Let’s talk about you!
Not only would I love to know more about the people who are kind enough to drop by my blog, but I also think it would be interesting for readers to get a feel for who else visits this site.
So, whether you’re a regular commenter from way back or a brand new reader who just lurks, I’d be delighted if you’d take a moment to leave a comment and introduce yourself. Here are five questions for your consideration:
- Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
- Where are you from?
- What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
- Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
- If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
Those are some things I’d be particularly interesting to know, but all questions are optional. I look forward to “meeting” you!
*Yes, fellow bibliophiles, you can list a few if you just can’t keep it to just one.
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Hi, I am Renee, or Mary Poppins NOT. I tried for about 5 minutes to remain anonymous when I began to blog, but I just couldn’t pull it off.
I am a 41 year old mother of seven, married 15 years. I have home schooled for 10 years and am growing weary of it, but for now will continue. I was raised a Roman Catholic, and formally became a Byzantine Catholic 4 years ago.
I am an iconographer, a gardener, love music and reading and hanging brightly colored glass in windows.
I have colorful bottles on my window sills, collect vintage aquarium decorations, I have about 60 statues and pictures of Mary (Theotokos) from all over the world, my desk is piled full of papers and empty coffee mugs, and I love to drink Maker’s Mark on the rocks.
My favorite book is usually the one I am reading, but one that stands out is My Antonia by Willa Cather, and another is Jane Ayre.
My daily life is fairly unstructured, but falls in to blocks of time that surround meals. Home schooling allows us a lot of freedom to have our days unwind in a unique way each day, and while this is nice in many ways, I think it has contributed to my growing weary of home schooling.
I usually get up around 8:00 a.m. and go to bed around 1 a.m. I pray irregularly in a formal way, but informally, all day long. I go to church as often as I can, and find the greatest peace when I am in the presence of the Eucharist.
I think that is more than anyone wanted to know about me, but it was fun to write!
My blog is crazyacres at 3acres.blogspot.com. Come on over and say “Howdy”! I write about my life, spiritual reflections based on the liturgical cycle and daily events, and occasionally a social commentary or two.
Blessings!
Bonnie’s my name; I pop in about 1-2 times a week.
Cradle Catholic, I’ve never fallen away from my faith (thank God) and it was greatly influenced by Newman Centers in the Peoria Diocese and my 3 very good friends who all entered religious life.
Arise from Darkness or Healing the Original Wound by Fr. Groeschel. (I have a hard time letting go.)
Born & raise in Central IL, where my husband and I now live.
Right now I work for my alma mater, but very soon I will deliver my baby at home and then be a SAHM. My hubby and I are living in a dump we bought and are slowly turning into a home. My husband’s amazing. I am trying to learn as much as I can about motherhood.
learningtobeanewlywed.blogspot.com
Very nice to meet you.
I hope I’m not posting this twice, but it didn’t seem to do anything after I clicked publish besides change the word verification letters.
Wow. Reviewing all these new blogs is going to be insane, but I can’t wait!
I also have to confess that I’m super excited about the chance to talk about myself, so please forgive me if I ramble – I don’t like to think of myself as a lurker so much as the quiet kid who doesn’t say much until someone asks a direct question.
I was raised in the Texas non-denominational milieu by a sort of ex-Catholic (not that she disagrees with the teachings, just that she can’t seem to figure out how to get back in) and a John Wayne Christian (nevermind that there are rumors that he became Catholic, I’m talking more about his movie persona – especially in the Westerns). I think I’ve always been a Christian, but I was “saved” in 3rd grade at church camp, though I never knew how a person could know without a doubt that they were going to heaven. I entered the Church 6 years ago at St. Elizabeth’s at Texas Tech.
Obviously, I’m from Texas, more specifically I was born in Houston but raised (sort of) in a little town called Caddo Mills. I now live in Chicago. It sucks (when I found out you were from Texas, I really wanted to comment – I always get excited about fellow Texans, even when they’re Aggies).
I can’t pick a single book that radically changed my life, but these books have provided really important nudges: “Fire Within” by Fr. Thomas Dubay (I didn’t actually finish it), “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis de Montfort, “The Praktikos” by Evagrius Ponticus (I also didn’t actually finish that one) and “Praying Self-Abandonment to Divine Love” by Slawomir Biela. Maybe the others would have radically changed my life if I’d read them all the way!
Three days a week, my husband and I pray Morning Prayers together, and I go to work at the Catholic center at the university where my husband is a PhD candidate. I go home in the early afternoon to do lectio divina and/or take a nap (I frequently fall asleep when I pray) and do some housework. I schedule dinner according to my husband’s phone call saying he’s coming home, dine with my husband, do the dishes (theoretically), and either blog, study something about the Church or teach myself some web development stuff. The other two days I swap the afternoon with the morning. My favorite part of the day is probably going to bed – it’s the only time when my husband isn’t distracted by food or work (though sleep overtakes him pretty quickly), but I really just look forward to Friday night and Sunday.
Blogger does most of the shameless self-promotion I usually want to do automatically, but I have three blogs: Design-Err (I write about web design, because that’s what I eventually want to do for Catholic non-profits), WakinHrs (I started this blog to keep up with friends, but I rarely blog personal stuff, so it’s mostly whatever is on my mind) and my favorite one Betwixt Mine Ears (I practice writing fiction by writing insanely short stories, but eventually I want to write a serial).
Hi, I’m Anya…
1. Came to know Christ when I was a child, and have journeyed with him, both the ups and down, since. I was raised in a conservative non-Catholic church. Since being married, my DH and I have been members of a Westminster Presbyterian Church and non-denominational church. Currently we are enjoying a more ‘emerging church’ model – just doing life with a bunch of Christians and seekers who are all at different stages. We just share our lives, pray and discuss the bible together. Personally, I’m keen to learn more (and experience more) of prayer and enjoyment of the presence of God…
2. I’m from Australia
3. One book: Chasing Francis, published by the Navigators, I think. It’s a fictional story of a mainstream church pastor who has a crisis of faith and undertakes a pilgrimage through Italy. he learns from the life of St Francis and is changed from the inside out.
And a thousand other wonderful books. Anything by Elisabeth Elliot for some good old-fashioned wisdom…
4. Daily life – I was a physiotherapist, now a SAHM with 3 children and another due in August. I homeschool and run an editing business. My favorite days are the ones that include meeting up with friends or having down-time with my DH…
5. I have 2 blogs – our family life is journaled piece by piece at http://www.mckeeslifejourney.blogspot.com
and my own little place for scribbling about communion with God is at http://www.sanctuarymoment.blogspot.com
I came across your blog through a link from a friend’s blog, and it resonated as I looked into your prayer experiment. Looking forward to being a regular visitor…
1. Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I’m a Christian mutt. Grew up in a church-going Methodist family. After my parents divorced at age 14, I started attending an Assemblies of God church. At this point I thought Christians were weird and wanted no part of it. Just before my 17th birthday, something changed. Can’t explain it, but I knew that God was calling me to surrender to Him and I did.
Since then I’ve been part of an independent Charismatic church, Presbyterian, non-denominational evangelical and now am something of an Anglican/Methodist who is also reading and discussing Catholicism with a close friend (long story, see blog below)
2. Where are you from?
Forgive my paranoia of the internet, but allow me to be vague. I’m from the Southeastern US and have lived in this area all my life.
3. What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
Wow, that’s going to be hard. Probably to this day, for the cataclysmic change it caused at the time, I’d have to go with The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll. It seems sort of quaint now, but it was life-changing at a time I was all but ready to give up due to the suffocating legalism I’d been indoctrinated in.
4. Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
Wake up a 6:30, shower and get dressed for work. Work from 8am-4pm. Hang out with my wife and kids. My favorite part of the day is coming home and hearing “Daddy!” from my kids and getting hugs.
5. If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
My blog is Thoughts From A Ragamuffin and I started it to “think out loud” and get input from others on the changes in my beliefs over the last year that have led me away from contemporary evangelicalism and resulted in me being drawn toward Christian tradition, ancient practices, liturgy, hymns and church history. I wrestle with how this affects my family as well as some of the claims of the Catholic church.
I flagged this and put it off, hoping to have time later to actually answer your questions. Just can’t do it, so let me at least say:
I’m 38 years old, an evangelical protestant in a vibrant urban church, married almost 15 years, mother of four children aged 3 through 11… the youngest adopted from Ethiopia, the eldest on the autism spectrum with many special needs… consequently, I am also now a homeschooling mother of this crew. Amazed at how well you articulate several things that go on in my head!
Hello, Jennifer! I’m Jeana and I blog at http://www.daystocome.net. I grew up in a Disciples of Christ Church but now attend a Bible Church–very similar to Southern Baptist. I’ve lived in Texas most of my life, apart from nine months in Salt Lake City and right now, as we are spending seven weeks in London on my husband’s job assignment.
I am a homeschooling mom and normally babysit a three year old. Asking me to identify a few books that changed me is like asking me to identify which breaths changed me most. I read constantly, and I think each thing I read changes me just a little bit.
I found your blog through Veronica at Toddled Dredge, and I have so enjoyed reading you ever since. YOu are very thoughtful, and I appreciate that.
I’m Jennifer Z, 38 year old convert (3 years ago). I found your blog because you commented on mine after hearing my radio interview.
1 Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I wasn’t really raised in any particular religion. I experienced mostly Baptist churches (was saved 3 times) but also visited my aunt’s Episcopal church. I converted to Catholicism 3 years ago.
# Where are you from?
I’m a native Texan. I’ve lived in the Amarillo area (The square part at the top of the state) for most of my life. (32 years)
# What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David Currie and Catholicism for Dummies were the two that helped me in my faith journey. Also, the books by Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People you Meet in Heaven, and For one more Day) have all impacted me as well.
# Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
My life is school. I get up, get ready, go to school, teach 5 classes (speech, debate and oral interp), usually work after school for another 45 min. to an hour, come home, make supper and then I often have evening things… band rehearsal, choir rehearsal or something involving my son. I’m out of town for speech tournaments quite a bit as well. I stay pretty busy and never have time to clean my house.
# If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL?
http://www.coasterlover.blogspot.com is the main blog. I have a Catholic blog, but I don’t write in it often.
What do you write about? Daily stuff… just my life such that it is. Sometimes I rant, sometimes I brag about my son, sometimes I just tell about my day.
Hi! I’m Alicia, 37.
I’m a cradle Catholic, but you’re much ahead of me in your spiritual journey. I’m so grateful for all the things I’ve learned with your blog and all the things you’ve made me think and pray about!
I’m from Uruguay, South America.
Books that have had a great impact in my life: Marie Curie’s biography when I was a teenager and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (this is not intended to be read but to be used as a guide to make the exercises. I’ve done them a few times and they’ve pretty much shaped my spiritual journey in my adult life. I’m always amazed by the psychological wisdom in them.
I’ve been married to Francisco for almost 14 years and we have 4 children. I have a degree in Agricultural Engineering and another in English>Spanish translation (my mother tongue is Spanish).
I work from my home as a freelance translator, mainly in the biological/agricultural fields. My children go to a Catholic school just a block away from our house. We get up at 7 and my children leave for school (the toddler goes to a day care center in the morning) and my husband for work at 8. I work until 12:30 when I pick up the youngest two and have lunch with them. I have some more time to work in the afternoon while the children have some quiet time (I have some help with the house work). The oldest two come from school at 4:30. My husband comes from work at 7 and we all have dinner together. After everybody goes to bed I work a few more hours, and read your blog!
# My spiritual journey
It has had lots of twists and turns. My parents both grew up in church (Methodist and Presbyterian), but stopped going to church soon after they got married. I grew up essentially non-religious. In high school I started going to church (Baptist) with a friend and “got saved” and started getting involved. Throughout college I floated around using the lovely Protestant philosophy of find a church that you like and go there. After college I joined a United Methodist Church and was quite happy there. Then just over a year ago I went to Mass for the first time, out of curiosity as best as I can figure. I fell in love with it and that set me off searching. Four months ago I was received into the Catholic Church.
# Where are you from?
originally Oklahoma, but now Tucson, AZ
# A book (or a few)
The Younger Evangelicals by Robert Webber – it started me considering the value of traditions
Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley – Reading through all of church history help convince me to become Catholic
Swimming with Scapulars by Mathew Lickona – He is a true post-modern Catholic, faithful to the Magisterium while still full of questions. Reading it convinced me that I could be Catholic like that.
# daily life
I work until close at 8pm and then head home, pray, chill on the computer, read, and sleep.
Mornings are a bit varied. I wake up, pray, usually play online a bit. A couple of times a week I try to go to Mass. Other days I do random baby-sitting jobs at my old church or for friends. And some mornings I get to relax and do stuff around my apartment. In the afternoon I head to work. I work at a preschool/after-school program, mostly with 2nd -5th graders. I love them! Most days anyway.
As for my favorite part, Mass is always good, quiet times just reading or whatever, and the great hugs I get from “my” kids is wonderful.
# shameless self-promotion
I have a blog at karenelissa.blogspot.com I haven’t posted much lately, although I keep thinking about starting up again. It is mostly just random thoughts on faith and life.
Wow you have gotten a lot of answers, it’s so nice to know about all these people and their faith.
