Only 1 RCIA class to go!!!

I was looking at my RCIA scedule today to see what today's lesson was going to be, and I realized that since they don't have RCIA on Holy Week, I only have ONE MORE CLASS before I get baptized! Whoo hoo! That's pretty exciting. We'll have mystagogy classes for a couple of months afterward, but for the most part we're almost done with RCIA.

Oh, you wanna hear something fun? Our RCIA director's daughter is due on April 10th, which means we're probably not going to have our RCIA directors during Holy Week or during the Easter Vigil. Should be interesting, that's for sure.

The first part of our class was about faith. They asked us our personal definition, and I feel really bad because I paraphrased Alma 32:21 (from the Book of Mormon), which states

And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

That was always my favorite scripture in the entire Book of Mormon (trust me when I say that "Favorite Scriptures" in the BOM were very few and far between for me). Of course, I'm sure it's stolen from the Bible somewhere. I don't think my RCIA teacher caught the BOM reference, but then after everyone gave their definition, he read a scripture in Hebrews 11:1, which says:

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.

I though that was a pretty neat scripture, too.

Then our teachers had us go around the room and talk about how God affects us in our daily life and how we've changed in our RCIA process. It was really hard for me to answer these in front of other people. Although my blog readers might not get this impression, my deep-down beliefs are both very new and very fragile. I keep them to myself for now, and having to share them was very hard.

Over our break, we tried on baptismal gowns. They're purple with elbow-length sleeves and it goes to about mid-calf. All of my skirts go to the floor, so it feels mighty short. I'm going to need to get some Crocs or flip-flops or something to wear on my feet.

The second half of the class, we prayed the Stations of the Cross. It was very moving and very touching to think about the experiences that Christ went through on his Passion. It was the first time I had prayed that specific prayer, and it was moving to move from station to station. I've got a few different versions of the journey in a few different books, and I plan on praying some of them during Holy Week when I'm off and have time to devote to prayer and contemplation.

Also, in good news, my friend L has found an "alternative location" which has been approved by the Bishop to get baptized. Praise be to God for answered prayers!