Meme: "God and the World" Question 3 What religion were you raised with?
As a child, i attended a series of Sunday school and "vacation Bible schools" which could vaguely be described as "non-denominational" and "fundamentalist" My mother was Baptist and for a short time i attended a Southern Baptist Church and Sunday School. At 14, i followed my current girl friend into the Methodist Church where i remained until my mid twenties.
Question 4. Do you practice this religion. I do not. At age 25 i began to attend a Unitarian Church in a city fifty miles from where i lived (the closest one). After marrying to my present wife at age 27, i stopped attending church, A few years later (age 36?) i started attending
Roman Catholic Masses with her. I continue to do this because i love her. Between ages 23 and 72 i regarded myself as an agnostic.
Question 5. Your most spiritual moment. I have been graced with four or five such moments during my life, but the most impressive was the first. I was approaching the age of ten and a move that would take us 800 miles away from home. It was to be the last of many moves during my childhood. We had returned briefly to the first home i could remember, a commercial trout farm, It was war time, and the farm had been drained and converted into a "victory garden." All that was left of the ponds were areas of deep mud with streamlets running through them. In one of these ponds i was playing, catching water skippers (with another boy, i think) ankle deep in mud, when suddenly a wave of total calm came over me. I realized in that moment the oneness and perfection of everything. It was as if time had entered eternity and all was at peace. This feeling must have lasted a few seconds or a few minutes and then passed leaving me slightly dazed and wondering what had happened. Years later, after reading much about mystical experiences, i concluded that this had been such.
Question 6. The last time you were in a house of worship... Dianne and i attended Mass Saturday eveneing,, we will likely do so this coming Saturday as well. If you wanted more information you should have asked for it
(Question 2 was answered in a previous post.).
Question 4. Do you practice this religion. I do not. At age 25 i began to attend a Unitarian Church in a city fifty miles from where i lived (the closest one). After marrying to my present wife at age 27, i stopped attending church, A few years later (age 36?) i started attending
Roman Catholic Masses with her. I continue to do this because i love her. Between ages 23 and 72 i regarded myself as an agnostic.
Question 5. Your most spiritual moment. I have been graced with four or five such moments during my life, but the most impressive was the first. I was approaching the age of ten and a move that would take us 800 miles away from home. It was to be the last of many moves during my childhood. We had returned briefly to the first home i could remember, a commercial trout farm, It was war time, and the farm had been drained and converted into a "victory garden." All that was left of the ponds were areas of deep mud with streamlets running through them. In one of these ponds i was playing, catching water skippers (with another boy, i think) ankle deep in mud, when suddenly a wave of total calm came over me. I realized in that moment the oneness and perfection of everything. It was as if time had entered eternity and all was at peace. This feeling must have lasted a few seconds or a few minutes and then passed leaving me slightly dazed and wondering what had happened. Years later, after reading much about mystical experiences, i concluded that this had been such.
Question 6. The last time you were in a house of worship... Dianne and i attended Mass Saturday eveneing,, we will likely do so this coming Saturday as well. If you wanted more information you should have asked for it
(Question 2 was answered in a previous post.).