I’m Angie, originally from Ecuador and living in The Woodlands, TX a truly beautiful place, specially in spring…
I’m a cradle catholic, I’m 41, single, I was for 8 years a Schoenstatt Sister of Mary, (that was almost 10 years ago) and that beautiful experience really shaped my faith.. I belong to that catholic Movement http://www.schoenstatt.de
I started reading your blog right before you were baptized, and you know I am a fan waiting for your book to come out some day.
I manage a purchasing office for a south american construction company, and I am studying to become a CPA, but my true passion is writing, journalism and photography.
So, my day deals with work and studying. On weekends I visit with my friends and enjoy riding a bike (love it!)
Books (in spanish) a compilation of newspaper columns by the Spanish priest and journalist, Jose Luis Martín Descalzo (Razones para el amor, para vivir, etc)
My blog in spanish is http://www.puertadelcielo.blogspot.com
Sorry I didn’t answer before, but don’t know other catholic bloggers in spanish
1) I was raised Evangelical. I gradually drifted to a sacramental Reformed position (though even then I seemed really Catholic to my Catholic friend), came suddenly to believe in the physical presence, and am now…Reformed. But everyone who knows what I believe wonders why I’m not Catholic or Orthodox since I more or less agree with them.
I’m a very good friend with Cheryl at fromheavenwithlove, whose blog I think you are at least somewhat familiar with.
2. Moscow, Idaho.
3. C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces.. Charles Williams, The Figure of Beatrice, Descent into Hell, Dante, La Divina Commedia, St. John of the Cross The Dark Night of the Soul, G. K. Chesterton St. Francis of Assisi, J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion Cantus Christi. But if you must take one, take the Lewis one.
3b. Heinrich Schutz, John Eliot Gardiner conductor, “Musicalisch Exsequien.” Ralph Vaughn Williams “Mass in G Minor.” J. S. Bach “Jesu Meine Freude”, “Singet dem Herrn”, Hugo Distler “Totentantz” (and Geistlichchormusic, and Maria durch ein dornwald ging).
4. I teach highscool math in the mornings. Some afternoons I work as an office assistant. Evenings I am usually in choir, or at an orthodox Vespers service. At lunch I go to Mass as often as I can (but sigh, look, don’t touch). My highlight: probably seeing Christ in Fr. Bill’s hand, or sometimes talking with friends.
My blog is colinclout12.blogspot.com” and I usually write my meditations about the Mother of God, the Sacrament, the Cross, the Resurrection, Scripture etc. (Though of late it’s been a bit sparse.)
Hi My name is Emily and I am 26. I live in Amarillo tx and am married with three kids. I grew up chatholic and took a 7 year I dont want to be this anymore break. Recetnly I have called back to the catholic church. Its like a huge mangnent pulling me and my family closer to the faith of both mine and my husbands child hood.
Recently the Book that has impacted me the most I “The good news about sex and marrage” by christoper west
My days are moderatly crazy with three kids. I am a full time student and a recovering drug addict(I have been clean for 802 day just over 2 years) so school kids husband and 12 steps keep me busy. Not to mention that i am a littl obsessive when it comes to my house. My favoriate part of the day is sittind down with a cup of decaf and enjoying my morning readings and prayer
my url is http://thisgirlscalling.blogspot.com/ I write about my calling back to the church and my qestions and struggles as a young mother trying to figure out how to sucessfully raise catholic kids and still have good catholic friends to discuss my questions struggles and faith with.
I’m Jon from Indianapolis. I’m 26, single, and a Hooser born and bred. I’ve probably been following your blog since sometime in the middle of last year. I blog sporadically at Thinking Out Loud. I mostly post theological reflections.
Spiritual Journey
I was baptized in the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) as a baby (yes that group is as wierd as it probably sounds). The only thing I remember about that church is that it had lots of fun music and art, since some of its parishioners were talented in those fields. That’s also the setting fkor my earliest memories of prayer, since “Sunday School” included something that, thinking back, was basicly the liturgy of the word complete with acolytes and the creed. Eucharist was upstairs with one’s family. Since EOC churches were few and far between, when we moved to a better school system we left that church and ended up in the Episcopal Church (TEC). It was much less fun since it only had a youth group sporadically. Probably the only reason I’m still religious at all is that I went on a mission trip to Quito, Ecuador while I was in HS. It was so fun I decided to do more events put on by the diocesan youth folks which is why that fall I trundled off to the renewal weekend for high school students where I accidentally ran into God. I’d just been looking for fun and the renewal weekend itself was fun and not a huge amount else. I ran into God (it almost felt like physically running into him even though there was no body to run into on that occasion) in a bit of free time when one of the other guys at the event gave me a cross that had been given to him. It’s been close to ten years since that encounter, and I’m still not sure I’ve worked out all the ways that encounter has changed my approach to life. One of the most obvious changes was that I became far more passionate about God, TEC, and the rest of the Church. Before I’d been a lot like those catholics Jen mentioned who have a portal to Narnia and can’t be bothered to use it. I’ve never really doubted that God is present in the same room as me, but before I ran into God I didn’t see that God made much of a difference to my life. Now, who knows, maybe I’ll wind up in an Anglican monastic order.
Books
The two authors who have influenced me the most are C. S. Lewis and William Placher. I couldn’t pick one of Lewis’s works as most influential, but I think one can probably learn more about being faithful by sitting with “A Grief Observed” than from reading and rereading “Mere Christianity”. Placher’s influence is at least partially due to his being an exemplary Wabash man, and as a third generation Wabash man my alma mater has had lots of opportunity to shape how I approach life. The only other authors I can think of are Hans Urs von Balthasar and Rowan Williams. I found Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Mysterium Paschale fascinating, although I hear that some people find his prose rather dense, and Rowan Williams has also struck me as particularly insightful, although I’ve heard complaints about his writing being dense and hard to follow as well.
Daily Life
I work nights stocking shelves with yogurt, so my day normally starts off sometime in the middle of the afternoon, except when my day doesn’t end til noon. When I’m not working I’m generally reading blogs and web comics, although the high points of my week are when I can get to Mass, normally that’s Sunday and early Friday morning.
Jon
I’m from a small town in Canada. I currently reside in San Diego county with my husband and three children.
My mother was raised Catholic. She was going to be a nun. She loved the movie Sound of Music because it was the first inkling she’d ever had that she could serve God in other ways also. She received the Holy Spirit in her religion class in Catholic school after a presentation by the Charismatic Catholic movement. She couldn’t find a way to fit that in with her local church. She found the Jesus people movement, it was the 70s, and joined a pentecostal church. She eventually left Catholicism because she was convinced that some of the traditions had no Biblical basis. I was raised protestant.
I am still protestant. My husband is a protestant pastor’s son. My husband studied theology for his masters degree. I study theology for fun, and because I care deeply about it.
My best friend is Catholic. My MIL is a messianic Jew. I have a broad ecumenicism.
When I was younger I thought that Bible worked like a contract. If I did my part and was good I could somehow manipulate God into doing what I wanted him to do, keep me safe, give me a happy life, never ever experience pain ever…I outgrew that way of thinking.
I eventually learned that the choice to trust God is the choice to let go of the control I so desperately wanted in order to find the peace I so desperately needed.
Books:How bout authors?
CS Lewis (How I love Till We Have Faces.)
NT Wright
Gregory Boyd
Mother Theresa
Henri Nouen
St. Francis
and I loved Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent J. Donovan
shoot, now I’m on a roll…
Brushko-Bruce Olsen
Chasing the Dragon-Jackie Pullinger-To
A Mighty Wind
And of course, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
I wake up in the morning and make breakfast for 3 children. Then I make them do unpleasant things like brush their teeth, put on clothes, put away their pajamas and make their beds.
Then I teach them how to read and write and add and subtract and sing and dance and play piano and Torah and Biblical history. I try to sneak in a bit of time reading my e-mail in there.
Then they are always hungry again. So I feed them lunch, and make them do unpleasant things like clean up after school before they can go outside and play.
I spend the afternoon trying to keep an eye on the big kids outside, get the laundry, cleaning, sweeping done, bake some bread or muffins and start dinner, if I haven’t already. I almost always have friends, mine or my children’s stop by. A few afternoons a week we walk to the library and farmer’s market, and run all our errands. On foot.
We eat dinner and I get them all into bed and then try to clean the kitchen, make my husband’s lunch, find some time to write and work on any other projects that I have brewing. I often go to bed far too late. I am trying to change this behavior. I am not doing very well.
My favorite part of each day is either dinner time, if everyone is present and happy, afternoon tea with my kids. (We’re civilizing snack time, they love it.) Or story time when they all curl up on the couch as I read. There is that huge sigh of relief though at the end of the day when they are all finally asleep though that feels pretty good too.
I blog at She Laughs at the Days
Hi,
I’m Judy, 34 years old… hmm… what else? Given that this is comment #91, I’m doubting anyone has read this far down the list anyway so this is probably all a bit redundant…
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
Born, raised and still (sort of) am Catholic. To be honest, if I was to start a blog right now it would probably be titled along the lines of ‘diary of a former catholic’ as I’m not so sure that my being a ‘cradle catholic’ (baptised at birth) has left me with anything resembling ‘faith’ depsite the best efforts of my parents! I don’t feel like my religious beliefs have gone anywhere over the course of my life – mass was (and most of the time still is) a habit – something we ‘did’ and something I still ‘do’ for some reason unknown to myself. I think it’s just a hard habit to break. I don’t feel any real connection to any of it.
Where are you from?
Sydney… Australia.
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
I’m not sure that any one book has… Don’t get time to read! (see below)
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
I’m a mum to two small children and am expecting my third in about four weeks (ahhh!). My typical day is anything but typical as that’s the way my kids are. I spend a bit of time keeping my house in some sort of order as well as providing the kids with some sort of ‘social interaction’ (playgroup) but otherwise.. don’t get up to much. My fav. time of day at the moment would be any time that I can sleep or just have time to myself….
If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
I have a blog – but it’s all about my kids – nothing specificallyl ‘religious’ about it… it’s at http://www.alinfletch.blogspot.com
Given that this is comment #91, I’m doubting anyone has read this far down the list anyway…
I’m still reading every one!
Judy,
I’m still reading!
Still reading Here!
I grew up Unitarian in Oklahoma. We went to church an hour away. All my peers were Christians, many of them evangelical, so I was the odd one out. Over time, I began to feel that while Unitarianism was telling me I was free to believe anything, the minister and teachers were implying that certain beliefs were wrong and stupid, and they were unwilling to stand up for any belief as *true*. I also felt that the Unitarian services weren’t meaningful enough and weren’t bringing me closer to God. I had always believed in God just because I knew He was there–I remember hearing something about God when I was very little and thinking, “Oh, so that’s the name for that.”
The 9th grade Unitarian curriculum was “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning” which meant we studied other religions and what they believe (but with a tone of our being above believing in any such thing) and visited other religions’ services to observe them. It made me ache for faith and rituals and something to believe in and a community gathering to worship something more than their own enlightenment. So I went on my own “free and responsible search for truth and meaning”: I read about every religion in the encyclopedia. Episcopalianism sounded good, so one Sunday when my parents were skipping church I got them to drop me off at the local Episcopal church.
In the lobby was a rack of tiny metal crosses with pins and a sign: “Visitors, please wear and keep a cross so that we can greet you.” I had never worn a cross before and felt nervous, but I wanted to do the right thing, to participate and not just observe, to give God a chance at getting through my armor of cynicism. As I put on the cross, I was greeted by a very warm and welcoming lady who made me feel as if I had come not to a banquet of strangers where I wouldn’t know which fork to use, but to a family dinner where there was already a place set for me. That feeling stayed with me even as I fumbled to find page numbers and kneel at the right times. Intellectually, I liked what I heard and what I read in the pamphlets the usher gave me after the service, but what really grabbed me was the sense of being held and loved even as I sat alone in a room of mostly strangers. I was afraid to keep the little cross–I didn’t deserve it because I wasn’t really a Christian–and hung it back on the rack before leaving. It wasn’t until several visits later that I took the cross and kept it.
Slowly, through high school and college, I found that “practicing” religion by following rituals was helping me to “tap into” God both when I needed help and when I wanted to help. Bit by bit, I felt more sure that Christianity was true. After college, I moved to a house across the street from an Episcopal church and thought I might as well start going there instead of to the one I had been attending–and that’s how I stumbled into my parish home! My faith had been almost entirely between me and God; becoming part of a community of faith has done so much to expand and deepen my experience of the Holy Spirit and my understanding of Jesus and His teaching.
I moved to Pittsburgh, PA, for college and have been here ever since–16 years now!
I love books and have read many great ones, but I think the one that made the biggest difference to my view of the world and the way I lead my life is The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff.
On a typical weekday, I take my 3-year-old son to school via city bus, then walk to my job as data manager for a research study that has interviewed the same guys since they were in grade school 20 years ago; we are studying crime and the factors that make people more or less likely to be involved in crime. I don’t meet the guys, just their data, but I pray for them a lot. I work at the computer and spend most of my break time on the Web. My son and I take the bus home to Daddy (my happily unmarried partner of 14 years, who also works full-time) and the three of us spend the evening trying to have dinner, play outside, catch up on the housework, talk to each other, and read lots of stories, all in a few short hours! I’m also a Girl Scout leader, so I have a meeting once a week and lots of planning to do, but I love it and so does my son, who is my troop’s mascot.
My favorite part of the day varies, but at least once a day my son does something wonderfully weird. A recent example: He climbed up on me announcing, “Mama, this is a termite.” I showed fear of the termite. “No, wait and see what he does.” He gave me a big hug and smile. Awww, a loving termite!
