Hi!  My name is Michelle Fisher and I’m a Cradle catholic.  I could end my RESURECTION STORY right there!  I’m pretty boring.  I was born a Catholic, I’m still a Catholic, end of story.   But I don’t think that’s what Fr. Andrew had in mind when he asked me to tell my “Resurrection Story”.
So… I really had to think about what it means to be “resurrected” as a “cradle Catholic”, because… as a cradle catholic:
 

• My Mom decided to baptize me
• My Mom decided I was to receive the other sacraments
• My Mom dragged me to mass every Sunday
• She even sent me to Catholic school

I think this might be true for many cradle Catholics, but at some point, we have to decide for ourselves to be Catholic:
 

• That we are going to practice the faith
• That we are going to go to mass
• That we are going to embrace Catholicism

When I stopped to think about it, I would say my “resurrection” began when I decided to be Catholic.
For ME, I know when/where/how that started.  Here’s the story:
 

• I was 17 years old
• Going to college for the first time.
• My parents told me I had to go away to school;  I didn’t want to leave home
• I was
  • Far Away
  • Alone
  • Everything was changing
  • I was looking for something that was familiar, that was the same, to give me comfort

And the Catholic mass is… guess what?   The same…. everywhere, every time! It was familiar.  So at the end of my first week of class, I went to the local church. While I was there, a man approached me.  He was a professor of mine whom I had met only that week.  He recognized me from his class.   He was my speech professor. He mentioned:
 

• If I was interested in speech
• Maybe I would be interested in becoming a lector
• He asked me to consider it
• He said they could use the help

The whole encounter lasted less than 2 minutes.  It wasn’t particularly “religious” in nature.  If they needed the help, I decided to try it.

I went on to lector in that parish for the next 4 years;  I lectored in my home parish during the summers of my college years;  I lectored in 3 parishes over the next 10 years… all because that one man presented me with an option in a 2 minute conversation.

BUT…..  do you know what happened? I became a part of something…. part of something so much bigger than me.  I became invested. Catholicism gripped me;  I liked it and then I loved it!
 

• Then I came to St. Clare, had my kids, and taught catechism for 16 years
• Then I joined the funeral ministry here
• I became a Eucharistic Minister

I also do some other volunteer gigs, outside of St. Clare, that help me “practice” my Catholic faith.
I can honestly say, through ALL of these opportunities, I have RECEIVED more than I’ve ever invested.
I feel as though it is through that RECEIPT that I have been reborn (probably over and over again) into the person I am now.

I think that’s how I was resurrected even though I was a cradle Catholic.
And that’s my Resurrection Story.