Recently, I ran across this hilarious exchange over on the Book of Face:
It reminded me of my dear friend, Sherry Weddell in a weird way.
Sherry and I entered the Catholic Church at the same Mass on December 20, 1987. We had already been studying the Faith on our own with a small group of others, having had a number of terrible experiences with RCIA in mid-80s Seattle.
Sherry, like the zealous student of THE SILMARILLION above, is incredibly intelligent and when she starts researching something she goes to the mat to understand it, particularly when it relates to God, who is the core of her being. So her pursuit of Christ in the Catholic communion was especially in-depth and intense and she could not be put off by low quality catechesis in sundry parishes.
Eventually, we approached Sacred Heart parish (in the shadow of the Space Needle) to see about the possibility of entering the Church. The priest, naturally, wanted to know more about these two weirdos, so we had some conversations with him. I suspect he was used to dealing with stuff like “How do you make the Sign of the Cross?” or “What’s a Rosary?” I could be wrong.
But I’m not wrong to say he was surprised by Sherry’s level of intensity and intellectual engagement with the Faith. Sherry went to Mass there one morning in the late fall of 1987, loaded for bear with the pile of books and Catechisms she was reading at the time. After Mass, this focused, smart, well-read, and fiercely committed woman walked up to the priest greeting departing parishioners and said, “Father, can you describe for me the distinction between the Ordinary and Extraordinary Magisterium?”
He blinked a couple of times and said, “Yeeeeahhh, you’re probably about ready to enter the Church.”
And now, here we are: 36 years later. Happy Anniversary, friend! What a long, strange trip it’s been, thanks be to God through Christ our Lord!
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2 Responses
Great story – thanks for sharing. Reminds me of my father, raised Methodist in the 20s and 30s – he argued so much with the priest during “instructions” before he married my mother that the priest called my grandmother and urged her to talk my mom out of the marriage (guess he didn’t know both my grandmother’s husbands were Protestant…) – 10 years later, in his own time and after his own research, my dad received his First Communion with one of my older sisters, and went on retreats, collected for Catholic Charities, attended novenas, prayed the Rosary the rest of his life – conversion is often a long game, especially for people who question a lot and are always turning things over in their mind until they are satisfied.
Sweet. Weird ride indeed.
I have six of my kids with me for the holidays. It is such a pleasure to see so many loved ones in one spot. The house is literally warmer. Our #6 is a bit of a brainiac that is studying engineering and philosophy. I almost think he is too fascinated with Catholicism. A few of us were in the living room when he came down the stairs and announced to me that despite having a wonderful childhood, he was disappointed with us for not warning him sufficiently about the dangers of Pelagianism. Two of his older siblings burst out laughing. What could I do but laugh, apologize, and ask him to remind me what Pelagianism is.