Changing your religion is a big decision, one I spent ten years thinking about. I finally made up my mind when I had my baby and wanted to have her baptized. But where? I was born and baptized Lutheran but haven’t attended a Lutheran church in quite some time, and didn’t feel right having her baptized Lutheran just because I was. I was on the hunt for answers.
I had a strong desire to become Catholic, and would attend Mass often with my Catholic friends but didn’t know where to start or what to do. I contacted a local Catholic Church and asked what I needed to do to start the process and what it would involve. I was nervous and excited all at the same time, and could not wait for the process to be under way. I told my family what I was planning on doing, and to my amazement my mother and sister decided to join me on my journey.
To convert to Catholic, you have to take a class; it’s called RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) and for me started off being every other Wednesday night. I would go after work and I would have to bring my infant daughter as I was a single mother. The Church was very welcoming and warm in receiving my daughter and I into the RCIA class. After about two months it went to every Wednesday night and lasted about an hour and a half. The classes detailed the Catholic faith, symbols, mass, meanings and history. I got a crash course on being Catholic that all in all took about nine months.
At the end of the nine months, I was welcomed into the Catholic Church and was able to receive full communion. There are no words that can explain how I felt the first time I took communion. I felt at peace, at home and like I was exactly where God wanted me to be. It was a very comforting and loving experience. I had my daughter baptized Catholic two weeks after I was Confirmed to help her on her journey on being Catholic.
For me, becoming Catholic was what I always knew I would do one day. I eventually got married to a man of the Baptist faith, and that still hasn’t stopped me from attending Catholic Mass and raising my daughter in the Catholic Faith.