Back to my Roots

Back to my Roots

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I keep feeling with great strength in my heart, spirit and my soul the pull to get back to my ancestral roots, my Italian roots, and to get to the roots of the truth of the Christian faith, not a narrow pigeon hole Christian faith, but one that still stays strong in the basic concepts, precepts and principles of the Bible.  How will get back to my roots?

For one, I am going to be watching a lot more Italian TV, listening to Italian radio, music, and really work on perfecting my Italian over the next few years.  The other thing is write poems, songs in Italian to practice and reach out to the Italian community.  The arts is a great way to connect to one's culture, especially music and poetry.  Then there is the fact that God keeps calling me home to the Catholic Church, faith, but I keep ignoring it.  I am ignoring no more and  am going to start attending mass with my mom on Saturday, going to mass during the week, say my prayers to the Sacred Heart, the prayers I used to say when I was younger.  I had this erroneous notion that the Catholic Church did not believe in or accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit, since I have been praying and speaking in tongues in my prayer time with God for the longest time, I classified myself as Pentecostal, especially when I got caught up in the error of Sola Scriptura as classified by the Protestant Reformation.  I will be doing a post on tradition and such within the church, and icons, their place in the faith life and journey.  As an artist, poet and songwriter and one who also hopes to get into photography and sketching myself, I am realizing that the art of the churches, and icons played an important role in the church and still can. I am also going to look into becoming a member of Italian artist groups, and organizations within the Catholic Church where my calling as an artist and writer can be put to use to counter the fracturing of the church, share with others the deeper understanding of God's Word, as I grow in my own faith.  I am realizing more and more as God keeps hammering in my heart, spirit and soul the words Continuity and Context, keeps pointing me back to the Catholic faith, how important it is to really delve into the Catechism, the works of the Church Fathers, Saints and all that wisdom, to seek fellowship to do with a supportive group, as I find my way back to my roots, to truth.

Life will bring you full circle and that is what is happening with me both in my career vocation, pursuing the arts and in my culture and faith, re-visiting Catholicism, as well as my Italian heritage. Full circle is a pretty neat journey, especially when you stop fighting God and actually agree to go home.

Shalom and Amen