God be praised, I'm Catholic now!
Well, okay it was on Easter that I was officially Confirmed and my family and I have been so very busy with things I haven't had a chance to update things. Allow me to give you the overview.
My wife and I have completed RCIA for over a year now. We've been faithfully attending our parish and awaiting the final bump in our road -- our marriage annulments. That said, we made it a regular occurrence to go up with our kids and at least receive a blessing. My wife and I never felt we were entitled to receive the Eucharist. On the contrary, because of it's meaning we felt we needed to be right in our marriage with the church, God and ourselves. We both decided to await a ruling.
Well, that ruling finally came. To be honest I wasn't as excited as I was no longer stressed. My wife and I have both been through so much we wanted this last piece so very badly. There was a fear that my annulment may not be granted. Okay, I feared it. My wife, was very steadfast, patient, and never doubted for a moment I sadly was much more of the pessimist.
The Wednesday following the letters arrival, we dropped by copies at the church office while the kids were at PSR. Later that week, we got a call from the church office. Not only were we going to be confirmed (WOOT!), but Father wanted to know if we wanted to also have our marriage blessed. What an opportunity! We'd be able to witness four of the seven sacraments at once. I was excited and I was sure to impress on my children that is was unique and something to see.
With a rush, we invited family, and went through the whole Easter Vigil. This time, not helping our children but active participants. We were all finally going to be a united Catholic family and even though my wife and I were baptized in another christian faith tradition, our Confirmation was set.
The vigil went by so very fast. I had waited so very long for this moment I wanted to soak it in but it was a blur. For those watching it took likely way to long and reason why the Vigil seemed under-attended. It was really a unique opportunity for my children to witness as well as fellow parishioners. We have Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriage blessing, and Eucharist. I'm sure that our Protestant visitors were a bit bored, but for my family and I it was about the coolest thing that has happened in a while and one that left a very lasting impression; at least for me.
It's been a very long journey and partially the reason I've been absent from posting (excluding hospital visits, work, and generally other "busy" stuff). However, this blessing is a long time coming and my family and I are going to really enjoy this part of our journey as new Catholics. We thank God for this opportunity and hearing our prayers for joining his universal church.
I want to send a special thanks to our parish family, staff, Father John, our sponsors, and all the prayers that were given up on our behalf. I want to thank the Lord God for hearing our prayers for this process to both end and begin.
Amen.
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