S
Susan1006
Guest
I don’t know exactly where to post this, but it is interesting and so here goes:
I have been a confirmed Catholic convert for about six 1/2 years - seven at Easter next year. However, I first considered the church when my son, now 32 and my first child, was born and I thought vaguely that he should be baptized. I had LOVED to go to Mass with my Catholic cousins when I was a little girl. My own upbringing was kind of Evangelical Reformed Chruch of Christ or something like that and not very devout in any case. Anyway, My husband and I moved into a bigger apartment next door to some Jehovah’s Witnersses, who were kind and helpful people, and I got sidetracked. Needless to say I have been to the mountaintop of weird Jesus beliefs with the JWs, and after a number of years I gave up the JWs as too weird for me and began to celebrate Christmas again. The thing that got me hooked was the “study” aspect of their process. I love to learn, and there was lots of new stuff to consider in their theology, at first.
Long story short, the Witnesses left me with a feeling that people go off the deep end when they “get religion” and I just drifted along for another 25 years or so in my 40 year personal Sinai experience. I would wander off somewhere, and God would rescue me. I also considered the Catholic Church again about 12 years ago, but was really not made welcome in the church where I tentatively inquired. I don’t know what was going on there, but it was a dead end for me. I studied the Course in Miracles, and Eastern spirituality, attended Episcopal churches for the music, and the Unitarian chruch where I realized I wanted to worship God, not just be concerned about social justice, Finally I landed in a small German Catholic town in Ohio, and was welcomed into the Church with open arms. I began to read the fathers of the church, and read Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain again. I discovered the Divine Mercy and St. (then Blessed) Faustina’s diary. I read Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle and dozens of other books I fell in love with Pope John Paul II and found a home in the chruch. I discovered that there were saints and martyrs in the 20th century, not just a long time ago, and as I said, I was confirmed at the Easter Vigil in 2002. I will never run out of signs and wonders to study and smells and bells to energize my faith
Now. I have made a commitment to devote the rest of my life to whatever God wants me to do. Currently that means taking care of my mother and father, both who are elderly and ill, so they can stay at home and I can return to them a fraction of all they have done for me. I am not making plans, I am seeking opportunities to serve.
The interesting part of all of this, is that I find I am once again being actively tempted to stray away from the true faith. But now I see what is going on for what it is, I believe. Temptations and nothing more. I have become acquainted with a nun who is really angry that women can’t be priests and and I have met Seventh Day Adventist missionaries who would really like me to get away from the Whore of Babylon. I was able to tell the SDA folks that their ideas were insulting to my church, and I wouldn’t be back for any more of their “healthy living” lectures, and I just pray for my nun friend to find the peace of Jesus, but I was able to tell her I disagreed with her position on accepting what the church teaches.
I recognize these temptations as a form of persecution, insignificant as it is, and speak up for the faith as the church teaches it, as much as I can. I have begun to carefully initiate conversations with people about how many children have been killed or never conceived, and how the right to die can segue into the duty to die so very easily in our unguarded thinking.
Anyway, it is just interesting to me how many irritants, little things and big, attack our peace and try to turn us aside from the faith. I would like to hear about other people’s experiences with temptations and persecutions, even the nagging thoughts that maybe this is all baloney. We are blessed to be able to reach out and encourage one another so easily, today.
Stay well, S
.
I have been a confirmed Catholic convert for about six 1/2 years - seven at Easter next year. However, I first considered the church when my son, now 32 and my first child, was born and I thought vaguely that he should be baptized. I had LOVED to go to Mass with my Catholic cousins when I was a little girl. My own upbringing was kind of Evangelical Reformed Chruch of Christ or something like that and not very devout in any case. Anyway, My husband and I moved into a bigger apartment next door to some Jehovah’s Witnersses, who were kind and helpful people, and I got sidetracked. Needless to say I have been to the mountaintop of weird Jesus beliefs with the JWs, and after a number of years I gave up the JWs as too weird for me and began to celebrate Christmas again. The thing that got me hooked was the “study” aspect of their process. I love to learn, and there was lots of new stuff to consider in their theology, at first.
Long story short, the Witnesses left me with a feeling that people go off the deep end when they “get religion” and I just drifted along for another 25 years or so in my 40 year personal Sinai experience. I would wander off somewhere, and God would rescue me. I also considered the Catholic Church again about 12 years ago, but was really not made welcome in the church where I tentatively inquired. I don’t know what was going on there, but it was a dead end for me. I studied the Course in Miracles, and Eastern spirituality, attended Episcopal churches for the music, and the Unitarian chruch where I realized I wanted to worship God, not just be concerned about social justice, Finally I landed in a small German Catholic town in Ohio, and was welcomed into the Church with open arms. I began to read the fathers of the church, and read Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain again. I discovered the Divine Mercy and St. (then Blessed) Faustina’s diary. I read Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle and dozens of other books I fell in love with Pope John Paul II and found a home in the chruch. I discovered that there were saints and martyrs in the 20th century, not just a long time ago, and as I said, I was confirmed at the Easter Vigil in 2002. I will never run out of signs and wonders to study and smells and bells to energize my faith
Now. I have made a commitment to devote the rest of my life to whatever God wants me to do. Currently that means taking care of my mother and father, both who are elderly and ill, so they can stay at home and I can return to them a fraction of all they have done for me. I am not making plans, I am seeking opportunities to serve.
The interesting part of all of this, is that I find I am once again being actively tempted to stray away from the true faith. But now I see what is going on for what it is, I believe. Temptations and nothing more. I have become acquainted with a nun who is really angry that women can’t be priests and and I have met Seventh Day Adventist missionaries who would really like me to get away from the Whore of Babylon. I was able to tell the SDA folks that their ideas were insulting to my church, and I wouldn’t be back for any more of their “healthy living” lectures, and I just pray for my nun friend to find the peace of Jesus, but I was able to tell her I disagreed with her position on accepting what the church teaches.
I recognize these temptations as a form of persecution, insignificant as it is, and speak up for the faith as the church teaches it, as much as I can. I have begun to carefully initiate conversations with people about how many children have been killed or never conceived, and how the right to die can segue into the duty to die so very easily in our unguarded thinking.
Anyway, it is just interesting to me how many irritants, little things and big, attack our peace and try to turn us aside from the faith. I would like to hear about other people’s experiences with temptations and persecutions, even the nagging thoughts that maybe this is all baloney. We are blessed to be able to reach out and encourage one another so easily, today.
Stay well, S
.