Unfathomable Mercy: Beginning of My Catholic Journey

Prologue

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. 'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, the hour I first believed."

This journey began the moment I recognized the Lord deeply touching my heart for the first time, and how I responded to His call. The following details are of lessons I have learned on my own or by formation. These experiences occurred during my first year as a practicing Catholic. 

Before I begin, I will be sharing some context into where I was at with my faith before August 9th, 2020. I grew up in Washington, DC from 2005 till I went to college during the fall of 2019 .

Elementary School:

I always believed that God exists and I never questioned it. I received all the sacraments of initiation; Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. During catechism for First Holy Communion, I was in fourth grade and I loved to talk on and on about the faith! I even shared so much about it while I was attending a respectable public elementary school.  My First Holy Communion was on May 2012, one of the most exciting days of my life! 

Issues with publicly talking about the faith started in fifth grade. 

At school, I was talking with two of my classmates and our conversation went into talking about Jesus. I don't remember how the conversation went because our teacher then asked us "Who are you talking about?". My classmate then replied happily, "Jesus". My teacher got angry, looked at us sternly and plainly said "This is no time to talk about Jesus". After she said that I froze and my heart deflated. 

I made it my goal to go to a middle school where I can freely talk about Jesus and when I heard that there were Catholic schools, I gladly wanted to go! My desire was easily expressed at home and during my final days in elementary school. My classmates probably got annoyed with my constant "I'm going to a Catholic school!" or "I'll go to a Catholic school!", every time an argument or something wrong occurred. The same two classmates, who I talked about Jesus with, started to joke around and mock me about it. I kept quiet as usual for I was sort of shy and very quiet back then. Their laughs were so contagious that I too wanted to laugh. 

Middle School:

After graduating elementary school, I went to St. Anthony's for it was the closest Catholic school (4 blocks away) near my house at the time. I enjoyed my middle school years apart from the fact that I was the only light skinned student in my whole class but I still made some friends there (especially with the girls)! I had always been outgoing though I started to be less confident in myself when I first experienced crushes. The open door to future false hopes. 

My faith picked back up during these years and we had religion class twice a week. I was spiritually thriving and I was happy. My school had Mass every Friday, and we prayed before tests like the "Come Holy Spirit" prayer during 7th Grade. I loved being able to see crucifixes and pictures of the Saints in each classroom. Each classroom had a patron saint such as St. Thérèse of Lisieux was the patron saint of the 5th graders. During 7th grade, I had an amazing teacher for science and homeroom. She always played classical music when we wrote our reflections. In these reflections we could tell God anything we wanted to share with Him. She also introduced me to science and having your own patron saint. I got St. Gianna as my patron saint and I later chose her to be my Confirmation saint.