The most important thing I have done in my life was becoming
a Catholic, 38 years ago.
Baptized into the Church of Norway; an evangelical Lutheran
denomination of Protestant Christianity,
God always fascinated me, always.
And funnily enough,the first Catholic Church I ever visited and
prayed in, was the grotto of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
My faith was born in the place where Jesus was born.... 😃
This only recently struck me, as I was reflecting on the journey that
led to my entry into the Holy Catholic Church.
As I used to accompany my husband, who was a practicing catholic,
"born into" the Church, I knew instinctively that what was happening
at Mass had to do with me personally, and that it was very important.
I wanted to become a Catholic, nobody asked me to.
I loved the Word of God. But it was when things went wrong
in my life, when I could not figure out a way out of it, that I
began to see His hand, because I learned to surrender, to trust.
Nothing academic about that, completely real, my life on the line.
I learned to say in every situation:
"Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything."
"I depend on you for everything"
Like that I was able to stop sabotaging Him by my own efforts,
which I knew in any case were useless.
I became free from myself, and at the same time I became more
like myself than I ever had been before!
It is we that block God out, it is not the other way around.
He never went away; He Is, Was, and Always Will Be, here.
Once we get a taste or a glimpse of His Power, there is no going back.
We want to draw closer all the time.
And all our own efforts that we put in, brings little reward.
Because what He wants is us, completely.
We realize that we have to continually let go of ourselves,
in order to give our space to Him.
We have to be willing to let ourselves be worked over by
Him; "let your will be done in me, not my will, Lord".
He is already aware of our needs and desires.
And we have to stop telling Him how to do things.
Since He created us and everything in the world, He doesn't
need our instructions on anything!
And the strength, courage and peace He gives to people that
really trust Him, is incredible.
This teaching is in complete opposition to everything
we learn in the world.
We learn from early on that we have to try really hard,
work really hard, make lots of efforts.
But Jesus said that His Kingdom was not of this world.
I learned more when I went to do retreats in
Châteauneuf-de-Galaure in France, where the venerable
Marthe Robin lived her life, bedridden, offering up her
suffering to God.
She drew hundreds of thousands of people to her
bedside, they came from far in order to just talk with her.
Since her death in 1981, the numbers going there,
has increased many times over.
Just learning about her life, how fruitful it was,
despite her life situation, is something that marks everyone
that goes there.
Yes, becoming Catholic, and purposely wanting to grow in the
Faith, learning, understanding, developing the Faith, has been
the most important decision of my life.
I love you, Jesus!
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