And this I know...

I left what I didn't know to learn even more of what someone else didn't know, so I could help others learn more of the less that I had come to know. Follow me?

I called a dear friend when we returned to the Catholic Church and told her about our decision and this is what she said: "Well, that's okay. You know the truth now, so you'll be fine there. I could probably go back to the Methodist church, too, now that I know the truth."

So let me put this together: Now that I "knew the "truth," it was ok to go back to the "church" I'd left for 26 years? The church I'd thought was out of touch and stodgy and "WRONG" was now ok for me to return to because I'd learned the entire "truth elsewhere?" That is one huge perplexing paradigm. I suppose she didn't know what to say, and out of love for me wanted to be cordial, though she was no doubt confused, maybe shocked about my decision and maybe slightly dismayed. We used to talk about how "off the rails" the CC went and now, being in a 'non-denom' was just the "best" of all places.

The "small ideas" and the "in the box" group think I'd been exposed to for nearly 3 decades had run amok for me. I was on a downward spiral again and I didn't like it. I was aware of the pattern and I was searching...as I had always been...for True North. I had read 3 books in one weekend written by Catholics and it was like a tidal wave of grace washed over me and then washed me up on the beach, the sparkling, dazzling beach of Truth.

Now I try my best to tell others of the wonder of it all, and it's now strangely, and to be honest, frustratingly silent on their end. It's like they don't want to, or can't reply to some of what I write, because it would force them to think, and maybe have to reconcile to the Truth they've been content to live without knowing (but thinking they know) in their cozy, comfy, customized "man-made" religion, which they think is now back to the way the "early church" believed. Yet they don't know ONE early Church father! They've never gone farther back than Luther. The "Catholic Church" to them went off the rails and they "don't wanna go there."

It's bizarre and so perilous this type of "independent thinking" that isn't really thinking at all. I'm only so grateful that my eyes were opened and by grace, I "saw" what I'd been blind to for so many years. They're good people, but now that I'm Catholic, they keep me at a very comfortable distance. I only wish they could see the wonder of the Catholic faith, the vast and deep expanse of richness, the gifts, the grace, the beauty of all 7 Sacraments. I pray for them and hope we'll one day enjoy each other's presence beholding our Lord, with our Blessed Mother, all the Saints in heaven.

The above is the comment I left at Mark Shea's blog.

I don't mean what I wrote o come across arrogantly. I'm not bashing my evangelical friends. They're living good lives, and some are more holy than I'll ever be. They love their Lord. But I can't say "I'm saved" and believe it...and not yet "strive" to be holy. That's where some of my friends and I differ now. I 'know' I have to 'work out my salvation with fear and trembling' and they somehow can "skate" their salvation. It matters not if one sins, as long as their sorry when they do, they won't ever "lose" their salvation, since they know they didn't "earn it." It's a very deceptive and dangerous way to "believe" and I for one was never too comfortable with that paradigm. I've not "arrived" by any stretch, but I know this...JESUS IS to BE FOUND IN HIS FATHER'S HOUSE...like the last Joyful Mystery. IN THE TABERNACLE in Catholic parishes all over the world. Go find out for yourself. He's calling you Home. "Come, taste and see the goodness of the Lord!"

The 3 Books I read by the way, were:
"Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic," by David Currie
"Rome Sweet Home" by Scott and Kimberly Hahn
"Surprised By Truth (Vol. 1)" by Patrick Madrid