Ash Wednesday or How I Stoned the Soup

Apparently our soup for Ash Wednesday was a complete hit this year.  We made about as much as we did last year and we had less left over.  That's a win in my book.  The RCIA group did an awesome job with making and serving our soup and Tommy and Haily even came to help out, which was totally awesome.  I enjoy being able to share my faith with my friends who are Protestant with the mutual understanding of respect and communion.  This is probably one of the things I love most about the gifts God has given me; my education at Greenville and my general attitude towards others of differing beliefs has allowed me to make friends and share my faith without offending any of them.  Also, I firmly believe that I have carefully cultivated an amazing set of friends who are very open minded and engaging in these areas anyway (this is the shameless shout out of love to everyone in my life!).

I love the Ash Wednesday service and the Easter Vigil services best because there are always multiple Sacraments occurring on these days.  Confession is going on during Ash Wednesday service while the Eucharist is being distributed, reminding us of God's graces and the importance of drawing nearer to Him.  On Easter, there is baptism, confirmation, and mass occurring on the same day, once again reminding us of how we all enter into communion and a covenant with God.  The diversity and fullness of faith is partly what makes me love Catholicism so much and I am so very grateful for the opportunity that I've had to help direct RCIA.

Today's prayer was for Tim.

RCIA

Remember last year, how I became Catholic by going through RCIA?  I'm doing RCIA again this year.  It seems like I can't get enough of it!

I've actually been helping out with this year's class and I adore it.  I just wish I had more time to devote to my church; working two jobs makes that very difficult to manage.  I've been enjoying the experience from the other side of things, though.  I'm still learning a lot about the Church and my faith, but I'm also getting new insight into the conversion process watching others go through it and hearing their stories.  I even get to sponsor someone this year, which makes Easter even more exciting!

I feel like I've taken the long road to getting there, but I know that this is where I'm meant to be and I couldn't be happier and more content!

Realignment

I've heard people say before that when you start going to church regularly and really practicing your faith, you start seeing your life realigning to a more Godly one.  I never really took this seriously before.  I always thought I was living a pretty good life, and I really never saw any kind of changes taking place within me.  Lately, all of this has changed.

I find myself starting to feel differently about things I never really batted an eye at before.  It's little stuff, really.  Content on television, in songs, in movies.  Stories about people mistreating others.  Even disappointment in my own thoughts and actions, although it isn't nearly like the self-deprication that it was before.  Ultimately, I don't think these changes are bad, it's just...different.  Unexpected.  I have to wonder whether this is because I've just really started taking my faith more seriously or because I've been putting more things into practice since going through RCIA.

I have to say, I kind of like the "new me".  It's like a better version of the old me.