I have a Website where I put up an article whenever I get around to it–much more often now that I use blogging software. We set out to make a sort of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for people who want to do the best they can on Earth. I write about the environment, tips for better living, social issues, and now parenting.
Thanks for having such an interesting blog!
Found your blog a few months ago through a friend who described your writing as very “raw.” I was intrigued and have not been disappointed. I check for new posts about 5 times a day, at least (not really into subscribing).
My name is Meta, 23, currently living in northern Indiana working for a local insurance company while my husband goes to law school. Favorite part of the day is probably dawn or dusk–both usually spent with him. I spend most of my time wondering when/if the Lord will grant me children (trying for almost two years now).
Technically I’m a cradle Catholic, but my parents belong to a non-denominational, charismatic, Christian community as well as our parish, so alongside my education on the sacraments was experience with laying hands on people, praying in tongues, resting in the Spirit and such. Very awesome, though my knowledge of the saints and Church history could be better. I’ve come to find that God has granted me an amazing gift of faith throughout my life in that I’ve never really faltered from the Church or doubted its Truth, despite the trials that have come my way. I don’t think it’s ignorance or naivety, just a simple gift. My faith as a Catholic was really solidified in my 4 years at Franciscan University of Steubenville where I experienced what they like to call “dynamic orthodoxy”–pretty much the melding of my church and community experiences from childhood.
I also discovered there the two books that have probably impacted me the most:
1. Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales
This book taught me a lot about femininity, actually, which I was lacking, as my mom had died when I was 12 and I have no sisters. Favorite line: “Do not ask for more crosses until you have born well those already given you.”
2. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
In response to that line above, this book taught me how to bear those crosses well.
No blog yet, but I’m getting the itch. I studied writing in college (specifically creative writing), but haven’t done much with it since I graduated. My husband is always pushing me to get back into it, but my procrastinating self says, “maybe tomorrow.” I’ll let you know if I start one.
+ grew up in working class section of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; have resided with My Man in Southern California for eighteen years. stay-at-home-mama to four little boys ages 3, 5, 6 and 8.
+ born Catholic, but raised in a cult (long story); experienced a *dramatic* conversion to Christ in 1994 (longer story).
+ floated around evangelical protestantism, anabaptism, and eastern orthodoxy for well over a decade. (the photos of me in the Amish garb are the best.)
+ finally had my marriage convalidated in the RC Church in 2003!
+ “Catechism of the Catholic Church”
+ “Jesus of Nazareth,” by Papa Benny
+ every day begins with blessing my school age children with holy water, and, after my prince drives away with them, i pray the Rosary and other prayers, and read the Mass readings for the day, and sip hot tea (orange pekoe) w/milk and honey or another sweetener. by that time our two littlest ones have arisen, and things begin to get noisey and messy around here.
+ my prince/husband and i email each other several times during the day. i miss him so.
+ my conversion story begins on the right-hand side, under “About Me” (warning: it’s s doosey):
http://www.myspace.com/donna_ellis
(hang in there for the happy part!
Hi Jen and everyone!
I’m a 31-year-old mom of 3 boys ages 5, 4, and almost 1. I’m a cradle Catholic, and for as long as I remember I’ve loved Catholicism. Although at some points I’ve felt God very intensely in my life (and other times not at all!) I’ve never had a specific moment I can point to when my faith began to deepen. It’s been more like ve-ery slowly, ploddingly coming to know Him . . . or Him trying to bring me closer to Himself, with me throwing up a ton of obstacles along the way!
We, along with just about all of our extended family, live in the mid-Atlantic states.
No one book in particular–a favorite from my teenage years is the Don Camillo series by Giovanni Guareschi. My favorite spiritual book (so far–I have a lot on my to-read list!) is, despite the somewhat corny title, Holiness for Housewives by Dom Huber van Zeller (hope I’m spelling that right!).
I stay home with our boys, although I just quit a job that I’ve had for the last 5 years doing freelance copyediting from home. Anyway, my days involve lots of trucks, lots of trains, and, since my 5-year-old wants to be a plumber, lots of pipes and water. Oh–and never-ending wrestling. Even the baby is getting into it now.
No blog, although I’ve thought about it–if I had one, I’d never do anything else!
#1 Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I was baptized into the Congregational church but never attended church except occasionally at Christmas. I joined the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) when I married my wife. We joined the Catholic Church last Easter. (Tiber Swim Team c/o 2007!)
#2 Where are you from?
I live in West Michigan.
#3 What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.
#4 Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
Off to work in morning. Coach tennis or swimming in the afternoon. Home around 6:30-7pm. By far my favorite time of the day is giving my kids their bath. Or going for a walk with them. Or Mass. Especially Mass. But taking Holy Communion to my local hospital is unbelievably awesome too.
#5 If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
I no longer blog. I’m a professional lurker and occasional commenter. (Too many late nights blogging. That cartoon you posted really fit me for a while!)
My name is Jason, and:
1. I was raised Catholic and have stayed that way. My parents and grandparents didn’t talk much about faith, but were good models: they always went to Mass on Sunday, always said grace, and always had a few religious things around the house. My one grandma would greet us with a rosary in one hand and a highball in the other, so I never felt the need to rebel.
2. I was raised in Pittsburgh, which is where I live now. From 1991-2001 I had 22 different addresses and lived, worked, or studied in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, Quebec, and England, and traveled to all 48 contiguous states. But I always knew I’d come back home to the ‘Burgh. It’s an amazing and beautiful city, and is relatively affordable too.
3. “Lost in the Cosmos” by Walker Percy.
4. I am a lawyer at a big law firm. I wake up at 6 am and get the house ready for my wife and kids, staying until my wife is done showering. I then take the bus to work and read and write about law for the next 10 hours, with occasional breaks for a meeting or for lunch. I get home at 6 pm for dinner and kid chaos, which usually ends around 8 pm. My wife and I then clean and putter until around 10 pm.
5. No blog.
Hi Jen! It’s Sarah from not-so-sunny-today Ohio. Though I was raised Methodist and some flavor-of-the-month Christian by my parents, before I became Catholic (due in large part to the influence of my then-boyfriend (still-boyfriend now-husband) and his mother), I was a “Bible-burning” atheist. But now I’m all Catholic. Or trying to be.
Books of note:
– Theology of the Body
– Life Giving Love, by Kimberly Hahn
A typical day is too much for the combox; I’ve been cooking up a whole post about it. (Don’t know if or when I’ll ever get that posted…we’ll see.) Through the week, I get up (depending on how the baby’s slept and whether I can handle it, I try to write and have quiet time early (but this is a sometimes thing)), get my 3yo and 6 month old ready and head off to work at the parish (I’m the administrator and the kids come to work with me). On the weekends, things are whopperjawed and we hang loose. In the evenings it’s fireworks and baby drool.
I’ve never emailed you (though I have meant to), and I haven’t yet posted about it (though I’ve meant to), but thanks to you, I have been praying Morning and Evening Prayer as part of my day, and it has changed my life. No, really. Seriously. Evening prayer especially – that is my hardest time of the day, when things are sparking and flaring and I’m melting fast. It seems that when you turn things over to God FIRST, instead of coming back to him (a theme you’ve mentioned many times), what do you know – IT WORKS! Anyway, I have been meaning to also THANK YOU for that. I was at a point of renewing my Magnificat and read your post about the Book of Christian Prayer, bought it and, wow, it’s great. I only do Morning Prayer with the Office and then Evening Prayer around 6 or so (I do Night Prayer if I miss it), but someday, I’m sure, I’ll take on more of it through my day.
My blog is just another day of Catholic pondering and I write about whatever strikes me. Mostly I ponder about things Catholic or things that my kids or family have brought to my attention. Other times, though, I just look outside my window at the laundry on the line and I sigh happily with a camera in my hand, and that’s what gets posted.
Sorry about not reading every other comment on here.
I understand if it takes you a while to get to this one!
I was raised a cradle catholic. I never really understood my faith until I started making and working on TEC (Together Encountering Christ) retreats in the New Ulm diocese in Minnesota. It took until I was 17-18 for me to understand the truths of the Catholic church among others and to own my faith. Now at college, I’ve gotten involved in Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU). It’s a Protestant group, and I often find myself missing the Catholic truths and sacraments, but no biggie, I guess. ;o)
I’m from Minnesota! But am attending college in Chicago!
No books have really had a huge impact on my life that I can remember. I suppose the Harry Potter series would be an okay answer for this – I really got involved in online Harry Potter communities, and they shaped parts of who I am today.
Every day? Meh, usually I sleep in waay too late, have classes some days, go to daily mass on the days I do not have classes, and spend WAY too much time on the computer (which I am working on toning down).
I’ve started jotting down my thoughts and externally processing in a blog of my own – “Maturing Catholic”. Check it out! It’s just a basic blogger template at this point, and I’m really only just getting started. But, there you have it.
http://www.platzproductions.com/phillip/blog
Hi. I’m Patience and I’ve been reading your weblog for a few months now. It has been tremendously helpful as I make my own spiritual journey.
For most of my life I was either a pagan or an atheist. About ten years ago I came back into a relationship with God. Since then we’ve been negotiating things. God has sent me some supernatural miracles and I’ve done a lot of religious reading.
Because I spent years deep in the pagan arguments and mythologies, I tend to believe in a creator God (who is beyond gender) and a divine Christ child whose existence has been spoken of in different mythologies from dozens of ancient cultures, including Christianity, with uncanny similarities, since the beginning of storytelling. I feel God has been telling us all the same story, and the OT is one culture’s version of it. The OT doesn’t speak to me personally in the way these old myths do. So I’ve been resisting Christianity for the longest time. It hasn’t helped that I was raised to believe only morons and weak-willed people use “the crutch” of Christianity. I’ve also felt (and still do) that the Christian Church isn’t the only way to experience God.
But this Jesus guy, he’s got a toe in the door now, and he just won’t go away! Trust me, I don’t WANT to believe in Jesus. But it looks like he’s giving me no choice.
I’d love to join the Catholic Church, I agree with a long list of Catholic creeds, but unfortunately there are a couple of major things I can not accept – and over which I would not be accepted in the church. So I’m going my solitary way … although I should not say that, because I know my mother God (and that annoying Christ guy) are walking it with me.
Alrighty then – lets dive into this (this is very long – I’m so sorry but once I started I couldn’t stop!)
Hi, I’m Lizzie. I live in Australia with Hubs and three kids – J (who is 9½ and autistic), B (who is fast approaching
and Miss Moo (who is 6).
Much like Jennifer, until about this time last year, I was a confirmed atheist (although agnostic would probably be more accurate). My entire childhood and up to the age of 27 was completely devoid of any religious instruction save for a bible storybook I was given as a child (I thought it was a regular storybook) and the odd funeral in a church. Christianity made me feel icky. Christians were weird, freaky people. I avoided the poor Christian gal in our grade at school (who, incidentally, I found via Facebook this year and she lives very close to me now). My Dad was raised Catholic, Catholic schooling, the works, but then went to Vietnam and things kind of went pear-shaped from there I think (all before I was born). I’ve never discussed it with him (there are lots of burned bridges there) as it was very much like that old Fawlty Towers episode – “Don’t mention the war!” (I hope the Americans got that joke, LOL). At any rate, no religion for me growing up (as an aside, my Dad was of Irish Catholic descent and my mother was the Protestant divorcee with two young children – imagine my grandparents’ reactions!)
As for coming to faith as an adult. Without a word of a lie, I cannot fathom how it happened. I honestly can’t. During Easter 2007 my son came home from his secular, public school talking about Jesus and how he rose from the dead and I distinctly remember having a debate on an online forum about the validity of teaching children in public schools about the Bible. Australia is nothing like the US in this regard – religion is kept completely out of secular schooling except for the odd ‘opt in’ religious education sessions (RE or RI) which happen *maybe* once or twice per year. If you want your child to have a religious upbringing you choose a Christian or Catholic school and pay a little more for the privelege (although as ‘private’ schools go, they are still much cheaper – public schooling is still the cheapest option). Even homeschooling is fairly rare. It happens of course, but nowhere near the extent of the US. Anyhow, I’m off track again!
Not that long after Easter I was convicted, through a process of reading many homemaking websites with Christian content and – I know now – the Holy Spirit, to read the Bible. At first it was a case of, I’ll just read along here and there on BibleGateway so I know exactly what these bloggers are referring to, kind of like in order to better arm myself for debate. I found I was quite interested in the reading (the floodgates had opened) but reading chapter after chapter on screen was hurting my eyes so I secretly went into the city, to a Christian bookstore with a friend, and bought a Bible. I say secretly because my husband was (and still is) a confirmed atheist.
Stepping into that bookstore was strange. I felt like I had a big fat neon sign on me that said “THIS WOMAN IS GULLIBLE! SHE JUST BOUGHT A BIBLE!” I didn’t look at the books near the window, for goodness’ sake, in case someone saw me. If this seems odd – it is! But I’m nothing if not honest.
Jennifer said something in her post “On Having Proof” that was completely true for me:
There was no big “come to Jesus” moment, and even few times that I could say I “felt” that God was there, but it was as if some deep, powerful magnet had been activated within me that began pulling me in one direction.
