You’re Catholic! Woohoo!

By Shirley B (2008) via Freeimages.com, PD

When was the last time you let yourself go deep in thought about how much you love being a Roman Catholic?

As wives and mothers our hearts send our thoughts down sporadic love paths for our husbands and kids.

I’ll be nursing, looking into my infant’s eyes and completely forget about the world going on beyond my couch and Boppy.

I sit in the passenger side and glance over at the hubby carefully weaving through traffic with the whole family in tow and my heart melts as I remember glancing over at that same man, driving us to our first date.

Our deep love for our families give us little “love bites” throughout our days.

Does love for your Catholic faith ever give you some love bites?

I sure hope so.

We are so stinking lucky to be Catholic.

Just think about it for a second. All of your fave Catholic things.

What’d you come up with? I’ll take some guesses . . .

The Eucharist.

Walking into that Blessed Sacrament chapel, kneeling before our Lord, right there in front in His tangible state… is crazy awesome. You can feel the holiness in the air.

How about our Holy Mother? Yeeeessss! I know I wouldn’t be in this wonderful place of life right now if it wasn’t for her.

Which brings me to my next guess . . .

Novenas and all other Catholic prayers.

I love that when I am so overcome by emotion that I can not put a prayer into words I have “go to prayers” to offer up.

And also, novenas are just wonderful. Something happens, you need help, you find the perfect novena and bam! Your hope in the prayer begins to ease your soul.

One of my favorites are the statues. I love me a good religious statue.

One time on vacation my family was walking down the Riverwalk area of San Antonio trying to find the church we were attending for Mass that day. On the way we passed a skinny woman laying on the ground, pregnant tummy exposed to all. I wasn’t sure if she was begging for money or simply resting from the Texas heat, because I had quickly looked away.

A few minutes later we had arrived at the church and right on the side of it was a statue of “Homeless Jesus.” He was laying on a bench in a way that was so strikingly similar to the pregnant lady I had just uncomfortably walked past. I reached out and touched Jesus’ head in forgiveness for my heart of stone.

It was a powerful moment. But it didn’t stop there.

As I kept walking towards the entrance, I saw one of my boys had stopped at the statue. It was my six-year-old. He stopped, reached into his pocket and placed the precious penny he had been so excited to find just moments before, right by Jesus’ head.

What a moment.

I am so grateful that our church acknowledges we are tangible creatures that are moved by objects we can touch and see.

Part of that story holds another one of my faves.

I love that our church truly is a universal church. I know that at 9 AM on Sunday there are many others doing the same exact thing I am.

We’re all praying the same exact prayers and kneeling at the same time.

We are all calling up to God in this one, universal way.

How beautiful. I mean, really, how beautiful.

I love our magnificent cathedrals and how we have men and women that commit their lives to God as priest and nuns. I love that we are the faith of Scott Hahn, Mother Angelica and Fr. John Riccardo. I love that we are “obligated” to attend Mass every single Sunday because receiving the Eucharist and visiting God in His house is just that important. I love how deep the faith is. I love the rich history we have. I love our traditions, how they’ve been passed down just like any family’s traditions. I love that Jesus . . . Jesus Himself (!) started our church and gave us an apostle as our first Pope. I love our hymns. I love that we put the Bible together and I love that we have guidelines on how to interpret scripture as well as Lectio Divina.

[tweet "Every single thing about being #Catholic enriches my faith life and brings me closer to God."]

I love that every single thing about being Catholic enriches my faith life and brings me closer to God.

Watching people walk up and receiving the Eucharist gives me the biggest love bite for our Catholic faith. It can bring me to tears.

Fall in love, truly FALL IN LOVE with being Catholic and be excited!! We are SO STINKING LUCKY to have been called into this faith. Jump for joy, guys!!

Take some time and think: what gives you your Catholic love bites?