i am cradle Catholic… but never taught faith to speak of… almost lost my soul… (not much of an exaggeration either)… went through “born-again” thing… when still Catholic (but was not in a Church… long, weird story); i was in love with Jesus for 2 years… read NT twice through… focused on “happy” things about Jesus (healings, etc.), Then, because of emotional probelms, drifted away from Jesus and “religion”… went to Protestant “churches” sometimes… mostly didn’t go to any church… went to Mass on Christmas but not all Christmases. If i had ONLY Known that it is a sin to miss Mass (!!!) i would have/ could have had a better life and would have re-found Jesus a lot sooner… maybe wouldn’t even have lost Him to begin with… (Parents of young children, i hope you are listening!!!).
One day, in the midst of the worst crisis/misery imaginable… i “found” a cheap plastic rosary… didn’t want to pray the darn thing… didn’t bleieve in it… didn’t have time for it… didn’t think it would do one ^%$#* thing for me…
So why i prayed it is still beyond me…
But i did… and my life did a 180…
The devil came after me… got me… then got me again… and again and again… got angry at God… reconciled… got angry again… and so on and so on…
i went to this non-denom 12 step group about 10 yrs ago. The woman heading it was ex-Catholic, anti-Catholic, always made some snide remark about the Church even though by that time i had come back to Her… & she knew that… I got angry & decided that i had best find a good answer to the questio of why i was Catholic (“when you have already been born again???”

) so i decided to study the Faith in depth…
something told me i would meet with a heavy cross in doing that… (was that the devil? Well, sometimes even the devil tells the truth… if it is to his advantage somehow…). It was a cross… but also, as any Catholic knows… a great joy to learn the faith (the truth)…
anywya… i guess that about says it… even though it is really a much longer story than just that…
thanks for the grueling walk down Memory Lane. :banghead: :hypno:
