Finally Catholic!

"To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them." 

-St. Thomas Aquinas

It was never in my thought process to become Catholic, I was taught that Catholics worship statues, and worship Mary. I was attending a protestant church on Sundays, not praying regularly (never taught), I liked the aspect of being able to see friends on Sundays and at youth events. But not until something tragic happens I would have never realized how much I was loved by God. In mid July of 2012, my mothers best friends son had passed away. His funereal was held at their Catholic Church about 5 minutes from where I live. The Church was very familiar because when I was age 5 my parents didn't belong to a religion and attended Mass on Sundays with a close family friend(which later became my God Parents). At the funereal I felt God leap into my heart, my attention was grasped on the words of the creed "I believe in One God, the Father Almighty" This confirmed that all along the things I was told about the Catholic Church were wrong.  

My Father soon found out that I wanted to start a conversion to the Church (I was age 13). I took another year until he allowed me to start formation classes! I went a 6 week private meeting to catch up on lessons from 7th Grade Formation Class, so that once 8th Grade started I would be able to jump in and know what was going on. I was very anxious for Easter Vigil when I knew I would be able to fully enter the Church. I met a lot of different people through this process, and also started to attend Middle School Youth Group, and ARISE program for teens. Which was great to be together with other practicing Catholics. I started to attend Daily Masses, in fact the summer of 2013 I went every single day until school started back up. I continued to grow a devotion to the rosary, and some pretty cool saints. I started a Facebook page called: Next Generation Catholics. It continued to help me grow in my faith, as well as bringing others back to the faith.

On April 19,2014 I fully entered the Church through Baptism, Conformation, and First Communion. It was a very glorious day and I have continued to live out my promises of being a Catholic. I truly am proud of this huge thing that God had put forth me. I wonder what He has in store for me!

I chose St. John Paul II as my patron saint!
So happy he was Canonized!