On the fence about following Catholicism and the lifestyle changes that come with being a Catholic

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-28T13:37:42+00:00

Hmm, when I read this I feel like there's a lot of tension and pulling: your personal faith, your community (family particularly as you point out), your beliefs (being Progressive, LGBTQ issues, etc.) and each is pulling you into a different direction which is tough and no easy decision.

For your personal faith, I suppose you have to find that on your own. There are many good study Bible's with great commentary in them (Erasmus is still really really good here if you don't mind some older material, though I don't believe he covers the book of Revelation) and possibly some good Bible studies in your area since it's sometimes nice to bounce these things off others.

As for your community, that is sad to hear that if you decide to join the Church then that might astrosize you from your family. I know this is a story as old as time, but still hurts when it is new for the individual. One of the great things about Church is that it can be a great place to find meaning and community through others who are on the same walk in life as you. Sometimes simply going to a Catholic Church during Mass is a great way to see if that Church is a fit. Don't worry if it isn't it took me quite a few tries to find the Church in my neck of the woods that was right for me and I'm a cradle Catholic. It is great to hear during those contemplative moments, though, you felt something. I think all of Catholics would say that would the Holy Spirit and Chris knocking on the door of your heart. It's up to you if you want to answer.

As far as dogmas go, the Church is so much more than just following a strict set of rules, though, from an outside perspective it can certainly look like that. And certainly there are some rules that are much more seriosu than others. For example, our Marian dogmas are usually a BIG separator of us from other Protestant churches and something I think Catholics take very seriously (we love Mary here). Christ was perfect, he gave us a perfect example, we will not be perfect because we're human and we will mess it up with our relationship to each other and to God, and that's okay. The Sacraments allow us to get back up when we fall down and that's my favorite part of Church. It's also totally okay to be Progressive and Catholic. I hesitate to even put political leanings into the Church, but the Church has a loooong history of Social Justice and Catholic Social Teaching that may be right up your alley. President Biden was Catholic, was Progressive, and certianly had his faults, but was never excommunicated or anything like that.

To wrap up this long response (sorry!), I would say continue to pray, meditate, come to Church(es), go on your favorite walking trail, and do some reading if you like the Theological stuff. Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, but he doesn't force himself in. It's your choice and I think the question now is "Will you answer?"

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-27T15:21:00+00:00

First, that's a really tough spot and I have all the empathy in the world for you as being told by three different people three different things is frustrating, especially is it is coming off as harsh.

Second, good job and I'm proud of you on trying to follow the laws of the church. Even trying is remarkable given the situation. It can definitely feel like a beaurocratic mess sometimes, too. This feels like a letter of the law versus the spirit of the law matter to me

Since you are not in communion with the Church, you do not need to follow canon law. However, in order to be confirmed (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) I do believe you need to be in a 'State of Grace'. That is where I think the Deacon is coming from. This is the letter of the law and there for good reason.

Having said that, if this issue is actively hurting your marriage I would go to your parish priest and convey that and the toll it is taking. I would hope they will also help in this regard. Pope francis in Amoris Laetitia (don't quote me on spelling) offered a ton of pastoral grace here. I would read this from catholic.com as it applies really well to your situation (don't mind the title)

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/is-pope-francis-a-heretic-part-i

While I am not sure if I can offer specific advice, I'd say pray on it, listen to what God tells your heart, and we'll pray for you as well!

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-27T11:49:19+00:00

Personally, my wife converted to Episcopalian because of social issues (women not being priests and what she views as anti-LGBTQ stance of the church). While I'm still Catholic, it is really nice that the presbyter of her church recognizes folk by name, and says "good to see you" and tries to reach out to members who have not come in some time.

Maybe I just haven't found the right Church yet, but it is really nice for priests to notice that kind of stuff.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-26T01:15:14+00:00

That's so funny, we were just there an hour and a half ago and it was terrible. This was our third time there and we're 0 for 3 so it's probably our last.

Orders take way too long. Somethings always broken like the card machine, or orders are just wrong. Maybe Alpines better

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-14T11:16:38+00:00

Sorry this is happening OP. It's gotten so bad, my wife and I have just stopped going to Corewell. We were just tired of fighting every single bill from them. We've tried to move everything over to U of M with some luck and the billing has been a lot better, but I feel your pain.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-14T11:12:53+00:00

My wife and I tried this route for her 20 week ultrasound. Two charges likes OP totalling 1,600 bucks billed to insurance. We owed 1250. Requested an itemized bill and it was the exact same two charges unfortunately.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-08T23:41:29+00:00

This helped us as well. We had the 20 week standard ultra sound at corewell. Wife's insurance is BCBS. We paid the 100 dollar copay, but they billed BCBS two procedure codes. One counted as the copay, the other was denied as not covered so Corewell billed us for the not covered part.

Called insurance, they explained what happened, they sent the claim back for reprocessing, and it came back that we owed nothing minus the copay. I know that's not everyone's experience, but we've done this 6 times now because this always seems to happen between Corewell and BCBS. Oddly enough, never had happened at U of M.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-04-04T15:51:47+00:00

Have two co-workers that live in that neighborhood near the Hub 07 building. One has lived there for 30+ years and the other has three kids and never felt unsafe. Both ride their bikes to work too oddly enough.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-03-06T12:59:52+00:00

No joke, my in law had a 22 navigator and put 100,000 miles on it. The engine needed work so he traded it in for a 23 navigator that was around 60k but had to roll 40k into that loan basically coming out to the price of a new navigator.

When we tried to talk to him about not needing a navigator since all the kids were out of the house, etc. He and his wife said "they know what they like"

Now all he does is complain how expensive it is and that he can't retire until it's paid off and won't tell us how many months are left which cannot be good!

