Me getting baptized, with my sponsor standing behind me (woman on the left),
my husband behind her, and my mom beside them (face behind the water pitcher).
Looking back, it amazes me how far God has brought me in the last few years. Four years ago, I was one of those non-denominational Christians who went to church at Christmas and Easter. Occasionally, if we had nothing better to do, and the mood struck on a Sunday, we might go to church besides those two days, but nothing consistent.
Then, one day, four summers ago, I was driving home, and happened to stop at a stoplight around the corner from my house. The car in front of me had a bumper sticker for 89.1 FM, Catholic Radio Indy (the local EWTN radio station). I don't remember seeing the name of the radio station on the bumper sticker, just the number. I have never again seen that same bumper sticker. Anyway, I tuned into the station, and started listening. Before long, I heard my first Mass on the radio. I knew right away, that I needed to find out more about this Catholic thing. I often drove past a Catholic parish on the way to my mom's house, so one day, I stopped in to ask for more information. Next thing you know, I'd signed up for RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), and was on my way to being Catholic. I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was going to join the Church, before I told anybody about it, even my mom and my husband. For the first few months, I just told both of them that I was going to a Bible study (not completely untrue - we frequently talked about the Bible, and where the Church got certain things from). Then, when I was sure, I told my mom. At first, she couldn't understand why I would want to be Catholic. I explained to her that it was like the Jewish part of her heritage, and the Christian part of my dad's heritage had merged and created the Catholic Church. I was home, and I was NOT leaving. We went together many times to talk to the director of religious education, where my mom would ask questions that I just wasn't knowledgeable enough to answer yet. When I told my husband, he didn't understand, but was supportive.
Fast forward to three years later, and I am not only Catholic, but I'm so excited about my Faith, and am always trying to be a better Catholic. Any time somebody questions my Faith, or tries to attack the Catholic Church, it leads me to do more research to answer them, and every time, I fall even deeper in love with the Church that Jesus gave us. We are all called to be saints, and we can't do that if we just sit on the couch and relax. We always have to keep going, and keep trying to be better people, Christians, Catholics, if we want to get to Heaven. Being a saint takes more than going to Mass on Sundays. You have to LIVE your faith, every day. For those that already do, great! Keep it up! For those who could do more, just try it. I'm sure you can do it. You won't regret the extra effort, I'm sure. :-)
Save a soul, get an EWTN bumper sticker! You never know who you will touch with it, and who they will later touch. Because of that bumper sticker on a stranger's car, I'm now Catholic, raising my children Catholic, my mom is Catholic, and hopefully, someday my husband will be Catholic too. That's a minimum of four souls touched (not counting my husband yet), not including the souls that we will touch, or have already touched, that we don't know about, and the chain reaction of the souls that they will later touch, etc. It's so easy to get one, and think of the eternal reward, for just driving around with one silly little bumper sticker! When I'm in the car now, EWTN is pretty much all I listen to, except when the kids want princess songs or something. :-) I love it, and am always learning more!
Dana
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