Pentecost

My Testimony
Pentecost Sunday 10:15 Mass May 19, 2002

Good Morning My name is Dan Thomas.

I am happy to say that I am one of the newly received members in the Catholic Church and specifically here at St. Lawrence Martyr.

Each of us Neophytes from the recent RCIA “class” that went thru the Easter vigil has a story to tell, and for the next few minutes you get to hear mine.

My loving parents, who I still very much respect and honor, raised me in this area. My father came from a Protestant background and my mother was raised in the Jewish faith. That made me “religiously confused” and without a push or pull into any particularly faith none was practiced leaving a somewhat of a spiritual void.

In the past, in my personal times of needs or troubles, (& there were more than a few) I did pray in my own way, and always felt a higher power watching over me.

I’m thankful that God brought Noreen (my wife) and I together. She and her family have a very strong Catholic faith that I didn’t realize at the time would play such and important role to me.

We were married in the Church over 9 years ago. We meet with a priest after first becoming engaged and I agreed to “sign over” and raise our future kids in the church. Shortly after our marriage my mother-in-law was found to have a very aggressive cancer, and after a short battle, passed away. During that time I was really surprised as I watched and felt the outpouring of love and support the family received from friends at their church.

Witnessing all of the “happenings” my eyes were opened and it hit me that there was something much more to the Church. The Church was not just a building or place of worship, it was, and is, so much more. It is a community; it is all of you wonderful people.

A short time later my wife and I became pregnant and had our first daughter. I again felt a very strong push to look further into the Church and get more committed about our spiritual life. At home we were having serious discussions about how to raise our children and where they should go to school. We decided to get plugged into St. Lawrence and joined a ministry (new to us) called C.F.M. - although admittedly, I was still confused about identifying the differences of Christians vs. Catholics.

A couple of years later our son was born and we also moved up from being “In” CFM to “Leading” one of the groups. At that time I started looking further into the religion conversion process.

I then attended a few RCIA meetings but didn’t follow thru until our oldest child went to “public” kindergarten. I really wanted to instill in her good morals and values. I felt a good church upbringing would be best. Not wanting to be hypocritical myself, I thought I better get serious about the conversion process.

My personal RCIA journey started out as something I thought I was just doing for my family and my children. But, then I realized it was much more, and had turned into something else. I realized that it was for myself, as much as, if not more than, it was for others.

I started understanding more about the church; it’s traditions and rituals. My desire for the Eucharist was growing strong. Many of the bible readings seemed to be written specifically for me. I even started praying regularly and felt more comfortable mentioning ”God” & “Jesus” by name in normal conversations.

Even in our CFM meetings, me the labeled “Non-Catholic” starting chiming in more on the topics and really felt like I was contributing to the community discussions and ongoing dialogues among like-minded people.

At the same time our 3rd child arrived, a now curly haired beautiful little girl, we also took over leading the entire St. Lawrence CFM ministry with our good friends Brenda & Greg Argano.

While I was going thru RCIA last year our first daughter entered St. Lawrence Kindergarten and got onto the catholic education track. And YES while she was learning her prayers by memorization she was helping me learn too. She STILL corrects me if miss a line in one of the structured prayers (but I am getting better).

The last year has been tremendously gratifying for me spiritually. There was certainly a time commitment involved. For some reason, I waited until the exact moment in my life when I was the busiest, AND ONLY THEN, decided make the commitment and seriously go thru the RCIA process. The time has gone by so quickly & it was so worth it.

After each “RITE” and step in the RCIA process, when parishioners (some whom I knew, some I didn’t know) came up and said some very nice and encouraging words, it was very uplifting.

A very special moment, when it really hit me, was when my wife talked about how we would be able to spend eternity together in heaven. Wow – What a Gift!

RCIA has been and will continue to be a PROCESS for me. I learned a lot and know there is so much more to learn and experience.

A year ago, at my RCIA “Rite of Acceptance” here during Mass I publicly: Asked the lord to accept my past and to guide me As I learn more about he church and it’s teachings.

I also: Asked the Church and this Christian Community for their prayers and support for both my family & me as I learn more about God’s love.

I’m happy to report that this church community, has far exceeded my requests and I truly thank you.

We all hear the news and can’t avoid the “church topics” now in the public eye. All I can say, as a newly received member to the church, It is a great time to be Catholic and I am so happy to be part of this church specifically.

I have received such great gifts from God: my wife, children, friends and of course receiving the Eucharist. All are precious reminders to me that I am truly blessed.

I look forward to giving back to the community and church that has given me so much.

- Thank you for allowing me to share this with you.