Oh Kimber1!kimber1 said:suzannah you're such a sweetie!yea, i am totally not looking forward to telling my old pastor but i do think i owe him that much respect. 2 deacons have already come visiting wondering where i've been so i really need to go ahead and make that phone call. i'm just kind of chicken at the moment. i know he's not going to take it well but i have to go where i'm called!
adn congrats to you girl
Prayers going up that it will not be so hard . . you have courage and you are doing the right thing . . I have not yet spoken to my former pastor . . but our situation is a little different. . . in service 3 sumers ago, I had a vision . . . I saw many in the congregation flying into the blissful rapture of God's love . . leaving their seats and launching into the depths of God's love . . I wanted to go to, but when I tried, I was tethered . . I looed to see what I was tethered to .. and it was something outside of myself . . I began to deeply weep (in real life) - the person next to me was a dear brother in the lord and he was going . .I wanted so bad to grab his shirt and hang on (in real life), but I refrained because of how it might appear and just wept . . the Holy Spirit spoke to me in my heart very clearly and told me I would have to choose (between what I was tethered to and what I saw in my vision) which I could not imagine doing . . I later told my Pastor about it . . shortly after that my husband didn't want to go to Church . . and we started missing one Sunday after another . . my pastor called me and said what had happened in my vision was happening to me in real life now . . . still, I didn't want to choose, so I decided not to choose . . (is that possible?) . . . We stopped going to Church services for about 3 years . .
Just before all this happened, I had discovered some facts about the Reforamtion that were shocking and generally ignored or glossed over up when taught on by Protestants . . and I had tried to share with my Pastor's wife some of what I had discovered (which had impressed on me a deep need for Protestants to repent of what our "fathers" had done) . . she not only would not hear of what I had learned, she was unable to hear it and threw her hands at me while strongly saying "NO! NO! I don't believe it!" . . she turned her back on me and walked away . . She had been like a mother to me, and her husband like a father .. in fact, it was through him that the Lord healed my concept of God as heavenly father and gave me a childlike relationship with Him in reality in this life .. so these two people were very special to me. I had always meant to talk to her again about this, but with my husband not wanting to go to church from Sunday to Sunday, and me not sure of how to approach her again, I let it slide thinking that I would be back and I would talk to her again . . but that never happened . .
Now, I know if I go talk to them, it will hurt them to know I am becoming Catholic . . I probably should any way . . but it takes courage, and why this is harder for me to do than any one else, I am not sure . .I had a close relationship with them up to that time . . I guess their acceptance has been important to me in the past, and I don't want to deal with the possibility that they will reject me now . .
All this may be mute as the one who was next to me when I had that vision, who I wanted to grab hold of, ran into us at a restaurant a while back (and they are close to the pastor and his wife) - the night before I was going to talk to our priest for the first time
. . One of the first things he asked me was where were we going to church now . . I paused for a few moments, looking at him trying to decide what was best to say, and then said I was going to speak to a priest tomorrow . . the shocked look on his face was immediate . . they (he and his family) joined us at our table and he and I spent most of the time talking about what was happeneing with me, why and trying to talk me out of it . . I am pretty sure that my old pastor and wife know by now . . but if feels like a loose end that needs to be tied . . Peace in Him!
Upvote
0
