I love being Catholic.

But, if you are reading this blog, this shouldn’t be earth shattering information to you.  I’m writing a Catholic blog – a blog that’s pro-God, pro-Catholic Church, pro-life, pro-ministry, pro-family, pro-pro.  So, it should be pretty clear…

I love being Catholic.

I have never really explained why I love being Catholic, though.  And, to be honest, it would probably take years worth of blogs to explain all the things I love about the Catholic church, my Catholic faith, and my Catholic upbringing.

And, that’s just it.  That’s why I love being Catholic.

Being Catholic is a life-time journey towards something greater and bigger than me – heaven, salvation, unity with our God.

It’s pondering God – who He is, what He does, why He loves, how He loves, what He means to me.  It’s constantly working on my relationship with Him.

Catholicism is a treasure trove of teachings, writings, relics, history, stories that I will never reach the bottom of in my lifetime.  There are so many beautiful words to read, places to visit, prayers to be said, music to hear, people to know that I will never run out of new experiences.

And, being Catholic is never boring.  There’s books to read and discuss.  There’s homilies to meditate on and journal about.  There’s Scripture itself that is continually revealing new insights depending on where I am in my life or who I am talking to about things.  There are opinions to share and challenges to face and work through.  There are service projects to be completed, poor who need to be served.

My faith gives my life direction, purpose, and meaning.  It is an ongoing effort to do better, be better, love better.  It’s a steady stream of questions seeking answers for my ever-changing life, for the good things that happen and the bad.

Most importantly, though, we have Jesus himself in the Eucharist.  We get to have a relationship that is so personal and intimate with our God that we consume him, literally.  Our God becomes one with our natural, corporeal being.  He becomes actual food (bread & wine) that is transformed into part of our physical being through the biological processes that turn food into what our body needs to keep us alive.  The Eucharist keeps us alive spiritually AND physically.

And, all that?  It’s just the tip of the Catholic iceberg!  What about the sacraments?  The Blessed Mother?  Popes and doctors of the church?  Liturgical seasons, Holy Days, holidays, traditions!  Pilgrimage sites, cathedrals and basilicas!  Tiny chapels and blessed hillsides!  Tragedy and triumphs, sinners and saints.  You and me.  Could we ever really make an exhaustive list of all the things that pertain to the Catholic church throughout all of time and history?

It’s beyond me how anyone could say that being Catholic is “boring”.  It’s lost on me how anyone could choose to leave the majestic, long-standing tradition that is Catholicism.  I’m not saying that anyone else is wrong or bad for their faith or experiences or understanding of life.  But, I know that, for me, there’s no where else that I would ever call home.

Because, I love being Catholic.

“Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is.”
(Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)