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monstrousgourmandizingcats · 6 years

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for the catholic tell me meme, i dare you to answer ALL OF THEM!

Tell me about a rosary you have

I have a rosary that I got on Etsy made of rhodonite beads (the Massachusetts state gemstone!) with some soil from Thérèse of Lisieux’s grave embedded in the Hail Holy Queen medal. I’m reasonably confident that the person who made the rosary sold it in a way that complied with the canon against selling relics; it was the same price as non-relic rosaries from the same Etsy. I recognize that it’s still a little dicey and if I were shopping for a rosary now I’d get a less ~problematic~ one, but as it stands, I have it and I love it very much.

Tell me about a rosary you don’t have

My first rosary was one of several minor bits of religious paraphernalia that I swiped from an Anglo-Catholic church in New Jersey when I was living there as a teenager–not quite the embryonic stage of my faith journey, but quite possibly the embryonic stage of my moral development. It was simple black plastic held together with little metal eyelets and eventually I lost it or it broke, so I don’t have it any more.

Tell me why you picked your confirmation Saint

Already answered!

Tell me your vocation story

I’ve gone back and forth on my vocation a lot, but…I think I’ve finally figured out that I actually am called to marriage and children. I know I’m not even close to ready for that right now, and yet I still can’t wait. I pray for my future wife as oft as I remember to.

Tell me about your profound encounter with Christ

I actually just told you about this via PM, but here’s my conversion story, for my followers:

When I was in my early teens (see above, with the Anglo-Catholic church in New Jersey), I developed a habit of going to Christmas and Easter services at this church because I was going through a teaboo phase after getting really into the James Herriot novels. One Christmas Eve, I had this really strong desire to go up for Communion. The service booklet said something along the lines of “All baptized Christians who believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist may receive Holy Communion.” I decided “[guess I’ll die shrug] guess I’ll believe in Real Presence”, I went up for Communion, and I’ve never looked back. Even though I’ve left Anglicanism and am bound to accept Rome’s determinations about the invalidity of its orders and thus of its Communion, that encounter is still deeply meaningful to me.

Tell me about a lesson God has to keep teaching you

I’m not good at patience or at trusting authority, even/especially Church authority. God has to keep hammering both into my head, generally by putting me in frustrating or disorienting situations.

Tell me how Mama Mary has influenced your life

So much! I say the Hail Mary multiple times a day and the Memorare is always the last thing I say before going to sleep at night. The fruits of this have been a greater awareness of my own sins but also more compassion and gentleness towards both myself and others. People who knew me four or five, or even two or three, years ago and knew how harsh and emotionally rigid I was back then will (I hope) be able to tell you that I’m a lot more easygoing now.

Tell me about your family’s reaction to your conversion

Both of my parents are lapsed Catholics, lapsed since well before I was born, and both of them still seem sort of confused, but generally accepting. They’ve both tried going to Mass with me since I converted, but didn’t really seem to get the appeal (and, in my mom’s case, seemed to actively refuse to get the appeal). pray for them?

My extended family has more or less just gone with the flow with every life decision I’ve made for about a decade now, probably because I’ve yet to self-destruct quite as spectacularly as some of my cousins have.

Tell me about your friends’ reaction to your conversion

My friends’ reactions have been all over the place, from fear that this would make me turn away from them out of newfound homophobia to generalized acceptance and happiness for me to taking my conversion as an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the Church too and everything in between.

Tell me about a priest who has had an impact on your spiritual life

Already answered!

Tell me about a sister who has had an impact on your spiritual life

Sister R____ was somebody who used to hang around my undergrad college’s Newman Center around 2010-2011, when I was just starting there. She was the first person to get me to start thinking seriously about Catholicism as a religious possibility, although there’s a lot we’d probably disagree on now. She moved abruptly at some point in 2011 and I lost touch with her.

Tell me about a private devotion you practice

I try to say the Rosary as often as I can, and (on your advice!) I’m going to start saying the St. Michael Chaplet. Pretty #basic, I know. I’d also like to start keeping a Mary garden if/when I can.

Tell me when you gave your life to God

tbh that’s still a work in progress. I like to think I’m getting better at giving myself to Him, but I’m still not sure I’m quite there yet.

Tell me about when you lost a relationship because of your faith

There’s an online friend I’d had since about 2009 to whom I’ve recently become almost completely unable talk to due to moral beliefs (especially about her very active sex life; nothing against her for this, it was just that after a certain point we started to have unaccountable difficulty talking about other subjects) that slowly but steadily diverged. That wouldn’t be so bad had it not been for our other interests also diverging; we just don’t have much in common any more, and my faith shifting my moral attitudes is part of that.

There’s also a good friend from high school–we “dated” for a few months in the spring semester of our sophomore year, back in the early-teenage dirtbag golden days that I can’t seem to stop bringing up in this post–with whom I lost contact when my family moved out of New Jersey in 2013 and with whom I’m sort of wary of trying to get in touch again for similar reasons (afaik minus the sex). I’m sure we still have interests in common, but she was already a little put off by how much I talked about religion before I was Catholic.

Tell me about a time Jesus answered your prayers

I prayed for my mother’s life last year when she was deathly ill. She’s recovered a lot since then, although it’s not clear if she’ll ever be quite the same again.

Tell me about a time the Holy Spirit moved through you

I’m not sure how to recognize this happening when it does, sorry.

Tell me about a time you saw God in your suffering

I see God in my suffering at this very moment tbh #millennialcatholicculture

Tell me about a time God said no to your prayer

I had a relationship that I was really committed to and prayed for all the time but that turned really unhealthy. Eventually God had to say (through the woman I was dating) no, this isn’t good for either of you and I’m not going to prop it up. And, sure enough, we’ve since turned out to work much better as friends.

Catholic Tell Me

#personal #catholic #give me love give me memes #elbereth-varda

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