Why Catholic?

I'm currently on a quest to find the home of my spirit's desire. I (jokingly) "blame" my lovely parents for baptizing me Catholic for this continuous calling of my heart to consider, or at least learn more about, Catholicism. The other day I was eating lunch and flipping channels and let's face it, there's not much to watch if you don't like daytime television and don't want to pay for cable, so I landed upon EWTN (somehow that means the Catholic channel). I was intrigued by the priest who was on and what he had to say regarding discernment. He was sharing on the topic of discerning priesthood. In response to a caller's question on "how you know if you're being 'called' to become a priest," he said several things but the one that stood out to me was "it just keeps coming back to you. You might try to push it away, but it's always there, knocking, and it just keeps coming back" Now, take a deep breath friends, I'm not discerning the priesthood :) or becoming a nun (not yet, at least, although if they offerred to pay off all my school debt, I might seriously consider it!). But what he said is resonating in my heart.

"It just keeps coming back." How does that apply to this girl? Well, I think the first time it (Catholicism for me) came up was when I was dating this guy right after graduation from St. Kate's. I met him at my cousin's wedding. It had been my average two weeks when I started to realize things that ultimately meant he wasn't the one. He was Catholic, for one thing! I mean, sure, I'd date someone of a different denomination but if things seemed to line up and he wasn't willing to budge and i wasn't willing to budge.. well, I guess we'd have to re-evaluate.

In any case, what happened, was I went to House of Mercy (non-denom, yet old-school/hippie blue grass church.. great place) and this homeless man spoke and shared with us his gift of music. It was amazing. I never quite felt at home at HOM but I deeply appreciated its openness to all people and how all different kinds of people attended and enjoyed hearing God's word there. Later that night I was on a walk on Harriet Island with the young man I was seeing and we saw the homeless gentleman. I stopped to talk with him and thanked him for sharing at church. After we walked away, I asked my date if he'd ever want to go to church with me. After all, I'd gone to mass with many Catholic friends just to be in fellowship at worship. Heck, I grew up doing it. His response was the deal breaker. He was immediately defensive as if I was asking him to leave the Catholic church and join the non-denom i didn't even belong to. I was so shocked. I just wanted him to see the ministry of this church and all the beauty that I saw there even when I knew it wasn't the church for me.

This lead to a bit of a discussion and he brought up RCIA. This was the first time I heard this acronym. I had no idea what that stood for but I knew it was the classes people took to learn about or become Catholic. I think he may have asked me take them when i was challenging his beliefs vs Lutheranism. I wouldn't have even considered it (RCIA classes). I deeply admired Martin Luther and his colleagues for all that they fought for and the changes they brought about! I still believe he stood for what he believed in and fought against the thick and weighty corruption of the powerful Catholic church. Before anymore of that talk came up we decided to call it quits with the relationship..

But I still lived with Jill.. one of the most beautiful souls mine had come in contact with.

real blogging

after enjoying reading the blogs of my friends and realizing that i didn't really enjoy blogging on myspace.. i thought, why not? so here i am, and though my heart is on fire for so much i want to share, i must pack! i'm supposed to leave..... an hour ago!!!!! heading to de witt for mom's graduation! :) lovely lady.

thanks for stopping by!