I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, majority of my family is Catholic and I have many Catholic friends to this day. That being said, this is NOT a blog post “bashing” the Catholic Church. This is not a blog to say they are doing things “wrong.” This is not to be offensive nor judging the Catholic religion.

This blog is to share how and why God lead me to leave the Catholic church. This is a continuation of previous blog posts by sharing my testimony and story. It is OKAY if anyone who reads this disagrees, I will not be offended as I know where I stand in my own personal relationship with the Lord. Everyone’s walk and path with God is going to be different.

I am thankful to God for allowing me to grow up Catholic because I was introduced to Jesus. I am grateful for the youth groups I attended because I was with like-minded individuals believing in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit. I loved church conferences which helped grow my faith. I enjoyed praying to Mother Mary and the Saints above. I would pray the rosary and went to Mass. I even went to a Catholic college because I thought if I did not keep Him in my life then He would be mad at me and I wasn’t doing things “right.” I thought if I didn’t follow the traditions that were set, I was letting Him down as a believer.

After college I decided to attend a non-denominational church which was incredibly different than the traditional Catholic Masses I attended for over 20 years of my life. I had absorbed Catholic traditions and beliefs for so long that going into this new atmosphere was overwhelming yet refreshing. The traditional kneeling to standing to sitting was gone. The individuals in the auditorium sung with their hands in the air, what was that about? The songs felt alive by the upbeat music played. The sermons included scriptures and background context of the scripture. The Pastor made me laugh because I was able to understand it all for the first time in the 20-some years I had been going to Catholic Mass. I realized I, as an individual, was unable to grasp what priests would share during a homily (sermon) and what I needed was to leave and allow God to speak to me the way He intended to all along.

God then transformed my thinking (as it states in Romans 12:2 to do) over the next 7 years from 2017 – today. I began to realize the Lord was calling me to dive deeper into the Bible to really learn who He is and how He wants to connect with me. I was unable to connect with God through Catholic religion. I was unable to hear from Him, feel His presence, and witness what He could do in my Catholic years so He knew I needed to leave and seek Him in the light of a more outgoing church (because I was created as an outgoing person).

October of 2022 God knew I was ready to learn the truth about Him and which beliefs I was taught or learned that were incorrect. I’m emphasizing this, HE shared this with me, not the church or a person, it was by Him on HIS terms. I’m excited to share with you what I have learned from God and why.

1. Praying to Mary and Saints

The ten commandments state “You must not have any other god but me” (Exodus 20:3 NLT). I thought this only meant I should not call on a god of another religion. I did not think this was talking about Mary or the saints. While in prayer God shared He needed me to put Him above everyone and everything. The next few verses convicted my spirit, “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” Holy Spirit opened my eyes to learning idol worship is praying and worshipping to anything other than God. This includes the “other” gods, Mary, saints, and material idols. I do know Catholic’s believe they are not “bowing down” to the saints/Mary rather they are going to them to go to God, however, after reading the Living Word, I have not found where we are told to go to the saints in prayer. Even the “Hail Mary” is considered a devotional prayer TO Mary and I learned God did not want me to do that anymore. I will continue studying the word to find any area’s I am incorrect as it is always a possibility but for now I have been shown not to pray to them or Mary and to pray directly to our Lord. We have also removed all statues from our home. Since doing so I have seen God more than I ever have which I do not think that is a coincidence.

2. Rosary

I grew up praying the rosary. The Lord’s Prayer (the Our Father) was embedded in my brain. Once God got a hold of my heart He began allowing showing me, Our Father is an example of how to pray not what to pray (Matthew 6:9 NLT). For example: When we say “your will be done” is really for reminding us to pray for God’s plan in our lives and the world. God asks us to be specific in our prayers so we need to allow our spirit to align with His to know what He is asking us to pray for in order for His will be done.

