become a Catholic

I’ve done my journey through the RCIA.

I’m a Catholic!

For months I’ve attended three Masses on Sunday, and watched person after person receive Communion – and I could never do that. How I longed to do so.. And I did it today. =)

This is not the end of my journey. As a Catholic, I shall never be done learning!

So – the title of this entry says it all.. I’m getting baptized in 3 days (Saturday.) I’m so excited – I can’t even explain the joy that I have right now.

I have never felt this spiritual in my life before. I feel so close to God. I’m loving it!! It’s a wonderful thing to be close to my Heavenly Father.

I’ll have to write more after I get baptized.

Wish me luck! =)

So, I’m still in my classes (of course), and I just recently went through the whole Rite of Election thing. That was pretty interesting.

Again – I get baptized on Easter. Easter is coming sooner this year! Yay!

I also recently got the nerve up to ask my parish deacon to bless my Rosary (as the priest was unavailable at the moment..), so that was good. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.

I’ll let you all know how everything turns out!

I’m currently taking the RCIA classes. I’m on the road to becoming a Catholic! I find the religion so beautiful. I’m extremely excited about my baptism!! :]

Became a Catholic years ago (former Protestant) with absolutely no regrets! The depth of the Church is unfathomable to those who are not in it! No going back for this Catholic! :-)

One of the things that was the final straw for both DH and I was reading Martin Luther’s works, and really reading both sides of the history at the time. While the Church had some issues at the time, so did Martin Luther in a big way. Luther’s complaints did not justify himself thinking he was above “even the apostles themselves” in forming a new Church, nor was Luther the saint many try to make him out to be.

There is a lot of disinformation in the Protestant history- and if you research stuff, I highly recommend taking a more neutral approach and using sources from Protestant, Catholic, and non-Christian sources, also going to the source documents themselves and tracing book’s bibliograpies for accuracy and representation of quotes. We uncovered so many deceptive “histories” and poor research in the Protestant books it was not even funny, and we were quite disappointed.

Jesus prayed that ‘they all might be one’ and I have a hard time believing he would just accept the ‘cafeteria approach’ to Church. At this point there are how many denominations out there?

After being on the outer of the Catholicism at private schools it was great to be welcomed into the faith. Being baptised and confirmed on 7th April 2007.

If your interested in Catholicism ring your local parish and they will tell you about the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults Catholic (RCIA). It is open to both the unbaptised (known as elect) and the baptised (known as candidates) and starts in September (if I recall correctly).

Anyone doing this needs to ask themselves, Why do I want to become a catholic?

Catholicism can be a good thing in that it can be a great way to socialise, getting the community together, etc.

But for the most part it encourages people to think without using your own head. Too many times (twice) I’ve heard people say “oh yea, I don’t have a personal problem with [gay people / abortion / contraception] but I still think it’s wrong. Because [the bible / the church] says it’s wrong.

Okay, have you ever asked yourself why the bible says it’s right or wrong?

Why not decide for yourself based on reasoning and true empathy to your fellow man, what is right and what is wrong?

“But the book is the word of God”

No it isn’t, it was written by old men 2000 years ago. Old Men who lived among goats and sheep in villages that resembled Afghanistan.
Old men who weren’t even old men! The life span back then would have topped right out around the mid 50 range.

Why do you need to live by a book that was originally written thousands of years ago, by people with nothing that compares to modern education, a people with scant understanding of the world around them.
Old equals wise, perhaps.
But an old book written by ignorant not-so-old people is not so wise.
A book that was spurious to begin with by modern standards, but which was subsequently translated so many times, that the meanings of half of it have become completely distorted (ie story of sodom and gomarrah / the story of the virgin mary, etc etc etc).

Sodom and Gomarrah – The whole idea of The Gays being hated on by God came from the (probably intentional) mistranslation of the words ‘to know’, and also ‘Idoltry’. In the mistranslation of the story, the town were condemed for wanting to HAVE SEX with Gods messenger, ie gang rape an angel.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/dixon_03.htm

The ‘Virgin Mary’ – The idea of her being a virgin was MADE UP. It was added in to the bible to make the religion more ‘sellable’ to the Pagans, who had a similar belief!!Eventually everyone just accepted it as the truth, because that’s how it was taught and hey, everyone else believed it.

