Conversion conclusion

The parish I belong to is small. I would have been the only person going through RCIA. I knew of a larger local parish that had a formal, established RCIA program. I talked to my priest and he agreed that attending RCIA there would be a good idea. I wanted the discussion and group learning experience a larger parish could provide.

My RCIA class had about 18 people in it. That’s a large number for our “cluster” of five churches, (per our diocese, we are the North XYZ County Cluster). Interestingly enough, my sponsor was from a third church in our cluster. Classes run from school year to school year. I started late and had to follow through to the next class before being able to participate in the Easter Vigil.

Both my husband and I had been previously married. We had to go through the annulment process. We were lucky. Our previous marriages had not involved a Priest and this qualified us for the “short” annulment process. Others in our class had more difficult annulments to face.

There were two types of people attending this RCIA class; those who were converting because their betrothed was Catholic and those who had decided to become Catholic after a search for faith. To me, the difference in these two types was remarkable. Some of us were there to delve deeper into understanding of the church, attended as many sessions as possible, go to Mass regularly and study. Some barley made it through the mandatory requirements to participate. For me, an entire year of my life revolved around RCIA. It was intense. I cried. I laughed. I really, really enjoyed it.

Sadly, a member of our RCIA class died weeks before Easter. She was in her 30s and it was a shock. She had a heart attack. She was buried as a Catholic. It made the process bitter sweet. The death of the Pope after Easter was also a shock. We all wondered if Easter Vigil would have been put on hold if he had died a few weeks earlier. As a mature adult, I knew that wouldn’t have been the case, but we were like children at this point. We were a flock, following our shepherd.

Easter Vigil is the most moving of all services for me; the dark church, the candles, the new faithful. Never in my life have I experienced such an evening. To receive the host for the first time as a Catholic brings tears to my eyes.

It was a significant day and has shaped the rest of my life. I can think of nothing else that has had the impact becoming Catholic has on my life. Marriage, yes. Infertility, yes. Death, yes. But all of these come back to being Catholic in how I handle them, not the other way around. Being Catholic is first. My faith is first. It’s not something I could have planned or imagined or brought into being. It was Grace.

Catholic and child free; PMO

Well my search into Catholic, but child free didn't yield much. It could be I'm not the best at searching the Internet. All I could find was Purple Women & Friends.

This site isn't what I was looking for. As far as I can tell, it's Catholic women who support birth control use and we aren't talking NFP.

I was looking more for, "We've tried everything and now realize, although we'll be open to children until the day we die, we don't actually expect to conceive one. So what's next?" Couldn't find that group of women out there.

On a higher note, after two phone interviews, I have a face-to-face interview next Thursday. This job is perfect for me. It's a start up of a PMO. And unless you know what that is, you probably aren't thrilled! But if you do, you know it would be great fun to be involved in a start up. Especially since this is a Forbes top 50 company. I can't tell you how much I want this job. I'd work for free on it actually, just because it's going to be such an interesting project. I expect to learn a ton. And that's what I look for in a job, the learning experience. I hate to be bored.

So, I'll be reading about PMOs over the next week, get the hair cut, check the suit I plan on wearing, etc.

Wish me luck!