- Jun 1, 2020
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I have one remaining living friend, and he has four kids and a wife. He was Catholic as a kid but stopped going to mass in his teens. We spent a lot of years causing trouble in the way that teenage boys do, but we've outgrown that now. We usually talk every afternoon while he is working because it keeps him company (he is a subcontractor who installs windows & doors, so he can be on the phone while he works because he has no boss to answer to. Lucky guy)
Our conversations have a lot to do with the state of the country and social factors at large. He has three daughters and a son, is married (civilly) and is a fairly conservative guy both economically and socially, so we often decry the speed at which society is becoming increasingly degenerate, what that means for his kids & kids in general, all sorts of stuff & even how if we knew the way that 2021 would be, we would have refrained from a lot of the debauchery when we were younger.
When I started going back to mass, I began praying every day that this guy would come around and start going to mass again. His big thing is that "I hated church as a teenager, but if it makes you happy that's good that you have something like that in your life". He struggles with belief in God like most of us have at one point or another (and like I still do when I see the way that society is going).
But today, I told him I was going to go to the TLM in Sarasota this weekend and he said "I've been thinking a lot about going back to church lately, even if I don't necessarily believe in a lot of it, it would be good for my kids and maybe I'd find that sense of inner peace". THIS IS NOT LIKE HIM. When I started going back to mass, he unequivocally told me that he "hated mass as a teenager" but that "If it works for you, by all means do it". This is something that has come out of seemingly nowhere, and I pray for him every day, so I am pleased by this progress and feel like my prayers are being answered. He has been my close friend since 2003 and after my other close friend died, I began to worry about not only my own situation with God, but his and that of his children and wife.
So this is a welcome change. What I think really got him interested was when I told him that I was driving to Sarasota to go to Latin Mass this Sunday and he's said something today that took me aback: "If I were to go back to church, I'd want it to be as traditional a church as possible".
So I'm hoping and believing in Christ and the BVM to continue to do work on him. I want what's best for him and his family, especially because he and his wife often say "If you hadn't introduced us, Zoey (8 year old daughter) would not exist, so we're thankful for you every day" and it would be good for the church in general to have another young family attending.
Our conversations have a lot to do with the state of the country and social factors at large. He has three daughters and a son, is married (civilly) and is a fairly conservative guy both economically and socially, so we often decry the speed at which society is becoming increasingly degenerate, what that means for his kids & kids in general, all sorts of stuff & even how if we knew the way that 2021 would be, we would have refrained from a lot of the debauchery when we were younger.
When I started going back to mass, I began praying every day that this guy would come around and start going to mass again. His big thing is that "I hated church as a teenager, but if it makes you happy that's good that you have something like that in your life". He struggles with belief in God like most of us have at one point or another (and like I still do when I see the way that society is going).
But today, I told him I was going to go to the TLM in Sarasota this weekend and he said "I've been thinking a lot about going back to church lately, even if I don't necessarily believe in a lot of it, it would be good for my kids and maybe I'd find that sense of inner peace". THIS IS NOT LIKE HIM. When I started going back to mass, he unequivocally told me that he "hated mass as a teenager" but that "If it works for you, by all means do it". This is something that has come out of seemingly nowhere, and I pray for him every day, so I am pleased by this progress and feel like my prayers are being answered. He has been my close friend since 2003 and after my other close friend died, I began to worry about not only my own situation with God, but his and that of his children and wife.
So this is a welcome change. What I think really got him interested was when I told him that I was driving to Sarasota to go to Latin Mass this Sunday and he's said something today that took me aback: "If I were to go back to church, I'd want it to be as traditional a church as possible".
So I'm hoping and believing in Christ and the BVM to continue to do work on him. I want what's best for him and his family, especially because he and his wife often say "If you hadn't introduced us, Zoey (8 year old daughter) would not exist, so we're thankful for you every day" and it would be good for the church in general to have another young family attending.
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