Stephen A. Taylor - Amateur Catholic

Hello Fellow Amateurs,

I am a blogger who has never made a penny off of it, and a Catholic. Is that a capital C? Anyway, I converted officially two years ago on the eve of Pentecost, that way I don't have to remember a date, I can just say the eve of Pentecost. Previous to that I was an Episcopalian for thirty years. Why did I convert?

Oh I can hear you saying, ........nope, I don't care. Women priests....nope, I don't care. A woman Presiding Bishop?....nope, I don't care.

I believe in Transubstantiation! It is just that simple.

Long ago and far away in east Texas where I was born, I was raised in the Church of Christ. If you don't know what that is, let's say it's fundamentalist and leave it at that. When some of my mother's friends asked her "how long has your son been Catholic?" She replied, "all his life, I think."

You see, I felt that when the "men" got up to the table - and we had communion weekly - and said this is my body, why, it was obvious that something had happened to that matzo cracker that made it not quite matzo anymore. Needless to say, the "men" and I had a rather difficult time working that out. So at fourteen I skipped out and becamse an Episcopalian of the more Catholic than Catholic variety.

The thing is, I hated it. It all seemed like a put on in the worst way. Then I attended a Latin Mass and had the same feeling! So I was confused. Then I went to The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Trappist, monastery in Kentucky. You know, where Merton drank beer and wrote all those books that turned the spiritual world upside down. I started going to daily Mass there, and you know what, I realized that I was Catholic, always had been, and wasn't about to change soon, so why not just get on the horse, get some instruction, and get Catholicized. Which I did on the eve of Pentecost a couple of years ago.

www.gethsemanireflections.com has undergone many changes of personality as at first I meant for it to be a spiritual journal. That didn't last because spiritual journals are not for public reading. Then I thought I'd get involved in commenting on what the Bishops did, that just made me mad. So now I comment on the daily readings, from Office of Readings, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, or Mass. Sometimes I'm funny, and sometimes I'm not. Right now I have an upper respiratory infection that makes me feel less than funny.

So what do you say, guys/gals? Brothers and Sisters? Let me in? Pretty please?

Peace
Stephen A. Taylor