Our Journey - A Synopsis

 The RCIA team at our parish asked Adam and I to be part of a small group of speakers at Mass this past Sunday. We were asked to share about our journey into the church, and to share a "Good Shepherd moment" that we had along the way, that showed us that God was guiding us into the church.

Adam and I agreed, although it was a bit daunting and we were dreading speaking in front of everyone just a bit! I think we kind of blocked it out until right before we had to go up there, so it wasn't too terribly stressful. We did put a lot of work into our talk though, because we didn't want to mess up and we wanted to try and do our journey and the RCIA program justice.

So I thought the best thing to do, since we weren't able to get a video or anything of our talk, would be to just give a "transcript" of our talk here for you all. I hope you enjoy!


Good Shepherd Witness Talk,  April 21, 2013
Adam and Kelli Taylor

Adam:

Thank you, Father Pat, for giving us the opportunity to speak.

I’m Adam Taylor, and this is my wife, Kelli. We were asked by the RCIA team to share with you our experience going through RCIA and how God called us into the church.

Our journey is a little different than most, as our family converted from a Protestant faith all at the same time. In short, we took advantage of the RCIA program for adults and for children, as well as the baptism program, all at once. As one of our friends said, “That’s a whole lot of sacraments.”

I’m going to hand this over to my lovely wife to start us off.

Kelli:

We decided I should share first since I sort of drug our family into this whole experience. Adam and I came from different Protestant faiths and have been exploring our faith and searching for a church since we were married over 10 years ago. Through my step family  and the prolife movement, I was first exposed to the Catholic faith and to praying the Rosary, which began our journey towards the Catholic church.

It reached a point in our search, where I felt so torn about the direction we were headed, where I was unsure if continuing to look into Catholicism was where God was leading us. I went to Mass alone, and before it began I silently begged God to please just give me some sort of sign or acknowledgement that he was calling us to begin RCIA. As soon as my prayer ended, the processional hymn began, and it was a song that I had fallen in love with several years ago.

Many of you may be familiar with it, the song is called “The Summons”, and the first verse begins –

“Would you come and follow me, if I but called your name?

Would you go where you don’t know, and never be the same?”

The moment I heard that song, I knew that God was answering my prayer. I was actually so surprised by the immediate response, that I blurted out, “Are you kidding me?” and apparently I said it very loudly because I got quite a few stares from the people who were sitting  around me.

This moment assured me that we were being led to the Catholic church, even though at the time my husband was not so agreeable to this idea, but that is his story to tell you. Adam…

Adam:

Not being agreeable is a generous understatement. To be completely honest with all of you, I was pretty angry. At that point in my faith, I was of the opinion that no Christian “denomination” had a correct doctrinal belief, and worst of all, much of the Catholic faith specifically wasn’t based in the Bible and was hence “made-up”. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be in a made up pseudo Christian faith that has so many hoops you have to jump through to even become a member. RCIA lasts HOW LONG? Months?? What a roadblock to faith!

After a lot of spiritual debates with my wife, I came to the conclusion that I needed to attend RCIA with her, to make sure they didn’t fill her head with a bunch of nonsense. After my first few RCIA classes, I was wonderfully surprised to learn that most of the Catholic faith that I considered “made-up”, was actually based on scripture. God worked through RCIA to show me that many of the Catholic “roadblocks” as I called them, such as confession, intercession, and the church traditions, were in reality gifts and sacraments from God to have a fuller and more complete relationship with Him.

My “Good Shepherd Moment” came during an RCIA retreat where I heard the verse that was actually our Gospel reading last Sunday – I’m sure you all remember it right? In John 21, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, and tells him three times to feed his sheep. At that moment, I was convinced of the primacy of Peter, and I knew that I was absolutely supposed to be Catholic.

Kelli:

Throughout RCIA, our entrance into the church, and these weeks since, we have continued to see God’s guiding hand through many coincidences and connections. We look forward to continuing to discern God’s will for our family, our vocations, and our service in the church, through growing in our faith, partaking of the sacraments, and staying founded in prayer.  

We are so thankful for the RCIA team here at Saints Simon and Jude for guiding us into the church, for the wonderful childcare workers the church provided for us and who took such amazing care of our children during our RCIA classes and retreats, to our dear friends, who for years helped pray us into the church without our knowledge, and especially to our sponsors, who walked alongside us as we came home.

Adam:

Thank you all for allowing us to briefly share our experience with you, and we ask that you please pray for and continue to offer support to the people who are currently in the RCIA program. Thank you.

 

I thought since I mentioned in the talk we gave about a song that spoke to me, The Summons, that I should share the song with you here. I hope it blesses you!