I don't know where to begin. I could probably fill up most of the bandwidth on the internet by telling my whole life's history up until the time that Christianity was re-introduced to me. But, for the sake of brevity and to save the reader from falling into perpetual lethargy, I will try to keep my life's history brief and focus on my return to Christianity and my reversion to Catholicism.
I was born into a poor Irish family (and I do say this slightly with tongue in cheek)--Mom and Dad were full fledged Irish and Catholic. Unfortunatley, dysfunction in the family was as strong as the family blood-line, and by the time that I was 5, my father had all but abandoned his parental duties, leaving the task soley to my mother, who was unfit for the calling.
Somehow she managed to get us Baptized, catechized and we received the Sacraments at the age appropriate time.
I could tell many a tale about hungry days, going weeks without utilitites, and a general woe-is-me-forlorn saga which would make Frank McCourt's family look upscale. In short, we lived in oppression and poverty.
To my father's credit, he did return when I was 13 but died tragically less than a year later. And my mother did the best she could with what she had.
I would like to now fast-forwarrd to my late-teens and early adulthood. I attended Catholic High School because I was able to work in the rectory to pay my own tuition. I was anything but a model child, though. The years of neglect began to emerge in my rebellious behaviors. My grades were always good, I always maintained a 'B' average, and was always actively involved in school activities, but I started drinking and using drugs which carried me on a slow downward spiral until I was nearly 31 years old.
Immediately after high school I began dating the man who would later become my husband. We did not marry until eleven years later in a civil union, performed by a judge. We were both backslidden Catholics, with no interest in our faith. I became pregnant six months after we were married and it is about that time that another man entered my life. His Name is Jesus.
A close friend of mine had recently become a born-again Christian through testimony and witness of the Charasmatic folks who attended her Lutheran Church. She invitied me to go to Church with her and she introduced me to her new friends. It wasn't long before I had the 'fever'. When I say 'fever' I mean it in a good way.
I started reading the Bible daily, praying and going to Church. I stopped the drinking and the drug use and got involved in a Christian related 12 step program. I was ready to be done with it, ready to turn it all over to the Lord and start facing some of the painful issues that lay buried in my past. Not only dealing with and confessing sins that I had commited, but also coming to terms with the way that I was raised.
It wasn't easy, it has not been easy, and it still isn't easy. But I thank God every day for the people that He placed in my life because they were unconditionally loving and accepting of me at a time in my life when I desparately needed it. I am thankful for the experiences that have had at the Protestant Church and many of the people that I met there remain my friends to this day.
However, as I am becoming more and more on fire for Jesus, I am hearing more and more about 'the Catholics'. And since I believed that I had been raised Catholic (though technically I was, no one modeled the faith in my home)--I thought that I knew everything about the Faith. People were asking me 'Why do Catholics worship Mary?' and 'Why do Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible'? And at first I would answer..'Well, they don't, we don't'.. but I didn't really know how to explain it any better than that. I began avoiding conversations which seemed to becoming more and more frequent about 'the Catholics' and their weird practices because I didn't know how to defend it and by that time I really didn't consider myself Catholic anymore anyway.
But slowly, I began to doubt and it wasn't long before I was falling victim to the misconceptions about the Faith.
By this time, I'd given birth to my second child. It was probably the beginning of the year 2000 and it was then that I discovered 'religion on the web'.
This was when I was introduced to the most hateful type of anti-Catholicism. The Church is the harlot of Babylon, the Pope is the anti-Christ, Catholics are idolators...etc...etc.. I could increase the list ad nauseum, ad infinitum...And I was starting to not only be influenced by it, but to actually believe it. For probably a year I flirted with this mindset, even spouting rhetoric myself.. (Lord forgive me)..and then one day, I became involved in a conversation with a woman that I work with. She is a very devout, very knowledgable Catholic and she had an answer for every one of my questions. Which probably, by that time, were not questions any more, but false allegations.
This is getting long so I will continue in another post.....
I was born into a poor Irish family (and I do say this slightly with tongue in cheek)--Mom and Dad were full fledged Irish and Catholic. Unfortunatley, dysfunction in the family was as strong as the family blood-line, and by the time that I was 5, my father had all but abandoned his parental duties, leaving the task soley to my mother, who was unfit for the calling.
Somehow she managed to get us Baptized, catechized and we received the Sacraments at the age appropriate time.
I could tell many a tale about hungry days, going weeks without utilitites, and a general woe-is-me-forlorn saga which would make Frank McCourt's family look upscale. In short, we lived in oppression and poverty.
To my father's credit, he did return when I was 13 but died tragically less than a year later. And my mother did the best she could with what she had.
I would like to now fast-forwarrd to my late-teens and early adulthood. I attended Catholic High School because I was able to work in the rectory to pay my own tuition. I was anything but a model child, though. The years of neglect began to emerge in my rebellious behaviors. My grades were always good, I always maintained a 'B' average, and was always actively involved in school activities, but I started drinking and using drugs which carried me on a slow downward spiral until I was nearly 31 years old.
Immediately after high school I began dating the man who would later become my husband. We did not marry until eleven years later in a civil union, performed by a judge. We were both backslidden Catholics, with no interest in our faith. I became pregnant six months after we were married and it is about that time that another man entered my life. His Name is Jesus.
A close friend of mine had recently become a born-again Christian through testimony and witness of the Charasmatic folks who attended her Lutheran Church. She invitied me to go to Church with her and she introduced me to her new friends. It wasn't long before I had the 'fever'. When I say 'fever' I mean it in a good way.
I started reading the Bible daily, praying and going to Church. I stopped the drinking and the drug use and got involved in a Christian related 12 step program. I was ready to be done with it, ready to turn it all over to the Lord and start facing some of the painful issues that lay buried in my past. Not only dealing with and confessing sins that I had commited, but also coming to terms with the way that I was raised.
It wasn't easy, it has not been easy, and it still isn't easy. But I thank God every day for the people that He placed in my life because they were unconditionally loving and accepting of me at a time in my life when I desparately needed it. I am thankful for the experiences that have had at the Protestant Church and many of the people that I met there remain my friends to this day.
However, as I am becoming more and more on fire for Jesus, I am hearing more and more about 'the Catholics'. And since I believed that I had been raised Catholic (though technically I was, no one modeled the faith in my home)--I thought that I knew everything about the Faith. People were asking me 'Why do Catholics worship Mary?' and 'Why do Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible'? And at first I would answer..'Well, they don't, we don't'.. but I didn't really know how to explain it any better than that. I began avoiding conversations which seemed to becoming more and more frequent about 'the Catholics' and their weird practices because I didn't know how to defend it and by that time I really didn't consider myself Catholic anymore anyway.
But slowly, I began to doubt and it wasn't long before I was falling victim to the misconceptions about the Faith.
By this time, I'd given birth to my second child. It was probably the beginning of the year 2000 and it was then that I discovered 'religion on the web'.
This was when I was introduced to the most hateful type of anti-Catholicism. The Church is the harlot of Babylon, the Pope is the anti-Christ, Catholics are idolators...etc...etc.. I could increase the list ad nauseum, ad infinitum...And I was starting to not only be influenced by it, but to actually believe it. For probably a year I flirted with this mindset, even spouting rhetoric myself.. (Lord forgive me)..and then one day, I became involved in a conversation with a woman that I work with. She is a very devout, very knowledgable Catholic and she had an answer for every one of my questions. Which probably, by that time, were not questions any more, but false allegations.
This is getting long so I will continue in another post.....
