In 2009, my husband and I entered the Catholic Church. It’s been a really interesting (amazing, bittersweet, odd at times) journey. I was raised Baptist, and attended a variety of evangelical churches in high school and college. I even went to an evangelical college. And these experiences are an important part of my life, but I’m glad to be “home”. I love the Catholic Church and I believe it to be true, which means that I agree with all of the doctrine (or else I would not be Catholic).
I’d like to write more about the journey someday, and I will, but right now I just want to ramble a little.
I’m currently reading two books that are geared toward pregnancy and being Catholic. One is called Prayerfully Expecting: A Nine-Month Novena for Mothers to Be
I’m struggling to get through the first, because I haven’t taken the time to actually pray the prayers in there, haha, but the second has been wonderful, I definitely recommend it. I didn’t expect to get much out of it (because I can be very critical of Christian devotional books) but I’m happy to say that I love it and that I’ve needed it.
Also, we moved to this area earlier this year and have been looking for a parish to call home. We’ve visited a bunch and sort of had a default one, but still wanted to visit a few more. And this past Sunday, we went into Harrisburg (the big city, haha!) and visited a small, but cathedral style parish and I think we found our home. I love that it’s less suburban (and less evangelical-feeling), that it’s not a generic modern building and that it’s a beautiful old style Catholic church and that it’s more diverse culturally and age-wise. Most of the other ones around here are either all older people, or all suburban families (we live in the suburbs, so duh. lol). This is the closest to the parish we attended in Maryland, so I’m happy about that, because I really missed that one. We have one more to visit, it’s the huge typical city cathedral, and I’m looking forward to visiting that one, but I have a feeling this one is the better fit.. it’s in the hipstery part of town, so it probably is more us, since everyone calls us hipsters and all. 😛
But, it’s good, because we have to have a regular place to attend, one because that would be good for us, but two because I want to baptize my baby fairly soon after birth, and if we don’t have a parish, it’s going to be kind of hard to do that. So, I’m glad it’s finally sorting itself out. I know the one church we were going to said it wanted six months notice before baptism, and to contact them while still pregnant but another says to wait until after birth and they don’t need a huge notice.
One thing I love about being Catholic is when it’s time to go receive the Eucharist.. I like to watch everyone receive and they way they approach and think about their different lives, but also think about how everyone is coming together, unified, to receive the real body and blood of Christ and it’s beautiful.
