Why I Love being Catholic

It's all about truth. It's not truth camouflaged by what our culture currently believes. It's truth passed down through the ages from one generation to another. But something happened in the 60s when truth became watered down and many truly believed that the Catholic Church would eventually change their position on certain truths. Those truths concerned the body and sexuality. I married in 1968 and bought every lie our culture propagated and yet continued to go to Sunday Mass and receive Jesus. Why did I go to Mass? Because I felt required to do so. I know now that I never truly believed in the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in this truly awesome Sacrament. What blessings I was missing as I began to make decisions about marriage and family. And now 44 years later, I see in retrospect all that I missed. But I have also discovered in the process God's great mercy.

My greatest sin today is envy and jealousy as I follow blogs of young Catholics, married and single folks, who follow faithfully the teachings of the Catholic Church as I never did as a young mother. I also envy their ability to communicate in a way that was not available to me as a young mother. As I read their stories, I can't help but think how awesome the moms and dads are in their dedication to their children and their faith. In their blogs, they speak honestly and openly about their joys and sorrows, worries and concerns about being open to life and following the teachings of the faith.

On October 11, 2012, we began celebrating the Year of the Faith  and will finish up the year on November 24, 2013. These bloggers are some of this year's greatest evangelizers and they can suffer greatly from the responses in their comboxes. I hope you will enjoy them and share positive responses to the sacrifices and struggles, joys and deliriously funny happenings in their lives. I'd like to share with you some of these unseen heroes of the faith.

Calah Anderson, Barefoot and Pregnant, hit it right when she recently wrote about how wrong it is to respond to the tragedy in Newtown, CT with "because it proves that you were right all along about a law to ban prayer in schools." We do not need God in our schools as much as we need Him in our Hearts. Anyone who spends even a small portion of their day in prayer knows this.

Jennifer Fulweiler, Conversion Diary, speaks about becoming Catholic after spending most of her life as an Atheist. Her reality TV show, Minor Revisions, debuted on December 13, 2012. You can watch the first show on YouTube. Or get more information about the show by going here. Jennifer and her husband are surrounded by life!!

Elizabeth Scalia, The Anchoress, tells it like it is. She is a font of information! If I want to know what is going on in the world with a Catholic view to the story, I read it on her blog. Elizabeth is a Benedictine Oblate and the Managing Editor of the Catholic Portal at Patheos, which information I took from her website. Sometimes I wonder if she ever sleeps.

Joanne K. McPortland, Egregious Twaddle, is another favorite. She's honest and funny and shares the truth about her life, whether it's good or bad. Joanne reminds me that we are all human and suffer from that original sin that our first parents so kindly passed on to us. But in doing so, they opened the doors to Jesus and God's great mercy. How blessed we are to believe!!

And there are so many other bloggers that I can mention here, such as Danielle Bean (who is now doing a million other things since I first discovered her blog some years ago and raising 8 children), Rachel Balducci at Testosterhome, Matthew Archibold at Creative Minority Report, Mark Shea at Catholic and Enjoying It!, Lauren at Sipping Lemonade, and Matthew Warner at Fallible Blogma. So many and so many more not mentioned here. Follow them; Enjoy; Return to the faith; Renew your faith; or just enjoy the community of believers!

To end this blog, I want to share part of a story in today's local newspaper about the tragedy in Newtown, CT. This one heartbroken dad who responded to the loss of his daughter with love and forgiveness. His words will reverberate around the globe. Life is all about love!

Robbie Parker, father of 6-year-old shooting victim Emilie, spoke to the public last night about his daughter and the lives she touched in her short time. When her friends were feeling sad, he said, Emilie reached for the markers and colored pencils that she almost always carried. “She never missed an opportunity to draw a picture or make a card for those around her,” Parker said. “I can’t count the number times Emilie … rushed to grab a piece of paper to draw them a picture or write them a note.” The 30-year-old father took deep, steadying breaths and fought back tears last night as he described his 6-year-old daughter. She had big blue eyes, lots of white-blond hair and a dusting of freckles across her nose. “Her laughter was infectious,” Parker said. “All those who had the pleasure to meet her would agree that this world has been a better place because she has been in it.” She loved art. She loved trying new things — except for food. But above all, she loved her 3- and 4-year-old sisters, Parker said. She taught them to dance, to read and to do crafts. “They looked up to her,” Parker said. “It would be really sweet to see the times when one of them would fall or one of them would have their feelings hurt and would run to Emilie to get their support and hugs and kisses.” He paused to send a blessing to the family of the gunman Adam Lanza. “I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you,” Parker said. “I want you to know that our family and our love and our support goes out to you as well.”

God bless all and Merry Christmas to all!!