The Beginning of the Road
Well I am on my journey to becoming a Catholic. It’s an interesting journey, I am just realising how little I know, how much I have to learn. As a convert I am also very aware that I have a lot of misconceptions to deal with.
Catholics don’t worship the Virgin Mary or any of the Saints, they revere them there is a huge difference.
Women are not dismissed or put down. My favourite meme has a picture of the Virgin Mary beating the you know what out of a demon with an angel stood next to her holding the baby Jesus and the caption says, “here hold my baby”. It is brilliant and shows that in fact the Catholic church acknowledges the strength and dedication of women. There are in fact more women saints than men.
The history of the church and its links to Judaism are fascinating. I have just finished reading The Crucified Rabbi by Dr. Taylor R Marshall. A reasonably easy read but lots of interesting facts and history about the differences and similarities of Judaism and Catholicism. It also explains a lot of language we use and where it comes from. There are far more things we have taken or should I say kept that are in line with Judaism and the old testament. It really shows the links and why we truly are a Judeo Christian group.
The first book I read on my journey though, was about Padre Pio, a modern saint. This book made me realise just how difficult it is to be a Catholic priest, how important obedience is to the Catholic church and how no matter how devout you are, you are never actually good enough. His struggles were momentous and he was often caught in church politics even though he was totally non political and did not want promotion.
I’ve always felt that one of the critical points of Christianity was that you are continually striving to be a better Christian, a better human being. I think this is particularly true about Catholics. They stick to scripture so they have to be different from others because scripture has a lot of restrictions entailed within it.
My main reading was Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, a very long read, 637 pages. Much of it quite dry, but it was worth it and I will re read it at some point because once I understand more I think I will get even more from it.
G.K. Chesterton has some interesting books (I don’t mean Father Brown although I have always loved the Father Brown series, he to me embodies everything a man of god should be, kind, tolerant, determined, faithful, supportive and with a great sense what is right and wrong, a sense of proportion, common sense and all rolled into a good sense of humour). C. S. Lewis has some very readable books, quite illuminating although a little dated.
I’m doing a lot of reading as well as talking to some of my friends in the congregation to learn and understand as much as possible. Not everyone agrees on everything, as in all things there are divergent opinions and different personalities. Not everything is black and white. Some things are still open to interpretation. I try not to be too opinionated as I don’t necessarily know enough at this stage and certainly do not know all the ins and outs of the different opinions. So I go on learning. But I am very good at asking questions. Right or wrong I am one of those people who always has an opinion, I do like a good debate. I have found that on the whole the Catholic faithful are interested in talking about God and their beliefs with tolerance and good humour and are always happy to help the new convert to understand when something gets confusing.
I’m hoping that I will soon be confirmed into the Catholic Church. I know though that is just the start and I have to keep on learning and working at being a better Christian and understanding my chosen faith.
So far my only real concern is the same one I had with the Church of England, the reason I fell away from the church in the first place. There are as with all large organisations of people politics within the church. Men in black dresses playing politics with God. I know they exist in all churches, in all walks of life but I still hate them, they still concern me. There will always be ambitious people. The difference now is that I’m old enough to want to be a part of the church regardless and to worship God regardless.
So at the moment I’m still learning the basics. Still getting through my book list, which is growing. There are so many interesting parts of the history of the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith I don’t think I’ll learn enough or stop learning.
MC