RCIA & other stuff

I just wanted to check in since it's been a while since I posted.

I'm still going to RCIA and Mass at St. Charles and really liking it there. Much of what we have covered in RCIA so far is stuff I'd already learned through reading and studying before deciding to covert, but I have learned some new things in Father Ken is great at explaining things. Listening to him and hearing other people's questions and his response, has also made certain things more clear. It's good to be able to ask questions and to hear others ask things I'd never thought of and to have a chance to meet and get to know people.

When I first heard about RCIA, I was like "seriously, all that to join a church?", but I have begun to appreciate it it much more and I do think it's making me take my faith more seriously and like I can make a fuller commitment because I will know more about the Church and her beliefs.

It's also been cool meeting and talking to some of the other people. Right now, the only ones in the class who aren't Catholic and weren't raised in Catholic families are me and one other guy who has been coming with his girlfriend, both in their 20s, I think. I figured they were both from similar backgrounds, but she seemed to know a lot about the church and to be very traditional-minded and reverent. It turns out she was raised Catholic and he was raised very similar to me, within the same small group of fundamentalist Baptists.

We spent a while talking about everything from why we left fundamentalism to some of the changes in the church after Vatican II (she asked a question about the SSPX and Bishop Lefebvre last week), and we got to talking about where the nearby Latin masses were (nearby being a relative term, being 1-2 hours away). She asked if a certain one was celebrated with the priest ad orientem because "that's how it should be, with the priest focused on the altar and Christ, not on us" and inwardly I was like "wow, I found someone who gets it". I'm glad to see other young people who are young and traditionalist, yet also faithful to the Church and the Magisterium, because one gets the impression online that many traditionalists are either sedvacantist or leaning that way

I'm attending Mass at St. Charles on most Sundays and usually at St. Francis on Saturdays, because they have Eucharistic Adoration in the hour before Mass begins. Once school starts, I will try to arrange my schedule so I can go to weekday mass near the college, but it's not been an option with my son home because I haven't taught him to be still and quiet well enough to make it through Mass without being a huge distraction yet. I'm still in awe of the Mass. I don't know how to put it into words really, but it is so different than any other type of church service I've ever been in. There's just something about kneeling in prayer, looking up into the face of Jesus on the cross above the altar, and knowing that He is present there with us that is amazing.