I have been on a journey. Where to begin telling my story?
I am sitting looking at a blank page, but in my head a whirlwind of stuff is flying all around.
Conversion
The year that I converted to the Catholic faith [2014] was a big year for me in terms of my growth in faith. I credit the man I was dating at the time for introducing me to Mary, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the doctrine of the faith. He gave me a book in 2012 about the apparitions in Medjugore: The Message — In Medjugore, Jesus’ Mother Mary was appearing to visionaries. I consumed that book from cover to cover. It was written by Wayne Weible — a protestant — who had travelled there out of curiosity, but God called Him to write about what was happening there. And his life was forever changed. He passed away in 2018, but his work touched many people.
As I always say in my testimony, growing up in the protestant faith, Mary, was reduced pretty much to a figurine in the little manger set that sat under the Christmas tree every year. Other than the Christmas story, I had no understanding of her story, her life and how important she is in Christianity. I had once asked a priest about statues and pictures of Mary and saints and he asked me this simple question. “Do you have pictures of your relatives hanging up in your house in picture frames?” My answer, “Well, yes.” He replied, “Well, Mary, Joseph, and the Saints are people that we love and want to be reminded of, so we put pictures of them up.
Made perfect sense to me!
Today, my home is adorned with pictures of Jesus, Archangels, Saints and Mother Mary, not to mention St. Joseph.
Well, as I continued to delve deeper into the faith by praying the Rosary, attending mass and starting the RCIA (Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults) program, I knew that the Catholic faith was the one true faith.
The Rosary is an amazing practice of prayer that includes meditation on the life of Christ. Each mystery is a meditation on key aspects in the life of Christ. There are fruits (virtues) connected to each mystery that help you reflect on your own journey that deepens faith.
There were other sign posts along the way. I had landed a teaching job where they conducted orientation meetings for new hires. It just so happened that a seminary was part of this institution. The head of the seminary came in to talk to the newly hired faculty. He presented a timeline to outline the history of the denomination of the seminary. At the very top left of the slide beginning at the edge of the screen was a solid red line that continued all the way across the screen, labeled — Catholic Church. Mid-screen a vertical line was drawn pointing down to delineate the protestant split from the Roman Catholic Church. When I looked at that slide, it was a visual epiphany cementing the fact that the Catholic Church is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and was the true church of Christ.
As I began my conversion journey, I was encouraged by the Church to go through the annulment process. I had been married two times by this time in my life.
I had poor formation on the sacrament of marriage — that it is a permanent, once-in-a-lifetime, God-ordained state of life. And growing up, my family of origin suffered from the divorce of my parents in the late 60’s. So, the reality of marriage being a lifetime commitment from my perspective was destroyed.
I had a very short-lived marriage in my late teens as a sophomore in college. We met in college and were from two different States. I met him as a fraternity little sister and dated my first husband for about eight months before we got married. He was a senior, I was a sophomore. He graduated in spring, got a great job, we married and were off to start our new life together in a different State. That entire chapter of my life is a book in itself.
The marriage ended in five years with no children, much to my own immaturity, poor choices and generally messed up notions. This was the marriage that was to be annulled. What I will say about this process was that it was very helpful and healing in many ways. For me it was difficult because we hadn’t known each other very long, came from different cities and for me most of my witnesses had died as the marriage had been more than forty years prior.
I didn’t have any issues starting the annulment process, in fact I really wanted to be “right with God” — I had screwed up my life enough through my own sins so the opportunity to repair some of the damage was a gift. The Church wanted me to annul my first marriage which was to a protestant in a protestant church.
If you aren’t familiar with the reason why the Catholic Church would want an annulment for that marriage even though I was a protestant married to a protestant in a protestant church. The reason is the Catholic Church recognizes one baptism and so we were considered legitimate Christians, and we were married in a protestant church. Therefore, that marriage had to be reviewed to determine if it was a valid union.
I had only two main witnesses to count on for testimony because everyone else who knew us were deceased. My husband did not contest the annulment. It actually took awhile to locate where he lived. The entire process took several years and I was eventually granted an annulment.
My second marriage was to a cradle Catholic. He had a prior marriage before in the Catholic Church. He had never sought an annulment for his first marriage. We were married by a Justice of the Peace not in a church, so the marriage in the eyes of the Catholic Church was lack of canonical form. This marriage lasted for thirty-three years and ended in 2011 not by my own choosing. My life took me to a road less traveled, although I have traveled many miles.
I entered the RCIA program in 2013 and was confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church at Easter in the spring of 2014. Life has never been the same since.
As time permits, I hope to write more about my story.
In the meantime, I am working on humility, love of neighbor, poverty of spirit, obedience, joy, patience, perseverance, sorrow for sin, purity, courage, faith, hope, love of God and trust — oh, and Latin!
I have my work cut out for myself 🙂
Christ’s Peace Be With You.
And so my journey continues!