Swimming The Tiber

On Joining the Roman Catholic Church

Photo by Olga Lioncat

Last year, in two posts, “An Ecumenical Mess” and “On My Way Home,” I wrote about my journey from Protestantism and my decision to join the Catholic Church. I have since journeyed through RCIA (soon to be OCIA) and wanted to share my experience.

Sunday Obligation

“To go to Mass is to receive the fullness of grace, the very life of the Trinity. No power in heaven or on earth can give us more than we receive in the Mass, for we receive God into ourselves. We must never underestimate these realities. In the Mass, God has given us His very life.” Scott Hahn

One of my initial objections to joining the Church was the Sunday Obligation. Now, I cannot imagine any Sunday without Mass. God tells us in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” When we come together at Mass, we kneel before Christ the King, worship Him in the way that the Apostles have given us, through their successors, and are then (hopefully) stirred up by one another to love and do good works. At Mass, we are given all the power and grace needed to be effective witnesses for Christ, His Kingdom, and to make known His desire that ALL might be reconciled to Himself. We are given His body and blood out of an abundance of His love for us, and we can then take that love into the world. After just a few weeks of regular attendance, God gifted me with a love of Holy Mass, making Sunday Mass the easiest and most wonderful obligation to fulfill. Any Holy Day of Obligation or daily Mass I attend feels like a bonus, a true blessing where I am given yet another opportunity to worship God in spirit and truth.

Eucharist, Jean Dughet, Nicolas Poussin

RCIA (or OCIA)

Participating in the Rite or Order of Christian Initiation of Adults had all the hallmarks of an actual journey: peaks, valleys, storms, peace, and periods of stagnation. The peaks for me were every Sunday when the participants gathered together a few hours before Mass to learn and discuss the teachings of the Catholic Church with the Priest and instructor. The valleys were my failings and sins. Here I learned more and more about the Lord, His love for me, and felt more love for Him, and yet I struggled terribly with sins, some of which I thought had conquered. Peace fell upon me forcefully each time I completed a step in the process, especially when I could finally participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And by God’s grace, Advent and Christmastide were periods of abundant peace in our household. My wife and I felt it so strongly that just the other day, we commented on how incredible that season was and how we long for it again this year. This, of course, was followed by the storm of Lent. Lent became a time of immense struggle. Habits like daily rosary prayer and scripture reading became difficult to maintain, and my Lenten fast seemed ten times harder than I’d anticipated. However, this storm, and all the peaks and valleys in between, were made bearable by the place our Priest chose for our stagnation, which was in the love of God.

The first words out of the Priest’s mouth during RCIA were “God loves you,” and this was undoubtedly the most repeated phrase and most emphasized point during our initiation. No matter what sacrament or doctrine we discussed, we were always made aware that all of this truth was given to us out of God’s enduring love for us, His children. This became most evident when these experiences came together in the Easter Vigil Mass.

Easter Vigil, April 19th, 2025.

I’ve attended numerous Christian retreats and at least half a dozen Christian conferences. I’ve been moved by loud and emotional Christian music and have experienced intense spiritual events and moments. I have no intention of putting any of those experiences down, but I have to say that, without a doubt, the Easter Vigil Mass was the most Christian Mass, service, or event I’ve ever attended. Everything from the lighting of the Paschal candle, the Exsultet, the immense amount of carefully chosen scripture readings, the sacrament of baptism, and the culmination in the participation of the Holy Eucharist all coalesced into the most beautiful expression of the Christian faith we have. Every memory and feeling of dissatisfaction with the Christian faith, the pain, the endeavor to find the truth of what Christ said about His Kingdom, and making the long journey into the Church He established, was all made good when I could finally, truly, worship Jesus.

Keep Swimming

I am now a member of the Roman Catholic Church, but the journey is far from over. From now on, until the end of my life, I must keep going. I must pursue holiness. I must pursue sainthood. I will do so by keeping my eyes on Christ. I will fall short. I will fail. And when I do, I ask that you pray for me. Pray that I return to His sacraments. Pray that I return to His love. Pray that I may then do my best to love others, and in doing so love God and remain obedient unto Him. If you have any interest or questions regarding potentially joining the Catholic Church, feel free to reach out to me. If you are anti-Catholic and feel the urge to leave combative or argumentative comments, you can, but know that I will not argue with you. I will sincerely ask that God bless you and your family, and I will not engage any further. If you identify as Catholic but have issues with the current state of the Church and want to argue and debate that, again, you can comment, but I will not engage.

Christ called us to be one body, unified to Him as He is unified to the Father. I pray that we do our best to participate in our faith together in a unified way and ask Jesus to help us as we aim for that unification. I pray that we may love and encourage each other to seek God and love Him above all else. Go in peace, and may God bless you.