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Dom,
Your zeal is admirable but let me
encourage you to cool your jets a
bit. :-)
The only one who is going to convert
your girlfriend is the Holy Spirit.
The first place you need to be is
on your knees in habitual prayer
for her. Surely, you don't want to
shove Catholicism down her throat
any more than the Protestants try
to shove their faith down your throat.
Pray also for the Protestants who
annoy you, especially when you feel
annoyed with them. Prayer is a form
of pure love, and this is a way to love
your enemies.
Two good books are:
Be prepared to answer questions about
the faith when she asks. Invite her
to Mass. Share your faith journey
with her, what the Eucharist means
to you, for example; she can't argue
with that. Learn to speak her language
and try to match her faith; if she
thinks accepting Jesus as Lord
and Savior is crucial and you
don't know what that means or understand
it, she's not going to give you the time
of day (I mean in terms of taking
your faith seriously). If you understand
her faith, and can establish that
you share it, she'll respect you.
Which brings me to another point,
ask her questions about her faith
so you can understand it and establish
rapport. Then perhaps you can use
it as a springboard for sharing your
own faith.
Address issues as they come along,
and in doing so plant seeds and leave
them rather than trying to plant
seeds and expect fruit in the course
of an intense one-hour conversation.
Yesterday I was talking with some
Pentecostals at a faith group and
the topic of the Catholic Church
not teaching about the need to be born
again came up. I gently jumped
in and explained we believe this
refers to Baptism, where we are washed
in the water and the Holy Spirit
comes down, as it did in Jesus's
Baptism, and we are declared sons
and daughters of God, as Jesus was
in His Baptism, and how God says
he is pleased with us (that is, we
are justified), as He spoke of Jesus.
Then I let it go. Just a little
seed.
Concerning overly-religious and prideful
Protestants, I'd advice focusing
not on others' pride but on your
own. The Devil likes to distract
us by convincing us that others are
more prideful than we are. As for
overly-religious, well, take a walk
in their shoes and imagine their
perspective on the matter, both in
terms of why they are overly-religious
and how they might view you. If they
are overbearing and obsessive, it's
a good opportunity for you to develop
patience and forbearance. Pray for
them, love them, and imagine yourself
in their shoes.
Most of these issues we've addressed.
If there are some we haven't answered
adequately, ask them, one at a time
and we'd be happy to address them.
In general though, I would sit down
with the person and say, I know you
have objections to the Catholic faith,
but if you're willing to discuss
them, one at a time, with an open
mind, I can provide answers. Perhaps
recommend to them:
which covers
most of these questions; discuss
it together. (Make sure you read
it first, though.)
You can also get faith
tracts from Catholic
Answers. Either read them
(and/or) print them out and give them to your friend;
they address a lot of these questions
as well.
If you have access to EWTN
Radio (or you can listen to
it by pod cast or streaming Internet),
the show Catholic
Answers Live from 3:00 pm-5:00 pm Pacific
Time weekdays is a great resource.
You'll learn how to answer a lot
of these questions over time.
Eric
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