Hello all,
I just registered and selected the username 'Wannabe a Saint', which is true enough, but I don't know why I didn't just use my real name -- Bill Velek -- which is what I've been using in every other forum that I've ever participated in. I guess I'll go by both names here. Bill is short for William, of course, thus I have chosen St. William the Confessor as my avatar.
Anyway, here is some 'bio' info for my introduction: I'm a 63 year old male, married and live in Arkansas (southern U.S.). I'm retired (formerly a private attorney, city attorney, and part-time city court judge), and also a retired veteran with 7 years active duty Air Force and 16 years Army guard and reserve. I couldn't stand practicing law ... (I should have been an engineer) ... so I retired as soon as I was eligible for my city attorney pension. My wife is also retired after 30 years of teaching. We have been married for 41 happy and glorious years, and we have 8 children and 12 grandchildren.
Now for the more important stuff -- my religion. I was born and raised Catholic by two wonderful cradle-Catholics who very much practiced their faith, including regular confessions and Mass every Sunday, and I attended Catholic schools for 12 years back when there were mostly priests and nuns teaching (translation: I received a solid and fairly traditional Catholic education). I married a wonderful Catholic girl who was likewise born and raised in a devout Catholic family and she attended 12 years of Catholic School as well. We were both virgins when we married in the Catholic Church 41 years ago and are still very much in love and very blest by Almighty God. Thank you, Lord!
As I said, we have 8 children, but travel distance to Catholic School was an obstacle, so they all attended public school; however, all of them also attended Parish Religious Education until they graduated from high school, and they all received their required sacraments (Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation). But somewhere along the line, as our nest emptied, I stopped going to Mass several years ago, although my wife and most of our kids still go -- at least most of the time. As for me, I'm not sure I can even say exactly why I stopped, but as I have contemplated returning to the church over the past year or so I realized that I had developed certain issues with the Catholic Church that I need to resolve or else find another denomination. I began to search for my faith, and last year I thought that my disagreements were so insurmountable that I gave up on the idea of ever returning to the Catholic Church and began seriously considering other churches -- mainly the Coptic and Eastern Orthodox.
However, a few weeks ago I got into a lengthy in-depth discussion with one of my sons who is devoutly Catholic, and he helped me to overcome some of my issues. But I still have a few that I need to address, which I hope to do here. Three weeks ago I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) for the first time in several years, and although I know that I made a good and honest confession, it didn't seem to be the appropriate time or place to monopolize the confessional in order to discuss general concepts of theology. So I still have not received the Eucharist because, as far as I'm concerned, I don't think I'm eligible because I'm not in full communion with the Catholic Church. I therefore think that it would be dishonest for me to receive the Eucharist when I believe it would probably be withheld from me if the priest knew what I do believe and what I don't. I would very much like to receive the Eucharist, and especially so on Easter Sunday.
Because this is just an introduction thread, I'll save all of my questions for later in separate threads for each topic.
Thanks for your time, and may God Bless all of us.
Topic: Introduce yourself! (Read 733159 times)