April 2026 - Coming home to the Catholic Church

 Greetings!

As you see from the title, I did indeed join the church this year at Easter Vigil.

It was a beautiful moment and wonderful Easter Vigil service which I experienced for the first time along with my family.

There is quite a lot of drama during the service where we start outside the church with a fire, and then light a candle to carry into the church while a cantor sings, and then halfway through the lights all come on and the choir sings Alleluia. We were nearly blinded! It gives great context to the stories of the angels in the Bible appearing in a great light and everyone was afraid. Especially living back then when they had no experience of electric light.

It was a suitably dramatic time for me to step over the line into Catholicism, which is quite a moment if you’ve been raised Protestant.

I think I’m slowly getting used to it. But occasionally I still catch myself in surprise and say “I’m a Catholic!” With joy of course.

I was very pleased to have the whole family with me. Miles managed to make it despite being given a hard Maths assignment at the last minute due on Easter Sunday. Who does that?!

We all dressed up smart for their first experience of a Catholic Cathedral. 

Aiden said he felt like he was walking into a movie set as they walked down the aisle before everything began.

Fortunately we arrived in daylight as I had to be there early to run through the procedure, so they saw the stained glass windows with light shining through. It really did look like a movie set.

And now that’s my church! I do drive across town 20 minutes to get there. There is a local parish church I can go to, but so far the Cathedral has met my needs.

I love the choir they have on Sunday mornings with the pipe organ. I’m wondering if I could join now that I’m family. It depends on the commitment required.

I’d like to find somewhere I could serve the church and join in with everyone in ministry. We’ll see how we go as time goes on.

I’m so happy my journey of two years has finally ended, and yet in a sense it has just begun.

I say journey of two years, but really I’ve been searching ever since I left our Baptist church 20 years ago, with many different churches sampled in the meantime. So I know this is the right place.

And I’m grateful for my illness mentioned last post, that caused me to have to pause my proceedings because then I realised how upset I was, and how much I wanted it. But I had needed the extra processing time to be sure.

I was concerned about the acceptance of queer people, and although not overt, there is a presence of those who are working underground to change things. When I found that out I felt I could finally commit and join those beautiful souls.

I love all the ceremonies, the sacraments, the holiness, the beauty, the history (all the way back to Jesus!), and I’ve been surprised how Christian it is. Ha! It is the original church!

I feel the Church thinks like I think, looking for deeper meanings, thinking in a poetic sort of way.

I also love the emphasis on the body and the physical. Incarnational as we say.

No matter where I go it will be home. The Catholic Church is widespread. And for someone who has been searching for home that is huge.

And of course I had to buy myself some bling to mark the moment!

Now I am home.

Til next time,

Keep on creating! 

(And living your best life)

Love,

Jazzy Jack

2026! Sonas Mór and future plans

 Hello all!

Only one year since I said Hi :-)

I thought I’d take time to sit down and reflect how my year has gone and some of the directions I’d like to pursue in 2026.

I note that the last post I wrote was about my Advent poems of 2024. Well, since I wasn’t super well at the end of 2025 instead of writing more poems I decided it would be nice to revisit them. So every day I shared one with my family as an informal advent calendar, which was really nice and kept the story of the season in the forefront of our minds.

Yes, I am still connected with the Catholic Church. I am going to Mass on Sundays as often as I can.

I was going to RCIA (the Catholic learning about the faith class) during the year but then an illness hit me. So I had to bow out of joining the church that year. So now I have recovered somewhat I am looking forward to joining the class for 2026 and continuing on where I left off.

I am still finding Christianity to be fascinating again, and the place where I can explore my deeper side. Thinking about the world in a more poetic way. It makes sense to have a story about the world as a structure to hang my beliefs on. As this is my childhood faith that I was raised in, it makes sense to me to continue.

I wasn’t raised Catholic but having been introduced to it I find so much beauty there, and it’s such a broad group of people, I feel part of a loving family which will have a place for me, however informally.

Yes, there are parts of the belief that I struggle with, especially around queer people, women and Mary.

But I trust God to either enlighten me, or the Church. And I’ve never felt I fit neatly into any church I’ve been in, which made me leave in the past. But now maybe I’ve matured a little and can see things in a more nuanced less black and white way.

So that’s been the biggest change for me.

We also discovered a beautiful coast cabin in a caravan park which we bought with some inheritance money from Cris’ Mum who sadly died. Her name was Joy, and we named the cabin Sonas Mór which means Great Happiness in Celtic (our ancestry). Which was the closest we could find to Joy, and sounds like a place name. We have yet to make a sign, but we’ve sourced a lovely piece of driftwood for it.

Here are some images in its packed up state to give you an idea. It’s very comfortable with plenty of seating and an invaluable air conditioner!

As you can see, the previous owner was an artist and left lots of works for us to enjoy, which was a big part of the appeal. Fun to have a coastal getaway to do art.

There are multiple water experiences just across the paddock.

We’ve already had many fun times there as a family as it is a perfect halfway point to meet Miles when he can take a break from University. Recently he bought a canoe which may make its way down to the coast as well. We are just waiting for the Christmas Rush to subside a bit :-)

Recently I’ve been musing on the concept of limits which has prompted me to remove myself completely from my last social media connection, YouTube. The only access I now have is occasionally on my TV. But as there are others who live with me, it is an inconvenience for them and they keep me honest.

I’ve found over the couple of months I’ve tried this, that my nervous system is very much calmer, and my mind is not filled with external ideas to the detriment of my own. It seems that imposing limits in this case has created freedom in my life.

I’m interested to explore further other areas in my life this could hold true.

I have chosen an attribute to focus on this year. I want to focus on Grace.

Giving myself grace, or accepting grace from others or God.

And also I want to explore the peace or silence that surrounds all things, bringing that more into my own practice as I move through the world. Becoming more and more aware of the silence around me, and learning to inhabit it to calm my scattered mind. It’s still a very new concept at the moment.

Well I’ll leave it there for now.

I hope it won’t be another year until I write again!

Wishing you all well for the next turn around the sun.

‘Til next time, keep on creating!

Love,

Jazzy Jack