--Me and the Catholic Church-- Chapter One: falling in love.

So, I promised I'd get to this, didn't I? Here it is. A little explaination of my choice to join the Catholic Church.
The fall before last, I began hanging out with Nathan again. We had been good friends in highschool and had attended each others churches at that time. During my first year at Capernwray, we had sent letters back and forth discussing differences and similarities of the way we understand and relate to God- as a Catholic, or as a "non-denominational" Christian. He asked some tough questions, that I had to ask around for some good answers for, and he quoted from books as well as friends... both of us quoted from scripture. It definitely wasn't debate-ish, though. Very friendly and mutually interested. He actually sent me a rosary with a little booklet explaining how it is prayed that year. I remember being surprised by how biblical it was. The "Mary prayers" were still weird to me, but the idea never bothered me much. It seemed clear to me that the Catholic Christians I knew didn't worship her or place her on a level with Jesus. So that's some background. Right. So... that fall, I started going to the Catholic Church during the weekday Mass, just as a place to find quietness, to discipline myself to regular prayer, and (let's be honest here) to do a little spying. And I loved what I found from the first. The people were sweet, devoted, quiet hearted and kind. I mean, I'm sure they are also human, but really, it was an oasis for me. I began popping in during afternoons sometimes to pray in the tabernacle. I should mention that the very second time I ever went to a weekday morning mass, a very beautiful older lady presented me with a 800 and some page Catechism of the Catholic Church with a lovely dedication to me from her on the inside cover! She gave it to me while parading me around like her little prize chicken introducing me, telling all the older ladies that I was working with Youth For Christ and that I knew my bible, and wasn't that just great. Right so I was starting to wade into that catechism in the evenings. Soon I began to really hurt over the split in the Church. Now, I know that for non-Catholic Christians, it sometimes feels that the splits are superficial and only exist because the Catholic Church is so "exclusive". And a lot of the "reasons" that we are not fully united ARE superficial. But some are not, and when you are there with a quiet heart and desiring to be so close with the Lord, and are excluded from the communion table, it can break your heart how real that split is. So I would stay kneeling and pray for the people of God. Or I would go up and receive a blessing from Father Paul. And I would pray that God would show me what to do. Because I SO DESIRED in my heart to receive communion there. But why? Why couldn't I just go and take communion at some other church and let it be? I don't know. But I do know that that church drew me like a magnet, and that I felt more at home there than I ever have any church. I felt my heart quiet and open up as soon as I walked in. I had to discipline my mind to be critical and alert to any heresy, so that my conscience would be clean. But the experience was so rich.
Well. I said "a little explaination," but clearly this is going to be more like a chronicle. So I think I'll leave you hanging for now and get back to you soon with the next chapter.