A similar thing happened with Coca Cola inventing Santa Clause. You can’t imagine Santa being any other way, but Fat Cheery Santa is less than 100 years old, and he was invented in order for Coke to sell more drinks.

We believe this crap as kids, and we’re openly encouraged to have faith. And in school we think everyone else believes it therefore it must be true.

But everyone thought the world was flat at one stage too. And that the sun and the planets moved around the Earth.

You say ‘Christianity’, but truth is, Jesus’ teachings mostly never made it as law in the world, thanks mostly to Christianity itself. Think of all the killing that went on from the Church in the name of Jesus’ message of peace, love and forgiveness. Hah!!

You hear a lot of fundamental Christians preferring to taut from the Old Testament…
“Hmmmm….’Love one another’ is such a conflict with ‘God Hates Fags’. Let’s read from the old Testament instead and construe our own messages from that.”

It’s amazing how Jesus is said to have taken down the old Church. He hated the corruption and control that was organised religion, he actually condemned it.
And then some other guys came along and erected the same system again, the one he had just knocked down, and re-erected it in his name. Haha! This stuff is priceless!!

I don’t doubt jesus existed. I just don’t believe he was the son of a God. In fact I think many people could have been just like Jesus.
All it takes is a strong (and arguable good) teaching, some conviction, some loyal disciples, someone to make a Martyr of you, an environment that harbours complete and utter ignorance of science or sense, then just shake it about with about 200 years of rumour, legend and myth in a world where most understanding is passed on (and exaggerated) by word of mouth.

And don’t even get started on the other religions, they all think they have the one true god too. People please, everyone can’t be right. In fact your’e all wrong.

Anyway, I’m not trying to knock religious people, but I am knocking religion. I’m sorry if you take it personally, but you’re completely wrong about nearly all of this.

You will be a happier person without God.
God doesn’t exist. There is no afterlife. You will have no reward. It is NOT GOOD to blindly believe. When you die there will be nothingness.

But please, think positively, this doesn’t have to be a depressing thought, this can be a liberating thought.

When you realise that this is the only life you have, you start to cherish it, and you know what?
You actually being feeling true empathy for other people, even ‘sinners’, people you would normally use your religion to put down and judge, well, you start to actually forgive. (wow!)

Because, you see, all we have is this very moment. You should appreciate it, and love yourself and others.
Strive to make yourself a better person and hence improve the lives of others. Go out, travel, try new things.
Have fun! Challenge everything you take for granted as true!

And please, masturbate, it’s natural..

Amen.

I have decided to attempt reading through the Catechism again, and was struck by 25:

“The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective that to arrive at love.”

I’ve been practicing the occult since I was 13, when I started studying under my first master. Since then, I’ve grown and changed in my practice and belief, and now own a small business that teaches classes in the occult, spirituality, divination, and healthy lifestyles.

My boyfriend is Catholic. We’ve been together for a year and a half. I love him partly because he loves God so much. I love God; that’s what magic is about, for me – being closer and more connected to and interacting with God. I took a few RCIA classes more than a year ago, but stopped going because everyone else in the class was definitely decided on becoming Catholic and didn’t have nearly as many questions as I had. I felt uncomfortable.

I think that becoming Catholic is the next step in my faith and practice. I honestly believe that nothing I believe or practice goes against Catholic faith. I would NEVER become Catholic if I did not intend on being the best Catholic I can be. When I read the theology and go to mass, I think that Catholicism is definitely for me. Then I start to think about signing up for RCIA and answering the priest’s questions about my beliefs and what the other members of the congregation will think, and I get so scared I just want to run away and hide. I came here to post this instead of sending email to my parish to ask when the next RCIA class starts! I’m such a pansy!

I hope that God grants me the courage to get over my fear of what other Catholics will think of me and just go about the business of worshipping God the best way I know how.

It’s the most important thing that I have ever done. It’s a long road, but so worth it!! It is such an amazing comfort in my life.