New Catholics told: Keep practicing

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Stresses in Lucy Preston’s life brought the non-practicing Catholic back to the Catholic Church. That, in turn, influenced her husband, Michael, a non-Catholic, to join her.

“She joined a centering prayer group at St. Martha Church,” said Michael Preston, 58. “I went with her to the group where I met two men who had attended an Emmaus retreat. When the next retreat came along I went to it. The retreat opened my eyes.”

Preston, who is about to receive his 10-year medallion from Alcoholics Anonymous, said that it was the 12-step program which “segued” him closer to God.

“I rode my Segway from the program to the Church,” he joked. “The program is similar to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius,” he explained. “It focuses on the ideas of self-survey, confession, restitution, helpfulness to others and prayer. Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith, who founded AA in 1935, added an extra step, that we were powerless over alcohol. Other 12-step programs added powerless over other types of addiction.”

Preston was one of about 600 people to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil this year. On the third Sunday of Easter, many of them returned to St. Mary Cathedral to celebrate their first Mass together with Archbishop Thomas Wenski. They had first met with the archbishop at the Rite of Election on the first Sunday of Lent, when he had welcomed them — as catechumens — into the final stage of preparation for their entrance into the Church.

Preston had practiced Mormonism as a young adult in Ohio but left after a few years. He served in the Marines and worked as a Miami-Dade police officer. He called Holy Saturday, when he received the three sacraments of initiation — baptism, Communion and confirmation — his “new birthday.”

“I hit the trifecta that evening,” he said. “I now have much to look forward to as a Catholic. I love the traditions and history of the Church.”

Neophytes, or newly-initiated Catholics, walk together with Jesus in that fellowship of his disciples called the Catholic Church, Archbishop Wenski told them in his homily.

He cited the Gospel that day, which tells how two disciples who encountered Jesus on the way to Emmaus tell the other disciples about their experience when they return to Jerusalem and the upper room. Then, Jesus appears in their midst.

“They were slow to believe that it was really Jesus,” he said. “For many of us our journey to faith was a slow one, as well. Like those disciples we, too, perhaps failed to recognize Jesus… The disciples only came to understand what Jesus was about, that he had to die and rise again to fulfill the Scriptures, only when he sent them the Holy Spirit.”

The archbishop concluded by reminding the neophytes that “following the Lord, being a good Catholic does require a lot of practice. You don’t master a new language until you learn the rules of grammar and practice, practice, practice. You don’t become good at a sport or at a trade or profession without lots of practice. And the Christian life is no different. So don’t be discouraged and keep at it.”