Cum Petro et Sub Petro

With Peter & Under Peter

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Catholics Come Home

i watched Mass early this morning on EWTN.I was up at 7:00 a.m.In case you're wondering why i wasn't getting ready to go to Mass it's because i have meneire's disease.I call it a disorder but the medical term is disease.Disease always suggests to me contagious so i often use disorder.Thank God it's NOT contagious.I would not wish this on anyone.It's been a terrible month too.That said,when i was a healthy person i had left the Church.Now that i've returned this happened.i do receive communion though.We have Eucharistic ministers and someone comes every first Friday. I wish i had more contact w/the local parish but there are many sick and elderly people and only so much time for the priest to see all these people.We have an extraordinary number of ppl in our parish who are in nursing homes-who are ill-and who are elderly. After Mass on EWTN i reflected somewhat on my life.Past and present and to some extent future.I wish i had come back ages ago and if i'd have had any sense (and accepted God's grace too)I would never have left. How DO you come back? I have to go with Fr Z on this one.Make a good confession. Just go.
Has my life changed since then? I know I'm in the right place. As for all the things that were wrong in my life in the past-some of those have not changed. I still don't have a relationship with my son. My parents both passed away and i miss them terribly.There isn't a day that goes by that something doesn't remind me of my mother. I didn't make her funeral. I carry that with me but i can't change it.There isn't a thing about our past we can change. Don't permit that to keep you away from the Church,even if people you wronged won't forgive you.
Absolution comes from confession. You may never be forgiven by the people you wronged. That's a tough one to live with sometimes. On the other hand it's your relationship with God that matters most.What you can't change He will help you live with. For one be sorry for the way you wronged people in your life. We can't excuse ourselves for the pain we've caused others. Still,give that up in the confessional.Put it in its place. Don't excuse yourself but don't let that keep you away from the Church either. Maybe you left the Church for other reasons.Maybe it was the other way around for you.Someone wronged you and it hurt so deeply that you left the Church.Maybe a priest? I can think of a thousand reasons to return to the Church compared to the one that causes us to leave. I know people leave for other reasons.They don't know the faith and someone comes along and evangelizes them. The worst anti Catholics i've run into are usually ex Catholics.
There is a TON of anti Catholic material out there.It's not lacking. People become convinced of all kinds of things about the Catholic Church. Know your faith well enough to know it's not true. I can almost guarantee that most of these people grocery shop and go from one denomination to another.Sooner or later there is that ONE thing that happens in any one church and they move to the next. I've been questioned a few times why i don't look around or what i just called grocery shop. Sorry.Not going to. This is not like picking out a box of cereal from the grocery store. Trust me,if that were the case the Catholic Church would be wheaties. I have no need to. NO,am not into anti Catholic material. There's a treasure of great writings in the Catholic Church and i don't even have the time to read all of it. I'm aware of the anti Catholic material. I have read it.Grasp it. It's all been refuted many times over. I have no desire to 'get into it.' It all sounds reasonable.They seem to be based in scripture. I can see why people would read it and question their faith but it's anti Catholic period.None of it's true. They're putting on those anti Catholic glasses and reading through that lense.Again,it can all be refuted.
Come home. It's an anchor. You will not get tossed about. It's scriptural-we don't cherry pick verses. Jesus IS here and when Mass is ended the priest proclaims,go in peace. You will.
We have a Mother,both in Holy Mother Church and Mary. Yes,i said Mary.Our Mother,the New Eve,the New ark of the covenant.I'll trade Eve for Mary any day. You might think you've been away too long to come back. Nobody is ever away too long to come back;but don't postpone it. God gives us so many opportunities to return.i was fortunate to come back before that chance might have been taken away as a result of my own reckless life. This is too important to postpone for one second.
IF you can't get to confession today make a commitment to making it asap,then just do it! Somebody doesn't want you to walk into that confessional. He didn't make us feel shameful,guilty and painfully self-conscious when we were living in sin.Not at all.He waits until we're ready to go to confession and reconcile with the Church.THEN he manages to make you painfully self-conscious and remind you how terrible that sin was. Never when you're committing it. Forget it-don't let that stop you. Do it in spite of the temptation not to.Don't back out.When you come back out that sin is gone and you're life is ready to begin again.
I can't think of one good reason not to be Catholic and to live the faith. Sometimes first we have to appreciate it.Begin with Confession and go from there.Once that (confessional)door is open,God will keep opening doors for you. I've never been sorry.I've done some pretty painful and honest reflection on the past but never been sorry for coming back. For me,it all came back to PRIDE.
Some good news since last night.My husband was up late.He couldn't sleep. He has chronic severe pain in his legs and feet.He watched Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on EWTN.He didn't tell me what the talk was about but evidently he really enjoyed it. So if you have a question about the Catholic Church ask it.Don't let that question keep you away either.Honestly,once you've made the step it may not be as hard as you have imagined.I had a past way of thinking. It was in error. It was hedonistic. It was self serving and it was very destructive. i struggle with many of the same shortcomings that i had in the past. We don't always get away from those when we first return.What's changed is that i now have a remedy-am not going to let it go- and i don't fall into those past BEHAVIORS.It's big steps and little steps.First,Come Home.

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