Being Catholic - Part IV

After I was baptized, we went through the confirmation classes. A really nice lady from the church told us all sorts of things that Im sure were very interesting. I only remember a few of them, one thing particular struck me as odd. One day, she was pointing to a candle at the front of the church. This was a very special candle that was always supposed to stay lit. It was very important that this candle was always lit because well, it was. And as she was explaining the importance of this lit candle, a gust of air, probably from the air conditioning unit? I can only guess, came through and blew out the candle. It was bizarre and strange to me that Gods special candle decided to extinguish at that moment in time. Obviously this was a major deal, because the nice lady got all flustered and crazed trying to relight the candle.

Being Catholic meant a lot of standing, sitting, kneeling, long prayers and structured services. The people sining all reminded me of my grandpa's out of tune and too loud songs at the presbytarian church as a kid. Being Catholic meant I got to join the teen youth group with my friend Kristin. Our leader, Frank was really awesome. We did a lot of fun things in church. I really had a lot of good friends there. We went ice skating, did community service, ate pizza and swam at Franks house, we prayed. We didnt seem to really sit around and talk about God, but when we did it was a big deal. I remember that we wrote letters to our parents and told them how much we loved them and appreciated them. My mom cried. She isnt a very emotional person so that struck me. Afterwards, we made plaster masks of each others faces. My dad had a mustache, so the plaster got stuck in his mustache hairs. Being Catholic also meant doughnuts on Sundays and coffee. Every family took turns and I usually helped my godmother with the doughnuts. One day, my mom decided to join the Catholic church with us. After all, she went to a Catholic college with real nuns, so it only made sense to me. It made me really happy. However, it royally pissed off ALL my grandparents. Both of which were really protestant. (one was shell purse church of old people grandma, the other was ex baptist never been to any other churh grandma). I can remember my shell purse grandma being very upset and using the word "catholic" like it was a four letter word. I couldnt understand why. I mean, everybody worships the same guy, right? ahemmmmm....

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