My Journey Home
I grew up in a Catholic family in SW Iowa, served as an altar server at St. Mary’s in Shenandoah and recall my sister and I “playing Mass” as kids and to this day, tuna burgers and fish sticks still gross me out. My Mom’s family is Catholic from the very Irish and Catholic community of Imogene, my dad grew up in the very Catholic area north of Carroll and my step-dad’s family in South Dakota is Catholic, in other words, my family is very Catholic.
When I moved to Des Moines in 1997, I never really got settled into a Parish, I would occasionally attend Mass, but never on a regular basis. I recall specifically going to the Basilica once as a Priest from Red Oak (IA) was assigned there and to St. Anthony’s in the days following 9/11 to pray for our Country, I eventually became a Christmas & Easter Catholic.
My then wife was raised Baptist and we decided on the mega church path, I went a couple of times and it felt more like a rock concert than church and stopped going all together. Despite that I never had a doubt of belief of God & Christ. On Good Friday, I would often picture myself at the foot of the Cross and the pain and suffering that Jesus went through for us.
Fast forward to 2009, I attended the funeral Mass for my Great Aunt in a little town north of Carroll called Mt. Carmel (IA). Following that funeral Mass, the thoughts of coming home entered my mind and when you hear a Priest give his vocation story, what’s the common theme of a vocation story? They push the initial thought aside. During that summer, when I was at Georgetown Park as my son was playing, I would look off to the north to Elkhart and the Parish there as I don’t like crowds, but like a Priest telling his vocation story, little did I know at that time, the Holy Spirit was at work.
During the summer of 2011, I started again to have thoughts of returning to the Church, I learn of St. Lukes and at the time was having Mass at Ashland Ridge, a 10 minute walk from my home, a nice walk until it would be too cold to do so. I posted a question on Facebook asking about returning to the Church and within 5 minutes a cousin replied and he gave me the link to Catholics Come Home. I went to their website and that’s all that it took once I started watching the videos and realized I wasn’t the only one who had fallen away and how easy it was to return.
I begin to exchange e-mails and phone calls with Fr. Larry. In August of that year, the weekend I was going to Mass for the first time in years, my wife left me. I knew I couldn’t handle Mass in the school were my son once attended, I jumped onto OLIH’s website and still had time to get to 8:30 Mass and the rest is history. Imagine my reaction of walking to OLIH for the first time and seeing it’s not anything like a Catholic Church any of us were raised in, but quickly grew to enjoy the intimate design of having the Altar in the center of the Church.
Weeks go by and I’ve abstained from taking Communion, Fr. Steve was on a Rome trip and I meet with Sr. Susan, I ask about Communion and I remember her saying that if you desire to receive Communion (which I did), go ahead, no one knows you. Fr. Steve returns, we meet and set a time to visit the confessional, the layout of the OLIH confessional made it so easy to go to confession.
Fr. Steve was so welcoming of me, I recall in September of 2011, I had a day off from work and decided to attend daily Mass. After Mass, I greet Fr. Steve in the Gathering Space and told him how wonderful it was to have returned and I’ll never forget his face lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning, much the same way I see his face light up when he baptizes a baby.
My step-dad is a Knight of Columbus and an active member of the Shenandoah/Imogene council, I grew up with the tottise roll drives and spending weekends at my Grandma’s during the 80’s as he was a District Deputy and he and my Mom had out of town weekend
meetings. When the time was right, I knew I wanted to join the Knights, which I have and my step-dad was in attendance when I took the 2nd & 3rd degrees. Joining the Knights has allowed me to meet great guys and their spouses who otherwise would just be faces on the weekend and given the sheer size of OLIH, being a part of Council 5038 has made our Parish family much smaller.
Catholic radio played a huge role in the months following coming home, it helped to stay connected to our faith as we have the opportunity to live it every day, not just Sunday. I remember the first time I listened to The Catholic Guy Show with Lino Rulli and Fr. Rob Keighron on SiriusXM’s Catholic Channel (after my initial reaction of “what is THIS”) those two quickly became a must listen until Fr. Rob left the show as they made it fun to be Catholic. To this day, when I hear All Night Long, I start singing out loud their Lenten song parody All Lent Long, which me singing is scary enough. I also have the Laudate app on my phone, a great resource for the daily readings or a quick 10 or 20 second prayer, depending on how fast you read.
In closing, if you know of a family member who has drifted away and drops a hint of exploring to return, tell them about Catholics Come Home, I’m sure it will make for an easy decision like it was for me. Don’t pester them about the web site. If they are dropping hints, much like me, the Holy Spirit is already hard at work.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for you that you found your way ‘home’. Mine is a vastly different story. Interesting contrast. The diocese I reside in is not doing anything of the sort you describe. In fact my attempts at coming home were hampered by the way the parishes in the diocese are run. I now belong to an Eparchy of an Eastern Catholic Church. Having been raised at a time when the Mass was in Latin and removed from it by my parents when things changed, never to go back. I did go back as a teen and it was not like the Catholic Church I was raised in. So I never reverted or came home. Home does not exist for me anymore. I did marry an Eastern Catholic, after my once Protestant husband (of 30+ years) converted, and by way of that marriage I became an Eastern Catholic.… it’s not anything like a Catholic Church any of us were raised in, but quickly grew to enjoy the intimate design of having the Altar in the center of the Church.
Weeks go by and I’ve abstained from taking Communion, Fr. Steve was on a Rome trip and I meet with Sr. Susan, I ask about Communion and I remember her saying that if you desire to receive Communion (which I did), go ahead, no one knows you…