And that was exactly how it happened for me. I didn’t go through a disaster – no death of a loved one, no life crumbling around me – and I didn’t have a massive ‘phew!’ moment either – no disease or condition from which I, or anyone else I knew, was cured, no ‘wow, there really IS a God!’ moment.
The first few months reading, asking questions, discovering websites (some of which steered me in the wrong direction totally) was tough. I actively fought AGAINST everything I was feeling compelled to do. I’d go in phases – I’d be excited about reading more, posting on boards etc and then I’d get that ‘Christianity is icky’ feeling again and I’d not read for two or three weeks at a time. I really feel (now) that God knew the battle that I was fighting and allowed me to step back before gently calling me back each time. I was worried, initially, that this was another ‘pet project’ of mine, kind of like when I tried getting into once a month cooking, or sewing, or scheduling my day, or… after the millionth ‘wooing back’ I finally realised ‘Oh, I get it, this is what’s going on.’ After that, it got easier.
The last six months or so have been a gentle process of working through some personal stuff – when you have racked up 27 years of non-belief there’s an awful lot of reconciling you need to do with one’s scientific mind. My husband now knows I believe in God but I’m still hesitant to fully describe everything I’m feeling/reading because I know for a fact he completely disagrees. We’ve spoken, of course, and to be fair he has been really respectful of my thoughts and we’ve had some really good discussions, but on the other hand, he must be a bit confused and I often feel like I’m being painted into a corner because usually some aspect of apologetics comes up and I feel underqualified to answer him.
I’m going to skip over the book question because honestly, I haven’t had much of a chance to read many Christian books other than the Bible and even then, I’m behind – I keep starting then falling away from it. I will say though that in the beginning I discovered a wonderful little podcast called Wrestling With The Basics (http://www.kfuoam.org/WWB_Audio_page.htm) which is just a couple of goofy guys doing a fun little Bible study and it really helped. In actual fact the pastor on that show – John Lukomski – and I have shared a few emails and he helped me to understand the God a little more in reference to my son’s disability.
Shameless Self Promotion:
My main blog is http://www.lizzieshome.com It’s your typical personal blog, where I natter on about my daily life as a housewife. What I’m more excited about though, is that on May 1st I’m going to launch a new blog for new Christians called A Whisper of Grace. The URL for that will be http://whisperofgrace.blogspot.com/ but at the moment (I’m writing this on April 22) it is set to private while I’m still working on it. I’m an info-nut and during this first year of faith I found there wasn’t much out there in terms of true newbies, ie, those who were not just backslidden but weren’t raised with religion at all, had never read the Bible, and were really struggling. There’ll be lots of sections like Podcasts/Audio, Websites, Video, recommendations for books – resources that helped me as a newbie etc etc. Actually, in getting this all up and running I need testimonials (another thing I searched for but never really found what I wanted) from folks who come to faith in adulthood.
If anyone has one they’d like to share (or a link you think would be good for a newbie), please email me at lizzie1681(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Thanks Jennifer – I never really wrote that out before
Cheers,
Lizzie
http://www.lizzieshome.com
Hi, I’ve been reading your blog since late 2007.
Spiritual journey: I’m a cradle Catholic who attended Mass each Sunday but would have told you that my favorite part of my religion was goofing off in church school. I never went to confession, used birth control, did all the typical things teenagers do. At age 18 I began to experience a great deal of debilitating anxiety all centered around the fear that there is no God. I desperately wanted God to be real, I just thought that the concept seemed too good to be true, therefore it couldn’t possibly be. I was consumed by this anxiety night and day for months (it was bad – I even cried uncontrollably in school), until it slowly went away. I soon started college, fell into all the bad things that college students do, attended Mass once a month (if at all) and forgot all about my anxiety. Fast forward ten years, and I found myself having the same anxiety all over again. Once again, it was centered around a fear that God didn’t exist. This time, with my new husband’s help, I decided to drastically change my life and set out on a quest to prove God does exist. Still not a believer, I threw myself into matters of faith, signed up for a weekly hour of Perpetual Adoration, started a ministerial formation program and prayed like crazy. After more than a year, this “dark night of the soul” came to an end and I am forever a changed person, thanks be to God!
Where are you from? Upstate New York, but currently live in Richmond, Virginia.
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: I currently don’t work (it’s a long story but involves moving and having a long recovery time after a recent surgery for endometriosis)and my husband works until 11:30 p.m., so we usually don’t wake up til around ten a.m. I watch a lot of t.v. and spend even more time online. When I feel inspired, I work on a documentary I’m producing about Perpetual Adoration. The rest of my day is spent playing with my dog, praying, blogging, cooking, baking and then watching more t.v. when my husband gets home (I sound like a real loser). My favorite part of the day is anytime of the day on my husband’s days off.
My blog is allyouwhohope.blogspot.com. It’s an infertility blog (we’ve been trying for nearly four years), which I started due to a lack of support out there for Catholics dealing with infertility (the rest of the world sees no problem with in-vitro fertilization and that can leave a girl feeling completely alone). I write about my day-to-day struggles, my ever-changing moods, my faith, treatment updates, pro-life issues, more about my moods, and whatever else is bugging me.
1 Well, since you asked I guess I’ll say Hi.
I’m Camille 25yrs old and mother to a spirited 5yr old girl. I was raised Cafeteria Catholic and fell away from the Church in High School. Replacing my faith with drugs and various other destructive behaviors. I came back to the Church after having my daughter baptized (at the age of 3). When the baptism class leader said I was making a commitment to raise her in the Church I took it seriously. I was confirmed at Easter Vigil this year and am thrilled to know the Truth, to receive Christ in the Eucharist every Sunday and to have God in charge of my life now. How liberating!
2 Where are you from? I am from Knoxville, TN and Huntsville, AL but currently live in a suburb of Houston, TX.
3 What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)? After I had my daughter baptized I read Bud MacFarlane’s Pierced by a Sword. It pointed me in the direction of NFP and the rest is history!
4 Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day? My daily life is anything but structured. I’ve been working towards having more discipline in my life but am nowhere near where I want to be. Last weekend I attended an ACTS retreat with 40 women (80 if you count the volunteers) from my parish and it was the most wonderful experience of my life. I feel I have a greater understanding of God’s love for us than I ever thought possible. It has inspired me to do my daily chores and responsibilities for God. He loved me enough to send His Son to die for me, the least I can do is wash dishes. hehe.
5 If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about? I have two blogs which you should be able to access through my profile. I have no idea what the URLs are. haha! But I will plug my clay website: http://creativeclaybycamille.com
Hi, my name is Tyson. I live in Ohio, enjoy reading your blog and plan to vist often. I added your blog to my blog role, I hope you don’t mind. I am a contributor to another blog, the owner is an atheist. I fight back and forth with him alot over religion. I don’t go to church because I am not a people person, I stay to myself. I am searching for the truth about god and read as much as I can. Some times I start to doubt a little and need a boost. Most atheist use logic and science to try and sway me form god but I hold out in hope. Not out of fear of death but out of hope that my life means something. I feel without god my morals and life are a waist.
I’m Sta from Detroit. I became a Christian in 2005 when I was 25, although I was also raised in the Catholic church. I hated going to church as a kid and teenager–I found it very empty and hypocritical. I thought all they wanted was everyone’s money. I was so bored at services I would go hide in the bathroom. And my family practiced its “faith” only on Sunday; during the week, religion, God, prayer, the Bible were never discussed. I thought the whole thing phony.
When I was 25, I did a lot of reading on Christianity, had a lot of long talks with a close Christian friend, started praying and had an intense encounter with Jesus in a dream. I’ve been a Christian ever since. I attend a non-denominational church.
I read a lot, but I’ll list two books that helped me in my conversion — The Case for Faith and Mere Christianity.
I’m a writer. My days are nutso. My favorite part is breakfast. I love breakfast. The calm before the storm.
My blog is stalicious.typepad.com. I used to write about “whatever.” For the last seven months, I have written about being unexpectedly pregnant.
Love your site!
Hi I’m Robert, 52, married. I have used your writings several times now as starting points in CCD. I am very impressed by your insights, your openness to the Holy Spirit, and the clarity of your writing. As a life-long Catholic, I have found much on your blog that has enhanced my own faith and the living of it.
Aside from lamentable lapses requiring the sacrament of confession, I have held the same traditional Catholic beliefs my whole life. I was an altar server as a boy, and have served also as an adult. I’ve been a lector since my teens, and have found daily spiritual nourishment in the Mass, the Rosary, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Liturgy of the Hours. Currently, I am a Choir director in my little parish. The choir sings chant and sacred polyphony. If I’d made as much progress in my 52 years as you have in your 2, I’d be very happy.
I am from north western Massachusetts, not far from the border with Vermont.
Aside from the Bible the most influential books in my life have been the Imitation of Christ and the Liturgy of the Hours.
My daily life: I am a clerk at university. I pray on the bus ride to work, take a break at lunch and make a visit with Jesus in the Newman Center, pray on the bus ride on the way home, meet my family at our Church for Mass in the evening, teach my kids their catechism while my wife makes supper, and then have an hour or two after supper with my wife. We are both members in formation of the Lay Missionaries of Charity, part of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity family. http://www.laymc.com
I have a blog in which I share some meditations on different aspects of the Faith and the world we live in. It is: http://piisima-virgo.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much for sharing your faith and your journey.
I was led to your blog for the first time just yesterday via a link on my Google Reader page. Your insightful post on art simply blew me away.
This is a nice idea, having your readers introduce themselves….thank you! I’m old compared to most of your readers; I’ll hit the half-century mark this summer.
******Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?******
I was raised Baptist and joined my husband’s rural LCMS Lutheran Church when we married.
******Where are you from?******
A farm in northeast Iowa is my home. I’ve never lived in town.
*****What is one book that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?*****
I enjoy reading books that link science and religion, such as Gerald Schroeder’s “The Hidden Face of God”, “Genesis and the Big Bang”, and “The Science of God”.
*****Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?*****
I live on a dairy farm, so livestock chores are in my schedule every day. My favorite part of the day is taking a long walk down our country road or out in the fields. Its a great time to pray for my family and others. Also, I truly believe God speaks to us in nature, but we rarely pay attention.
*****If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?*****
Yes, I’ve been blogging since February of 2007, on:
http://www.midlifebyfarmlight.blogspot.com
I love to write about everyday occurrences, to attempt to find meaning in them. A few months ago I acquired my first digital camera and enjoy putting photos on the blog now, too.
I’m Melanie, 33 years old, mother of two girls under two.
I’m a cradle Catholic, went to Catholic school from first through eighth grade, public high school and then Catholic college. In college the holes in my religious formation started to show. I started missing mass on Sundays, not every Sunday but many. And as I’d never developed a habit of confession, I didn’t confess it at all. I never left the faith; but it took second place to the rest of my life until I was in grad school and several things came together to jar me out of my complacency. I still have to struggle with going to confession but I think I’m growing in my faith.
I’m from Austin, Tx and live in the Boston area where my husband grew up.
The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings were foundational for me and I give them much of the credit for keeping me Catholic even when I started to drift. Lewis and Tolkien made faith a part of my imaginative landscape, they are simply a part of who I am. Several books by Scott Hahn and Orthodoxy and the Everlasting Man by Chesterton were responsible for prodding me toward a mature reconsideration of my faith.
My days are pretty tranquil. I wake up when the baby or the toddler cries. Feed the kids and myself, pray, read to the toddler, make lunch, take a nap if the kids let me, make dinner, read a bunch of blogs and maybe write some posts in there somewhere. Right now I spend a lot of time breastfeeding and change a lot of diapers with the nursing newborn.
My favorite moment of the day is when I spy my husband pulling up the the curb and tell the toddler that daddy’s home and watch her face light up.
I blog at The Wine Dark Sea, writing about books, faith, family life, especially my beautiful daughters, books, education, homeschooling, art, children’s books, the Catholic Church, educational philosophy, literature, poetry, and especially books.
Wow! It’s been wonderful reading all of these. I don’t want to take up too much space, but I’ve enjoyed “lurking” at your blog for a few months, now. I was born near Pittsburgh, PA in 1948, so I MAY be your oldest reader. Dad was raised in the Church of the Brethren in Indiana. His father (who died before I was born) was a Quaker and did some ministry — after he gave up raising mules. He said the two couldn’t be done together! Mother was mostly Church of the Nazarene: everything I wanted to do as a teenager somehow was judged to be a “sin” — dancing, going to movies, wearing makeup, etc. I grew up in a church called the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but started attending the Baptist Church with my best friend when I started high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. I got “saved” and was baptized by immersion when I was 16. Actually, I’d gotten “saved” multiple times as a child, but was never baptized; the churches I was part of didn’t baptize infants. My best friend introduced me to a young cradle Catholic guy my Senior year in high school. He converted to the Baptist church and was also “baptized” by immersion, since they didn’t believe his infant baptism was valid. We met in March of 1966 and married in August of the same year after he received his draft notice. We hope to celebrate our 42nd anniversary this year. Wherever life took us, serving God was uppermost in our minds and hearts. We wanted to be as close to God as possible, and to serve Him always. From Baptist to Charismatic Baptist, to Assembly of God, to Nazarene, to Presbyterian (drawn by the liturgy), to Episcopalian in Southwest Missouri and now, to Catholic Convert (me) and Catholic revert (husband): what a journey!
