Running Ahead on the Way to God Knows Where

"Steady me when the road of faith gets rocky
Oh ready me, for fears I cannot see
Lord, won't You let me be a witness to Your promise
Won't You steady me?

We run on up ahead, we lag behind You;
It's hard to wait when Heaven's on our minds.
Teach our restless feet to walk beside You
'Cause in our hearts we're already gone
Will You walk with us
Steady on..." ~Point of Grace

I was so sure God said Go To Rome. So, wanting to be obedient to His command (for a change), on Sunday I went to Mass. I got there about 15 minutes early - I thought it would give me time to read through the service in the bulletin so I would sort of look like I knew what I was doing when things got started. Well, guess what? This parish does not include the service of the Mass in their bulletins! It's more of a weekly newsletter. The Lutheran church I'd been attending handed you a bulletin with every last bit of the liturgy spelled out for you. I thought for sure every liturgical church did that. Oops.

The Liturgy of the Word: We were told where in the hymnal/prayer book to find the readings, and I managed to locate the Nicene Creed just in time. I had read the Catholic version a few times before (I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters....) and vaguely recalled parts of it so I stuttered through it. My Lutheran church only uses the Nicene Creed during Advent; and our confessional prayer changes periodically.

The Homily: He preached on humility. I learned (yes! I learned something!) that the root for humility is the same as the word for dirt/earth. By genuflecting, and letting one knee touch the "dirt" we not only are bowing before the Presence of the Lord, but we acknowledge from whence we came.

I knew I could not rightly participate in the Eucharist, AND I had to get home to help dh get kids ready to go to The Bridge; so I left at the start of that portion of the service. What a bit of relief to notice a few other people doing the same. My Catholic friends had told me that not every Catholic will go forward to receive Holy Communion, for whatever reason; but the idea of someone choosing to not participate in the sacrament was so foreign to me I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.

In my heart, I am s-l-o-w-l-y becoming Catholic. I played around with a couple of "denominational selector" type quizzes, and was totally honest in my answers. I had done the same type of quiz a few years back and was usually a mix of Baptist, Assemblies of God, and Methodist. My latest results? Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican/Episcopal were consistently in my top 5. Yeah, I'd say God is working on me.