucharistic miracles, read the Catechism and not surveys on parishioners. It’s like I asked a Seventh Day Adventists about what they believed and applied this to all of your denominations, such as Assemblies of God or Methodists, Baptists etc.

After all the Bible doesn’t interpret itself. And as for not all verses being interpreted – that’s a weird argument, it doesn’t prove anything. In the second century there was only the Catholic Church, but there was no New Testament, the Bible wasn’t canonized yet – so they had no teaching authority because the Bible was not interpreted then?

And be honest – do you want Protestantism to be judged by the worst or the best of you? 🙂 I often defend your faith and Protestants when I talk to my husband – it exasperates him sometimes 😉 And it is because he looks mostly at what the Protestantism did to Christianity and he’s more of a historian, so he looks at the roots of the reformation. Me, I look mostly at what is here and now, and how God works in all places, including your megachurches. At how you evangelize – how people come to Christ thanks to you, because God works through you and in you as well. But I want them to come all the way to the Church that Jesus established and left us, and most of all to the Eucharist. I’d gladly die for the Truth that He is present in the Eucharist. And all they guys I listened to (as far as ex-Protestants are concerned)  also say a lot of good about their protestant roots. So no need to get mad at me. I love you, and I’ll pray for you. I see that you already know where to look for answers, so I need not add much. And there are people, podcasts to go to. And the Catechism, to know what the Church teaches, and not what parishioners believe.

This argument with bad witnessing (goes both ways too), is not an issue of authority, but precisely the bad witnessing. People are sometimes born into a church tradition and not being formed in the faith, and then the world and the devil work on everyone as well. So many young people go astray everywhere. I watched conversion to Christianity (Protestant version) too, and sometimes we’re talking of born and raised Protestant, just lukewarm and swayed by secularism in their early teenage years. The culture of death, the antichristian propaganda, is everywhere now. And so you get people in both mine and your faith traditions that don’t do what Jesus says. It’s always been like that, and always will be. That’s why we need our Savior. The Church is like hospital for the sinners, and there are many sick people in it. When the Bible clearly condemns sodomy, it’s not only German bishops who claim something that the Church does NOT teach – so are many liberal Protestant churches. And since you place authority in the Bible – would you logically conclude like you did for the Catholic Church that the authority is not working, doesn’t exist or admit, that the meaning to have authority over something doesn’t equal exerting it? Because the Church, like Jesus, says X, Y and Z are wrong don’t do that – but it doesn’t force you and physically prevent you from doing those things. We all have free will and the burden of original sin and corrupted natures to deal with. And we fight against the devil and his tricks.

Or in a simple statement – The Bible is our authority. For me only the Catholic Church can interpret it infallibly, which doesn’t mean God doesn’t speak through it to everyone, individually and personally. Now, take an atheist who makes fun of it, or a believer, on both our sides, who simply disagrees with a part of it, like on sodomy or on the fact the evil is personal (as opposed to metaphorical) – does that make the Bible less of an authority to you? No? Then don’t say that the Catholic Church doesn’t have authority based on the fact that people sin, or pridefully think they know better than the Bible or the Church (that includes bishops, priests and pastors).

There’s another thing – see why I don’t like commenting on YT… You wrote about all those who disagree with the Church’s teaching or doctrines (I exclude those that agree but fail in their faith, sin, get up again, ask for forgiveness and try again). As if it’s just opinions where there are verses not infallibly interpreted – there’s no problem there, not as you see it. Say a sentence “Jesus wept” – why do you think it needs to be infallibly interpreted? If you are serious about your faith, and you seem to be, as I am – then you very well know, that we only need infallible interpretation for crucial matters – like salvation, hell, heaven, baptism etc.  BUT if you think that in the last 2000 years people haven’t pondered almost all of the verses from the Bible, then you’re wrong. Even f I could spend all the rest of my life reading everything that all the Catholics before me wrote on the Scriptures, I wouldn’t live long enough. Do they disagree sometimes? Yes. But not, again, on most important issues. For instance, there are unfortunately theologians in the Catholic Church that think that evil is just metaphorical, there’s no devil etc. But that’s wrong, and NOT what the Church teaches. And it doesn’t undermine the authority neither of the Church, nor of the Bible. (Like the example with atheists and the Bible). Importantly, for anyone who studies Scriptures a lot – there’s layers and layers of meaning. I keep discovering it in how it applies to my life, and it never contradicts the faith, the doctrines. What you call “opinions” has nothing to do with being popes or authority of the Church if it doesn’t contradict the Magisterium and the Bible.

