Hello, and welcome to the Tiber River Café. My name is Dean Humphreys, and today’s topic
is the third installment of my faith story.
I was born and raised Protestant in the United Church of Christ and had
a lukewarm spirituality for most of my early life. It wasn’t until I met Lisa, my future wife,
that my Christianity started to come alive.
The vast majority of people are
baptized as infants, with no memory of that special and eternal event. At the time of my conversion the Catholic
Church did not recognize the baptism I had received as an infant in the United
Church of Christ (I didn’t share this with my parents, wasn’t sure how they
would have taken it), so I had the tremendous opportunity to be baptized again
in the Catholic Church. What a moment
when Deacon Bud poured the water over my head and said that I was baptized in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I had the biggest smile on my face, Lisa was
crying, and a feeling of complete joy and happiness came over me, even though I
didn’t fully understand the magnitude of what had just happened—and after more
than 20 years I’m still not sure I fully understand the enormity of it
all. I remember the very first time I
received the Eucharist. I anticipated
for several months and with great expectation the first time I would receive
the Eucharist. I was so excited about
receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, although at the time I only had a very
basic understanding of this mystery. I
have continued to pray and study about the Eucharist for the past 22
years. The Eucharist is powerful and
life-transforming, and the Eucharist continues to be the foundation of my
faith. I wanted to have a family and I
wanted us to share a common faith, and my first Confession, Baptism,
Confirmation, and First Eucharist were the first steps, on some pretty big
cobblestones, in our lifelong faith journey as a family.
My experience with RCIA and coming
into the Catholic Church started in motion an interest, a hunger, for
additional reading and study—and what started as a small ember of faith has
intensified over the years into what seems like an unquenchable roaring
fire. I had a lot of questions about a
lot of things Catholic: confession, the
pope and infallibility, heaven/hell/purgatory, saints, authority, and of course
the big one, Mary. From the very
beginning I humbly accepted that the Catholic Church has been around for 2000
years and the Church knows a lot more about these things than I do, and that I
would need to read, ask questions, and educate myself on my various
uncertainties and difficulties. I know
it sounds pompous or arrogant to say “I accepted” but in reality I think the
majority of people truly believe they know better than the Church, as evidenced
by the number of baptized Catholics who continue to leave the Church. And over the years each of my difficulties
were clearly explained and the answers made complete sense. I continue to add cobblestones to my
spiritual path.
The last major hurdle was Mary,
probably a major difficulty for a lot of former Protestants. At first I was indifferent to Mary, then perhaps
a little interested, and then I wanted to have that loving relationship with
Mary that I saw others cherish. I kept
reminding myself that 2000 years of Catholic theology and spirituality, with
some of the greatest Christian thinkers in history, it just had to be
right. So I started praying the Rosary, for
me a rather awkward prayer at first, but I kept trying. I kept praying that I would understand Mary,
that I would experience the joy and love of the mother of Jesus. Then one evening after about 16 years of
being Catholic and while praying the Rosary it became extremely and
overpowering real, I received a convincing sign of the reality, and I
wept. I finally and thankfully
understood and felt the love of Mary the Mother of Jesus. And my love for Mary continues to grow.
So there you have it, the third part of my faith story. Thanks again for stopping by the Tiber River
Café, where there is always plenty of room at the banquet table. And please take a look at my other sites,
youtube.com/TiberRiverCafe and twitter.com/Tiber_River. I hope to see you next time. Peace be with you.
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