I found the blog quite by accident – but it appeals to me on several levels – not the least of which is my former life as a catholic. My mother married a catholic man from a large (Irish, of course) catholic family. She vowed to raise her daughters “in the faith” even though she was not of the faith.
My sister and I attended mass on Sundays and catholic grade school as well as catholic high school. We wore white dresses and veils for our first communion. We were baptized (catholics sprinkle) when we were old enough to know or remember, btw. I think I must have been 6 years old or thereabouts.
My hubby and I were married in the catholic church I attended as a youngster.
I remember nuns in black robes with roasaries clicking. I remember priests who cried because they could not get the tabernacle open in order to serve communion. I remember priests who drank so much they could not hold a rosary prior to a funeral.
I remember darkened confessionals – but cannot recall the act of contrition we said by rote. I remember the sound of latin mass – the smell of incense – long Christmas eve masses at midnight. I remember the man who set the church building on fire accidentally by leaving his smouldering cigar on the confessional door.
There are a LOT of memories wrapped up in my life as a catholic.
Some of those memories are even from here in my adult hometown thousands of miles away from my childhood hometown. One is of the two nuns driving out to the cannery where we lived and worked our first nine months in Alaska. They offered to bring me back into the fold if I desired.
These same two nuns have now retired and gone back east to their mother convents.
Much of Peter the Sinner’s blog is about them and the disarray they helped cause in the area during their 30 year tenure.
I am no longer a catholic. There are many reasons – such things as PtS writes about? Yeah . . . those played a part – even though they occurred back in the childhood hometown and not here.
I am blessed to say – and to know beyond a doubt – that I am a sinner saved by faith in the living Christ. He alone – not a pope, priest, or nun – died for my sins and stretched out His arms to me in love.
When I die I am assured of my place in heaven – all because He died and rose again.
I won’t have to make a final act of contrition by rote – I pray each day for forgiveness for my sins – directly to the throne – not in a confessional to a man.
What a blessing to know that I am His and He is mine.
Praising!!!!!
barbara the sinner – saved by grace – washed in the Blood –