Clarissa's Blog

I know this guy who was very non-religious. A hyper-rational guy in a highly intellectual profession. He and his wife put their young sons in a Catholic school three years ago because the memory of COVID was strong, and they were among the people who no longer trust public schools to stay consistently open.

The Catholic school offers a tuition discount to people who are part of their congregation. This father thought, “Hey, if I can save some money by doing it, I’ll just show up to Mass on Sundays, and it’s an excellent deal money-wise.”

Forward three years, he got baptized into the Catholic faith and is now a very eager, sincere, and happy Catholic.

People think that they need some sort of a correct degree of religious feeling in order to start going to church. But it’s not how it works. There is no need to wait to have faith before you go. You simply need to start going. Faith is a process. It’s actions. You need to start participating. Feelings are a result of the actions. You’ll feel it once you start doing it.

This is going to be a very profane analogy, but this is like going to the gym. You don’t go to the gym for the first time because you’re an athlete. You start going consistently, working out, and then you become more athletic. Yes, there are people who are born into the faith. That’s how it should be, but I’m not talking to them right now. I am talking to people who are kind of curious but are waiting to be illuminated before they go.