First "Class"

Well, I had my first Profession of Faith class tonight. It was interesting. I'm still sorting through all my thoughts and feelings, but I think I'm really going to like it. All the people were really nice and were extremely passionate about the whole thing which was neat. It is always encouraging to see people so excited about their faith. It also seems like it will be a good mix between "book learning" and faith formation. The leader talked a lot about it being a process not a program (they aren't classes either, they are sessions) which makes sense. This kind of thing isn't going to happen on the same timetable for everyone, and everyone is starting at a different place in it all. But at the same time, it doesn't seem like it will be fluffy or unorthodox. She also talked about the book we had and how we will have to stand up there and answer if we believe in all that the Catholic Church teaches, so we better know what that is! So it seems like it will be a good balance.

A couple things that struck me; first, she talked about mystery. She talked about how it isn't like a puzzle to be figured out, like a mystery book. It also isn't just throwing up your hands and saying "It is a mystery" and not thinking about anything. I wish I remember exactly how she said it, but the basic idea is that while we still try our best to understand and talk about things, at the same time, we know that our ideas and words are incomplet, that we don't see the whole. I like that, it is the balance. We try to understand and explain things as best we can, but because God is so big and so other, we will always fall a little short of what He actually is.

Another thing I liked, was we were talking about the Bible. She talked about if someone found your journal, would they have a pretty good idea of who you are as a person? Yes, but they wouldn't be able to totally understand the whole you. That is what they Bible is, it gives us a good idea about God, but we still can't totally understand God from it.

The other thing she talked about were kind of the four big focuses of this process. Catechism, learning about what the Catholic Church believes, the Bible, reading and processing it, community, becoming part of this community, and worship, participating in Mass. That makes sense to me, it seems like a nice well rounded approach to the whole thing. I guess for me, I feel like I have a decent grasp on the first two. I'm really excited about being part of a community, meeting people and haveng people around to be encouraged by and to encourage. And worship is what drew me to this in the first place, so that excites me!

I was also chatting with one of the people running it a little bit and she was telling me about one of the ladies who used to be in charge, and how she went through a similar thing as I am, trying to drop things at one church and adding them here. She mentioned how hard it had been for this lady. That was really encouraging to know that there people who have gone through what I'm dealing with and that they understand!

So that was pretty much it. Starting to get to know people and kind of a general overview of what the process would be like. It was interesting and it will be even better as I begin to feel more comfortable and get to know those around me.