Private Paths on the Common Journey
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Private Paths on the Common Journey
by Chris Grygo

See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
-- Isaiah 43: 19

Pentecost, the Feast commemorating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church, reminds us that the Easter Season is ended for the year.  And what a year it was!  The same Holy Spirit that enabled the Apostles to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations was manifested to us this Easter through the witness of four women-- sisters of ours who were welcomed into the fullness of the Church at Easter Vigil.  On behalf of CYA, I recently had the honor of interviewing Sarah, Tracy, Chris and Karin about their journeys to Catholicism.  There were many common threads linking their stories of faith.  Read along as these four women highlight for us how God brought each of them into our Catholic Family.

The first theme to jump out of the stories was the role relationships played in drawing these four women to the Church.  Sarah told me that the original impetus to be fully initiated into Catholicism came through a man she dated.  After many discussions together, the two attended a talk by Cardinal Dulles entitled, “Why be Catholic?” The event was pivotal for Sarah, who said that “it explained what he [her boyfriend] couldn’t about the faith.”  The talk eventually led Sarah to attend St. Francis Xavier Church and to consider the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA).  “I kept coming to St. Francis’ RCIA off-schedule…” she explained, “and finally started studying in preparation for making my sacraments this year.”  Sarah said she initially “held back because of the line in the Creed that says ‘I believe in one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.’ I didn’t understand what it meant by ‘one’ and ‘apostolic.’”  RCIA classes clarified the essentials of the faith for Sarah, and convinced her of the truth proclaimed by the Church.  Sarah noted that Sr. Helene Conway, with whom she also met one-on-one, was “very matter of fact and not opinionated.  She helped me learn what the Church teaches and to become Catholic for the right reasons.”  Sarah’s process touched her heart as well as her mind.  “I had an emotional outburst the night Frank Greene, my sponsor, spoke at RCIA on prayer.  I was crying the whole time, out of fear of the step I was taking.”  Sarah recounted that she “felt prayerful throughout the entire next day.  I kept focusing on the words ‘I praise you’ which was something I wanted to work on in my life.  I have never had a problem praising God, but I wanted to redirect my prayer to focus outwardly instead of just asking all the time. The tears signified, to me, humility.  I wanted the congregation to be able to say that I was really ready at Easter.”  They did, and Sarah received the sacraments of Confession, Confirmation, and Eucharist this Easter.

Tracy also came to consider Catholicism through her relationship.  Tracy described growing up in the Wesleyan tradition and being active in the church her whole life.  She and Tom spoke a lot about faith as their relationship deepened, engaging in a mutual investigation that found the two making a Mission trip to El Salvador through Tracy’s church and periodically attending Mass with Tom.  Similar to Sarah’s experience, Tracy and Tom eventually raised questions they “couldn’t answer on their own.”  A course at St. Francis Xavier taught by parishioner Bill Frederickson on “The Holy Catholic Church” helped to answer many of their questions, and led Tracy and Tom to attend RCIA classes.  Tracy said she was impressed “by the sense of community with others in the class and in RCIA, and I realized I had many misconceptions about the Catholic Church.  The sacramental life also really appealed to me.”  Tracy described how learning about the Catholic faith gave her “new and fresh ways to receive Christ.”  She continued, “the Spirit challenged and prompted me to become Catholic, and to bridge Catholics and Protestants together.”  After a year of RCIA classes, Tracy decided to take another year to pray and discern whether God truly wanted her to become Catholic.  Convinced of God’s will for her, Tracy completed RCIA and received the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at Easter Vigil.

The third to tell about coming to Catholicism through personal relationships was Chris.  Chris grew up in various Protestant denominations, most recently the Presbyterian Church.  She attended Catholic Mass at St. Francis Xavier with her friend Meaghan, and reported to me how much she really liked Sunday Liturgy.  Chris’s connection with Catholicism was also a familial one.  Her mother was Catholic, and Chris felt exploring Catholicism might be a way to connect with “that part of my history.”  At St. Francis, she enjoyed Fr. Greg’s preaching and pastoral style.  Chris said candidly, “My impression was that Catholics were dry and the rituals were lacking passion, but I didn’t feel that at all.  I realized so much meaning in the ritual, and that it wasn’t full of meaningless acts as my impression led me to think.”  Chris also appreciated “the global presence and uniformity of worship everywhere, and also how the Church questions and addresses issues we’re all going through in society.”   Chris made her sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.

Karin came to explore the Catholic faith on her own, a former Lutheran who and had been very active in church until her teen years.  Karin began attending Catholic Mass periodically at St. Francis when she moved to Brooklyn, and found that she “enjoyed the Word of God and I found applying it to life now was such a change from the days of falling asleep in church as an adolescent.”  Karin eventually met with Fr. Greg to have “a list of questions” answered.  She reported that the conversation “Single-handedly turned my view of Catholicism on its head and changed my disdain for the Catholic Church.”  Most surprising to her was how many of her beliefs and Christian instincts were in agreement with Catholic teaching.  A subsequent trip to Germany with her Lutheran church to study the life of Martin Luther convinced Karin that Lutheranism was no longer her religion.  She said, “Although I admired and respected it, I didn’t feel I belonged there anymore.”  Karin continued to be “haunted by the idea of being Catholic” and began wondering about the process.  By chance, she ran into a friend at St. Francis who told her about RCIA.  Karin contacted Sr. Helene and began attending RCIA classes without any commitment to becoming Catholic.  The classes reaffirmed her beliefs, and renewed her faith.  Karin said she was “uplifted and felt carried,” and that the Church “had a magnetic, organic and natural draw for me.”  She also learned “that you could have struggles within the faith.”  Karin received her sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist on Easter.

