Anna Godbold

I was baptized at age seven in a mainline Protestant church. I was the child who never grew out of the why phase. I still continually ask questions to this day. A faith that isn’t questioned doesn’t grow; in fact, it becomes stagnant. Asking too many questions lead to me being asked to sit in the hallway during Sunday School for ruining the experience for the other children.  Looking back as an adult I realize I simply made the volunteer uncomfortable with all my questions about the Bible. The final straw was asking where Cain’s wife came from.

I struggled to fit in and ending up being bullied in youth group. Eventually I only went to church with my parents at Christmas and Easter. In high school for some reason, I decided to try church again. But I rebelled against cultural institutions, so I went to a non-denominational church. There I volunteered with the children’s ministry figuring I could learn what I had missed with the kids. Eventually I was challenged by the pastor to sign a statement of belief, or I would be barred from children’s ministry. Since I didn’t know if I believed the statement, as I was still searching, I declined. It felt like God was slamming the doors of the church in my face. I stopped searching and decided God must not exist.

The Holy Spirit tried again while I was in college at Texas A&M. In one class I had a lady sit next to me who decided to tell me since I was not baptized in her faith tradition I was going straight to hell when I died. She made me so angry I decided I was going to prove her wrong. We argued back and forth for weeks until she decided to give up on me. I had a fire lit under my feet and I continued to study beginning with where did we get the Bible from anyway? This continued until I graduated.

About this time my grandparents returned from a trip to the Holy Land. Their tour guide was a student in Jerusalem, and they told me about the school. I was so confused with Christianity I decided to go back and study Judaism. I studied in Jerusalem for two and half years to get my masters in The Jewish Bible and the History of the Ancient Near East. As I was studying Judaism, I started to notice similarities with Catholicism.

A few months after completing my masters program I came to daily mass for the first time. The Holy Spirit was with me as I approached a lady in the parking lot and asked to sit with her. Turns out she was a catechist. During mass she explained what was going on and introduced me to the priest. I started RCIA that week.

I will be eight years old in Catholic years this April. The community here at Seton has encouraged me over these eight years to slowly come out of my shell. I now lector at the 5pm mass on Sunday and teach Disciple’s Compass Bible Study on Thursday evenings. While I still don’t know where Cain’s wife came from, I have found joy in the adventure of studying God’s Word.