At the time I was also attending a Plymouth Brethren Bible study club, and between what I was learning at the Bible study and what I was learning at Mass, my relationship with Jesus began to grow by leaps and bounds.
Father Alex invited me to attend the RCIA program, because I was continually asking him questions, and he felt that this would be the easiest way to deal with them.
So, I attended the RCIA program at St. Joseph's in 1985, not because I wanted to convert, but because I wanted to learn about the symbolism and meaning of the Mass. Father Alex at St. Joseph's taught me all these things, and more, which I have kept in my heart and pondered all these years.
I was a member of Knox United Church for my entire life. I had (and at this writing have still, since I am not yet Catholic) never been a member of any other Church, although I sometimes visited other churches. Being a member of one, and only one, church for your whole life is a very rare thing, especially in North America, where "church shopping" is something of a national sport among Christians.
Even Fundamentalists, who should know better, are continually on the hunt for "a good, Bible-believing, truth-teaching church", by which they usually mean "a church that interprets the Bible the same way I do, and will teach me what I have already decided is true." I have always been against this philosophy - I have always believed that God puts you where he wants you, and to be obedient to Him, you must stay put.
Every time my Fundamentalist friend calls me up with news that she has finally found a Bible believing, truth teaching Church, and I ought to come and join it with her, I always say, "Oh, another one?" And she always says, "Yes, but this one's for real this time!"
So, rather than thinking of converting either to the Catholic Church or to the Plymouth Brethren, it made more sense to me to bring back what I was learning from both places to Knox, and to enrich the life of my own congregation with these things
But most of what I was actually learning was coming from the Catholic Church, and from the Masses that I was attending every Sunday evening. In 1987, I got married, and for a while we lived in Brentwood, where I attended St. Luke's Church on Sunday evenings, as well as keeping up regular attendance at Knox on Sunday mornings. I also joined the St. Luke's Prayer Group, which was very Pentacostal in its spirituality. I was "annointed in the Spirit", and I received the gift of tongues. I met many Catholics at this time who were not afraid to share their faith with me. I attended Catholic Bible studies as well as the Mass on Sundays, in addition to a full schedule at Knox.
My husband ran into some difficulties in his business during 1990, and I was called upon to enter the workforce. We were forced by our situation to move to Sunalta, where I began attending Sacred Heart, in August of 1991. I also, at this time, began to attend daily Mass, and also to listen to the Rosary every day, until I had it memorized and could follow along with it. For me at the time, it was more of a mental exercise than a devotional prayer - I was using it as an aid to meditating on Scripture, and not as a way to communicate with Mary, or even with Jesus, although I was opening up to that possibility as well.
The first person I met there was Father Myles Gaffney, and I was so struck with his child-like faith and his enthusiasm that I wanted to get to know him better. I arranged to have an interview with him during November of that year, and during the course of our discussion, which ranged all over the place, he introduced me to the Divine Office, and showed me how to pray it.
He also invited me to attend his Bible study program, which I did, and I learned a great deal from him about Catholic theology. Once I started attending his Bible studies, I stopped going to the ones being run by the Plymouth Brethren, since I found that Father Myles' were more interesting to me.
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