For instance, if you read from your Bible that God thinks it’s good for people to be selfish, then you contradict the Church, and the Bible both. With Baptism, the Eucharist, commandments, evangelical counsels – it’s part of the teaching (moral or theological). But then there are minor details like should you focus more on prayer or helping the poor – that’s a matter of personal discernment, because we have different vocations. And we are all unique. Which way you decided to serve the Lord – through helping poor, or pro-life, or missionary, or raising a lot of kids for God – that’s up to you obviously, but morality and theology in case of good, holy witness, will be the same. Just read the lives of the saints and see for yourself.

I’m sure God has you where you are, and will lead you where He wants you to be, if only you will let yourself be led by Him. Even if it takes the rest of your life. Peace be with you.

From Hinduism to Catholicism

A conversion story and a prayer for children

https://chnetwork.org/2022/07/28/from-communes-to-catholicism/?mc_cid=e714bccd8d&mc_eid=0fc936f758

Conversion story

Kliknij, aby uzyskać dostęp 6bca03_9d5280d082d54ec8a34d609f62e03c52.pdf

link to the prayers for children in pdf

Keith Nester and Scott Hahn talk

Dear Sammy

In case you reply to my comment on Youtube, here’s all I wanted to say in one place, it’s easier to write here for me, and to edit, italicise etc. Also, it’s easier to find again if you need it. You can comment here if you want or need. I do hope though, that you’ll listen to people I mentioned before, because they know a lot more (like Trent Horn, Jimmy Akin, Steve Ray, Scott Hahn etc).

Firts of all, because that seemed to be the main issue: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-explain-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary

It’s also a good website to search for answers. You might think that you have no questions – but you do have objections, I assure you all of them can be asnwered. I heards tens (closer to 200) stories of protestans becoming Catholic – they were all struggling. Some came „kicking and screaming” as they said into the Church – not because they were forced by anyone, but because it was the force of the Truth.

I’ll answer a number of your points, and pray you’ll simply reaserch the subject. Because you’re not supposed to just believe me. Believe Jesus, and all the saints that lived long before me, particularly the early Church Fathers, because they lived very close to Jesus and the Apostles chronologically, and they didn’t have the Bible. The Bible was compiled and canonized by the Catholic Church in the fourth century. You don’t think there there were no Christians before that, right?

https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/canon-of-the-holy-scriptures

So, as for John the Baptist, I remember you writing that He was a greater saint than Mary – here’s what Jesus said about him: „Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11,11) It’s very clear that Jesus talks of two different Covenants – Old and New, otherwise how can John be the greatest in one sentence and the smallest in the second? It’s because John the Baptist was not a Christian, He prepared the Way for the Lord, He baptized with water and preached but it was not the same baptism that Apostles later performed, and He had died before crucifixion and resurrection. He is in Heaven, we all believe that, but He didn’t get in there through the New Covenant as the Apostles did.

Now let’s ponder Mary – she was deemed worthy by God the Father, to be the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of the second Person of the Trinity. She is the New Eve, while the first one said no to God, Mary said yes, she is the woman God talks about in Genesis – that’s she’ll crush the head of the enemy (devil). It is more clear in the Revelaion, look that up, it’s beautifuly shown.

Mary was not the only person ever to give birth to God – she was the sacred vessel, like the Arc of the Covenant – she carried Jesus inside of her for 9 months. It’s obvious that God created Mary especially for that purpose. She must have been the purest and holiest of women already to be worthy of such a task, such honor. But it didn’t end there. She was longer with Jesus than any other human being during the 33 years of Jesus’s life. She might have taught Him to walk and to talk, but He taught her for much longer than He taught the Apostles. She was the first Christian, not the Apostoles.

She sometimes followed Him together with the disciples as we know from the Gospels. More importantly she was there at the foot of the Cross. Now, even if she was only „some Jewish woman” she would still be a loving one, still full of grace, she had to look at her beloved son being tortured and crucified. And she also knew WHO He was. Her suffering must have been terrible indeed. I’m a mother myself. I had a stillborn child – and it was immensely hard. It would be a lot harder though to see a child of mine die, even if peacefuly, without pain, after I grew to know and love them.

Here though we talk of a pure, holu mother of Jesus, dying innocently after being beaten, derided and despised by His own people, through the hands of pagans, practically abandoned by 10 of His closest Apostoles, and betrayed by one. She was there. Don’t tell me she felt nothing and it meant nothing. And that it meant nothing to Jesus. He saw her there, and said „behold your Mother” to John. You said it was for her protection, and there might be some truth to that. But remember who was for 30 years Christ’s disciple and who was for 3?… Jesus was a teacher always, and He taught from the Cross as well. Jesus didn’t just give Mary to John, He gave her to all of us. And she loves as all, as the most perfect of mothers can.

It doesn’t mean you have to ask for her intercession when you can go to Jesus directly; but you would at least honestly consider how Jesus expects you to treat His own Mother.

