Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The missing puzzle piece of FAITH!

You are probably wondering what I mean by Conversian Diary. Well, getting engaged in June brought up the conversation of where we were going to get married. He is Catholic and I am not. After a few discussions, we decided that we wanted to have a Catholic Mass Ceremony, which meant a couple of things for me: I had to be baptized Catholic and take the RCIA classes for 8 months in order to be baptized. I went into this at first with the decision that I would become catholic for our wedding, but after that day, I would continue being protestant but also attend Mass as well. I wasn't so sure about this whole becoming Catholic thing, but I knew it had to be done to have a Mass ceremony. It didn't bother me, I just wasn't serious about being a practicing Catholic. So, we signed up to have a Catholic Mass Ceremony, which meant I had to soon sign up for my classes. I'm now officially signed up! I've attended 3 classes so far…every Monday night from 7:30-9:00 pm. I was very excited about my first class. I wasn't sure what to expect, but went in with an open mind to learn and to decide if this is truly the faith that I wanted to follow. I have always been very opposed to Catholcism…I always thought that some of the ritualistic things practiced by Catholics were strange, one being, "the worshipping of Mary", and the other, "confession". I will touch more on this in a later post…my thoughts on these two things have changed, but in a good way! :-)

This is a huge decision for me to take part in these classes. I have never really researced any other faith than protestant (that's how I was raised and just assumed it was right) and never questioned my faith until recently. I've never been baptized either. So, this is a huge step for me, and yet an exciting one. At the end of the class, the night before Easter, is Holy Saturaday otherwise known as the "Easter Vigil". This is where students of the RCIA class will partake in the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion for the first time. I wasn't sure in the beginning how I would go forth with being baptized Catholic, but from 3 classes so far, and a lof of prayer, I’m leaning more and more towards being "only" a Catholic. This is a huge decision for me. I've never decided for myself what I wanted to believe, or what was right to believe. I'm still not quite sure. I have a lot to think and pray about. I have a lot of questions still. I had my 3rd RCIA class lastnight…and something hit me lastnight and I was moved my Father Hathaway's lesson. Things are becoming clearer and I'm beginning to not think that "Catholics" are so weird anymore! I never thought I would be thinking or saying this. I feel truly blessed to have been given this oppourtunity to learn about the Catholic Faith and I’m excited for what the future holds. I'm not 100% convinced just yet, but I honestly can say, that I think I may have found the missing puzzle piece to my life! :-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lauren I really love this site. Its so cool to learn through you. I too have wondered what a catholic will go through to grow in their faith instead of judging how they do it but to have grace and say they too love God and may have other ways of going about it. Thanks for sharing. This helps me since I am leading a bible study with 2 catholic girls and I can now understand their background better. For me I see it like this: No religion is any better than the other but basically as long as we believe that Jesus the son of God died and rose again for our sins is the essential to being born again and living for eternity and that we would repent of our sins to our father in heaven and allow Jesus to cover and wash them away with his blood.