I knew this was going to be hard. I had glimpses of how much of a challenge this was going to be. But Jesus, I didn't know it was going to be this hard. This painful. I had no idea how agonizing it was going to be to feel this isolated. This is one heck of a cup, this chalice of yours. Never, since following you, have I struggled so much.
Jesus. I wonder if I had known, would I have still converted? I honestly don't know the answer to that. I think it would have been impossible for me to understand what I was in for. It is like trying to explain to someone what childbirth is like. It is like nothing else, so how can you describe it? So it is with conversion. If I could speak with my past soul, what would I say? Would I tell her to ignore the Call? Would I suggest she run away, hide, drown herself in distractions? Would I encourage her to deny the groundswell that was rising beneath her, drawing, pushing, dragging her towards the Church? And if I did... would she have listened? I think back to that time, not so long ago, when the longing for the sacraments was so powerful, so overwhelming, I couldn't imagine any other alternative.
