Conversion Part Deux

So in light that I never finish anything that I start on here. I think I am actually going to try this time, at least get part 2 down.

So recap, read about Catholics unknowingly, visited a Catholic Cathedral due to the beauty of its architecture, was contemplating the showiness of my current church, and I had spent the summers working with quite a few Catholics.

1.) Going back to working at HP, we had a lot of Polish and foreign students. I remember that not to say this was me, but simply a God thing, but since God was making me stronger in my faith after that first summer of college of being disoriented and falling. I had a revival in my faith, and I guess that came out. I remember hearing about the Polish and Slavakians coming back from mass on Sunday and being all excited about it. I think I thought to myself that I was like, well I guess that being in a former communist country would make you mighty happy about going to church, even though at the time it was odd to me because they were Catholic. But I thought, well Americans are lazy, and are disengaged about who Jesus is. To really be excited about it. And also I remember them saying it was the same mass as it was at home. I thought that was odd. I remember M telling me that this had to be really boring, and probably was why people were disengaged. ??? I also remember M telling me to date MF even though I remember saying he was a Catholic, maybe M thought he could be converted?

2.) Now to the defining class. NT Spring 2005. I took this class specifically as a senior for two reasons. It was going to be easy, and it would help me to exit the Union bubble, really understanding the meat behind my beliefs. Dr. VN was a compelling teacher who forced me to think. I took my daily responses very seriously. I tried to grasp all the things taught in that class, because it was who I was as a Christian. There was ideas about the authority of the church that really hit me. He expressed his ideals that the church should have more authority than it did. Maybe even to say that it should have its own judicial system, as it seemed to lack that presently within the baptist church. He also emphasized the importance of community and how if you weren't an active member in a church then you were missing out in part of God's graces. With scripture he emphasized that there was only one interpretation of it but many applications for it. And lastly, he emphasized communion, because this was something that was important enough to do every Sunday at least. I need to remember why he thought it so important but yeah got me thinking, why the heck do us presbys and non-denoms only do it when we feel like it?

3.) Nothing against my family, I absolutely love them, with all their quirks and insecurities, and graces God blesses them with. However, generations have emphasized an anti-Catholic theme in our extended family. I believe it all is based off of misinformation and fear of the unknown. So one aunt and uncle and cousins are Greek Orthodox, and they are kind of thought odd to the rest of our family. After really interacting with a true Greek young woman, I have learned that their behavior makes sense. Its a totally different culture, sometimes very hard to understand within my ideal of less is better. But there mannerisms were nothing against us, that is just them. Their culture is a big part of their life. And so what I want to say with this is that the rest of my family thinks this particular family is Catholic. I guess in the greater sense they are pretty close to it, but if you ask a Greek Orthodox person if they are Catholic and they will say they are Greek not Catholic in the Roman rite (what most American Catholics are, and a good portion of other places as well.) But yes, so this family is the representation of Catholics to my immediate family, they judge as all of us do, their faults many, but they are still people. But yeah, took a while to get this generalization that all Catholics are lapse Catholics. Not true at all.