My pleasure…
It’s kind of a long story (a sad tale of a mis-spent youth
), but here goes…
My Mom was a lapsed Catholic and my Dad a lapsed Methodist. However, we did attend a Methodist church for a few months when I was a kid since my folks felt I should have some exposure to religion. We also attended church with my paternal grandparents (also Methodist) occasionally when we visited. However, I was pretty much an agnostic for most of my early life. There were two incidents that made an impression on me. Once was when we were attending church with my grandparents and they had a communion service (the first and only one I had seen). People went up by pews and knelt at the altar to partake. I didn’t have a clue what they were doing, but thought it was beautiful (it impressed me more than the sermons or songs I heard) and wanted to go up, but we didn’t. I had a second, similar experience in the Navy. The first submarine I was assigned to had regular religious services every Sunday. On one particular Sunday the Protestants in the crew were on the mess deck preparing for a communion service (Catholics met in the wardroom), and as I was passing through to get a cup of coffee, was invited to attend. I declined, saying I wasn’t into that stuff, but I had the feeling I was turning my back on something (or Someone).
When I got out of the Navy I had hit a rough patch in my life. Through my own stupidity, I lost my job, my license and my car in a short period of time. I was able to find another job, and was able to keep my head above water (barely), but I was at a point in my life where I was questioning the purpose of my existence (God no doubt was using this to draw me to Himself). I started reading the Bible and came to discover how Jesus died for me and knew all about me and loved me. This really made a big impression on me and I had what non-Catholics would call a “born-again” experience that washed away my despair.
At this point I felt I should start going to church, but didn’t know which one (and if you ever look in the phone book, you can see there are A LOT). I thought briefly going to a Methodist church, but didn’t feel strongly compelled to do so. At the time, I was rather shy, and didn’t feel comfortable walking in to a church where I didn’t know anybody. I also felt that the original Church Jesus and His Apostles founded must still exist somewhere. Unfortunately, around this time I had read religious literature written by various sects that attacked the Catholic faith. While I eventually rejected the claims made by them, it left me with a residual of anti-Catholicism. After a year or so I attended a nearby Baptist church, and when the church split, attended briefly the church that the minister had left to found. After this time I had given up churchgoing. I also had a good friend (who would later be my sponsor in the Church) who kept asking me to go to RCIA to learn more about the Catholic faith. I refused, because I read the Bible and “knew better.” I eventually encountered someone who was Greek Orthodox, and from them learned more about Church History (all of it, and not just from the Reformation on) and I saw how things like devotion to Mary and the Saints, the Sacraments etc. were believed by all Christians prior to the Reformation. I even attended an Orthodox service and found it very beatiful. At this time I finally gave in to my friends request to check out RCIA. Around the same time I read "Crossing the Threshold of Hope by JPII, and saw that not only was the Pope not the antichrist, but he was a the voice of the Christian faith and provided for a unity that the Orthodox lacked).
To wrap up a long story, I was received into the faith at the Easter Vigil in 1996 and have never looked back…
) was something foreign to me. I figure it was God’s grace in my life…
)…
:banghead:
)
