with Kersti Rundle (pictured)
I was brought up Uniting Church and baptised in that denomination. I attended the classes for Confirmation but didn’t go through with it much to my parents’ horror. I was a bit of a teenage rebel.
Originally, I joined the RCIA group at the Whitfords parish to learn what my children were learning as they are all enrolled in Catholic school. I told the RCIA coordinators that I was not committing and was just going to listen. Three months into the process, I decided I wanted to be Catholic.
A lot of the reason for my converting was because of my children’s school. It has a warm and open community spirit. It is the same with the RCIA group and the Catholic Church. When I described the experience to my parents, I told them it was like having a blanket wrapped around me. I feel comfortable and at home. Catholicism is a warm religion. I still feel like I am on ‘L’ plates though and have to really pay attention in Mass to know where we are up to.
Whitfords parish RCIA coordinator Ann Cunneen makes a great role model. Her knowledge of the faith is remarkable. I joke that if you wanted to know what day Jesus washed someone’s feet, she would be able to tell you the time and what the weather was like! I know anything that I ask can be answered.
Now, when I go to Church, I don’t feel like an outsider. I also feel a little bit more centred in myself. I know that if I am having trouble I have got somewhere to turn to. I don’t remember feeling that way before. It is amazing how many people care. I feel good about the children being in the right place and that we all have the same understanding.
My mum has an aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease. It’s been quite emotional. She has deteriorated quite quickly in these last few months so she is in nursing home care. She can’t walk or speak very well and she needs feeding. She’s the person I used to talk to when I’m upset about something so when I haven’t got my mum to talk to it is kind of nice to go somewhere else. The Church has been a place where I can bare my soul.
Faith makes you stronger. You feel like you can tell Someone all your woes and then get back on your horse again. It’s about me and Him. It’s my time. Many times during Mass I feel like my parish priest Father Joe Tran is talking directly to me. Like when we were trying to decide whether we should put my mum in the nursing home. Father Joe said that if you sit back a bit, the answers to your tougher decisions will come. I went to the hospital after Mass and the doctor said, “Your mum needs to go into a nursing home.” He told us that the decision had come from a higher order. You’re working in tandem with God all the time.