Purify Your Bride

Thinking about my life these last few years it seems God has continued to pour out so many blessings from my conversion 4 years ago. When I came into the church my son, Peter, was just a little baby. Now he is walking, talking, playing soccer, telling jokes, etc. I feel like my life as a Catholic has been like that. I feel like my confirmation was just me as a baby Catholic and I am learning what it is all about. I didn’t expect that. I decided to accept the church mostly because it offered answers to important questions about unity, authority, and truth. After a time I learned to do more than accept the church. I started to embrace the church. I began to trust the church as my spiritual mother. There have been so many blessing rolling in from that.

I wonder if that is the rule with conversions. I remember being surprised at some other points in my life when I gave up something for God. I always ended up being blessed in ways I never imagined when I did my cost/benefit analysis. It is like you remove a little clog and grace just starts to flow so much more freely than it did before. That has a knock on effect of drawing you closer to God and bringing you even more grace. It is like the parable of the sower. Some seeds could not grow because of weeds. So when you remove a big weed there follows a period of rapid growth. Even though your roots were shaken up they are now able to grow deeper than they ever were. They are able to produce fruit beyond that was unthinkable before, even as much as 30, 60, or 100 fold.

For me it is hard to know what is producing the growth. Has it been the sacraments? Has it been praying the rosary? Has it been digging into church history and learning about the saints? Has it been confidence that my understanding of the faith is actually true? Has it been the theology I have been learning and contemplating? The answer is likely “all of the above”. There is just so much to the Catholic faith. There is so much more depth.

I think of Paul warning that a leader in the church should not be a new convert. That makes sense now. Before I always thought that meant avoiding people who had only converted last week. It certainly would not mean somebody who has been involved for only 6 months should not lead. With the catholic church 6 months would definitely be too little. You probably should take 2 or 3 years before trying to teach anyone the faith. There is just so much to learn and a lot of the learning requires contemplation that cannot really be rushed.

As much as I have learned these last few years I have become even more aware of how much I don’t know. I look forward to what lies ahead with great anticipation. I have 5 kids that are growing up fast and teaching them the faith is bringing me more joy all the time. I am seeing more and more places where I can help my parish and other organizations. The need is great but I must learn to do the small things with great love.

Share This