You Can Return, You Can Ask Questions
Lent begins today in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a great time to reevaluate our relationship with Christ, who gave it all so we could return to the Father’s love, and live in his love, to hopefully one day gain life in Heaven.
“…I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
All the faithful are invited to spend Lent returning to a deeper relationship. It seems also a wonderful time for anyone seeking to return to the Church, or learn more about the Church and the Catholic faith, to seek the answers to the questions in the mind and on their hearts.
An open letter to women who have left the Catholic Church:
We want to invite you to come talk with us, and we are excited to meet you! Just like you, we are daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers; students, professionals, and stay-at-home moms. We are teenagers, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, and beyond. We are from many walks of life and from diverse backgrounds, but we share a common faith – one we want to invite you to revisit.
Some of us have been away from the Church, and by one way or another we’ve come back. Some of us never left – but that doesn’t mean we’ve never questioned nor been confused. Some of us were raised outside of the Church, and made the decision to join as adults. In one way or another, each one of us has come to know and love Christ in the Catholic Church – and in keeping with Pope Francis’ request we want to share that love and joy with you.
Being Catholic isn’t easy, and we’ll be the first to tell you that we aren’t perfect; we have many planks in our own eyes to worry about. Our faith embraces paradoxes, challenges our culture’s values, and makes us feel uncomfortable when we are called to examine our actions and our motivations. But – as you already know – just because something is challenging does not mean it is not worthwhile.
We know that you are intelligent and capable. We believe that you deserve answers to your questions, and explanations for the teachings with which you’re struggling. We’ve all struggled with various aspects of our faith, but we aren’t here to judge or condemn you. We simply want to listen to what you’re feeling. We want to understand what is making you uncertain about being part of our Catholic faith. We want to help you find the answers and explanations that helped bring us home. We want to meet you, we want to hear about your experience, and most importantly, we want to invite you back.
Feel free to email any of us with questions or concerns you may have about the Church, her teachings, or what reversion means. If you’re not ready to bare your soul to complete strangers, we’d love to direct you to sites that helped us (and still help us) as we discerned our calling in life.
Wherever you are, whatever you believe, know that we are praying for you. You are our sister – another woman navigating a challenging world. We look forward to talking with you!
In The Peace and Love of Christ,
The members of #cathsorority
Please forgive the off topic comment, but your comment on my blog today wasn’t linked to an email and I can’t find one on your blog either, so here we are.
To answer the question you asked, I would really encourage you to use your kids real names or pseudonyms that are just different real names. Cutesy nicknames and initials put a barrier between you and your readers. It says to them, “I’m not going to let you in.” If you don’t want to share real names, fake names are much better, but can be awkward if people you know in real life read your blog. My solution has been to use my kids’ real names but not say things on my blog that I think would embarrass them unduly.
I’m on an iPad, so maybe it’s in a mobile device mode or something, but I’m not seeing a picture of you, or even your name. No email, no about page. I think all of those things really help engage readers. (Maybe I’m just not seeing them.)
But the page itself is really pretty. These are my favorite colors! And it looks like you’ve got content. :0)