Yes, I’m a Catholic. The Church teaches that while we cannot have absolute certitude of salvation in this life, we can have moral certitude, which means we are not aware of any serious unconfessed sin that would preclude our being saved. An example though that comes to mind is someone who dies immediately after being baptized - they have been completely wiped clean, with no opportunity to fall again, which is one reason Catholics are quite insistent on infant baptism.
You surely are aware of Jesus frequently mentioning all of us are to be judged, right? Those who failed to serve Him, in the least of his brothers and sisters (everyone) go with the goats, right? There is no caveat given that faith alone exempts one from judgement.
We are called into a relationship with God, not only in heaven, but already in this life; that is what God wants from us. As every human relationship requires maintaining, why wouldn’t our relationship with God as well?
As St James (saint just means holy), warned that even the devil believes, and that faith without works is dead/worthless. The Church clarified that none of us are saved except by first receiving the gift of faith, which then gives us grace to perform good works — and these can help us and others get to heaven, although not without first having faith.
St. Paul clearly taught that believers could fall away — including potentially himself.
I agree with you on the lack of unity among Christians — unfortunately it is possible to find someone taking virtually every possible position, among the 40,000+ different denominations.
Worse, this extends even to quite important doctrines impacting our basic understanding of salvation.
I realize you think you have no possibility of losing salvation, but that is not what most Christians believe, either currently nor historically.
St James’ epistle was and still is part of the canon of Gods word, and was unquestioned until Luther realized it clearly contradicted his faulty ideas regarding faith and grace.
What began during the so-called reformation were a bunch of false ideas regarding salvation, along with rejection of the teaching authority of ordained bishops united to the pope, with the dismaying result that each person becomes their own pope.
When Jesus founded His Church, he set it up to have power of the keys (binding and loosing), which included the power to authoritatively teach and interpret all teachings without mixture of error.
Rejecting that authority is precisely why we have disunity.
You mentioned the early Church fathers, and again, I agree — a way to make progress in unity is to study what the early Church taught — even before Constantine, there are Linus, Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, the didache, and other early writing which shed light on what early Christians believed.
But nowhere among the Church fathers is the idea that faith is just an abstract decision, made once, with nothing on our part required.
Jesus own words all over the Gospels make it clear we are to believe, be baptized, obey the commandments and spend the time he gives us doing good and serving others, lest at judgement he say, depart from me…. You did not give me food, nor clothing, etc. cf the beatitudes, among many other examples.
St Paul mentions making up what is lacking in Christs sufferings (!) and asks for prayers lest, having preached, etc, he might still be lost (!)
Trust me, no Catholic believes they are sinless, but with the free gift of faith also comes grace to perform good works. Faith saves, but it’s a lived out every day anew faith, rather than a once saved you can never lose salvation. This is why St James said faith without works is dead, and St. Paul asked for prayers that he himself might not be lost. Work out your faith in fear and trembling (!)
One of the ways God changes hearts on abortion is by letting a mother view her baby via ultrasound.
This converted the largest abortion operator in Western Hemisphere, Dr Bernard Nathanson (who eventually became Catholic, and travelled around the world, giving pro life presentations), and that was back with early monochrome ultrasound.
There now is 3-D, and various forms of color ultrasound, which can and have helped mothers change their minds and decide to keep their baby.
I believe if all moms were given the chance to see their baby, the abortion numbers would be significantly lower.
If you aren’t a gamer, everything else is covered quite well with linux. A popular distro you can download for free and install instead of windows is Linux Mint.
Here’s a good explanation of Catholic view of praying to/with the saints. https://www.catholic.com/tract/praying-to-the-saints
Yes, that’s another word for the feast day https://www.britannica.com/topic/Michaelmas
Whether Catholics pray out loud or silently is a matter of personal choice, generally silent when alone and out loud in a group.
For non Catholics, it’s not well understood that what Catholics mean by prayer has many more levels and meanings than it does for non-Catholics, as the latter often equate prayer only with worship due to God alone.
The word prayer in many languages can be a synonym for ask, beg, please, do, etc. German bitte is a good example.
In Shakespeares time, it was common for one person to pray (ask) another to do a favor. This is roughly what Catholics are thinking when they speak of praying to angels or saints in heaven.
No one assumes creatures in heaven are omniscient, but it’s pretty obvious from scripture that folks in heaven are far more knowledgeable than we are. Just one example is Abrahams knowledge of Lazarus and the rich man, which included details of their lives on earth, despite their living long after Abraham had died.
Praying