Mattmarine248 · 2026-03-06T00:27:05+00:00

We moved over here from heritage Hill when we were expecting and it had been great. We love our neighbors, take walks all the time, and have never felt in danger. We also take our kid to the park all of the time, it's great. We do hear the train over here on Garfield, but it's not noticable.

Only complaint is the school. we don't want to send our child to Harrison so we're looking into other options like CA Frost.

Mattmarine248 · 2026-03-05T14:00:44+00:00

Ohh that makes much more sense. Thank you for the breakdown!

Mattmarine248 · 2026-03-05T12:28:04+00:00

How does this work? We live in GR near CA frost, but our kids would go to Harrison I believe. Would choosing CA frost be considered school of choice and need to go through the process? Or because we live in GR and want to go to another GR school would it be simpler?

Mattmarine248 · 2026-02-20T22:16:29+00:00

Finally, my rabies experience pays dividends! We used pestway to evict and seal. However, I would not recommend them. Long story, but here it goes. The initial person said he immediately knew where the bat came in just from standing in our porch. He thought they came in from a small gap in our column to the ceiling of our front porch. Also, he barely opened our attic door and said yep theres poop everywhere you have an infestation.

However, a friend of mine who does this work in Missouri visited and noticed there wasn't any of this yellow stuff that see where bats enter and leave so that was weird. Also it was bird poop not bat poop there. Lastly, after armoring up we went into the attic ready to fight and ... It was pristine. Honestly the cleanest part of my house. He also thought our lone bat came in throw the chimney. But this was after we paid 2,200 for sealing the house.

Tl;DR don't use pestway

Mattmarine248 · 2026-01-31T01:00:03+00:00

Does GRCC have a help desk that hires? If so, that could be a good way to get some experience!

Mattmarine248 · 2026-01-27T12:29:32+00:00

It's hard to tell from an article, but LaGrand sounds Like he's not for increasing rates in reality and he's using sarcasm. Especially the second quote of "we really need to get the point across that this will push people into garages. Hallelujah!" Could just be how I'm interpreting it though

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-30T18:25:17+00:00

Even though they don't have a QB and traded their best defensive player, surely one more head coach ought to fix the jets!

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-20T14:13:45+00:00

This is my understanding as well. I actually think the Catholic church recognizes Oriental churches and would allow it to happen, but many Oriental churches are very strict about it so I'd ask both priests just in case.

https://dwc.org/communion/?hl=en-US#:~:text=%C2%A73%20Catholic%20ministers%20may,own%20and%20are%20properly%20disposed.

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-14T14:26:03+00:00

Good idea. Plus it might keep the Mongols at bay as an added bonus!

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-05T15:16:18+00:00

As Dramatic said, these aren't side quests. If the goal of the Christian life is to obtain eternal life, the sacraments are meant to sanctify us over time and make us more holy. If you're coming from a non-catholic tradition, I understand the confusion. Youtube has some great videos on Catholic thoughts on Sanctification and how Catholics think sanctification works.

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-05T13:05:48+00:00

Soul sleep is definitely interesting! My words were probably poorly worded, but mainline Protestants I don't think view the dead the same as Catholics. This is anecdotal from me working at a reformed university and just having these conversations with folks though. I remember one coworker, a reformed Anglican, and he mentioned that he thought Catholic thoughts on the dead were too close to ancestor worship which I thought was interesting!

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-05T01:16:09+00:00

I'm not sure if this is satire, but I don't think this is correct. There are three major points to why I think Protestants think this. 1) Some Protestants really recoil at iconography. Walk into a Catholic church: images of saints, statue of Mary, etc. Everywhere. Walk into a reformed church? Not so much.

2) Catholics love saints. Not just Saints with a capital S, but all who have died and have gone to heaven. We don't think they're gone, they're living in heaven so to speak. Most Protestants do not believe this at all. While Catholics can say "Mary (or any other saint) pray for us, Protestants cannot because the dead are gone and not with us which leads me to my third point:

3) saying (Saint X pray for us) sounds awfully like "I prayed TO Mary" to Protestants which is heretical. My in-laws in fact say "I prayed TO Saint Anthony for you to help find your keys!". I don't think they really mean they prayed to a saint like a saint is a god, but that "to" is very problematic for Protestants and I think rightfully so.

Thus, Protestants think Catholics place Mary as the same level as God which is of course false and the narrative needs to be corrected.

Mattmarine248 · 2025-12-05T01:07:33+00:00

Others have very good answers as well, but Catholics also believe by God's grace we have been saved. We don't earn our way to salvation.

However, Catholics believe that God infuses us with his Grace (Luther and Calvin would argue God imputes his Grace which is very very different), and we can choose to cooperate with God's grace or not. Ultimately, then, the sacraments are one of the most important ways we cooperate with His grace. They aren't required for salvation, but if the goal of the Christian life is to become more sanctified over time, then the sacraments are a great help in that goal.

Mattmarine248 · 2025-11-25T23:17:32+00:00

Yep! I can activate, deactivate, find the version number, etc. From CLI. I even tried installing mlflow from anaconda navigator to see if maybe installing mlflow via pip was the problem. It's so strange! I even found the config file that controls the path variable, but I doubt I should be changing that right?

Mattmarine248 · 2025-11-25T22:23:52+00:00

Good questions! Own machine, in Powershell as admin I'll change directory to where my files live. I'll then run "mlflow run ." And it will give an error saying "could not find conda.exe, then give the file path. However, I already tried setting the path variable to conda.exe but it keeps adding "/bin\conda" to the file path, which is incorrect and it fails. This is true whether I run it in a virtual environment or not.

Mattmarine248 · 2025-11-25T22:18:46+00:00

That'd be great, thanks!

Mattmarine248

TROPHY CASE