Trying to be Patient

Patience is a virtue right? That is what I tell all my kids at work anyway. Now I suppose it is one I get to work on myself. The problem is whenever I'm decided something, from which brand of electronic item to buy to which church I should be in, I go through more or less the same process. I think about it, read everything I can about it, talk to people, and pray (more so with churches, not so much with electronics ). And then finally after all of that, make a decision. By the time I get to the decision part, I'm ready for it to just happen! I'm ready to have whatever I decided to buy or I'm ready to be part of that church. I'm committed! But often there is still this waiting period. And I totally understand having this process for joining the Church, but I'm still a bit impatient sometimes!

All this to say, last night we started talk a little more about what the process for coming into the Church looks like. We talked about all the rights and periods and all of that stuff. They handed out a paper with all of the dates and such on it. At first my heart kind of dropped. When I signed up, the bulletin said the RCIA class ran through Easter and the Profession of Faith Class (for the already baptized) was 12 weeks long. So I was hoping that after 12 weeks, I could become fully Catholic. So when we got this paper last night my heart kind of dropped thinking I may have to wait until Easter. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the classes or anything, they are good. But like I was talking about, I'm ready. I've gone through that process in my head and heart and I want to be able to participate in the Sacraments!

But then I turned the paper over and it had another side! The first side said it was for the unbaptized of the baptized and unchurched. The second side was for the baptized who are already practicing Christians. Hey, that is me! And for that side, they say you can enter the Church at any time after everyone has decided you are ready, but they usually do it twice a year, right before Advent and at Easter Vigil.

So the director is going through all of this with everyone. She is really stressing that it is a process and that for some people it will take longer, and they may not even be ready at Easter Vigil this year, and for others, they may be ready in a couple of months. We are supposed to go home and think and pray about it this week and then talk to our sponsors. And then we are going to turn in when we think we will be ready next week.

So I think I'll be ready, and hopefully my sponsor will say the same. And hopefully I might be confirmed and receive First Communion at the end of November. If they tell me to wait I will and I'll be patient with the process, but since they are asking my opinion...