When I went back to school in the fall, I decided that I was never going to be able to sort out my religious questions without going to Mass. I looked up the Mass times offered at the chapel on campus, figured out how to get there, got in my car, and went. I nearly chickened out. I got to the driveway, panicked, and drove on by. Then I thought a little more and figured that since I'd already come this far, I might as well go ahead and attend Mass. I drove around the block and turned in to the parking lot on the second try.
I felt utterly lost. I didn't know how to behave, didn't know the responses to make or where to find them, didn't know when to sit, stand, kneel ... So I watched and copied the people around me. When I genuflected for the first time upon leaving (I didn't know to genuflect when I arrived, but I saw people do so as they came into church and as they left) I nearly fell over.
At the same time, however, I knew I was in the right place. The very first sermon I heard in a Catholic Church was on the Real Presence. It lined up with what I thought I understood about the Catholic Faith. While I nearly didn't go that first time, there was never any question about going back. I went to Mass every Sunday after that. For a while I continued to sing in a choir in a protestant church, so after Mass I would drive to another church and sing in the choir there. And I was still carrying my homemade Rosary in my pocket.
What a grace given to have that sermon on the Real Presence! Would that more priests might talk of such important things.
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