Where I'm Coming From

From stories to learning

I grew up in a Christian home. We prayed. We went to church. You know the story. We were not bound by church or doctrine so much as by the message of the minister. If we felt a spirit of love and forgiveness, we stayed. Even simpler, if we liked the minister, we stayed. If it became about guilt, an overly sombre-mindset, or the calling down of fire and brimstone on the wicked, we left. We attended Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. Church was where we heard stories of love, forgiveness, moral behavior, community, salvation, and more, but I never knew the doctrinal differences among these. It just never came up. 

By the time I got to college, I had left the church (lower-case "c") entirely. I majored in Philosophy (my first love), English Literature, and minored in World Religions, History, and created an unofficial music performance minor. I would later earn a secondary education certificate, another major in American Literature, another minor in Sociology, and my master's degree would be in Humanities. None of which really had any bearing on my faith or lack thereof.

What changed for me was a kind of calling, but it happened in a very intellectual framework. I had been reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, the last book on my shelf that I had never opened. My aunt had purchased the book for me as a gift upon my graduation from high school. I placed it on my shelf and ignored it for six years. Finally, I was poor, working on my teaching certificate, living alone, bored and had read everything on my shelves. So one night I picked it up and read it. 

Even though my experiences while reading the book literally changed my life, I've never gone back to re-read it. I got out of it what I needed at the time. It opened me back up to the possibility of God and spirit. 

It would be another six years before I started going back to church occasionally and another eight years before I converted to Catholicism.

I have always found inspiration in the intellectual. The more I understand, the more I can integrate knowledge into my own life, the more I can accept and believe. Knowledge of the church, of the Bible, of the Catechism, of science, only strengthens my faith, even when challenges confront me. These challenges are met through rationality guided by faith. I believe in miracles. Why shouldn't I? Have you seen the universe?

Note: I have begun this blog as I go back to taking coursework through the University of Dayton Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (VLCFF). It may be that I continue this outside of that learning experience and it may be that only I ever read these posts.