July 2008 - Post WYD

July 2008

Following WYD I feel really close to God and I feel much clearer about what’s important to me. I feel peaceful and content in lots of ways and I feel like I’ve reconnected with being Catholic, which I’m so glad to have done. I attended confession for the first time in many years and I’m amazed at how that feels. I’d been carrying that around for a long time. I’ve remembered all the great things about being Catholic, not just the negative ones that can get focussed on when you live a mainstream, secular life.

My sister is a great inspiration to me in terms of her religion, it’s really great. It’s just such a serene, uplifting experience being with so many Catholics and making it a visible, key part of your life. The Spanish priest I confessed to asked me if I had prayed for a husband and I said yes and he said “you can pray with great confidence”. I feel it clarified a lot of feelings I’d been having about being single and how I feel like I know what I want and what I’ve waited for and it’s not something or anything I know isn’t right. I don’t feel any urgency because I know it will happen when it’s right.

I feel like it is very important to me to marry a Catholic man because I think keeping faith and living a Catholic life. I feel like I have to constantly defend my faith and lots of the people I know are anti-Christian.