My son has a friend who has made up his mind he wants to be Catholic. He doesn’t have any family members who are Catholic. He went about this, in my opinion, the right way. He considered several different religions, studied them, asked about them, and then decided that he wanted to learn more about the Catholic faith. He attended a couple of different Catholic churches but then made up his mind to consider St. Jerome Catholic Church in Fancy Farm. I don’t know why. He lives in Marshall County. He went to Graves County High School and was friends with my son John but he really didn’t have any other ties to St. Jerome or Fancy Farm. He then started attending classes to learn more about the Catholic faith and started to get involved in other ways at church. When I met him he tried to explain his path. He was raised Church of Christ and Baptist. He has some Jewish ancestry. It wasn’t that he had a problem with those faiths, he was just looking for more. He would come out to the Rosary on Wednesday nights some and he seemed to spend an awful lot of time in church.
Of course, I fell in love with him.
Not literally, but I decided to make him a member of my family, and to help him in any way that we could through his journey. Since he got to 8 o’clock Mass pretty early he had his choice of seats which meant that we always had a seat waiting for us when we got there. Since most of my kids have left home I have been so excited that we have him with us at Mass.
Bryce has been going to classes for almost a year now. There are times that he and John have lively discussions about the faith. Sometimes they include me. I felt so blessed when Bryce asked John to be his sponsor into the church. It made sense to me, two brothers in faith, taking Bryce down this road.
Last week John asked me about the Rite of Welcoming into the Catholic Church. He wanted to know what it was and what he needed to do. All he knew to do was to be 15 minutes early in getting to church and that it was going to happen during late Mass. I told John that it was the act of the church welcoming Bryce and the others into our “fold” and there really wasn’t anything to it. Jimmy and I decided to go to late Mass so that Bryce’s “family” could be there. Sister Martha asked me if I had my phone and asked me to take some pictures. I love doing that so I was thrilled. I was put out that I didn’t have my camera. But my phone can take some good pictures.
And I got some good pictures.
But something else. Today has been foggy. It was foggy before church and it’s foggy now. Not a heavy fog but the sun has not been out today. During church though, during this part of church, the sun was shining through the windows. I tend to think when that happens that it is the Holy Spirit with us. And I will say this, the Holy Spirit was busy this morning at Mass.
Please pray for all of those considering the Catholic faith at this time, especially those at St. Jerome Catholic Church:
Hannah Yancy, Stacey Hayden, Katlynn Adams, Bryce Rickman Stanfill, Kliff Wilson, Teka Williams, Heather Elliott, and Evie Elder.
