WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IF YOU CHOOSE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AS YOUR MINDSET.

The whole point of why I write is to allow you, the Anawim to be able to enter that place no one wants to enter, your upper room of your inner self, and to “Have in you the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2:5) It is the place where you take any ideas from society, any philosophy, any religious denominations and make them doable in the context of how you live out life. It is what we put as the Center of our lives that either gives us the ability to move forward with a set of principles of our own making (or what we have adopted from other humans) or, using our free will, choose what Jesus offers as boundaries to help keep us from a mindset that does not help us get to Heaven after we die.

I do not recommend Catholic spirituality (as I know it) for you:

• If you are looking for an easy way to get to Heaven by just believing.
• If you want a Way that is free from anxiety and distraction, easy to do without much thinking or struggling to believe what seems unbelievable.
• If you think that just keeping the rules of the Catholic Faith, such as Mass on Sundays and Holydays, is all there is to your view of reality.
• If you are not willing to give up everything in the physical and mental universe, as Christ challenged us, to live within His boundaries, not yours.
• If you want to do what is easy rather than what is right.
• If you want a cotton candy Christianity instead of the rigor of daily conversion with the help of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
• If you prefer the Seven Deadly Sins as the Center of your moral activity rather than the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.
• If you think that praying is a waste of time, especially praying for those who are dead, “That they be loosed from their sins.”
• If Jesus is saving your notion of going to heaven one time and then you can “sin bravely.”
• If you think only Roman Catholics go to Heaven.
• If you think you don’t have to work your fingers to the bone to maintain Jesus as your Center against the temptations of the World (and the wantabe King of the Physical and Mental Universes–the Devil).
• If you think you don’t have to abandon your fleshly desires each day to make new wineskins to hold the new wine Christ gives you each day.
• If you think you can change anything you want from the tradition of the Catholic Church and that you wear the shoes of the Fisherman, not the Holy Father.
• If you think doing reparation for your sins and praying for mercy for others, for priests and nuns and vocations, for the missteps of the Catholic Church, for the Whole World, as stated by Our Lady of Akita.
• If you think that the Eucharist can’t be the real body of Christ and is just a remembrance, like thinking of your mother’s birthday.
• If you are unwilling to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

Then, you must seek out the way, the truth, and that life outside of what the Catholic Church has coveted and protected from the mouth of Jesus, just so that you can meet Jesus in the presence of the Upper Room of your inner self (Matthew 6:5) and wait for what He tells you to do. Outside the Church, there is no salvation.

ACTIO: If you realize that your Catholic mindset is shallow and boring, then begin by reciting Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict EACH DAY for thirty days without missing a day. Just read it. Don’t think about it. EACH DAY is continuity and consistency, the beginning of being a listener to Jesus rather than a demander of His time.

Copyright 2026. Michael F. Conrad, Ed.D. The Center for Contemplative Practice. All Rights Reserved.

Six Core Websites Every Catholic Should Memorize and Use Frequently: www.wordonfire.org; www.scotthahn.com; www.usccb.org; www.newadvent.org; https://thecenterforcontemplativepractice.org/; www.vatican.va