As a Catholic convert myself, I found the following story very moving..... Anita’s Story:-

“I was received into the Catholic Church when I was about eighteen, but I have to admit that my conversion had not been the beginning of a faithful relationship with the Catholic Church. On several occasions I wandered away for months and once even for a whole year, but something always brought me back, although sometimes very reluctantly. When I absented myself I would always find someone or something to blame. I told myself it was the fault of the priest, or the attitude of other unfriendly Catholic parishioners in church, or some part of the church doctrine that I found I couldn’t agree with. But, while all this uncertainty was going on in my life I didn’t break off my relationship with God and I still said my daily prayers”.


“My redemption came out of the blue one day when I met an understanding priest; he helped me to see that if I really believed that when he elevated the host during mass, that I was looking at the face of Christ and then nothing else mattered. It did not matter if the church was too hot or too cold, if the seats were uncomfortable and full of unfriendly people, or we had a priest that was most uninspiring, what was really important at the Mass was meeting with the risen Christ in the Eucharist. Many happenings flowed from this realisation of the presence of a living God. It would be nice to record that my life changed and I suddenly became a different person and all saintly, but I am not the stuff saints are made of and I still occasionally fall by the wayside, have stopped blaming others for my faults.but I like to think of myself as being like the early disciples, who seemed as far from perfection then, as I am now.”

When we are in trouble, dwelling on it doesn’t really help. We can feel sad, we can grieve, but eventually we have to move on. Time really does heal and when you’re going through a difficult patch remember to act constructively.