Another example: “give us this day our daily bread” is telling us to go to God with our daily needs. “Forgive us our sins” is going to God with the specific sins we have done. I don’t remember thinking of the list of sins I have committed when saying “forgive us of our sins,” I’m more focused on making sure I don’t mess up the prayer. Basically the point I am getting at is this, praying the Our Father gave me the general prayer when I didn’t know what to pray, but God WANTS a relationship with me, not a religion. He wanted me to dig deeper.

After realizing I should not be praying the Our Father as a ritual, or praying the Hail Mary, God had me get rid of the rosaries in my home.

Story time! My daughter suffered really strong nightmares and would wake up constantly in the middle of the night all out of the blue. I could not figure out what or why it was not getting better. One day I was praying and the Lord reminded me there were was a rosary on her door. How could I have missed that?! I threw it out immediately, and low and behold our daughter slept straight through the night with no nightmares and continues to sleep through the night. Only God could have pointed this out to me.

3. The Cross

This will be a short section. I did not think anything of the cross that is in every Catholic church. I was taught it is to remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus, He died for you and I. It is the ultimate sacrifice to save us and our sins. However, God again shared He wanted me to be celebrating on His resurrection and to have a cross without Him still located on it.

One evening God got my undivided attention because I felt shaken up after a nightmare. I was trying to figure out what happened and why I had such an awful, horrific, demon-like dream and He pointed out to me I had a cross packed away that had Jesus still on it. For whatever reason God wanted me to throw it out and after, my nightmares stopped. What happened you might ask? I learned we celebrate Christ’s sacrifice three days before His resurrection. Jesus chose to go through with this sacrifice knowing what would transpire. He chose the cross with me on His mind. He also knew He would be resurrected. His resurrection saved us all to live for eternity. Jesus wanted me to be with Him after my time on earth.

Jesus is no longer on the cross. God has personally asked me to choose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and remove all crosses with Jesus on it from my home. I now feel God’s supernatural peace throughout our home because He is risen and alive. Matthew 28:6 NLT. I choose to celebrate knowing I will be living with Him in eternity. I am not dismissing what He did for me. My heart breaks thinking of what He went through for us, however, I can now also rejoice knowing my life will continue on in the next one.

3. Holy Water Vs Anointing Oil

This has to be my favorite eye-opener from God because I freaked out realizing how much power lies within anointing oil whereas “holy water” has none. Holy water is not known to get rid of evil spirits or for cleansing. I have searched the bible in multiple translations and cannot find it so I’m not sure where the history comes from. There is “Living Water” which in John 7 we learn is talking about the breath of God aka Holy Spirit but these are not the same thing. When I read scripture, I saw the main liquid used was anointing oil. Anointing oil was used to set apart something and someone as “holy.” It is used for healing and cleansing too. James 5:14 NLT says “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.” For the longest time I would use Holy Water to pray away the evil spirits but I could sense they were still lingering. God knew I needed to be shown the truth that anointing oil should be used and when I made the change, I could feel heaviness leave my house instantly. Anointing oil was used to remove bio-polar disorder from me in 2022 (see blog post about that).

The reason I am no longer Catholic is because God has asked me to remove things I once believed in and in result of obeying that, I now have a personal and intimate relationship with Him. I hunger for His word daily. I talk to Him in the car, in the shower, first thing in the morning, and last one to talk to at night. I go to Him for everything. I have learned I can trust Him 100%. I do not follow religious traditions, I follow Him and Him alone by going to His living word.

I’m not telling anyone who reads this what you are doing is wrong. I’m sharing what God has done in MY life. He could not get to me by following Catholic traditions. He was able to get my attention by helping me become born-again in the spirit (that’s a blog post for another time, ha!) I’m sharing what He told me to change. Don’t change anything until He shed’s that light to you. I was not listening to Him and now I am. I have learned He was never upset with me or mad at me. He loves me every single day and He knew one day I would turn to His word when the time was right (on His timing).

God just wants you. He wants a relationship. For those who do not have a personal and intimate relationship where He is your number one priority, start today. It is never too late. Give Him a chance to be trusted. I can promise you it will be the best decision you will ever make in your life.

Free from my past. Baptized and born-again.

Written by Natalie Crane