As for Judas and his alleged conversion – Jesus said it’d be better for him to have never been born. (Matthew 26,24) Do you believe Jesus or not so much?

As for „contacting the dead” – you mixed two very different things, necromany that is condemned by the Church, just as all kinds of occult practices, because they attract demonic forces (look up Father Lambert) with the Communion of Saints.

„Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrew 12.1) The Catholic Church teaches those witnesses are the saints. When Jesus was transfigured on the Tabor Mountain He was met with and talked to Moses and Elijha. He Himself said that God is the God of the living, not dead. (Matthew 22:32)

But again nobody forces a Catholic to ask for their help and intercession. But if something works perfectly well for 2000 years, why drop it? Why smear it? There are thousands thoroughly documented miracles in the Catholic Church which was a practise and cause for canonisation. Still, you are not obliged to ask anyone but God for help. Yet, ask yourself if the saints, such as Mother Theresa of Calcutta or St Augustine, St Padre Pio, Saint Charbel are good examples of how to imitate Christ?

Now, even though I covered all the points, I know that Protestants have always more objections. Mostly theological, some moral (like contraception). There are answers to all of that, otherwise no zealous, on fire for Jesus Protestant would come home to the Catholic Church – the one that Jesus established. And I heards so many conversion stories in which all of these issues were talked about. Most of the misconception aobout out faith can be resolved simply by reading of the Catechism. But now you can just google, use youtube, read articles and books – the Church doesn’t shy away from people asking questions. We have been here for two millenia and we’ll be here till the Second Coming of Jesus – I hope that by then we will all be again united, like for the first 1000 of years, until the Great Schism and later, the Protestant rebellion and tens, then hundreds now thousands of new churches springing up with a new interpretation of Scripture.

That’s why we have the Magisterium – the teaching office, so that we would remain one. One, holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18)

I would also ask you to meditate on John 6, which is clearly about the Eucharist; Jesus doesn’t correct the disciples that left Him, that He was speaking metaphorically. And at the Last Supper, He doesn’t say „This represents my body” – He says „This is my body”. And the Church has always believed that and it was always central to the Faith.

Jesus loves THEM too

Many people say that loving your enemies is the hardest thing in Christianity. I disagree – it’s denying oneself, carrying the cross every day, dying to oneself – that’s truly the toughest battle.

However, let’s define „loving” others – in a Catholic sense it means „to will the good of the other”. In that respect I find little resistance within me. I want to pray for every one’s conversion and holiness, even if they hurt me deeply. And yet, here’s the thing, what if we don’t like them, they are irritating, they hate us, hurt us and despise us? It’s one (easier) thing to pray for them and wish them well/the best – if they live or work with you then you also hope for your life getting easier, aren’t you… It’s probably unconscious. But God called us to be witnesses as well – precisely to those people. So we can’t call them names and in heart „hate” them or resent them and then prey just for them – we need to pray for our own salvation and perseverance as well – because self-rightoussness is dangerous.

So how do we follow, imitate Jesus then? Bible, prayer, sacraments and spiritual reaing – example of the saints particularly – these help tremendously by giving us the foundations. But in a moment? Just this – remember at that painful moment – Jesus loves THEM too. He died for each and one of them.

„It’s only a fad” they said

On Friday I gave my first ever spoken testimony on how I came to Jesus in His Church. I’ll put a link here later, once it’s published.

What came to my mind soon after is how many details I omitted – and I had to, as well – otherwise it’d be at least twice as long. One of the things I wish I had said was how my biological family reacted (not the kids as they were very little). My brother and my mum actually wanted to bet it wouldn’t last long. That is was only a fad, and I will soon regain my (secular/atheistic) senses.

I don’t know much about my brother’s attitude as he rarely spoke of it, but from anything that he said it was very antagonistic (jokes about priests, his attitude to marriage and as I found as the last thing on the subject which was never again discussed afterwards – his treatment of my faith as a hobby and vehement opposition to prayer for the dead).

My mum on the other hand, well I won’t enumerate things she said throughout her life because there were too many. She simply doesn’t believe smart people can be Catholic, she espouses the same view of the Church as the radical left and consider my praying for her as spiritual violence (though she won’t acknowledge there is such a thing as spirituality)… So it is very hard.

To sort of “justify” my brother – he was raised almost only by our mother. Our dad died when he was only seven. And there were not many great witnesses around us at that time. He also found out probably too early about our dad’s misconduct as a husband… Also, I was the one to take him to the sports grounds instead of the mass, when we were kids.

My mother though – she had a difficult childhood, marital problems (an understatement), abandonment issues, and for a long time she lived in communist times. Then she started to read a certain leftist newspaper that she still reads to this day. And it’s very anti-Catholic. It’s years and years of spiritual poisoning by the enemy of man. No wonder she is the way she is.

