We Forget That We’ve Forgotten

– G.K. Chesterton

My husband and I came into full communion with the Church on Easter Day 2019. My road to Rome started six years earlier when I met one of my best friends as a freshman in college. She was a devout Catholic and my protestant interrogation (and assumption that she didn’t actually know the Faith) changed to awe, wonder, and curiosity. For every question, there was a resource. I took my time reading, attending Mass with her and even going to Adoration (I was left in absolute astonishment and speechless amazement at my first Mass, which happened to be Easter Day 2014).

I met Colin, also through this same best friend (what a gal!), and he was similarly on a road to Catholicism. We didn’t talk about it early in our dating but on one memorable car ride, Colin asked what I thought about becoming Catholic. I scoffed and quickly replied, “We don’t need to be part of a human institution to teach our children about Jesus. I want them in Home churches, learning about Our Lord and Savior through our words, actions, and the community we’re doing life with. Jesus + Nothing = Everything.” Turns out some of that was true, and good, but my understanding of the Church was wrong. Colin didn’t push the conversation much more but his question planted a seed. So, I kept reading.

St. Thomas Aquinas almost had me, but it was Augustine’s Confessions that won me over. I then spent the next year learning more about the Church, Our Mother, and the Saints from Formed.org. A tag team effort by the wonderful Dominicans in Philadelphia and their teaching on the early Church Fathers paired with going through RCIA at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul completed our formation.

Coming “Home to Rome” has changed our lives and the direction of our family. We could not have walked our son’s acute leukemia diagnosis and subsequent chemotherapy treatments and bone marrow transplant without the teachings and Tradition of the Church. I’ll share more about his journey in a later post.

Below is a list of resources, some of which I used in my discernment and some newer that have helped other friends in their own journey and questions about the Church. This list is not exhaustive. In fact, it is the opposite. Once you start exploring, it’s hard to stop. Please, don’t stop. Keep asking questions. Our minds are designed for curiosity and exploration. To stop asking “why” is to act against our nature. Continue to question and in your questioning, listen. There’s so much to discover and so much beauty to be revealed.

Catholic Readings/Podcasts

Scripture Reading

1. John 6
2. Mark 9
3. John 2:23-3:21

Books

1. Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
2. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper
3. The Eucharistic Miracles of the World (2nd Edition 2016)
4. The Everlasting Man
5. The Reed of God
6. Confessions
7. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas: Secundae Secundae QQ I – CXXII
8. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
9. Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday
10. Searching for and Maintaining Peace

Podcasts

Bible in a Year

Catechism in a Year

Pints with Aquinas

Poco a Poco

Word on Fire

Redemptive Suffering: Finding beauty in the loss of control

Saint Stories for Kids

Saints Alive

Eucharistic Miracles

1. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/five-eucharistic-miracles
2. https://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html

Music

May your day be filled with what is beautiful and good ~ Caitlyn