I ask, because this statement among others was made in answer to a recent question about what Catholics believe:
"Catholics believe in God and Jesus but they don't have a personal relationship with Him."
If the key word here is "personal", then I assume that no one is really able to evaluate, critique, describe, define, grade, or otherwise judge such a relationship ... except those who are party to it. That would be Jesus and, in this particular case, me.
But for the sake of some fundamentalists who are obviously concerned for us on this score, would any other Catholics who know Jesus on a personal basis care to weigh in?
Of course, others are welcome to the two points as well ...
2007-10-16 18:27:22 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes, I have a personal relationship with Christ. He is with me all the time and speaks to me through my spirit. He always hear my prayers and teaches me to be obedient and accepting of His love. Christ's grace is also revealed to me in a tangible way through the sacraments of His holy Church. Everything about Christianity boils down to a personal relationship with Christ. It is a relationship because he says or does something and I respond to it.
Peace be with you.
2007-10-17 05:23:27 · answer #1 · answered by Void Engineer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm a Catholic, and I don't know who told you that, but they couldn't be more wrong. Everyone should have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our God is a very personal God; a God that we can call "Abba" (Father). Jesus Christ died not only for the collective sins of mankind, but for us as individuals as well.
We as Catholics are very blessed by God. I don't think some realize how much. We not only have a chance to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but we are also members of the Body of Christ, the Church here on earth that Jesus Christ Himself started and will last until the end of time (Matthew 16:18-19). We also partake of His Body and His Blood, so that we may be raised up on the Last Day and have Eternal Life (John 6:52-54). If anyone should have a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it should be Catholics. Sometimes I go over to my local church and spend time in the presense of the Blessed Sacrament. We as Catholics have much to be thankful for in regard to a personal relationship with the Lord....
2007-10-17 02:35:14 · answer #2 · answered by the phantom 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I am not a Catholic. But, I have long believed that the Catholic church as well as other denominations are filled with those who have a vital personal relationship with Christ Jesus, that is born-again.
And then as with other denominations... there are those who do not. They are either going through the motions, are false-converts, or at some other point in conversion to a vibrant faith.
I know plenty of both.
So to those of the Catholic variety who know Jesus, I do consider ourselves to be brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you feel the same. And ultimately, we shall all be glad to put it behind us and worship the Lord free of any of the fetters of denominational allegiance.
2007-10-17 09:31:16 · answer #3 · answered by thankyou "iana" 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, I don't get what those people mean when they say 'a personal' relationship with Christ, when all that the Eucharist means for them is 'remembrance' of some 'symbolic' act that Jesus Christ did at the Last Supper!
Matthew 7:13 uses the imagery of the 'narrow gate'. Once, on a pilgrimage of churches around Laguna de Bae in the Philippines, we were admiring the main doors of a church, and the small, 'narrow door' built into it to provide access when the main doors are closed.
The priest who was with us celebrated mass at his old church in Barras, and the gospel was precisely about the 'narrow gate'. His reflection was: was strive all our lives to know Christ, but in the end, to enter through the narrow gate, HE has to know us. Will He recognize us, and be let in. Or will we be one of those crying 'Lord, Lord', but be left out?
The 'relationship' they suggest is one of equals, when we know this is not the case. I don't know if this is unique to us Catholics, but really, we are SUPPLICANTS, trying to enter through the narrow gate. At least, that is MY fair hope.
2007-10-17 04:01:22 · answer #4 · answered by pbb1001 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I have had a personal relationship with the Lord even before the Pentecostal movement came along.
When a Catholic says that he has been "born again," he refers to the transformation that God’s grace accomplished in him during baptism. Evangelical Protestants typically mean something quite different when they talk about being "born again."
Often people miss the fact that baptism gives us new life/new birth because they have an impoverished view of the grace God gives us through baptism, which they think is a mere symbol. But Scripture is clear that baptism is much more than a mere symbol.
In Acts 2:38, Peter tells us, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." When Paul was converted, he was told, "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16).
Peter also said, "God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:20–21). Peter says that, as in the time of the flood, when eight people were "saved through water," so for Christians, "[b]aptism . . . now saves you." It does not do so by the water’s physical action, but through the power of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, through baptism’s spiritual effects and the appeal we make to God to have our consciences cleansed.
These verses showing the supernatural grace God bestows through baptism set the context for understanding the New Testament’s statements about receiving new life in the sacrament.
Thus, I consider myself ‘born again’ every time I receive the Holy Eucharist and confess my sins to a priest.
2007-10-17 02:31:11 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I have a great personal relationship with Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my Hope.
It's only gotten better since I became Catholic and can now receive Him physically via the Eucharist.
2007-10-17 11:16:17 · answer #6 · answered by sparki777 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every day I eat the Body and drink the Blood of my Lord and Savior. One's relationship with Christ just does not get any more personal than this. I am in His will, obedient to His commandment to "Do this". It is the most personal relationship possible on earth.
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
2007-10-17 05:54:18 · answer #7 · answered by cristoiglesia 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I have a very personal relationship with Jesus christ
and a corporate one with His mystical Body
2007-10-17 20:51:13 · answer #8 · answered by James O 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
as a staunch Catholic, I know I do. we have the Eucharist that we recieve every Sunday (that is after having the Sacrament of Reconciliation), and there are lots more. that's my personal opinion of having a personal relationship with Christ.
2007-10-17 01:31:07 · answer #9 · answered by Perceptive 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yes me and Jesus are very very close, sometimes my husband gets jealous cause I spend alot of my time with Jesus Christ.
Catholic Christian
2007-10-17 01:58:23 · answer #10 · answered by tebone0315 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