Sorry I forgot my introduction. I mostly came here looking for a 1 in a million shot at finding real Catholics in the Knoxville area. I just moved here after spending the last 15 years in Boston cleaning sewer drains while destroying my self working 80 hr weeks and taking illicit drugs. After being replaced by migrants I kind of hit rock bottom and have had a 2 year sabbatical to clean up and reconsider everything. Oh this isn’t the a.a forum? Haha well anyway the more i got sin out of my life the more God led me back to the church. It’s been a crazy battle. I have no kids multiple ex girlfriends, I think I’ve committed nearly every sin. Minus a lot of the violent ones “ other than fights” and I was never into dudes haha if that makes it any better. Although we probably could have been accused as being little homos when we were children. I don’t have much of a filter, I try not to cuss, I’ve alway thought brutal honesty and 0 anonymity were great virtues to have though i understand reservations and try to only be that way when it comes to myself as not to harm others when it can be avoided. So I find myself an easy target. It helps with humility 😄. My path of self destruction began with a bad break up when I was in high school that sent me in a downward spiral into severe depression. Our church I was baptized and confirmed in was a norvus ordos where we were blessed to have a pedophile priest shipped to us from Massachusetts. We had a beautiful church and I loved it growing up. Our leadership was obviously not great. I had stuck up for the priest downplaying any attack of his character and it was to my detriment. Probably to those who were around me as well. So in light of all this although I had come from a good modern Catholic family i was completely out of control. I never considered my self anything other than Catholic but I knew practically nothing about the faith. We never heard any counter arguments to vatican 2 we didn’t even know that councils were a thing we were raised little Americans that just happened to be catholic. I graduated high school at 18 already an alcholic and a drug addict. This was about the time I had my first encounter with the living God. Let me back track a few years. To be born again means what? I had eaten some peyote around 16-17 years old that 100% showed me the spirit realm exist. I was in such a depressed suicidal state at the time my mind had cracked but the experience gave me a new perspective of existence that went far beyond the daily grind of being stuck in Plato’s cave depressed and at rock bottom. I absolutely knew at that point we were created for much more and I started recognizing people were trapped in their egos, trapped in material existence and in complete denial of spiritual realities. At this point I started getting into the 60s revolutionary spiritual gurus, Timothy Leary Allan watts ect. Because at that time I gathered that the church was spiritualy dead. But I always had talked to God and I know He saw me. I just did not have anything worked out at the time. So just after high school I had another profound experience this time eating mushrooms at a friend’s house. I had a vision of an angel, no doubt it was probably not a good one, that looked as if lighting bolts were coming from it center in a large circle and at the tip of each lighting bolt there were eyes and each eye was looking at me. At the center was a light so blinding you could not make out what it was. This freaked me out beyond explanation. It looked at me as if I didn’t belong there and I reciprocated the feeling . This sent me out to the backyard on my knees in tears crying out to God to save me. After this experience I got a job off in Boston with the intention of turning my life around. I couldn’t get my ex off my mind and things just got bad. This is about the time I decided to read the Bible cover to cover for the first time. And I did. I was listening to mostly Protestants and I had got a high paying job unfortunately with a bunch of drug addicts so my addictions and alcoholism never got better. But I did start to take Christianity seriously. I listened to Christian radio all day, Charles Stanley, j Vernon McGee, James e Collin’s one of the locals, I did the church shopping thing to no avail. Never considered the Catholic Church because of what I went through. 15 years went by with a lot struggling and after Covid and the migrants came the company replaced all of us with 1/4 priced labor. This sent me back to rock bottom again. This time I was 37 or so no longer young so I had to start cleaning up my life. So as I began too take that more seriously God began to bring me back to the truth of Catholic doctrine. One day as I was listening to rabid Rick wiles of tru news fame I heard him say “ guys you don’t need Mary” of course bashing the Catholic Church is a Protestant tradition, a favorite pass time of theirs, but this hit different. This made no sense to me to attack Mary in that way. I’ll never forget the proud look on his face as he said it with the sun beating in his squinty eyes. That was it for me. I realized how far gone modern protestism was from the heart of God and his family and from there while I was part of the tru news forum I began to piece together doctrine and became a bit of Catholic apologists to the tru news faith and values crowd. They had no answers to the arguments and eventually gave me the boot so it was official I was headed back in the right direction. From there I spent all my time listening to the Catholic apologetics priest and commentators I could find on YouTube and finally felt fulfilled in more of a true born again sense. I understand some people in here hear born again as a dog whistle but there is no other way to explain it. I’ve always hungered for truth at all cost and like I’ve heard father Ripperger say “ if you follow the truth sincerely you’ll end up no where else but the Catholic Church” and here I am. It just took a lot out of me to get here. So I’m sure I’ve said to much and better quit while im ahead but my names Michael O’Connell, I’m an embarrassment to my family and fortunately now a follower of Jesus Christ and lover of His 1 true Body the Holy Catholic Church! If I
Could pick a team of truth tellers who influenced me it would be fr Ripperger, fr. G Hesse, fr. Denis Fehey, Timothy Gordon, Anthony Stine, and pretty much anyone on sensus fidelium. I hope you all don’t judge me to harshly but continue to help me and the others that caught up in this age come out of it. I don’t think my story is unique I actually think it is typical of growing up here in Babylon Murica! 🇺🇸
Topic: Introduce yourself! (Read 846561 times)