The Journey Begins

After attending mass on a regular basis for about a year, I finally began my RCIA journey. Its about time I started to find out more and gain a deeper understanding of the faith. Its going to be a 15 month commitment and I have no idea if I will be able to last through the whole period, but I believe His Lord's grace will be upon me, to give me the strength and also the occassional push to keep me going. I'm really thankful for Joyce gladly agreed to be my sponsor. Its also going to be a long drawn journey for her to have to be there with me through the 15 months. I feel bad for having to occupy her sunday evenings in this manner =\

I've been asked countless times why I turned to Christianity, and in particular, Catholicism. I ain't able to give any concrete reasons but will state what led me in this direction cos I know that if I don't, couple years down the road, I would've clean forget about them.

Back then, I was down and out. Life was at the lowest it could get. I just needed to find peace. Also, I had lost my direction. I no longer knew what was my purpose on Earth. Hence, I turned to Christianity. All along, I had wanted to find out more about this religion because I was intrigued by it. The weekly mass allowed me to find the peace I seek. I was told that I could have found that in any other religion, not necessarily Christianity. But I was led in that direction and I followed.

How it all began? My lack of understanding of the religion was perhaps the reason that led to my life being thrown into a mess. So I resolved to find out about the religion. I asked around. I had a weird dream one night. I dreamt of the book "A purpose driven life". The one in my dream was a pure white copy. (don't tink it exists) The next day, SX told me about the book and offered to lend me her copy if I wanted to read it. I never knew of the existence of such a book and had also made no mention of my dream to anyone. For a whole week, my dreams were all pure and white. Subconciously, according to my friend, I had gone to work dressed in white that entire week. Perhaps I was so desperate in searching for serenity, purity, calm and peace that even the images conjoured up in my dreams were as such.

I've visited many Churches, so why Catholicism, why OLPS? Frankly, I ain't sure if I truly agree with the Catholic doctrine as compared to that of the other Christian denominations. But the feel I get is that Catholicism emphasies more on the family unit and I feel really at ease when in Church, even when I have to attend mass on my own. No offence to anyone, but sometimes I feel that some of the Churches are more like a gathering place for young people.

My learning has kinda stagnated since I couldn't really comprehend the Gospel on my own. Some of the things done during mass, I also don't understand its significance. I know RCIA will enrich me in alot of ways, whether or not eventually I choose to get baptised. This is one thing I like about the Catholic Church. They put you through a long course, to give you the time to understand before you make a deicision on whether to get baptised or not.

Thus far, Christianity has had positive effects on me. The weekly reflections really allow me to identify my own short-comings and address them. I've also learnt to be more tolerant and have been more able to curb my short-temperament. The most significant lesson I've learnt: "LOVE OTHERS JUST AS JESUS LOVES YOU". This include loving your enemies, loving people who have done you wrong.