Email I sent to a few before Thanksgiving...

I'm not doing this with any sort of self-promotion on my part, but having heard from two people who appreciated this email I thought I would post it. I sent this out to some friends (a few who are Evangelical Protestants) who I think just don't know "what to do with me" anymore. (I guess silence from them is better than an argument, which is not my aim and never has been) but anyway, I did hear back from Fr. Felix, the most kind and wonderful words of encouragement! Thank you Fr. Felix, you are so full of joy! You radiate Christ like no one I know. Even though I only just met you in September, I feel like we've known each other for years. That, my friends, is the TRUE BOND of the EUCHARIST!

Peace to all.

susie

Below my email is Fr. Felix's gracious email message to me. This made my day as you can imagine! Thank you Father...I love you and you ROCK!

Tim Staples was at KVSS Thursday, Nov 15, on the Spirit Morning Show with Kris and Bruce. I left work early that day to meet him in the a.m. after the broadcast and he was phenomenal! He stayed around and talked with a small group of us about so many things, and then we gave him the tour of the studio and then I got to drive him to the airport, which was a plus for me! More time to visit! He's a great guy, so humble and so very knowledgeable. I'm sending along the link to the interview. He and I have similar stories as far as being converts to the Catholic Church, but that's about where it stops, as I was never a buff Marine! ; ) ha ha

Some wonder how it is Rich and I could have left the wonderful Evangelical fellowship we were involved with for so long, almost 3 years ago now, (Dec 8) and I have to say, it's not about leaving what we were as much as it has been about becoming MORE Evangelical than we ever were! It's been a fulfillment of all he and I had embraced during our 26 year wanderings, and I can only remember Pastor Les Beachamp's most kind and generous letter of blessing that he wrote us after reading the letter we'd sent him when we had been gone for about 9 months. It was always my heart to let him know and after that amount of time had passed, it was the only the right thing to do, for Trinity had been our home for almost 14 years. Anyway, whoever said the oft quoted "You can't go back home" wasn't speaking the truth. Yes, you can! We did! And the beautiful thing is, we've never been more at peace and have never been more on the same page, spiritually, than we are now.

After my pilgrimage to Rome in May, it's been more evident than ever, how good it is to come back down that long and winding road and see the "light on in the window." I've been fondly remembering of late what my dear Mom (God rest her precious soul) was saying to Ora Fowler, our dear neighbor in Cairo, NE. as she was waving goodbye to me when I'd left to go to Minnesota (back in 1975) to go to a Catholic conference with a car load of friends. She said, "Well, there goes my little Catholic!" How right you were, Mom! I know now what a prophetic statement that was. ha ha : )

It took me a long time to see the light re: the CC and to understand the Truth about the CC, because when we'd left I didn't know diddly about the Church and yet thought I knew everything, like most 20 somethings, I was a tad arrogant as well as ignorant. What I knew,however, I'd only heard from disgruntled ex-Catholics or Protestants who really had only heard what they'd heard for years most of which was misinformation based on falsehoods passed on for generations by folks who simply didn't know, or were 'hellbent' on proclaiming falsehood for whatever biased reasons they may have had.

Now I love the Catholic faith and I would venture to say that I know why so many died for the Church and the Eucharist over the years, since the beginning, but only now. I never knew before, because I was indeed ignorant, but all I can say is Keith Green (God rest his soul) wasn't the one I should have been listening to to learn about the CC. I'm sorry that I was so enchanted and swayed so much by his anti-Catholic tracts all those years ago. It did more harm than good, but God brought good from it, as He is faithful to do! God did indeed lead us to all the places we found ourselves, in some great fellowships, etc. over those many years, and glad that there was always enough of the Truth to keep me so hungry for more.

People really can only know someone or something best from someone else who KNOWS them or that something. I wouldn't want to learn Shakespeare from someone who has no clue about who he was, and never read any of his work. Stick with what you know...a good philosophy! When the misinformed teach the misled a lot of misinformed misled folk are left running about passing on more misinformation and that's not a good thing. Confusion and misinformation isn't of God. But the journey was a good one, all in all, even if the wild ride got pretty wild. It was God indeed guiding us to where He longed for us to finally be. Back Home. Rome Sweet Home, that is. (a great book btw, and available on www.amazon.com)

The interview from Thursday is the top link I've included. More about Tim is found on the link below it.

I hope you'll find a time to listen to the interview. Rich and I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends.

Safe travels and may the peace of Christ be with you!

Rich and Susie


http://www.spiritcatholicradio.com/interviews/Tim%20Staples.m3u

http://www.catholic.com/seminars/staples.asp

Father's Email

Hello, Susie,

I wanted to let you know how moved and touched I have been by your letter below. What a strong witnessing to the Truth that no one can refute (as we read in one of last weekday Mass readings). I want to tell you that when a person like yourself speak the truths of the Catholic Church, everybody listens. If I were the one to say what you said, it would sound like I am biased or self-righteous. You have got to know that (just as you said) you have been called by name by the Lord himself; and for a reason---the very reason I have just pointed out---that when you speak---all listen. I read your letter twice and each time I savor the sweetness of the message, the witnessing. I hope you don't mind, because I have just sent it to my sister-in-law. Recently she is on fire with spiritual life. She goes to Mass daily now. She seeks spiritual life aids, such as the rosary, Scott Hahn's books. She surfs the EWTN. Once in a while she comes up with a question for me to answer it for her. It's not all the same for my other family members. They are dead Catholics walking. I am confident they will come back around. They take their Catholic Faith for granted. They think it's a play thing. So, I thought I might blow my sister-in-law's faith embers the more by sharing your letter with her.

Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Thank you for you bravery.

I have just listened to the Catholic Answers Radio interview with Tim Staples. It is just amasing how the Lord calls his own people to the Catholic Church. It is clear by their journey how only the Lord was behind their coming to the Catholic Church. Tim's journey to even go to the Seminary was the Lord's way of preparing him for the Radio ministry he is doing now. It was to fill his tank with Philosophy and Sacred Theology to arm him for the battle. Thank you for sharing him with me. I could otherwise not realise or even know about him. I didn't even know the explosion of Catholic radios all around the country. This indeed is an campaign on our culture going bad, as he describes it: "Look-out culture, here we come". I didn't know about St. John Chrysostom's "Lions Breathing Fire" phrase. St. Chrysostom is my favorite said.

May God continue to bless you, Susie.

And Father's very thoughtful "addendum"


Oh! almost forgot to say this. I think you ought to appear on EWTN, Journey Home program. If Marcus doesn't invite you, I think you should be the one to initiate it. You have a story to tell the world. You have the truth to tell the world. I am mostly moved by your words that only people who know the truth, should be authorized to teach others about it, not to propagate lies, thus deceiving innocent people, confusing people's minds. People are entitled to knowing the truth, and nothing but the truth. No one is entitled to misinformation or distorted truths. We don't like when the media distort and twist truths about the politians. It is most certainly deplorable to mis-inform the public, especially taking their minds and hearts from the Church of Jesus Christ. You can tell that the Devil is at work behind the scenes of defections and churches breaking apart. He has infiltrated the Catholic Church and other churches, to drive people away from the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't see how else to interpret what happened at the Reformation and has been happening over and over since; with churches breaking up over and over and over like cells mitosizing; only that they are not connected to each other after breaking up. So, they don't form the organic body.


Felix