B
Brandall
Guest
This is near and dear to me and I can shed some light as to how it’s going so far. 26 years ago, I married a Baptist girl in a Baptist church and I had grown up Baptist. Looking back on my life, I have spent a large portion of it either running from or to God.
We’ve tried many churches and most left me wanting. The shortcomings of non Catholic Christian churches left me thirsting and were totally inadequate. There should be no wonder that I felt compelled to run from such places. There were many doctrinal issues that left me confused even in my youth. I couldn’t understand some of the things that Baptists gleaned from the scriptures. It truly didn’t make sense to me.
Then on September 22, 2012, my daughter’s choir was having a benefit concert and had borrowed the sanctuary of a Catholic Church. Even though it was not a church event, I knew there was something special about that place. I told my wife, I was going to check it out the next week and I did and the week after and so on. Last fall, I entered RCIA and was confirmed at the Easter vigil this past April.
That’s the short story but regarding this issue, I could tell my wife had some reservations about it though she kept them to herself. My wife and daughter go to a Mega church in the area and I know she hates seeing families there when her husband doesn’t attend with her. My daughter is very happy at the Mega Church and my wife intends to keep taking her. After meeting several people at my church, she has said that she could see herself one day going there when our daughter was out of the house but she didn’t want to do RCIA. She thought I had to work much too hard.
In a way, she is pleased. She knows that I am spiritually happy for the first time in our marriage. She sees positive changes in me and she knows that there is a spiritual renewal going on inside me. You say that your wife thinks it a mid life thing and that may be partly true. This journey started when I was 51 and I refuse to even consider living to 102 years of age. This cannot be midlife. I can say that my father had a huge spiritual renewal about this time in his life too. He drastically changed and continued to change all of his life and it was easy to see the hand of God had come upon him. Looking back, I do see a genetic pattern here. I was not looking for such. I wasn’t saying, hey, I’m in my fifties, I need to become more Christ centered like pop did. It just happened.
At my church, from our RCIA groups, it appears that most adult conversions are spouses of Catholics. From those engaged to those married for 30+ years. Honestly, being a bit judgey, I doubted the seriousness of all those spouses. Again, honestly, I was spiritually naive when I made that judgement. By the time RCIA was over, if they weren’t spiritually sincere when they started, they were when they were finished. You can try to fake it but when you have an entire congregation praying for you, when you have all the priests praying for you, when you have all the Bishops praying for you, something is bound to happen. There were a few that dropped out by the time of the Christmas break but few they were. It is my understanding that our church is not the norm as far as such a huge majority being spouses of Catholics among the adult converts. I don’t even know the figures of our church from year to year. This year, out of about thirty, me and one other woman were not married to, dating or engaged to a Catholic.
Will all of these remain faithful? I don’t know. It is truly hard to be faithful and it’s easy to be the rocky ground where the seed was sown. The evil one makes it easy to fall away from the faith. Please pray for me and these friends that entered the Church this year.
Do I think my wife will follow me into the Catholic Church? Honestly, I think she eventually will. I think my 13 year old daughter will eventually and I also think my 24 year old son will. Once you are able to allow yourself to attempt to understand the mass and feel the spirit of God massaging your soul, there just is no going back.
Back to the subject at hand, I have nearly two years of attending the Catholic Church. My study has been going on since that first visit and it has been intense. During RCIA, it was better directed but the intensity was the same. I have 2+ months as a card carrying Catholic. None of these are great amounts of time. The experience that I share is tiny. My wife and I still get along but we have to dance around religion. I will very gently explain the doctrinal differences and gently explain why the church of my youth got it wrong. Long before I went to the Catholic Church, I had called the mega church, THE ROCK AND ROLL CHURCH OF JESUS. She knows my opinion of their worship is low but it would just be hurtful to elaborate. She enjoys visiting my church and knows when to cross herself and when to kneel, etc. When my daughter visits, she even genuflects before entering the pew.
The following is just my opinion. The Catholic Church does have the fullness of truth and is the One Church that was founded by Jesus Christ. The other trinitarian denominations still have a lot of truth. The radical changes that happened in my father’s life were no less than miraculous and it had to be God led. It’s beyond comprehension that God would work so hard in one lifetime to abandon it in the next. While some of these non Catholic Churches get some things wrong, they get so much right and I don’t see God punishing those that go there, that had been raised there, that it is all they ever knew, for these differences. I serve a merciful Lord. One day we all will know the truth about such.
