Catholics Come Home: Part 2

Yesterday I began of my “Catholics Come Home” blog series. I spoke about my faith journey from childhood through to my university years. Today I’d like to pick up the story again…

The Wilderness Years: Suddenly Alone

The story ended yesterday with my final months at university. I was part of a strong community and I was growing in my faith. Things were good.

However, after university, things did not go so well. I moved to a new town for work and, although I did not move far away, I had virtually no contact with anyone from either the Chaplaincy or from Verbum Dei. In fact, during the months which followed, only one person took the time to reach out to me from my university years. I felt rather abandoned. It felt like I was out of sight, and therefore out of mind. Those months were particularly trying for me since, soon after moving to this new town, my employer went bankrupt, leaving me unemployed.

I did not fare any better in parish life. After experiencing the welcoming communities of Verbum Dei and my University Chaplaincy, I was reintroduced to the more typical Catholic parish life. Each Sunday I rose early and walked a long way through the cold to Mass.  Upon arrival, I was greeted by no one. The music was abysmal and the preaching was utterly uninspiring. Honestly, I felt I could have done a better job. There were no parish groups for me to join. There was nobody of my own age. There was no coffee after Mass and no real socializing of which to speak. I was just another anonymous parishioner who slipped in, heard Mass and then slipped back out. I had no personal contact at that parish whatsoever.

The Wander Years: The oasis in the desert

It was at this time that I began, in addition to attending Mass, to attend regularly a Protestant congregation. One Sunday, after feeling particularly dejected and spiritually dry, I wandered into a small Elim Pentecostal church which was on my route home from the Catholic parish I had been attending.

The difference between the two communities could not have been more marked. Before I even got through the door of the Pentecostal church I had been warmly greeted several times with smiles and handshakes. The music was of good quality, but not overdone. The preaching was really solid. It was clear and comprehensible, and the pastor applied the Scriptures to life in a way I found eminently practical. Members of the congregation came up and spoke to me, making sure that I got connected to the other Young Adults in the parish. Put simply, they were a true community and the love of Jesus was very clearly on display. Within a couple of weeks I was even invited to help out with the youth group. It was wonderful. Once again I felt spiritually fed, encouraged and valued.

A few months later I got a new job and moved to a new town some distance away. Catholic parish life was marginally better, but I still had many of the same complaints. I continued to feel disengaged with the Catholic Church. I was frustrated by the apparent lack of commitment in the parish, the ignorance of Scripture and the absence of evangelization. I decided to try out the Elim Pentecostal congregation in the area, but for some reason it just didn’t feel like home, so in the subsequent weeks I went church shopping. I had really wanted to stop going to Mass, but following a spiritual experience after Communion, I felt certain that I was being called to remain in the Catholic Church, despite my disinclination and various church wanderings.

I eventually ended up at an Anglican parish. It was one of the Evangelical/Pentecostal variety and it felt like home straight away. Again, the love of Jesus was very clear to see. On my first visit I was invited out to Sunday lunch by the couple I sat next next to. In addition to all the wonderful qualities I had experienced in the Protestant world before, this parish had several other attractive features. Several times a year they had a series of welcome evenings for new parishioners. Additionally, they had a curriculum of  evening classes to help people grow more deeply in their faith and understand the ways in which different areas of life can be impacted by faith in Jesus.

As with my former Elim Pentecostal parish, I was soon involved in the parish’s various ministries. I played music (trumpet, guitar) and I was regularly involved with the parish’s homeless ministry, King’s Table.

The other really important dimension to parish life was the small groups. In case you are unfamiliar with this model, small groups  are groups of about twelve people, often of approximate age, who meet together once a week for fellowship, prayer and Bible study. My knowledge and love of the Bible increased rapidly. During our studies I found that my formation in Verbum Dei stood me in good stead. My small group quickly became my family. In fact, several years later I became Godfather to a child of my small group leaders.

The Weird Years: Returning Home

It was ultimately for theological reasons that I returned full-time to the Catholic Church. The details are not important here.

My return was very much a mixed bag. I was already part of the music ministry and the young adult group in my Catholic parish. Fortunately, through these connections I was blessed to find more and more families who knew and truly lived out their faith and this was a great source of encouragement to me

I also  found groups who very quietly went about serving Christ with no fanfare whatsoever. For example, I started helping the St. Vincent de Paul group with their Hospital Visiting ministry. Anyone who entered “Catholic” on the hospital entry forms would be visited by us on Saturdays. As you can imagine, through this ministry I met many people who described themselves as “Catholic” but who hadn’t entered a church in years. We would talk, bring them newspapers and find out if they wanted to have someone visit with Holy Communion the following day.

There was an interesting shift in my attitude towards the priest’s homily. I remember reading the advice “If you want a better priest, pray for the one you have” and I did just that. I would, in particular, pray for my priest before he gave his homily. The side-effect of this was that I listened far more attentively. I was repeatedly surprised to find that when I did this, there was always some nugget for me to take away each week and try to apply to my life.

In parish life I re-doubled my efforts to remedy all the things which had driven me away. This was a very humbling experience as I quickly learned that I would have to be gentle and patient in contributing to change and no amount of jumping up and down and stamping my feet would get things done.

Lessons Learned

So that’s my story. Over the next few days I’ll draw together some of the lessons I learned through my wanderings and what can be done to draw people back to the Catholic Church.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

The article Catholics Come Home: Part 2 first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net