After my conversion she fist was skeptical of it being for real, then she would keep distancing herself from us and saying very unpleasant things. Later they became outright hurtful. Including “I don’t know if I love you” – I think she actually said a couple of times she doesn’t but it keeps coming from a place that is deeply anti-Catholic, and now I represent that for her, so, sadly she views me through the lenses of the newspaper she’s “addicted” to. After some of our talks she actually bought Dawkin’s “God delusion” – which is funny in a way. For me it means I had to somehow chip away at her unbelief that she needed someone to fortify her views…

Once we had a conversation about rules because she once wrote to me it’s the main thing she holds against Catholicism. And one day I started to talk about rules and boundaries for the kids, that they need them. She was nodding vigorously obviously in agreement, when I dropped a bomb and said that it’s the same with commandments and rules for the people. She was rendered speechless.

The one crucial talk once occurred when she asked me a more sincere searching questions about my conversion since it’s too hard for her to understand. And I’m absolutely convinced that in this one talk, the Holy Spirit was doing the talk, because of the things I said, about love and Jesus and so on. Unfortunately I can’t remember it word for word. But she wasn’t angry. More like sad. And said something that gave me a little hope then – connected to love as well.

Alas, it lasted a short time. Much later the kind of conversation we had showed it went the opposite direction. Well, the devil never sleep. But I bet on the Holy Spirit.

There was also something I never mentioned, I completely forgot about, and it wasn’t that relevant – my maternal grandmother had a conversion experience towards the end of her life. She had  lived with one of her daughters,  and suddenly moved to her estranged husband (separated for around 30 years). It must have been real, judging by my mother’s reaction.

Now something lighter and positive – of the things I forgot to mention. It is though in my written conversion story in this blog. The moment I started being less of an atheist and more of an agnostic was when I met and befriended a Catholic girl at a dormitory. She is one year older and studied English philology same as me. Looking back, she was rather worldly then, but she did go to Holy Mass regularly, and her certain moral standards. She did impact me a bit – I bought a Bible and a cross to wear. But as far as my life went – nothing changed.

Yet, she still is a presence in my life. She went through very similar traumatizing pregnancy and birth related things, only more so. And I suppose grew incredibly in her faith exactly then. Later on she was the person to call to when I didn’t know who to talk to, other then my husband. My mum was already estranged then, because once she found out I was pregnant with a fifth child she said horrible things to me, or wrote in short messages – it’s mixed up in my memory. The worst opinions were via messages. So she never knew about what I was going through, as I never told her. My brother did, cause I told him much later. She did call me after the funeral I think. Short talk, I though it was alright. And then around my birthday we had a conversation that just crucified me… I cried as hard I think as when I found out that my baby wouls die in a couple of months, even before birth.

And that’s where Jesus gave me huge consolation – twice in row, from two different Gospels, the same story of a paralytic man, with a clear gentle instruction to treat my mum as she was the one paralyzed and I am to pray for her – bring her to Jesus, and so not to lose hope.

Well, that didn’t come out as lighter and positive… But let’s add something else. During my labor then, a doctor asked me where do I get the strength from, and I just looked up and said simply that it was from God (or something very clearly to that effect). And he said “I though so”. Maybe I was there for a reason. It wasn’t all for my benefit. Yes, benefit. It was all a huge grace. I grew spiritually like never before. I had to cling to God, because He was my only hope. And I learned to fast from things and put Him first and surrender things to Him, mostly all of me.

I offered that suffering early on for my mum. I really hope it made a difference…

As for other things I haven’t mentioned in my testimony, there were some foul, ugly thoughts and quasi-images during my lukewarm phase. I was completely ignorant then, so I had no idea I was under attack. They all went away after the second conversion, because it was followed by three general confessions and total reorientation of my life and my priorities.

Much later I had dreams in which I was more directly attacked, meaning I knew I was attacked and
I tried to defend myself with prayer and I think crucifix one time…

I also had a dream with Jesus in it I will always treasure – the way He smiled at me, showing His abundant love and acceptance.

I managed only a few conversations that may have impacted people positively. But my main thing is prayer and writing, here or for DDAK. And I hope that my oral testimony will inspire at least one soul.

Novenna do św. Teresy z Lisieux

Nowenna do św. Teresy od Dzieciątka Jezus i Najświętszego Oblicza

„Christ lives in me”

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

How do we do that? Crucify your wordly passions, your sins, battle you temptations and weaknesses. Die to yourself, pray, pray, pray more.

Know the Bible – know God. Frequent the Mass and receive the sacraments.

Pick up the cross, and live for God only. Let God rest in you and conform you to Christ so you can light up the world with the fire of love of God. Start not tomorrow – start right now.

Powerful testimony