Favorite books — too many — but The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris really influenced me, and Madeleine L’Engle’s books, and of course, dear, dear C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
Typical day: Up at 9:00 AM (maybe) brief prayer plus scripture/devotional. Coffee, news, emails, read favorite blogs, check my eBay listings. Check progress of our new college library building on webcam, do some housework. Get ready for work, arriving at 1:30 at our small (old) college library and working ’til close at 8:30 PM. Weekends; run, run, run — except for the joy and wonder of mass on Sunday mornings. And of course I followed the amazing and awesome visit our “Papa” made to the U.S.!!
No blog at present but working on one. I think I found yours from Happy Catholic. Thank you for being such a gracious host!!!!
Hey…I’m Mandy, 31 and a very new reader of your blog. BTW, I love it.
1. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school for 8 years. I met my husband, who was a practicing Baptist, in 1998. We were married in the Catholic Church in 2000. We started going to a Methodist church about three years later because we wanted to worship together, and neither one of us (at the time) was willing to convert to the other’s religion. In January of this year, Brad decided to convert to Catholicism. He will begin RCIA in Sept. We are currently attending Mass at our local parish.
2. I am originally from Pittsburgh, Pa, but live in South Carolina now.
3. Life Giving Love, by Kimberly Hahn. Changed my way of thinking about EVERYTHING!
4. I teach part time in a public school until 11. Then, I pick up my three and two year old boys from the babysitters and start our day together. My favorite part of the day is being with them.
5. I do have a blog. I typically write about our daily happenings because most family and friends are far away.
http://theponds.wordpress.com
Good Morning! My name is Sheilaelaine and I am a parish secretary. I have attended church all my life, however, I did not become Catholic until 1996 and the last thing I ever thought I’d be is a Administrative Assistant in a Catholic church!
I just wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed your Scorpion adventures!
There are several books I’ve enjoyed and that have impacted my life, to name one would be impossible. However, here are two that come to mind;”The Five People You Meet In Heaven” and “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff”.
My favorite part of each day is early in the morning when I’m the only one awake and I have the whole day ahead of me and the last hour of my day when I can look back at my day and feel good about any accomplishments I may have made.
I have a son in the Air Force and he has a wife and baby on the way. I have a daughter at UNLV and she has a beautiful daughter and husband and I have a 7th grade son who is a site to see on the basketball court.
I love to write in my spare time.
One last note – I too am deathly afraid of bees! They are bigger than the average eye realizes!
Hi Jennifer, I’m Tom from Northern Virginia, just about 30 minutes west of Washington, D.C. I’m a 41 year old father of 3, soon to be 4 in October, and have been married for 10 years (as of next month).
I am the youngest of 3 kids, by about 8 years, and was raised nominally Catholic, meaning I never attended Catholic school, but did go to CCD; attended mass most but not all of the time all the way through high school, and received the sacraments growing up, but didn’t do a lot of reinforcing of it at home. It was probably your typical 70s/80s cultural Catholic upbringing.
My nominal Catholicism lasted most of my life, but looking back now, I can see that I was somehow protected from leaving all the way, I always stayed just connected enough to the Church. I met my wife in a young adults group in our parish that I almost didn’t even go to the first time, but here we are 10 years later. She was a cradle Catholic too, and even though we met at church, we were both content to continue on the same way, without really deepening our faith life much at all.
Somehow for me, that changed after I turned 40 and had 3 kids, I decided I either needed to “do this Catholic thing” or stop pretending and find the truth somewhere else. Probably largely due to the prayers of my mother, friends and I’m sure JP II up in heaven praying for new recruits for the church’s springtime of evangelization, I started studying the faith for the first time, reading a lot of , listening to Catholic Answers and various other podcasts, and began taking my prayer life much more seriously. It’s still a work in progress, but much farther along than it was.
I credit my recent reversion with reigniting my love of reading again, including lots of apologetics and church history, but well before that, I was already a C.S. Lewis fan. Back in my late teens/early 20s, when I was searching for something but didn’t realize it at the time, I enjoyed reading Lewis, especially Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. For me, Lewis was my confirmation that faith was not only plausible, but rational, points that Pope BXVI reiterated on numerous occasions this past week. I also love to read conversion stories, and who doesn’t love a good conversion story? I haven’t read yours yet, but plan to later today. I’m generally a blog lurker, content to read in the shadows, so consider it a great (ok, small) honor that I’m commenting on yours. Oh, and I love to read lots of blogs, especially Amy Welborn and Mark Shea’s.
My typical weekdays are spent working at a large, internet company as a Program Manger and my weeknights are spent doing everything I can to help evenings run as smoothly as possible where 3 kids under the age of 8 are involved and mom is pregnant. Also, as if that’s not enough, my oldest son has a rare genetic disorder known as Angleman Syndrome, and as a result, he does not speak or walk independently, needs full assistance for all daily living skills, and takes lots of medicine and has lots of doctors appointments. And thank God He sent him to us! This is all to say that life is very full and I’m learning more and more to depend on God’s grace to make it.
I don’t have my own blog yet but after discovering so many great blogs (including yours) while following the Popes’ visit last week, I’m somewhat inspired to start my own. I’ll let you know what comes of it. Thanks for your comments and insights, very much appreciated. Keep up the great work.
Howdy!
Generally a lurker here and there. Introduced to your blog by the Darwins. My wife and I are friends and former “neighbors” of theirs (We lived in the Kensington Place subdivision).
Also, I am a former brewing partner Darwin himself. We crafted several delightful beers together until a dreadful (at least at the time) happened at my former employer… cutbacks. Fortunately, I found a great job. Unfortunately, it took me away from Texas.
Let’s see… I’m 31. Originally from Dallas. I was born, raised, and spanked Catholic. Attended Catholic school for 13 years until college. Electrical engineer by training. We have four kids: “Bubba” is just about 5, “Sissy” is 3, “Belle” is 18 mos., and TBD is due in early December.
We live north of Seattle, WA. We’ve found a wonderful group of friends that share common values and help us to grow in our Catholic faith. I still brew beer, albeit no longer with Darwin. I have new, local brew partners. (I’ve got an Imperial IPA sitting in secondary waiting to be bottled…)
We still make it back to Dallas and Austin just about annually for Christmas and New Years to see family and some old friends. Darwin and I generally find some time in there to share some good beer during these visits. We’ve also been known to go shoot some guns too.
Gig ‘em
Oh my! It took some stamina to reach the bottom of the comments here, but at last! I made it.
Spiritual Journey. In a nutshell, I converted to Christianity at 17 (I’m now 25). Since then I’ve been involved in a couple of church plants in my very liberal, apparently “un-churched” town.
I was not raised in the faith (my dad is, in fact, resolutely opposed to Christianity), but God has worked wonders large and small in my life over the course of the last eight years.
Location. I was born in the midwest, but have lived in the uppermost northwestern corner of the country for my entire life. I have spent all that time in the same beautiful town, as a matter of fact, and so I feel blessed with deep roots and a strong sense of community.
Books. And here, the bibliophile will out. Walking on Water, by Madeliene L’Engle; A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken; anything by C.S. Lewis, though The Great Divorce and Mere Christianity deserve special mention. Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. Edith Schaeffer’s L’Abri (a recent find). There are more that I’m forgetting, I just know it.
Daily Life. For the last four years, daily life has involved going to work (in a dental office), enjoying the company of my husband of 5 years, and pursuing various artistic side-endeavors (mentioned on my blog).
Now, though, I’m home on maternity leave, waiting for our first baby, a baby that could be born any minute, and it’s delightful. What my daily life will be like in a month, I can’t say, but I’m looking forward to it.
Blog. I do have a blog! The Little Bird.
I’ve been reading your blog regularly for the last few months – though I’ve been lurking, as they say, and not commenting much – and I’ve enjoyed your posts immensely. Yours are the ones I save for last in my reader because I know that they are sure to be the best.
Hi, I’m Sarah, I’m 20 and grew up Catholic. Though my family never missed Sunday mass, it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I began learning more than the skeleton/basics of the faith…
I’m from Auburn, AL, and I’m a student at AU now, in French Education.
As for a book, the Catechism has had a big impact for me (yes, I know it’s a kind of basic too…oh well.) And recently Rome Sweet Home. I have big plans for reading many religious books full of impact this summer.
My daily life is spent in classes and coffeeshops, and I usually go home for free dinner and to the Catholic student organization (the best!) for whichever nightly activity.
I have no blog, but I do have a facebook (on which I link to you
).
Oops! I have already left a comment… [The first one is under amy jane (untangling tales) I think...]So, you can delete one of mine…haha didn’t mean to be a comment-hog!
First a Caveat: This is a long-winded, rambling “comment” or should I say commentary? I am a tired mom (mombie) who should be in bed right about now. Please forgive its length as well as overlook any typos or strange thoughts. Finally, know that your blog is a must-have for cradle Catholics like myself who will never really stop seeking. God bless you.
Spiritual journey: I’m another one of those cradle Catholics out there. I haven’t always been true to the Catholic faith (even when I thought I was), although I’ve always gone to Mass, even in college. Not because I’m some pious, holier-than-thou individual. I’ve had ulterior motives. As a teenager, I wanted to please my parents. There was a time in college when I went because I had a crush on a guy who played the guitar in the choir with me. Sometimes I’ve gone out of guilt instead of my love for Christ – like other day when I found myself at Mass with two cranky kids. I’d been really tempted to skip Mass. My husband was on call and I wasn’t sure I had the energy to handle a teething baby and a cantankerous 3-year-old, but then I remembered the a priest’s reference to the early Christian martyrs in Rome who literally chose brutal deaths over missing Mass. “They’d rather die than be without the Eucharist,” the priest reminded us. Geez and I just wanted to skip out because I was feeling a little ragged. So I went, but I admit I was hoping for a break. I even may have made a little deal with God: “Look at me, making this noble effort to go to Mass when I have two sleepy kiddos. Cut me some slack, okay?”
But like so many prayers – or hopeful, one-way conversations – God has a different plan. Cut me slack, He did not. Instead, I was faced with a wiggly, drooly, crying baby and an equally distraught (minus the drool) 3-year-old. I finally threw out the white flag of surrender and retreated to the vestibule with throngs of other tired parents trying to pay attention to what was going on over the whining, crying, coughing, giggling, gurgling and babbling of little ones. Surrounded by the loud cacophony, I felt anything but peaceful. I also had a hard time focusing on anything that was going on beyond the insanity surrounding me. I honestly have no idea what the Homily was about. I didn’t hear one single word. I started to really wonder why I was there, why I’d endured the rushed morning, the fight over brushing my preschooler’s wild hair, the futile search for the only pair of socks that actually stayed on my baby’s feet…
I got my answer.
When it came time for Holy Communion, the baby snuggled close to me in the Ergo. My preschooler walked piously ahead of me with her arms crossed in front of her chest in preparation for her blessing. I bowed before my Lord, my Savior. The Eucharistic Minister blessed both of my quiet and motionless children, looked to me and said, “This is the body of Christ.” I replied, “Amen.” I believe. I received the Eucharist and for a brief moment, I felt Him. I knew why people would rather die than be denied of the gift of Mass. Jesus was there with me, pouring his love down on me. This – the Eucharist – was the reason I was there despite all the odds (AKA pernickety children) against me, which, by the way, began fussing before the host even fully dissolved in my mouth. Nevertheless, that sense of peace, that sense of Christ’s presence, which I’ve only discovered in the Eucharist, is the reason I keep coming back even when I don’t feel very inspired, even when my closeness to God is as fleeting as Hollywood romances, even when I doubt God’s love for me. It’s the reason I fervently pray for a unity of faith between my husband and me (he usually goes to Mass with us and is committed to raising our children in the Catholic faith, but he is not Catholic. I almost didn’t marry him because of this fact, but that’s a story for another day or another blog). As I wrote in a blog about a particularly powerful moment in Adoration, “Honestly, it seems I spend far more of my life grasping than feeling like God is with me and deeply loves little, old sinful me. But it’s these moments – when I strongly experience his presence, when all my doubts disappear, when not one naysayer could convince me that practicing my faith is a foolish pursuit, when I’m acutely aware of his strong, intense love for me, as rare and brief as they regrettably usually are – that make me keep coming back.”
So anyway, in a nutshell, that’s why I’m a proud Catholic and why I’ve always gone to Mass, even though I haven’t always LIVED the faith as I should. I am always in the seeking stage and the blogosphere has opened up a whole new world for me. It’s given introduced me to brothers and sisters in Christ that I would have probably never encountered and has also really helped sharpen some of my convictions – like being open to new life.
My Origin: I’m originally from Illinois, but I’ve been Down South for a long time now.
Books: I know this is really lame to say, but I just can’t pick one book that has profoundly changed my life. I will say that it was reading Mother Teresa’s A Simple Life while sitting on a subway on my way to a very corporate, flashy job when I first experienced out of nowhere an extremely strong calling to be a mother. I wasn’t even dating anyone at the time, but I remember praying to God that if this was his will to give me what I needed to fulfill my vocation. My hubby and I, who had briefly dated in high school, were reacquainted and started dating again soon after that and the rest is history. We’ll be celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary in May and we’ve been blessed with two little girls so far (a 3-year-old and soon-to-be-1-year-old).
Typical Day and Some Other Stuff, Too: I’m 29 and a wife and stay-at-home mom/freelance writer, although I don’t do nearly as much as of the latter these days. I do try to write every single day – whether it’s for my blog, in my journal or to work on some fiction. However, being a mom of the two precious souls God has presently entrusted me with – comes first (in theory anyway; I can be a selfish mommy who doesn’t always live up to this profound task of raising two children and nurturing two souls for heaven). Not always easy for a Type-Aer like myself.
