Claudia's Story
There's a lot to my story with God
~Contributed by Claudia Gould
There's a lot to my story with God. Here is a little of it. I was raised Catholic and put through all the sacraments as a child. However, I clearly remember being in a Catholic school Mass as a 7 year old and thinking to myself that a loving God could forgive us all without the sacrifice of someone's life. I put the whole idea of Jesus in a closed compartment in my mind, and went on with life very much believing in God but not in Jesus. When I did attend Mass, I listened for what God might require of us all in terms of moral behaviour, but I picked and chose what I followed. I had a bit of a quarter life crisis at 26 years old and I walked away from a possible marriage and professional partnership that had both come about at the same time.
Feeling immense guilt, I went to Reconciliation, bawling. I hadn't been since my first one prior to my First Holy Communion at 8 years old. The relief I felt on receiving the sacrament set me on a path to figure out the truth about God. I stopped working overtime at work and started devouring books on different faiths and considered whether none had the truth about God. At the same time I was obedient to the great pull I felt to attend Mass each Sunday morning and in a few weeks added a Pentacostal church's service attended by a friend to my regular Sunday evening routine. It dawned on me one day that while God of course is omnipotent and could forgive us without a sacrifice, we needed to understand the sacrificial nature of love and Jesus' death was the perfect expression of that to us, he lead the way for our own lives to be sacrifices of love for others. Whether that is in fact correct theology, I am not sure, but that was when I felt I understood Jesus. This also coincided with a friend telling me her very practical, Catholic mother had found herself spontaneously praying in tongues during her daily prayer time, not knowing what praying in tongues was. That was the final step in converting me to believe in Jesus.
The next question was one of which Christian denomination to belong to. At first, the immense comfort I had with the sacraments of the Catholic Church had me favour it. Then I came across Scott Hahn's book Rome Sweet Home as well as other Catholic apologetics online which I found much more compelling than the opposing Protestant arguments. I am respectful of everyone's journey to God. However, as well as feeling at home in the Catholic Church, I feel it teaches truth on those important points of contention and has Jesus' authority to do so. So I am very committed to the Catholic faith in following Jesus.
There's a lot to my story with God. Here is a little of it. I was raised Catholic and put through all the sacraments as a child. However, I clearly remember being in a Catholic school Mass as a 7 year old and thinking to myself that a loving God could forgive us all without the sacrifice of someone's life. I put the whole idea of Jesus in a closed compartment in my mind, and went on with life very much believing in God but not in Jesus. When I did attend Mass, I listened for what God might require of us all in terms of moral behaviour, but I picked and chose what I followed. I had a bit of a quarter life crisis at 26 years old and I walked away from a possible marriage and professional partnership that had both come about at the same time.
Feeling immense guilt, I went to Reconciliation, bawling. I hadn't been since my first one prior to my First Holy Communion at 8 years old. The relief I felt on receiving the sacrament set me on a path to figure out the truth about God. I stopped working overtime at work and started devouring books on different faiths and considered whether none had the truth about God. At the same time I was obedient to the great pull I felt to attend Mass each Sunday morning and in a few weeks added a Pentacostal church's service attended by a friend to my regular Sunday evening routine. It dawned on me one day that while God of course is omnipotent and could forgive us without a sacrifice, we needed to understand the sacrificial nature of love and Jesus' death was the perfect expression of that to us, he lead the way for our own lives to be sacrifices of love for others. Whether that is in fact correct theology, I am not sure, but that was when I felt I understood Jesus. This also coincided with a friend telling me her very practical, Catholic mother had found herself spontaneously praying in tongues during her daily prayer time, not knowing what praying in tongues was. That was the final step in converting me to believe in Jesus.
The next question was one of which Christian denomination to belong to. At first, the immense comfort I had with the sacraments of the Catholic Church had me favour it. Then I came across Scott Hahn's book Rome Sweet Home as well as other Catholic apologetics online which I found much more compelling than the opposing Protestant arguments. I am respectful of everyone's journey to God. However, as well as feeling at home in the Catholic Church, I feel it teaches truth on those important points of contention and has Jesus' authority to do so. So I am very committed to the Catholic faith in following Jesus.