Faithful Reading....

Welcome to the book portion of the program. Please be seated - this will be quite a ride.
Now most of you who read my blog regularly can tell I am not a good, practicing Catholic. I take jibes at the church at times and the people I find at mass. But I have my reasons - ones I don't need to share, and ones that I can share. I will readily admit that I don't believe in many of the things the Catholic church believes in (is it getting hot in here?). I don't see a problem with birth control - and I don't see a problem with divorce (I don't feel divorce should be an easy out, but there are circumstances where divorce is the best option and people shouldn't be persecuted for their mistakes). I do feel you can pray and connect with God without being in the physical church - the church says "wherever 2 or more gather in my name I will be there". Hello? What about people who pray silently to themselves wherever they happen to be? God doesn't listen to them? That doesn't make sense - "Go find a buddy and then we can talk" - I can't picture God saying that. I really don't understand why women can't be priests and why priests can't be married - just doesn't make sense to me. I definitely feel there is a God and I feel comfort when I pray to him/her - kind of like free consolation in a time of need. Anyway, I could go on and on. Recently I was sent this book to read and my first thought was, "Great. A religious story about discovering God." Then I started to read it. Hold on to your seats people because this book is unbelievable. Just the content alone - I know many people don't like to hear about bad things that happen in other countries - it happens over there and doesn't affect us so what are we supposed to do? I guess this book gives a bit of a wake up call to all the regular "Joe's" like me out there not to take everything for granted. What this woman went through during the Rwandan holocaust is just so unreal. The other part of the whole story is how her faith changed and grew during some of the most intense moments in the story - times when I think I, myself, would have packed it in and admitted defeat. Clearly - and if this story is true I have no doubt - that her faith had a direct bearing on miracles that saved her life. More than once. I know, it sounds crazy and I can't even believe the words as they are coming out of my mouth. Since reading this book I have looked at faith, in general, in a different way. I mean, you always hear people say, "I'm praying for your recovery", or "We're praying for them during this difficult time", etc. But what if you could change the outcome of situations by having faith so strong that God would intervene for you? I never really thought that having strong faith could change one's life. I always thought of it more as a fast-pass to heaven, but not really affecting anything while I was still among the living. Read the book. Let me know your thoughts. It has definitely had an affect on me - I haven't quite figured out to what extent.