I entered the Catholic church during the Easter Vigil on April 23, 1992, the same day as the con-validation of our civil marriage. Yes, we got married at the JP so I could get my green card, but that’s a story for another day.
So, why, at the end of 2022, do I have this mighty desire to “come out Catholic?” Didn’t the whole congregation witness my profession of faith? Wasn’t that enough? The difference is, although I meant my profession of faith the first time, I professed more with my mouth and less with my heart.
It has taken me 30 years of wrestling, of metanoia in action, to have this deep desire to proclaim publicly, “…that Jesus is Lord,” and I “believe in [my] heart that God raised Him from the dead…For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
Over the years, I barely scratched the surface of the vast treasures of Scripture and Tradition as I raised my family, served in my parish and pursued a teaching career. Don’t get me wrong, I was never ashamed to say that I was Catholic in secular circles. My friends and colleagues knew, but I was elective in how I lived out my faith. It’s just not enough to simply be a “practicing Catholic in good standing” anymore.
Now, in middle age, as I pursue a new career in coaching, I’ve landed in the Metanoia Catholic, a community of seekers of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Coming out Catholic all of a sudden takes on a different meaning as I watch Matt and Erin Ingold so boldly demonstrate their faith. I see them do what I so desperately want for myself, to be unabashedly Catholic in a world that is turning more and more against the faith. I am inspired and will be equipped to BE a Catholic Coach. God is good.
I received this poem in Adoration on August 8, 2022 on my year-long journey of discernment.
Coming Out Catholic
I’m coming out Catholic
What’s that, you ask?
I’m telling the world
Not hiding in the dark.
No shame in telling
My precious faith story
How Jesus had saved me
In all of His glory.
Finding my fire
Shouting from the spire
Dispelling the lies
In front of my eyes
Surrendering, trusting
Receiving the grace
Adoring Him now
His Eucharistic Face.
I’m coming out Catholic
I’m running the race
In trustful surrender,
I’m taking my place.
Christ is calling me into a closer relationship with Him so that I can serve others in His name. He is not calling me to serve as a Mindset Coach for Catholics, but to serve as a Catholic Mindset Coach in an ever more secularized society because, “The harvest is great, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9: 27). I want to serve, not because my prospective clients are Catholic, but because I am. I believe I am here in the Metanoia Catholic Academy and Catholic Coaching Foundations not by chance, but because He has called me here to equip me to serve Him in a greater capacity as I receive the training and grow alongside the community of believers. It’s a beautiful thing.
So, to sum up in poetry my journey thus far I:
Unfurl the Truth
Like a banner across my heart
Letters in scarlet
There from the start
Broken and beaten
To Jesus a path
His love is greater
than this worldly treasure
A healing balm
A wondrous salve
Freedom from grasping
For temporal pleasures
I’m coming out Catholic
The journey begins
To bring God the glory
He knows how it ends.