I think it's the age. I hope it is, anyway. I worry about my daughter's soul. She does go to Mass with me but complains it's boring. She wants to attend a protestant church with a friend because it's "more fun" and I said "No". She thinks all christian religions are the same. I don't know how this happened. I had her baptized, she received her first communion, she went to religious instruction, we talk about God, we pray.
Maybe it's school..or maybe friends..or, hopefully, just teenage rebellion.
It's scary to be a parent. It's scary to think that you are responsible for someone's soul. What if, when I face God, He tells me I failed her. I should have done _____ and _____ but I didn't. But for my parenting, she would have been more religious, more faithful.
When I was a teenager, my brother and I (he was about 14) did a 30 day novena where we went to Mass and Communion every day for 30 days. We did it for our parents because my Dad was not attending Mass. How were we different from our own kids? Was it Catholic school?
Catholic school is so far out of my reach. Our school tuition is $750 a month and you must meet a fund raising goal (or they tack it on to your tuition) and volunteer for x number of hours per month.
I'm a single mom with two kids. I would have to win the lotto to be able to send them.
I hope, when I face God, He doesn't tell me He's sorry He gave me these girls. I love them so much. I'm so grateful for them. But I worry.
I feel your pain. Clergy and nuns face the worst suffering in Purgatory because we were responsible for your souls. But on the next rung up the Purgatory suffering ladder are parents.
But God won't be mad at you if you fail. He'll only be mad is you don't try or give up. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. It would be bad if you gave up on the horse, or didn't show him any water, but once the horse and the water are in the same place, it's up to the horse.
Or mule, as the case may be.
There is however one avenue you may try. The All Faiths Are Created Equal argument just doesn't hold water. The Catholic Church is the church that Jesus established while He was alive on earth and ALL of the other Christian religious were founded because somebody was mad at somebody else. All Christians were Catholics until the 16th century when:
Martin Luther got mad at the Catholic Church (he was a Catholic priest) and the corruption of the times. He wasn't wrong. He put a list of grievances on the church door to open a discussion (which was how it was done back then). When the Church didn't respond the way he liked he quit. The Church did address the problems he had pointed out eventually. That's called the Reformation. Luther's followers are called Lutherans. They are followers of Jesus through the teaching of a Catholic priest who lived in the 16th century.
Around the same time, Henry the Eighth got mad that the Church would not approve of him divorcing his first wife so he could marry a younger woman in the hopes of begetting a son and heir. He quit and founded the Anglican Church, which is called the Episcopal Church in the US. The Anglicans and the Episcopals are the followers of Jesus through a guy who wanted to dump his wife for a new model.
Then Calvin took exception with some of the things Luther said. Those are the Calvinists. They are the followers of Jesus through a guy who was mad at Luther who was mad at the Catholic church.
And on and on until you have denominations sprung from denominations because they were mad that the host is on a plate and not in a basket or which way the pews face.
Meanwhile, and many people may disagree with me here, I don't see anything wrong with her visiting the other churches. Just don't let it take the place of Mass. Go to Saturday Mass. Go with her to her friend's church on Sunday. Study up on the denomination you're about to visit. See if you can find out the tenets of that faith (Good Luck with that, I have never been able to get separated brethren to explain the tenets of their faith past "I believe in Jesus").
Make sure you bookmark the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" because you can look up just about anything and find out the Church's teachings and why we believe as we do.
By the way, how did the novena work out?