You don’t really describe why you are seeking something else. It would be great if you could share more of your story.
We’ve tried many churches and most left me wanting. The shortcomings of non Catholic Christian churches left me thirsting and were totally inadequate. There should be no wonder that I felt compelled to run from such places. There were many doctrinal issues that left me confused even in my youth. I couldn’t understand some of the things that Baptists gleaned from the scriptures. It truly didn’t make sense to me.
Then on September 22, 2012, my daughter’s choir was having a benefit concert and had borrowed the sanctuary of a Catholic Church. Even though it was not a church event, I knew there was something special about that place. I told my wife, I was going to check it out the next week and I did and the week after and so on. Last fall, I entered RCIA and was confirmed at the Easter vigil this past April.
That’s the short story but regarding this issue, I could tell my wife had some reservations about it though she kept them to herself. My wife and daughter go to a Mega church in the area and I know she hates seeing families there when her husband doesn’t attend with her. My daughter is very happy at the Mega Church and my wife intends to keep taking her. After meeting several people at my church, she has said that she could see herself one day going there when our daughter was out of the house but she didn’t want to do RCIA. She thought I had to work much too hard.
In a way, she is pleased. She knows that I am spiritually happy for the first time in our marriage. She sees positive changes in me and she knows that there is a spiritual renewal going on inside me. You say that your wife thinks it a mid life thing and that may be partly true. This journey started when I was 51 and I refuse to even consider living to 102 years of age. This cannot be midlife. I can say that my father had a huge spiritual renewal about this time in his life too. He drastically changed and continued to change all of his life and it was easy to see the hand of God had come upon him. Looking back, I do see a genetic pattern here. I was not looking for such. I wasn’t saying, hey, I’m in my fifties, I need to become more Christ centered like pop did. It just happened.
At my church, from our RCIA groups, it appears that most adult conversions are spouses of Catholics. From those engaged to those married for 30+ years. Honestly, being a bit judgey, I doubted the seriousness of all those spouses. Again, honestly, I was spiritually naive when I made that judgement. By the time RCIA was over, if they weren’t spiritually sincere when they started, they were when they were finished. You can try to fake it but when you have an entire congregation praying for you, when you have all the priests praying for you, when you have all the Bishops praying for you, something is bound to happen. There were a few that dropped out by the time of the Christmas break but few they were. It is my understanding that our church is not the norm as far as such a huge majority being spouses of Catholics among the adult converts. I don’t even know the figures of our church from year to year. This year, out of about thirty, me and one other woman were not married to, dating or engaged to a Catholic.
Will all of these remain faithful? I don’t know. It is truly hard to be faithful and it’s easy to be the rocky ground where the seed was sown. The evil one makes it easy to fall away from the faith. Please pray for me and these friends that entered the Church this year.
Do I think my wife will follow me into the Catholic Church? Honestly, I think she eventually will. I think my 13 year old daughter will eventually and I also think my 24 year old son will. Once you are able to allow yourself to attempt to understand the mass and feel the spirit of God massaging your soul, there just is no going back.
Back to the subject at hand, I have nearly two years of attending the Catholic Church. My study has been going on since that first visit and it has been intense. During RCIA, it was better directed but the intensity was the same. I have 2+ months as a card carrying Catholic. None of these are great amounts of time. The experience that I share is tiny. My wife and I still get along but we have to dance around religion. I will very gently explain the doctrinal differences and gently explain why the church of my youth got it wrong. Long before I went to the Catholic Church, I had called the mega church, THE ROCK AND ROLL CHURCH OF JESUS. She knows my opinion of their worship is low but it would just be hurtful to elaborate. She enjoys visiting my church and knows when to cross herself and when to kneel, etc. When my daughter visits, she even genuflects before entering the pew.
The following is just my opinion. The Catholic Church does have the fullness of truth and is the One Church that was founded by Jesus Christ. The other trinitarian denominations still have a lot of truth. The radical changes that happened in my father’s life were no less than miraculous and it had to be God led. It’s beyond comprehension that God would work so hard in one lifetime to abandon it in the next. While some of these non Catholic Churches get some things wrong, they get so much right and I don’t see God punishing those that go there, that had been raised there, that it is all they ever knew, for these differences. I serve a merciful Lord. One day we all will know the truth about such.
You don’t really describe why you are seeking something else. It would be great if you could share more of your story.