Reassurance

I sometimes have to laugh at how things work out. The day after making a post about reluctance and reservations on joining the church and feeling like I may not be ready, two things happened that helped reassure me.

One was a random conversation with a teacher that led to finding out she was also a Catholic convert (rare in my area), and then into talking about our religious backgrounds and her own conversion experience. This isn't exactly a normal topic of conversational topic for teacher in my secular, public, college, so it was surprising but was also just what I needed to hear at the time. The really striking part is that she described some of the same reservations I have been having, without me even mentioning them, and went on to say how confession and the sacraments were the very things that helped her to overcome them.

Then, in case I didn't get the message, the same things came up again during RCIA that night. Apparently, most of my worries are pretty common and my priest is used to helping people work through them. Just being back at RCIA (I had missed 2 weeks due to family/work conflicts) and hearing people talk and share helped me a lot. We have a mix of new coverts, long-time Catholics, and reverts, and the honesty about our own faults and fears, combined with welcoming and encouragement also did a lot to remind me that we all come from different pasts and are at different places, but all are still welcomed.

Long story short, I feel a lot better about things now.

I also had a long discussion with my husband over the previous weekend and into this week that has put my more at ease with the effect my conversion may have on my marriage and family.