With an Accent from Holland

Church, TV, Soccer

This morning after mass I had the talk with the man at the church, the assistant-priest I think he is. I was really really nervous about the talk, but it turned out not to be too special. Pretty early in the conversation he proposed that he would give me the texts of the Dutch version of the RCIA classes. It’s not really RCIA, it’s called an ‘Alpha-course’, it’s a general introduction into the church. Anyway, he’s going to give me the texts so that I can study them at home when I have time. And then once a month or every 2 months we get together and we discuss what I’ve read. I think this is a great idea, since I’ll never have time the next couple of years to follow a course like this in real time. I just don’t have a night off to do this, and these courses are usually on Tuesday or Thursday evening. He also said that I should take about 2 years for the process of joining the church and that was a bit longer than I had expected, but OK, I guess I can live with that. I also asked about that I live together with someone, unmarried, and that I take the birth-control pill. He said I shouldn’t worry about it too much. He says God loves me anyway and He wants me to grow slowly to Him. The priest also said that ultimately marriage is about two people making each other happy, and that living together like Martijn and I are doing now, is already a bit like that. At the end of the conversation, which lasted about 15 minutes, he blessed me. I really liked that, if I can say that of a blessing.
I was relieved when the conversation was over. He didn’t say anything really shocking. I’m a bit disappointed that he said that I should take about 2 years before joining the church, but I knew that was a possibility. What he said about me living together was what I had hoped to hear. I always thought that God wants me to be happy, and if that means living together with a boy, then he’ll accept that of me. Of course I want to get married, but I want to know for sure whom I’m going to marry and I want to know all the bad things about my future husband. And I also want to have some money to have some kind of a decent marriage.
The rest of the day I did really little. Martijn and I went to bed and watched two episodes of Charmed after we had eaten breakfast. Tonight I watched some more TV and I knotted two rosaries. One of these days I’m going to colour a new batch of them with KoolAid.
Oh, and our national soccer team lost tonight of Portugal with 0-1. I’m not too sorry about it. It means we can finally get back to our daily lives and we can get rid of all the stupid orange decorations. I do think a lot of people are disappointed over here though.

posted by Charda @ 26.6.06