One of the blogs I read pretty often, and have been meaning to add to the list of links on this page, is Et Tu?, subtitled “The Diary of a Former Atheist,” the work of Jennifer F., a young mother and recent Catholic convert. I was struck by something she posted a few days ago in which she starts with her attempt to deal with the problem of explaining to one of her children the death of a bird, and ends by sketching the basic concepts of Christianity in a very persuasive way:
In my culture growing up, suffering and death had no transcendent meaning. Living things suffer, life is unfair, everything dies, and that was that. When we heard Christians comfort one another by saying that deceased loved-ones had “gone to heaven” or “were with Jesus,” their assurances seemed like nothing more than attempts to drown out reality with platitudes.
Yet there I was, saying the same thing to my own children. And, oddly enough, I meant it, and found it deeply comforting. It doesn't seem like a statement so simple could have much importance, and yet I found those few words contained truths more important than almost anything else. As I heard myself repeat the words that I once thought were bromidic sayings for people who couldn't face reality, I realized that they contained the truths that are the very core of reality.
If you like that, you’ll want to read her account of how she came to the Catholic faith from a completely non-religious background: Part One, on believing in God, and Part Two, on being Catholic.
And then there are the very funny stories of her battles with scorpions in her Texas home:
I admire the simple beauty of [St. Francis’s] lovely Canticle of the Sun, and am really trying to find that sort of ecstatic joy in God’s amazing creations that are all around me. And, indeed, some days I too feel overjoyed by simply noticing Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
It really starts to break down, however, when I see Brother Scorpion on my kitchen floor….
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