My husband has always been Catholic, but he had no objection to attending Services with me in a little non-denominational pentecostal community that I had joined. I had been a Spiritual gypsy that first year, tasting many flavors of Christianity, but later I joined this little church because they had a dynamic youth group and I was hoping our 15 year- old daughter & 12 year-old son could benefit from that. So we all attended there on Sunday mornings. However, on Saturday evenings we attended the Catholic church because hubby preferred the Mass.
We were living in Southern California where the culture is anything but conservative. It didn't seem eccentric to drink from many Spiritual wells. We attended other churches at the recommendation of friends and our Catholic friends thought nothing of it and did the same. With Mass on Saturday evening, we felt free to roam in other pastures on Sunday. We never tired of the delicious banquets of Praise and Worship.
We were invited to participate in a Life in the Spirit Seminar at the Catholic church and soon we were mixing with the Catholic charismatics. I was surprised to learn that there were Catholics who loved the Lord as much as I did. We joined their Prayer Group. We attended Charismatic conferences and we both grew in the Faith. I left the Pentecostal group and reconciled with the Catholic Church.
It was good that we were both Catholics, but we didn't know our Faith very well and we had forgotten much of what we learned in our youth. We knew what we believed but didn't know why. As a result, we both bought into the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. The Bible was our point of reference. We had no Bible studies in our church, and though Scripture was often quoted in the Charismatic movement, we learned the Bible from Christian radio and Televangelists. The important aspect of the Tradition of the Fathers was never discussed and that was unfortunate because we remained in error without realizing it. The Doctrine of the Real Presence, on the other hand, was a no-brainer. That's very clear in the Scriptures and we loved the Eucharist.
So in a sense, although both Catholic, we had a mixed marriage, because we were quite mixed up. But God is patient; He had us where He wanted us; We were in the Church and we were growing.
