I didn't see your post till just now and I've posted “abandon thread!”
I'm also a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. I could barely wait to turn eighteen to join! I was raised a Methodist and loved Sunday school and singing in the choir, but then afterward I would walk across the street to attend St. John's beautiful Mass. In those pre-Vatican II days, the Mass was in Latin, so by the age of 10, I had it all memorized.
An L.A. radio station used to have the Rosary hour every night and I would listen to it and pray all along with this little Rosary I had acquired from a renter of my parents, who would later become my Godmother.
Of course my parents thought I was “going through a faze,” -— that is until “the faze’ lasted 10 years and I turned eighteen and went through Catechism, and was baptized into my beloved Church.
Yes, I was also a pre-Vatican II convert. I had learned classical Latin in school, and had read Dante in Italian, so I didn’t have much trouble with the Latin Mass.
In fact, during the lengthy time that the Post Vatican II Latin Mass was badly translated by the ICEL, I would often murmur the Latin version rather than the faulty English one. “Domine, non sum dignus ut entres ad tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo and sanabitur anima mea.” I don’t know if I’ve got all the spelling right, since I haven’t checked it. Now the new English translation is adequate, but the earlier translation drove me crazy.
Kinda like my story; but I was converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Without the smells and bells.
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