I know I've mentioned on here before about my ongoing interest in the Catholic faith. How I began researching the Church in earnest a couple of years ago. And how it all began with questions about contraception and sexuality.
Well, that's not entirely true. It involved other things too, questions I had about church and faith and the Eucharist and Martin Luther and what Jesus' intention was in establishing His church on Earth. Lots of light reading, obviously. :) But my interest was definitely piqued by historical Church teaching on family and marriage. Which, I must tell you, I have fallen in love with. Both with my heart and with my (limited) intellect. (Kevin fell first, though, so I must give credit where credit is due.)
And I'm compelled. Still reading, still grappling, still attempting to make sense of it all. I am not really ready to share my conclusions here, because I'm still processing a lot of things and it just would not make for very enjoyable reading. :)
BUT, my dear friend Jennifer has been on a similar-but-accelerated journey. And wrote such a beautiful blogpost that I wanted to share it with you today. It's so good in fact that I might just pretend I wrote it.
Please be advised that I have no desire to start any sort of debate over Catholicism and Protestantism here at Just Showing Up. While I've never had an issue with Catholicism, I remember the days when I was a little skeptical of the Roman Catholic Church, and while there are things I still have questions about (and understand some of the objections), I will be honest and say that most of my skepticisim was unfounded and based on things I THOUGHT I knew...but if I had simply looked into the matter, would have discovered that I misunderstood. Things like Martin Luther's 95 Theses, for example. I finally read them a couple of years ago. For myself. And the basic gist was different from what I'd assumed. His life was very different from what I'd assumed, for that matter.
And much of the liturgy my own (Reformed Protestant) church uses is the very same liturgy found in the Mass. Which incidentally was first recorded in 215 AD but supposedly had been in use much earlier than that. We recite it every week before receiving the sacrament of Communion.
Funny thing is, I have encountered many, many Protestant believers who have either joined the Catholic Church, have seriously considered joining (but chose not to for various reasons), or who are on the cusp. More people than I would have expected. I feel like Kevin and I have been "in the closet" for the past few years with our reading of church history and Catholic authors. Now I'm finding we're not alone. The closet is more crowded than we thought.
Anyway, I know you'll really enjoy Jennifer's post. It's honest and insightful and just really beautiful. It resonates with me.
AND, just for fun, if you want to read an excellent, thoughtful, humorous blog by a wonderful Catholic woman (also named Jennifer), do check out Conversion Diary if you haven't already. One of my favorite blogs for sure!
