Hi Everyone,
I too, as another person on this forum, will be boarding the RCIA train this Fall and I'm very excited!
I am Jewish and I connect with the Jewish community locally by attending ocassional services and holiday events. I love studying Torah (the 'Old Testament'), Talmud (Jewish law), and Hebrew. I am facinated by Jewish history, Rabbinical scholarly debate, holidays, and laws etc. I fill my intellect with that knowledge. But, what is missing for me in the Jewish arena, is a strong spiritual connection. Don't get me wrong. Prayer with God moves me, but I don't feel full of God's spirit like I see happens with my Christian friends.
So I asked myself: Am I missing something? Have the Christians got it right about Jesus being the foretold Messiah?
That led me to reading books about Jews who have converted to Catholocism. I wanted to see what their experiences were. Then, I read books about Christians who converted to Catholocism. Then I read about Maximillian Kolbe who died in Auschwitz in the place of a Jew. The more I read, the more fascinated and intrigued I became with the Catholic Religion.
To be clear, the reason that I chose Catholocism over other Christian religions was:
Catholocism is the oldest Christian Religion so it seems to me that Catholocism flowed from Judaism.
Catholics and Jews use ritual prayer to foster a type of meditational connection with God.
Catholics and Jews use their Sabbath services primarily for prayer with minimal 'preaching' to the congregation.
Priests wear zucchettos. Rabbis wears Kippahs. (Toe-may-toe, Toe-mah-toe) They're both skull caps.
Need I go on? You get my drift. Catholocism has the strongest history and theology of any Christian religion that I've looked into. If I'm going to convert, I want to do it right and that's means Catholic for me.
I am already devouring Catholic books and magazine articles, surfing catholic forums, and praying to God for guidance. I will be taking the RCIA classes in the fall at the beautiful Basilica of Sts. Peters and Paul in Chattanooga.
Here's a link to a beautiful mini-tour of the Basilica.
https://youtu.be/WWCgENoRwrcI'm very excited about this new journey in my life!
Prayers for all who have requested prayer, or for whom prayer has been requested.