My husband is a medical resident, so his hours can be bad. Thus, both of our days can be really long. I try to stay awake after my baby’s early morning nursing (between 4 and 6 a.m.) to pray and write over a cup of coffee if time allows. Oftentimes I can’t drag myself out of bed because I’ve been up with the baby or my nocturnal preschooler. And to think I used to be a morning person and never even pulled an all-nighter in college! Sleep is my drug of choice, but I’m a poor junky, always going through withdrawal. I don’t spend much time horizontal these days, but I consider it just one of many sacrifices parenting demands. (I truly believe motherhood and marriage are sanctifying.) Despite my lack of shut-eye, I have boundless energy once I’m up for the day (I stay up far too late; that’s something I have to work on because I know I’d be a better mommy if I went to bed before midnight). I love to do things with the kiddos. We sing and play and act goofy. I homeschool, although my oldest is only 3 so it’s not like we’re following a rigid curriculum or anything. (Admittedly, my Type A tendencies initially sent me into overdrive and I was planning all of these ridiculously elaborate lesson plans based on a wonderful program called Little Saints when I realized this was really, really silly – and exhausting for both my child and me – and our time would be better spent being outside looking at wiggly caterpillars or watching the clouds drift in the sky or inside reading books or pretending we were riding magic ponies.)
We often go on outings – to library story time, to a park, to the zoo or to visit friends or grandparents (we are blessed to live by both sets). We belong to a wonderful Catholic homeschool co-op that meets at least once a month.
We have quiet time in the afternoon (the baby naps in the morning as well). I should spend of my time sans kiddos praying, but I usually end up doing things around the house, clambering away at the keyboard or resting beside my antsy preschooler who hates to be alone EVER. Then I start dinner and we wait for Daddy, if he’ll be home.
I suppose my days, like most SAHMs, are filled with what some would call menial tasks – wiping snotty noses, spreading PB on bread, cajoling preschoolers to go poopy on the potty, nursing babies, folding laundry, baking muffins – but I’ve found that sacramental moments are to be found everywhere. St. Therese of Lisieux wrote that holiness can be achieved in the little things in life. Thank goodness for that! My days can be filled up with a lot of “little things” that add up to a life – and a holy one if I choose to do everything out of love.
Ah, but I digress once again. (Sorry!)
The point is (or at least one of my points in this rambling mess), as I try to reflect upon a “typical day,” I come up short. I can’t even really decide what my favorite part of the day is. I love it when my husband returns home to all of us, not only because I’ve missed him or because I’m ready for reinforcements but because it’s like Christmas morning for the girls. My 3-year-old wants him to call to say he’s almost there so she can wait out in the driveway for him. Today she was in middle of going potty when he called, but this didn’t stop her. She ran out in just her shirt, shouting, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Meanwhile, the baby vibrated with excitement and squealed at the sight of his car. When he approached her, she frantically waved and said, “Hiiiiiiiiiii!” What a reception! (It sometimes makes me want to go away just so I can come back to that; I wonder if that’s how reverts feel when they return to the faith after a lapse.) I love it when we’re all together. I try to wait to feed the girls until my husband’s home so we can all eat together as a family. This isn’t always possible given his hours, but when it does happen, it’s definitely one of the highlights of my day.
The Writer in Me and Some Blatant Self-Promotion: I love to write. (Can you tell?) I’ve been writing in journals since I was 6. I have a whole box brimming with notebooks and journals. I was a journalism major and have been freelancing for a little over 5 years. I’ve recently cut back on some of my paid work, so I can get more sleep and be a better mommy. I have two blogs, both of which I started about one year ago. My main one is KateWicker.blogspot.com where I write about things pertaining to my faith (or sometimes regrettably lack thereof), my mothering, my writing and my life in general. Then I have a blog called Momopoly.blogspot.com that has much of the same content as the other one; however, I sometimes include a few more snapshots of the girls for the grandparents and I don’t focus on my faith quite as much. I have a few books in me, including a few novels, that I’ll write one of these days. For now my fiction is sorely ignored. I can’t do it all, although I’ve often tried to.
Writing is so many things to me – catharsis, entertainment, fun, scary, a source of self-doubt, a source of confidence, energizing, draining, a way to be more open to the Holy Spirit and to deepen my faith, a creative release. Blogging has given me an outlet for writing outside of freelance work, journals, or novel ideas. It’s also given me an opportunity to connect with like-minded moms and to be inspired by their insight and wisdom. You, Jen, have been a leading inspiration. Thank you for sharing your conversion story, your faith, your wisdom. Above all, thank you for your humility and honesty. I believe we are invited to see the presence of God in all things – even in the blogosphere. You make that easy.
Yet another Sarah here . . .seems to be a popular name for my age group! I started reading Et tu? in the summer of 2007, and check it now almost every day. I love this blog in part because it eerily reflects my own thoughts on a lot of topics, like the veil issue or praying in contract terms!
I’m 28 years old, about to graduate law school in three weeks, and getting married on June 14th.
I’m the youngest of five kids in a staunchly Catholic household. I’m from Kentucky, but due to a sad lack of Catholic High Schools in the area that are faithful to the Magisterium, (tons of non-faithful ones) I went to high-school at Seton High School in Manassas, Virginia. It was a fantastic school and really cemented my belief in what I had always known to be true. I graduated from Christendom College (Front Royal, Va) in 2002, and after a few years bartending for a living, (it was fun, also in NoVa) I decided to go to law school (back home, in Louisville, Kentucky). Law School has been challenging, in part because I always feel like I am the “Catholic example,” so whenver I am harsh to people, which happens more than I like to admit, it is generally attributed to my religious beliefs, rather than to me.
I love so many books that to point out one that has influenced me is a toughie, although I particularly enjoyed Love and Responsibility, (we actually read this at Christendom in a Philosophy of Love class) and I also really enjoy reading This Rock magazine which is put out by Catholic Answers.
Since I’m a student, my days are filled primarily with school work, and I also have a very very part-time job as a clerk. Wedding plans also have been taking up some of my time, but I generally manage to save a few hours to spend with my honey!
My blog is http://www.morialives.blogspot.com
I generally blog about stuff at school, pro-life, some politics, but it’s been lacking here lately. It’s at the low end of the totem pole, and I enjoy reading other people’s blogs much more than writing my own!
- I’m Ashley, 23 years old. I’ve been reading your blog off and on since a little before Lent.
- I’m a cradle Catholic from a fairly “conservative” Catholic family (i.e. Birth control is bad, politics and abortion are intertwined, etc). I am still Catholic, albeit a bit more “liberal” now – social justice and Catholic Social Teachings are central to my sense of religion and faith. If my religion does not call me to look outside myself, it is pointless. That said, with my changing philosophical views of my faith, it’s been difficult to maintain my sense of spirituality…to the point of feeling a complete absence of God in my life. (And subsequently getting angry at God, of course
)
- I’m from Ohio. I’ve lived in 2 other countries and Hawaii, though – so I’m pretty much from everywhere.
- The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day. I love that woman.
- I work at an afterschool center with urban youth, so I work on lessons and administrative tasks until around 2, and then I play outside, go on hikes, and hang out with kids. My favorite part of the day is Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30-8. I work with a group of 4th and 5th graders, mostly boys. We share about our day and our week and discuss really important issues – like violence, gangs, and the environment. It’s fascinating to see how these kids grow and how mature they can be. I love them to death.
- My blog is:
ourlittleapartment.blogspot.com
I write about my life, and lots of environmental (aka: “green”) tips and ideas. Check it out!
Hey Jen. I read your blog on a regular basis, and I find it so helpful- I love the variety- spiritual issues, day to day items, family issues. Your journey is really interesting.
I grew up the oldest of 8 kids in a Catholic family. I recieved very solid formation through activites of Opus Dei. When I was 20 I saw God was calling me to be a member of Opus Dei, and I have been struggling to find God in my daily life and work ever since. Most of all, I have been so very happy living my faith.
I grew up in a suburb of San Francisco, California. My husband and I are stationed on the Central Coast of California with the military.
Best book? At the moment, “Marriage- a Path to Sanctity” Read it when engaged. Just re-read it. I need the reminders- going on 4 years of marriage and dealing with my husband’s current deployment to Iraq. Marriage means living and embracing Christ’s Cross. His loveable, wonderful, and sometimes very difficult Cross.
I am home with my one year old daughter. I try to balance daily prayer and daily Mass. Just started incorportaing excercize on a regular basis- joined the Y! I love to cook, also.
Favorite part of the day-
I love it when my daughter wakes up and babbles to herself in her crib, and I just listen.
Another favorite part of the day is a call from my hubby. (I realize all the things I took for granted before. I’d give a lot right now to just go on a walk with him!)
No blog. Just an avid reader of quality blogs.
I had a blog in my head where I talked about “Life” issues- NFP, birth control and abortion- from a natural law perspective….maybe I’ll create that in the future!
hello fellow souls. I am aged 61, male, divorced, and have made a decision to have faith. After looking into other denominations and other religions, the only place I want to be, in the Catholic Church.
Currently I also want to be free of alcohol and drugs.
Gosh — what a readership you have!
My name is Susanne, and I found you through your posting on the Catholic Spitfire Grill Yahoo Group. I come from a non-churched home — moral, believed in God, but no practice. Became a Christian at age 8 through Mormon neighbors taking me to their church. Attended an evangelical college, married an evangelical, attended a Catholic grad school, taught at both the Catholic and the evangelical universities. Married in a Disciples of Christ Church, attended a Presbyterian Church for many years while dh remained burned-out on church. Then we found an evangelical church that we’ve been at for 15 years. We have four kids — dd16, ds13, ds10, ds8, and we have homeschooled all the way except for one year when I was very ill.
I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue symdrome, Addison’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. I’m on prescription painkillers to function daily.
I began to be interested in the Catholic Church when a friend on the SL forums converted. I started reading some books she recommended and became interested, too. Then my husband FREAKED. However, he does allow me to attend an Anglican Church (APA — very conservative) on weekdays which I have been doing for nearly four years.
God has “told” me that I’ll become Catholic — and so will my husband — but to just wait and He’ll take care of it. So I wait.
Book with greatest impact: Evangelical Is Not Enough by Howard
I live in eastern San Diego County, in a small mountain town.
Daily life: Homeschool four kids and also teach writing at co-op (high school college prep and honors classes), online, and co-taught a community-college class. Starting to teach a Shakespeare class with bravewriter.com on Monday. Write as much as I can otherwise: journal, blog, poetry, and nonfiction — working on a book on liturgical worship written to evangelicals that stemmed from a contemplative retreat I led a few years ago. Just don’t have much time to write it, though….
I’ve been blogging for nearly two years at http://www.meditativemeanderings.blogspot.com — come and see!
Hi, I’m chaik. I’m 32 years old, have a BA in English and History, and homeschool my two kids.
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
My whole extended family, discluding my mother and one uncle, are Catholic. My mother was an evangelical when I was small and so I grew up with an odd mix of evangelicalism and Catholicism.
I considered myself Catholic, even though I was not practicing. The birth of my first son caused me to doubt, not God’s presence, but his ways. I wondered how a loving and just God could let real-life nightmares happen. This led me on a search and I ended up a very devout Catholic. This in turn led me to Orthodoxy, and my family converted in 2005.
I’m originally from one of the eastern states, lived in MN for a time, and am now back in my homestate, living in a very rural area…which I am slowly coming to terms with.
I’m a true bibliophile and it would be really hard to pare down which books have had the greatest impact on my life. From childhood, the Chronicles of Narnia and the Emily series by L.M. Montgomery. I find it harder to choose somthing from adulthood because so many books have had a huge impact on me. One would definitely be The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware. Another isn’t a book, but the living “books” of my children, urging me on to become a better person.
Wow, this is really dry, and not much like my real personality! I just learned about your blog today from a forum I frequent, and find it very interesting. I’ve never been an atheist and it is extremely educational to read about someone who comes from such a distinctly different way of life than I have had. Thanks!
Hi, I’m Doug.
1)
I was raised a Catholic. After my father died (at age 11) I began to doubt Christianity. By age 13 I was a nonreligious evil person. I stayed that way for 6 years. At 19 I experienced a life threating illness that led to being bedridden for 8 months. During that time I read the Bible along with anything else. A Lutheran priest happened to be a neighbor and he would come and sit with me while my mother worked. I became a Christian during that time.
2
I’m from Maryland but I’ve lived in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.
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Christ and the Media
4
I wake up and pray each morning. I sometimes read the Bible. I’m a graduate student so it varies from there. I usually check the computer and get to work going to class or working on my thesis. I spend dinner with my wife and we clean up the dishes together. I check the computer again. I lay down and read when it’s bed time. When I’m about to fall asleep I repent of my sins for the day.
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http://boundedirrationality.blogspot.com
About 2/3 Christian topics and 1/3 personal or economic topics.
I am what you would call a “cradle catholic”, also the experience is a little different in Portugal. We are all Catholic, I couldn’t understand the difference between catholic and christian until my twenties, the 2 words were synonyms to me.
I started deepening my faith by the age of 20, and after graduation from college, I have spent a year in Rome, at the Emmanuel School of Mission, a 1-year course for lay missionaries.
