my parents divorced when I was 9 months old. I was raised by my mom and step dad, They nor my brother and sister believe in God. My father went to church a few times when I was about 4 yrs old. On one of my few visits with him he took me to church. Through that one experience at 4 yrs old God caught my attention. Frm then on I always felt like there was more to this life then the tangible. When I was 20 I was dating a man who’s parents went to church every Sunday. They introduced me to their pastor who took an interest in me. Pastor came to my house one day with a brand new bible to give me. He asked me, did you know there was a man who loved you so much that he died for you? I replied, " that’s not possible. I’m 20 yrs old, I have 2 children and am divorced. I was an alcoholic by 17 and a terrible sinner. I can assure ypu that no one has ever truly loved me during my life or before I was even born." He simply said to read the gospels. I did. I still didn’t believe Jesus died for this awful person I’d become. On March 21, 2004 my father asked me to go with him to see The Passion of the Christ. (By this time they had gotten back into church and were attending regularly). I was reluctant but agreed to go. Before we walked into the theater dad said, are you ready to he changed? I said, dad, I know this story so don’t hold your breath. We sat down and the movie began. The moment that Judas kissed Christ I began to weep. I felt like Judas, I had betrayed Jesus by not believing in Him. I shook and wept through the entire movie. During the scene were Jesus is being beaten I knew that was for me, me personally because of His deep love for me. I cried for an hour after we left the theater. They took me to buy a new study bible which I read in secret at home.a week later I told my husband I wanted to take the kids to the nearby church. ( my husband and I began dating in 1998 and married in 2003. He had three daughters, I had two sons and we had a son together) he agreed but would not come with us. So the 6 kids and I went to church at a Church of God. I was baptized in August of that year. I have to say I was quite happy in this church for some time, the pastor amd his wife took me under their wing like a daughter. Something was missing. Some things I was being taught didn’t make sense to me but I couldn’t understand why. After about a year I told my husband I wanted to take the kids some where else because this church was tiny and didn’t offer much for the kids plus I felt that I was not growing any further. My husband was baptized Catholic. He went to Catholic school until second grade. His whole family was Catholic. He wanted us all to go to the Catholic church. I said, well there’s a Nazarene church that has tons of kids activities and I hear the pastor is amazing lets go there and see what we think. All 8 of us started going there together. The pastor was amazing! They had a band and a big screen with the lyrics! It was awesome! …but something was missing. We attended for a year and still I wasn’t finding my answers to the queations I was feeling but wasn’t sure how to express in words.
In May 07 my husbands grandma had a stroke leaving her in a come for a week. During that time on of my husband’s aunts invited ke to Mass, so I went. It was weird! (Haha) another aunt gave me a paper on how to pray the rosary in preparation for grandmas funeral. I really enjoyed praying the rosary
on mother’s day my husband’s devout Catholic grandmother passed away. This sparked the desire in my husband to go to the Catholic Church. I told him in no way shape or form would I attend a Catholic church! I said it was to weird with all the rituals and that if they didn’t waste so much time preparing for communion every singe time then they might have time to actually teach us something! He refused to go to the Nazarene church any longer and I refused the catholic church so we just didn’t go any where at all. So for the next 6 years we’d have this conversation about every 6 months: me; honey I want to go back to church. Him; well then we are going to Sacred Heart. Me; oh no! I all ready told you its weird there! The first week of January in 2013 we had the conversation again…me; honey, please I want to go to church. Him; I have told you I’ll only go to the Catholic Church. Me; FINE! now I’m thinking,what did I just say?! Why did I say fine?! Him; really? Me; I guess so I mean I don’t know enough about the beliefs to form an educated opinion. So I’ll go a few times and see what its like. We went to Mass the next Saturday. The following Friday he went to the office to find out how we join the church. He was told that since we were both baptized we could jump into RCIA and get caught up, beginning the next week…my head was spinning!! I agreed to take the class on the basis that 1) I’d learn what the church was teaching 2) it did not mean I HAD to become Catholic. I mean, after all I had been warned about the Church and just knew it was wrong…boy was the one who was wrong! All of the sudden those questions I’d been having had answers! Why did communion have such an impacts on me if it was only symbolic? (At my old church) why was my baptism so amazing if it was only a gesture? Why did praying the rosary touch my heart so deeply? What was the answer to countless verses I’d been reading? Why as a child did pope John Paul seem so interesting to me? The answers lay within the Catholic Church!! All of my questions were answered and more questions came that had answers! I was shocked to learn…I’ve been Catholic my whole life but was to stubborn to know it! Haha. Easter Vigil of 2013 my husband stood side by side for our confirmation and our first Holy Communion. God has lead me home and I thank Him daily for being patient with me
So if you’ve read my whole story you can see why my profile picture is of Mary Magdalene and why I chose her has my confirmation saint.
It feels good to get that all out
hmmmm what a strange world we live in