Three other common themes stood out to me as I listened to Sarah, Tracy, Chris and Karin.  Most poignant was the theme of struggle during Lent and Holy Week.  Karin described it as “one of the most terrifying experiences of my life,” saying “Fear started creeping in when we met the Bishop at the Rite of Election.  On Holy Thursday, I stepped out of myself and wondered ‘How did I end up here?’  Would the Church really accept me doubts and all?”  Tracy reported that she too had doubts, asking herself “how do you know it isn’t just this Church or Fr. Greg that you like?  What about the parts you don’t fully understand yet?”  Like the others, Chris recalled that she “panicked a little as Easter approached.  Every doubt came back to face me stronger than before.” She added, “The doubt got worse as the day drew closer.  I was tempted not to attend Church, and became afraid.  I doubted things I never doubted before, like the Trinity.”  Sarah also witnessed to this struggle, which she said “got worse as the day drew nearer.”  Like Chris, Sarah was tempted “not to go to Church and even to run away.”  Luckily, the women were able to take some comfort in knowing they were all experiencing the same thing—an experience Sr. Helene reminded them was common throughout history.  Satan always presents challenges to those coming closer to God and the Church.

Fortunately, the women were rewarded for their difficulty with powerful experiences of the Sacred Triduum.  Tracy said that Holy Week was “the most intense time of spiritual consciousness I’ve had since the mission trip to El Salvador.”  She continued, “As the Church darkened and the Paschal candle entered the Church during the Vigil, I felt the darkness in myself lifting and the light of Christ filling me as the Church light up slowly with candle light.”  Similarly, Karin reported “Sitting in the darkened Church before the Vigil started with the lighting of the Easter fire, I was serene and peaceful.  The whole thing was an unfolding splendor.”  Chris remembered, “The first time I was ever at St. Francis was for Easter Vigil to hear Meaghan sing.  It was wonderful to come full circle, beginning at the Easter Vigil last year and then receiving the sacraments at the same time this year.”  Sarah said she “smiled through the whole ceremony.  He had risen, and I could feel the focus on Resurrection.  I was surprised I didn’t cry—I just wanted to jump up and down!  God was with me, and the Vigil left me feeling released.”

This joyful experience of the Paschal mysteries and sacraments is another theme shared by Sarah, Tracy, Chris and Karin.  The Catholic Triduum services enabled them to walk with Christ and experience His Passion in a dynamic new way.  Karin shared that “the Washing of the Feet on Holy Thursday nearly brought me to tears.”  Sarah felt the “low mood and somberness of Holy Thursday”, while Tracy felt “in the moment with Christ” as He was betrayed and handed over.  Tracy, Chris and Sarah spoke about walking the Way of the Cross with Christ on Good Friday, and thinking more intensely about the meaning of the Passion events this year as they became Catholics.

It was clear how much they also desired to celebrate the Eucharist with us.  Tracy shared, “More than Baptism and Confirmation, Eucharist was the light at the end of my Lenten tunnel.  Leading up to Easter, I really came to understand the Real Presence and couldn’t wait to receive communion with everyone.”  Karin echoed this same sentiment, recollecting that initially she felt “frustrated and separated because I couldn’t take Communion, which became a nagging desire to become Catholic and participate in Communion.”  She went to say, “There was so much build up that I didn’t get the full sense of Eucharist at the Vigil, which I thought might be physiological.  The first time I went down to Communion with the choir, after watching them go without me for so long, was incredibly meaningful for me.”

The last theme linking the faith stories of Sarah, Tracy, Chris and Karin was the support they felt from the CYA community.  Tracy said “CYA played a huge role.  I met all these young Catholics in CYA; all living, working and practicing their faith.  It helped bring lifestyle and faith challenges together.”  Karin described CYA as “an added bonus” saying, “I appreciated the company of artistic, fun, and witty people, who made the process sweeter.  I felt more supported, and it made the decision to become Catholic easier… another way I was carried.”  Chris echoed, saying “the vitality of CYA really helped—especially everyone’s enthusiasm.”

It seems to me that the enthusiasm is two-way.  Through our sisters, we see that God continues to bless us as a community of Catholic Young Adults in Brooklyn.  Their stories also remind us to consider our own journey to the Lord, and to mark the times of struggle and sanctity; the times of longing and joy around the table of faith; the times that relationship and community draw us closer to God and each other as Christians.  Each of us is walking a private path on a common journey.  At this Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit embolden us to tell the story of God’s presence in our lives with the same honesty and love we read in the stories of Sarah, Tracy, Chris and Karin.