Have been struggling with living the faith in daily life ever since!
I’m from Portugal, from a small city called Fatima. Yes, that Fatima! The apparition took place about half a mile from my parents’ place.
I am a book addict, so it is very difficult to name just one. At the time of my deepening faith, it was important for me the 3-volume “Life and Mistery of Jesus of Nazareth” by the spanish writer “José Luiz Martin Descalzo”.
My daily life right now is a nightmare, since I am having 3 jobs: I work for chain of shoestores, being the head of office; I teach in the Mathematics Department of the Instituto Politecnico de Leiria, and I also give private classes of Mathematics . I leave to you to imagine the mess.
I have a blog, but I haven’t posted in a while, and probably won’t until the end of June (when I will return to the sane status of having only one job).
http://www.soultransplants.blogspot.com/
Hi! I’m Sue and I’m forty six and not used to posting on blogs, so I hope this will all work!
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
From a non religious family, I was an obedient youngster who changed into a definite flower child and married another free thinking hippy and we had a wonderful baby son.
I had fertility problems and it took ten years before we had another child, during which I had done a fair bit of vague praying ( relicts of my Catholic prep school) I was so overjoyed at having a second child, I wanted to thank this God who figured somewhere in my life and might have been the reason for adding to my family,so I wandered into the local evangelical Protestant church, and hated it, it was judgemental and felt unloving to me.
An old school friend I met suggested sarcastically that I would make a good Quaker….and I decided to follow through on that.
So I visited the Society of Friends, who are a great bunch of people, but I wasn’t at all sure that God was there. I got an invite to a local evangelical Baptist church, I visited and stayed a year and took my two youngest children to Sunday school ( yup by now I had three children :0 ) ). I always felt though ,a fake, I loved the minister and an old school friend was there, but I was I thought going through the motions compared to the rest of the congregation and felt beset with doubts about whatever this faith was I felt compelled to seek.
The crunch for me came when I fell ill in the autumn of last year. I had to have many tests etc etc and whatever my faith was didn’t seem to stand up to this. I couldn’t get to church and allowed myself to feel hurt that no-one phoned to see how I was, I craved my old Quaker friends and went back to see them. And that is where I was until last Sunday when for some reason or other, I walked into the big Catholic church up the road from my house….and now I am confused.
You see both Quakers and Baptists left me feeling anxious and not up to scratch. The Catholic service I went to yesterday was disorganised, very laid back and why all the incense? But here is the weird thing I came out of that service and felt at peace, now was that a gift from God???
I have no desire to throw myself into Catholicism, I have never managed to read the Bible cover to cover, and the number of bad things I have read about Catholic priests , well I expect you have read them all yourself!
So that is where I am, a confused and searching attender at Quaker Meetings standing on the edge of the Catholic church LOL
Apologies because you did say tell me a little about your spirtual journey but I have probably told you far more than you could want to know!
Where are you from?
I live in Norwich, Norfok which is in the far eastern part of the UK. The only big city in a largely agricultural county.
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
Eek, well Lord of the Rings was my constant teenage escape fantasy, Skallagrig by William Horwood has a special place in my heart as the mother of a special needs child, and The Lord Peter Wimsey series my Dorothy L Sayers were my total romantic guide as a young woman, still love them today.
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
I’m a stay at home mother, so most days are general domesticity with the highlights of vegetable gardening , computer breaks and driving lesssons ( I’m learning to drive late in life!)
My favourite part of each day is evening meal time, when my husband comes home from work and we all get together round the table.
If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
No no blog, but I think I have written enough here to almost start one…………
Hi there. This is such a good idea!
I was raised in a Christian family. My mum and step-dad are evangelical Baptists. My dad and step-mum are Church of Scotland Presbyterian,and pretty liberal. Made me a bit confused at times! I now go to a baptist church, but I avoid the label ‘evangelical’. I love the Lord.
I live just outside London, in the UK.
The book would be The Cross of Christ by John Stott. It explained so much to me about why Christ died for us and what this acheived.
Daily life. I work in Admin at my old university in London. I get up, eat, wash, get on the train, gaze out of the window, work all day (with a fair amount of blogging besides), get back on train, gaze out of the window, get home,cuddle my lovely hubby, eat, cuddle some more, sleep, and start the routine again the next day. My favourite part of the day is when I cuddle my hubby. I also enjoy the gazing out of the window whilst on the train, this allows my mind to roam free and contemplate.
My blog is http://razzler.wordpress.com
I ramble. I talk about faith issues, observations in society, little things that get me excited… My blog is called Random Musings.
HI! I have had an absolutely wonderful evening reading all sorts of posts from your blog. You hit the nail on the head so many times! Thanks for a little peek into your blogging world and the thoughts God has laid on your heart.
1 – I was raised in a Christain home and have never known a time that God was not a part of my life.
2 – MD…but can’t determine where you are from on your blog
3 – Improving your Serve by Chuck Swindol and Finding God by Larry Crabb
4 – I am an at home mom of 3 little ones (5, 3 and 1) and my typical day is anything buy typcial. Most days, I crave my one hour of afternoon rest time…if I can get it!
5 – http://www.notbefore7.com I write about motherhood, my kids, my faith, and currently some home improvement because we are remodelin a foreclosure.
Love this “introduce yourself idea” – can I borrow it for my blog – I’ll give you credit for it!
I’ll be back!
Hello, my name is Kelly and I am 32 years old. I am a stay at home mom to four children. I have been married for 11 years. We live in a suburb of Southeast Michigan.
I grew up Catholic, did the catholic school thing, but my family did not live a “Catholic” life. They gave me my faith in God, but I really had no direction of what path would be the best for me. My husband grew up the same way.
After we got married, we were what you would consider fallen away Catholics. We never went to Church, but we knew that being catholic was the true way to be. (We were young and foolish lol)
After we had our first daughter, we realized that it was important for her to be close to God. This meant really living as Catholics. This was a scary thought for two wild and crazy kids like us.
It was scary but we did it. We started by making a commitment to go to Church every Sunday. Then went to confession, and I made my confirmation.
My husband decided to really study the Catholic faith. I think in hopes of proving it wrong in a way. He never did.
We have now been living as a Catholic family for 6 years. I can not believe the changes it has brought us. I think I will have to put the whole story on my blog.
I love your writing and look forward to reading it.
You can find me here…
http://soulpockets.blogspot.com/
I’m Shannon. 36 years old. I have been a christian since I can remember, but lately have put many things before God. Materialism. Selfishness. Pride. Vanity.
Those things fueled me for awhile, but not so much these days. I try and connect with God, but feel such a void and sadness. And loneliness.
But, I know that God is faithful-and that this is only for a season. I will continue to seek Him.
I’m from Kentucky and now living in Indiana.
One book that has touched my life is the revised edition of “Streams In The Dessert”. I find this book to be very encouraging.
I am a stay at home mom- during the school year I work at a local school for 10 hours a week while my youngest goes to preschool. He is entering kindergarten this Fall. I’m not sure what I will do while both boys are at school. That will be sad.
I love your blog. Some of the things you have written have encouraged me. In some ways we struggle with similar issues.
My blog is shannonofthewoods.blogspot.com
Just wanted to drop in and say that I’m still reading (and loving) every single one of these!
I’m Catholic, raised by a Catholic mother and an agnostic father (although they divorced when I was 13). My husband is LDS, somehow we make it work.
I’m from Littleton, CO. I think the book that has recently had the most impact on me was The Choice, written by Og Mandino. I work full time and then care for my husband and toddler son. The best part of my day? Picking up my son and spending time with my family! No blog, but I love reading them!
Hi – new reader! Just found your blog through Like Merchant Ships
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I grew up in a Southern Baptist home and in college felt God was calling me to the Catholic Church. I hesitated for many years but the urging persisted. On Easter Vigil 2004, I was baptised and joined the Church. I’ve always said grewing up Baptist gave me a strong foundation but I found the completion of my faith in the Catholic Church. Now several years out from my entrance into the Church, I feel as if I’ve drifted away. I still feel strongly that God called my to the Church but the fire has gone so to speak.
Where are you from?
North Carolina
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
Night by Eli Wiesel
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
I’m a married, working mother of three children ages 5, 3 and 1. And we pray that we’ll be blessed with a few more in the future. My mother also lives with us and watches the children during the day. My day is spent at the office working as the Operations Manager for a financial reporting company. My favorite part of the day is returning home to be with the kids. Making dinner, getting things ready for Daddy to come home and my homecaring routines.
If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
I have a very new blog – Living On Love
http://carolinamomma.blogspot.com/
It’s about frugal living, couponing, our journey to becoming debt free and balancing home and work.
Hi Jennifer, great blog!
To share my story:
My own blog explains in more detail my story but I’ll summarize it here. I was raised Catholic, attended Catholic schools and a Catholic university. In 1980, I transferred to the University of Cincinnati where I joined InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Suddenly I wasn’t too keen on my Catholic faith and left the church to join a Protestant church. I soon left that for a large non-denomination church. For 18 years, I was heavily involved with church and ministry. Just a few months ago, after fighting it for a year, I returned to the Catholic church and have found a new joy. God amazes me!
I’m originally from Cincinnati but after I married, I moved to another Ohio city, not too far away.
The one book that had the greatest impact on my life was Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliott. It made me realize I needed to trust God entirely when it came to my love life and desire to marry. Excellent book.
Typical day: Up by 6:00 AM. Check email, news, blogs. Listen to Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s “Life is Worth Living” radio show from 7:00 – 7:30 AM. At 7:30, I pray the Rosary with Mother Angelica and her sisters (through the same radio station.) Eat breakfast. Go to work if I’m scheduled for that day or stay home and work on writing and my other side businesses.
I started a blog a little over two months ago to chronicle my journey back to the Catholic church. (I added you to my ever-growing blogroll, too.)
True Confessions of a Prodigal Daughter
Thank you for this opportunity to get to know others on the blog. I may swipe the idea, myself!
Hey! Been reading your blog for about a month now . . . I think that the Thinklings linked to one of your things which is . . . ah, never mind.
1. Been a Christian my entire life. I don’t remember any sort of “conversion” experience. I had a great church and a great father who explained the truth well–and by the time I was old enough to run into the concept of “asking Jesus into my heart” (at what? six, seven?) I knew that I already knew Jesus. I was sent through Christian schooling K-12, which was a great gift. Theologically, I’m a moderate to conservative evangelical Reformed/Presbyterian pastor’s wife. I think I’ve matured in my beliefs, but I’ve never found anything better to build on that what I was given.
2. Indiana, via Colorado, Northwest WA, Vancouver,BC, and Michigan
3. Take your pick of the fantasy genre. Tolkien, Narnia, anything by Robin McKinley, Bujold’s Chalion Books, Gaiman’s Neverwhere
4. I’m a SAHM with 3 girls, 7,4, and 2. This summer my goals are getting my kids through swim lessons and thoroughly waterproofed, getting myself in better shape, and making more time to write on long term projects. Along with the laundry, housework, cooking, story-reading . . .
5. http://www.coffeerandoms.blogspot.com I blog about whatever occurs to me. It’s a useful way to purge whatever my brain is obsessing about so I can clear concious thought space to move onto the next thing.
Hi– I found your blog by clicking on a link in Spiritdaily.com. I love your insights.
1. Spiritual journey: My parents are good, decent people (Methodist and Lutheran) who never really had any interest in going to church. I joined a Baptist church at age 11. In 1990 my husband and I were received into the Catholic Church in order to be able to receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. Interestingly, several years prior to that we had adopted the use of Natural Family Planning…not for spiritual reasons but more for hippy, ecological, earth-mother reasons. I’m glad we did. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have been able to join the Catholic Church without accepting all its teachings, and that was one roadblock that was already out of the way. A number of years after that my husband was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder and is deteriorating physically as well as mentally. In 2003 I was at the point where I realized that he would no longer be able to be at home alone so I took training to be a medical transcriptionist in order to work out of my home. That’s what I do now. Our faith is a great consolation and gives meaning to our suffering.
2. Where are you from? Southern California born and bred. I sometimes think about moving elsewhere, but the idea of tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes makes me nervous…and I fervently hope never to find out what the words “lake effect” mean.
3. Books: C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, stories about converts to the Church, articles on the Church Fathers.
4. Daily life: I get up, eat breakfast and read the newspaper (starting with the comics) while having my coffee. That’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Give the dog his pill, Check on my husband and help him with his needs. Start work at 8 a.m. (at my desk at home). Lunch at approximately noon, give dog his pill, take care of husband (youngest son usually actually gets him out of bed and feeds him and keeps him entertained–I take care of his personal needs and pills). Work the rest of the afternoon. Get off work at 5. Dinner. Gym 4 times a week. Current projects are eating 5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day, and I’m planning to buy a bicycle so I can exercise on my way to Wal-Mart.
5. Blogs: Nothing profound. It’s my mission in life to point out when two or more comics hit on the same theme on the same day. I also blog about my efforts to teach myself portrait painting by painting the portraits of famous people (because they don’t know me and therefore can’t complain).
http://attheapocalypse.blogspot.com/
http://suzartblog.blogspot.com/
Thank you to everyone who’s introduced themselves recently!
Mina – please feel free to email me if you’d like to chat about your journey some more. I know how difficult that can be to be exploring faith when you’re in an environment that’s not super supportive.
Thanks again, everyone!
