Back in November, I went on a wonderful Women's Retreat with my church. At the end of the weekend, I decided it was time to try RCIA again, and formally 'reaffirm' my faith in Christ. I joined the class and am enjoying the studies.
In January, my rebellious nature took hold of me, and instead of announcing my intention 'to know God' (I've known Him for 40+years) or 'Be baptized' (I was baptized at 3 months old), I announced 'Reaffirmation of faith' when Fr Dave asked me what is it I wished. Just wanted to throw a little more diversity to the answers.
NOWHERE have I expressed a desire to 'become Catholic'. My intention is to formally join the Catholic Church as a strong Protestant, so I have a home church again (I've been 'purged' from Covenant's records, since I'm no longer a tithing member) and can take Communion. Is this too hypocritical?
One of the updates, about the infallibility of the Church, was extremely helpful in this decision. I took it to mean that while the Church has rules, I do not necessarily have to agree with them. As long as I don't publicly denounce anything, I'm good. And that's not my nature, so okay there.
But I've had to bite my tongue on a few discussions, especially this past Sunday, when we talked about prayers. I happen to be someone who offers up tiny prayers all day long, and find The Rosary boring. In fact, some of the prayers during the service have been 'just words to get through'. They have little or no meaning. And I had to bite my tongue when one of the leaders passed out 'special prayers' for different circumstances.
It just proves my point several years back, when I realized Catholics are soooo caught up in doing things 'right'. We even changed some of the words in prayers 'because we'd mis-quoted'. Who cares? It's the SPIRIT of the service that matters, not the exact words. Geez.
Hopefully my tongue won't be too sore by Easter.
