How My Fasination Began

Hello, my name is Catherine and I am a convert to Roman Catholicism. For over a year now I have enjoyed reading other Catholic blogs and have often wanted to create one myself, but I am no scholar and sometimes find it difficult to put pen to paper and so have always been put off, till now that is.

One of my favourite past times is wondering around and admiring religious buildings, I find the history, the stories and the symbolism they contain absolutely fascinating. Using snap shots I take with my camera phone and short captions it is my hope in creating this blog to share some of this fascination with you, the reader.

First however I would like to share with you how my fascination began.

I go to church to hear Mass every day if I can, and it was at my first Mass on the first Sunday of Advent during the early winter of 2006 that my fascination began. I had not long begun to discover my faith when I built up the courage to ask a friend who I knew went to church if I could come along, he had been a little taken back by my asking but had said yes.

At the Mass I was in awe of everything around me, but as there was so much to take in I struggled to understand everything. When I finally resigned myself to just seeing and hearing I began to notice the building around me. The stain glass, the statues and the paintings, I could see them, read them and understand them. Not all, but could I recognise Jesus and Mary, and understand what some of the scenes were trying to depict. I found God in the building itself and it filled a part of me I never knew was there and yet in doing so made me feel more complete.

It is now some two and a half years since I attended my first Mass and I now understand what is being said and done and find God present in every part of the Mass, but I still find myself absorbed by the building around me, where I can place myself at the foot of the cross or beside the manger of my Lord.

And so I invite you to take a pew with me and take a moment to look around.