Hi,
I’m Catherine – I just found your blog off a link on another blog and am finding it very interesting. I am always so interested in conversion stories and as a mother of 5 young children i am loving reading all your posts.
I was raised Catholic and I never lost my faith but did not live it for a number of years. Thankfully I had returned to mass and the sacraments shortly before getting married. My husband and I have been married for 11 years this summer and have 5 awesome kids between 8 months and 10 years old.
I am from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. My husband is from Espanola, Ontario. We live in Regina now.
One book that had a great impact on me is “The Life of Christ” by Fulton Sheen.
I am a mom of 5 kids so my days consist of taking care of them and bringing them around to various activities etc.. I will be going back to work half-time when my baby turns one so am working towards being able to homelife and work when that time comes. I like having breakfast with all the kids when they first get up. It is one of my favourite times of the day.
I have a blog which I started mostly to share pictures, recent events with our out-of-town relatives. It is not updated terribly often and as I am not much of a writer it is basically just pictures and descriptions the pictures. I have been trying to decide if I should devote more time to it and review what my purpose for the blog is. It is at http://www.pattersonsprogeny.blogspot.com
Comment number 145
Been reading through most of the introductions on and off, and checking out people’s blogs.
I’m Suz, I’m 22 and am probably the only Indian here.
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I was brought up a Catholic, belong to a Catholic charismatic covenant community. Although most Catholics I know are not very enthusiastic or knowledgeable about their faith, my parents are very and I guess I caught it from them. My mum’s a catechist, and my dad worked in our parish office as an administrator for about 20 years. So anyway, I love my faith, I am very aware that I don’t know enough about it. I want to read more good Catholic books… unfortunately our only Catholic bookstore- St. Paul’s- hardly has anything good. Most of the shelves are taken by Joyce Meyers and Paulo Coelho!
Where are you from?
Pune, India
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
Um… Rome Sweet Home- made me look at Catholicism with new eyes. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Go, You are Sent by Genie Summers. He and I by Gabrielle Bossis.
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
Well, at the moment I am an instructional designer in an e learning company, and spend most of my free time blog-surfing. I especially love all the cute Mama blogs
I would love to have a large family someday. My lazy days are at end though- I’m leaving this job and going to teach in a small village school in two weeks… please pray for me! I also have felt the call to be a lay Catholic missionary… that might happen in a year. If God wills it.
If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
It’s called HREF=”http://soozywoozy.blogspot.com/”>One of Five, and it’s mostly random memories, observations, etc… I like to think I’m amusing
Please visit!
Sorry… this is what I meant-
One of Five
(Darn html!)
Hi. I’m Reen, 42 years old and a fairly new reader…1st read HOw I became pro-life a while back and just recently delved further into your blog—and am really enjoying it.I’m a cradle Catholic who wandered far but eventually found my way back home. The example of my Mom, a woman of quiet faith who faced daunting hardships (widowed at 42 with 10 children ages 1-16) but never complained or offered a harsh word for others drew me back. She has a peace about her that I wanted and had looked for in many sundry places. When I finally took her advice and prayed for the peace she has I was given that and so much more.I’m from upstate NY and now live in CT with my husband and two children – a boy, 21 months, adopted after several years of infertility and navigating the foster and private adoption systems and a daughter, 8 months, our home-grown surprise blessing. We’d be thrilled if God brings more children into our lives.The Screwtape Letters is one of my favorite books and one that I give to our God-children when they become teens and gave to my niece who I had the honor of sponsoring for Confirmation. It has such a powerful way of revealing the devil and his mechinations.My daily life is dictated by my kids as I’m a stay-at-home Mom. HUgs & kisses, dirty diapers, walks, meals, laundry and lots of love and prayer. Days that my husband can come home for lunch are the best and I love hanging out with him while the kids play in the yard or sleep.No blog for me…too complicated for this barely computer literate girl.
My name is Dave. I’m 57 years old and I teach Religion in a Catholic High School in Toledo, OH. I was born in Toledo, born and raised Catholic, and have been teaching Religion at this high school for 30 years. Sounds boring, I know, but it has been nothing of the sort.
I teach a course on Catholic doctrine for seniors, so I am dealing with the questions they have about God and religion all the time — the same questions that you and your commentors are dealing with. I am really impressed with the way you treat these spiritual issues as you share your own story of personal search. I plan to use your blog in class to provoke discussion and — I hope — stimulate insight. The students need to put the spiritual questions into a storytelling context for them to make sense. They do not engage the questions if they are left in the abstract; that’s just the way they think. Last year I used the Joan of Arcadia TV series that came out on DVD to get the kids to see real life ordinary individuals wrestling with spiritual questions in everyday life. It worked well enough to keep them talking to me all year long [in spite of Senioritis!], which was great. I think that your blog will add to the effectiveness of that. So, Thank You Very Much, Jen. I am looking forward to reading your blog regularly. And perhaps you’ll be getting comments from lots of Toledo teens come next school year!
My own spiritual journey was different than yours. As a “cradle Catholic” with practicing parents, my faith has always been a big part of my life and was my parents’ greatest gift to me. But it was not without struggle. I remember questioning and wrestling with it since I made my First Communion at eight years of age. At that age I developed a test for myself: “If I really believed this, what would I do?” Then I did that. [Well, I tried to do that; I'm not perfect and not quite a saint yet.] It wasn’t long before I started to get the experience that convinced me that it was real. So I have kept on.
Eventually I spent eight years in the seminary [high school and college], did a year of graduate work at Vanderbilt, and started teaching. I met my wife in our home parish as we were both playing in the “folk group.” We have been married 30 years and have three great children.
I have studied other religions along the way, but I have always found the fullest picture of the truth in Catholicism. For me, it is the only one that passes the test of reason and experience.
Favorite books that have been important in my journey are: The Documents of Vatican II; “The Challenge of Jesus” by John Shea; “The Bible and Us” by Jacob Neusner and Andrew Greeley; and “Attitudes of Gratitude” by M.J. Ryan.
Again, Thank You, Jen for your honest and sincere sharing. God bless you and your family as you grow.
Enjoy the Dance!
Hi Jen! I’m Shelly W. I’m a new reader, but have thoroughly enjoyed your blog. I love your intellectual approach to faith.
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I grew up in the Lutheran church, but it felt dull and dead to me. I found Christ there, though, so it wasn’t all bad, I guess. I’m forever grateful for parents who had faith. Strange to say, but the real strengthening of my faith came through the death of my brother when I was eleven years old. As a teenager, reflecting on the loss of my brother, I came to realize just how much God sacrificed when He gave up His Son for me. That truth changed everything. I attended a Christian college, which I loved (Christian college is not right for everyone, but it was great for me). I now attend a very traditional non-denominational church.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised on a farm in a small town in Illinois. Oh, how I hated that! I was always a city girl just waiting to excape country life. Now I live outside of Chicago and love it (although I’d love to live someplace warmer).
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
East of Eden by Steinbeck
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
It depends on whether the kids are in school or not. When they are in school a typical day is filled with just getting them there and picking them up. Last year I had three kids in three different schools. One left at 7, one at 8, and one at 9. The first came home at 2, the second at 3, the third at 3:30. Whew! I was exhausted just from all the running. In between 9 and 2 I would try to run errands, figure out dinner, and attend a Bible study (once a week).
In the summer, our days are much slower, and I love it. I usually still get up early (just used to it, I guess). I try to read my Bible for a few minutes, spend some time praying, and have coffee and read the newspaper–all while the kids are still asleep. I have been trying to work out a few times a week this summer, too. So my favorite time of day is the early morning, when the house is quiet, before the kids get up.
If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
I just started blogging . . . just because I feel this “calling” to write. I don’t know where it will lead.
I write about our family, mostly, and stuff I’m interested in or think about.
http://www.mylifeonthewildside.blogspot.com/
De-lurking to say that I’ve added you to my blogroll. If that’s not OK, just leave me a comment.
Hi. I’m Mike. I stumbled onto your abortion-themed article on the American Magazine site. I think I read it like, three times, and I passed it along to the people I felt comfortable passing it along to…which wasn’t too many people. (Sorry! Touchy subject, ya’ know?) Through that, I found your blog. I’ve been working my way through the archives for the past couple of weeks. It is now a daily stop for me.
-Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
I was raised Catholic by two loving parents who made sure we went to Church every week as a family, and who sent me to Catholic grammar and high schools even though we lived in one of the best public school systems in the state. While I was in high school, my father became a deacon. See? I wasn’t kidding!
I have always believed in God, and everything my Catholic upbringing instilled in me. But I rarely acted on these beliefs, especially during my college years and early 20s, when I was as far as a person who claims to believe in God could possibly be. Slowly but surely, over the past five years or so — through marriage and prayer and self-reflection — I have been working my way back towards God. This journey has seemed to pick up speed over the past few months, as I find myself trying harder and harder to please God, and to leave the ease of casual sin behind.
My wife is also Catholic, and a great, great person. Both of us have struggled mightily with Church teachings — her more so than I, probably — especially the stance on homosexuality (I read your thoughts on the matter here), the absence of women priests (has yet to be explained adequately to us — how do you feel?), and compromising the abuse of children, and the corruption of the Church from a historical standpoint as it related to political issues.
Through your blog, actually, I’ve been able to rethink my views on many matters I’ve had difficulty with. I guess, right now, spiritually, I’m in the process of finding out more about what it is, exactly, I believe in. I’m re-learning, I guess. This has — as I know it has for you — done more to solidify my faith than anything else.
Where are you from?
I am from New Jersey. My wife and I moved to Peoria, AZ just over a year ago. We love it here. Although, I am also familiar with scorpions. Not cool.
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
I mentioned that my journey has picked up recently, and that is in large part to focusing on literature — your blog, for instance — that challenges me in a meaningful way. (Thus balancing out my sports-junky-ism and our unhealthy obsession with reality TV. I know, I know.) That said, I just finished reading Thomas Merton’s “The Seven Story Mountain.” I wish I could have grasped all of it, but what I did get out of it was amazing…
· Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
Wake up. Take dog out. Go to gym. Go to work. Come home. Put on Yankee game. Play with dog. Go to sleep.
Sounds exciting, huh? My favorite part of each day is getting home and seeing my wife and playing with our dog and being in our backyard as the Arizona sun is setting. I also love every second of the weekend.
· If you have a blog, feel free to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion: what’s your URL? What do you write about?
Well, okay then! It’s:
https://www.mikekenny.blogspot.com
My blog has about as little to do with the spiritual life as any blog previously mentioned in these comments. It’s sports-related, mostly. I’m kind of, sort of, a humor writer. I make fun of old baseball cards.
To recap my spiritual journey: My dad is a deacon, and I make fun of old baseball card.
I’m still trying.
Hi, I’m Myron. 28 years old. Completely new to this blog (found it yesterday by searching for a piece of a David Usher song containing the word “Atheist”). I really like how it seems very thoughtful, and the topics covered are ones I like to ponder. I’ve posted a few comments, and hopefully will become part of some interesting conversations.
Tell me a little bit about your own spiritual journey: what were your religious beliefs when you were younger? What are your religious beliefs now (if different)?
My parents were Christian (United, I think) and I went to church on-and-off during early childhood. But my experiences in childhood made me think carefully about what my belief system should be, and it didn’t seem to me that Christianity (or religion in general) valued careful, challenging questioning in the same way I did. I’ve stuck with my atheistic (well, not technically, as I do think there’s probably a creator/creative force that set the laws of physics and by extension the sense we have of right and wrong. But I don’t think any organized religion has it right. I don’t think humanity is important in the “big picture” or I’m particularly important to any divine being. But on the other hand, living a moral life does seem to be very important to me, as the consequences of our actions are about the only things that last longer than our short-lived consciousness). The basic framework for how I think about the world was set at about age 6-6, and has been refined but not fundamentally altered on an ongoing basis since then.
Where are you from?
My family is from Newfoundland, Canada, but I’ve lived all across the country.
What is one book* that has had a great impact on your life (other than the Bible)?
This is one from my distant early childhood. I can’t even remember the title, but the title of the series, I think, was “my teacher is an alien”. The basic theme I remember from this series was that humanity was being judged by a group of other intelligent life in the universe, and found wanting. There was a lot of talk about how we have great potential, but at every turn greed, self-interest and plain doing things that don’t make logical sense were causing us to be a harmful force. It impressed on me the idea that each and every one of us takes from the system, just by living and breathing in oxygen and eating plants and animals. And so, if you’re not prepared to do what you can to contribute to the system, the moral imperative would require you to remove yourself so you’re at least not a burden. So a lot of my childhood was spent figuring out how things work, and how I can best contribute. Nobody has yet managed to convince me that “by being religious” is the answer to that question, but I’m always open to suggestions.
Tell me a little bit about your daily life: what is a typical day like for you? What’s your favorite part of each day?
I’m a programmer, and an analytical thinker. About 80% of my day goes to just maintenance, eating, sleeping, working, and whatnot. My favorite part of that is when I can come up with an elegant solution to a tricky programming problem, or build something for someone that helps them to do their job significantly better/easier. Other than that, my favorite times are when I encounter some truly thoughtful ideas. So I think I’m going to like this blog
Myron-
I read “My Teacher is an Alien,” too! I didn’t get what you got out of it, though. It might have been because I read it a little later in life–it was a book my brother bought when he was young and I just picked it up and thumbed through it while in high school.