Twenty seven years already!

+JMJ+ Happy Easter Monday in the Octave of Easter! (I love that, as a Catholic, I get to say Happy Easter all week long and maybe even longer cuz it’s a season, not a day or even a week, ya know.) This post includes a repost from a few Easters ago the week of my 13th year anniversary. It’s been 27, not 13, years since I was received into Holy Church. It’s been a sometimes wild and bumpy ride but I wouldn’t trade it for all the money and power in the world, two things which I rather conspicuously lack. Ah, but I’m not complaining. Those things come with their own set of miseries and I’m perfectly happy not to have to deal with either of them, thank you very much. Repost begins below the fold.

Repost begins.

This week I’ll be 13 years old. In the eyes of the Church, that is. I was received into the bosom of Holy Mother Church at the Easter Vigil thirteen years ago after forty years of wandering through various deserts. Deserts of new age philosophies, teachings of self-proclaimed gurus–the usual claptrap embraced by rebellious pseudo-intellectuals like myself. I admit, I thought I was pretty sophisticated, educated and pretty darned smart. I thought I knew too much to be a Christian, much less a Catholic.

Heh. Yeah, well, our good Mother, the Church, has humbled me to my knees too many times to number now. Some people think one must cease to think in order to be a Christian. Nothing could be further from the truth. Never before have I had to think so much [and so deeply!]. Since becoming Catholic, I have had to stretch my mind to embrace clarity of thought, the clarity of vision offered by the Church and her Doctors. These holy Doctors of the Church have truly acted as physicians for me, providing medicine for my soul and for my mind, their wisdom bringing light and meaning to my life. Because they have given me light on the meaning of Christ, on what it means to be Christian and Catholic. I say Christian and Catholic because there are those who don’t understand that to be fully Catholic is to be fully Christian.

To be fully and faithfully Catholic and Christian is the goal toward which I am striving, by the graces and blessings of God, every day. And if the next thirteen [twenty seven!] years are anything like these first have been, then they will be very wonderful years indeed.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor 13:14) Have a grace-filled and blessed Easter.

Repost ends.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll come back often. May your Easter week be happy and filled with joy and the light of Christ. May the Lord bless and keep you and may His peace be always with you. And don’t forget to become a saint! +JMJ+

May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.
From the liturgy for the Easter Vigil, no. 14.

Notes and Links

I also wrote about my first Holy Thursday which took place a couple of days before being received at the Easter Vigil in 1996. The memory of that night has stuck with me, I can still see it and feel it as if I were there.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to the Easter Vigil, by Philip Kosloski.
The Roman Missal and the Easter Vigil, at the USCCB website.
“And if the next thirteen years are anything like these first have been…” Well, that sounds like a topic for a blog post, for sure. I’ll ponder on it and we’ll see. I only have about a hundred post ideas in my blog project folder. Just kidding. It’s got to be way more than that by now.

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