Merry Christmas from a Protestant minister convert to Catholicism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And to all a farewell. At least for a time. Still using a borrowed computer. It seems as though mine does need a new hard drive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/12\/merry-christmas-from-a-protestant-minister-convert-to-catholicism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merry Christmas from a Protestant minister convert to Catholicism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And to all a farewell. At least for a time. Still using a borrowed computer. 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{"id":1697,"date":"2013-12-24T05:43:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T05:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/12\/merry-christmas-from-a-protestant-minister-convert-to-catholicism.html"},"modified":"2013-12-24T05:43:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T05:43:00","slug":"merry-christmas-from-a-protestant-minister-convert-to-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/12\/merry-christmas-from-a-protestant-minister-convert-to-catholicism.html","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas from a Protestant minister convert to Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

And to all a farewell. \u00a0At least for a time. \u00a0Still using a borrowed computer. \u00a0It seems as though mine does need a new hard drive. \u00a0As with most things nowadays, it had the life expectancy of a fruit fly. \u00a0There were no real power crashes or catastrophic events that caused the hard drive to quit. \u00a0Just the general \u2018soon to fall apart\u2019 quality of modern production. \u00a0As a result, I\u2019ve been cut off from regular posting, and my readership shows. \u00a0Just as I was breaking records, getting folks to come back regularly, once again technology has hamstrung my blog. \u00a0Just as it did back in the day when I first started.<\/p>\n

At this point, life is beckoning. \u00a0I\u2019ll get the computer back up when I can. \u00a0I\u2019ll hopefully be able to restart the blog on a regular basis. \u00a0But for now, just living will do. \u00a0We\u2019re looking for some miracle that will allow my wife to get a job while also being able to continue homeschool. \u00a0We\u2019ve been told that my dreams of continuing my ministry are pretty much done. \u00a0If there was a time when the Church thrust open its arms to accommodate Protestant clergy, that time has past. \u00a0Some, from some denominations may still do well. \u00a0But the general, at least in these parts, has passed.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s time to roll up the sleeves and get going with life. \u00a0My library will be packed up and room made for living. \u00a0It\u2019s somewhat sad, and my wife is not altogether sold on giving up. \u00a0Several of our non-Catholic family and friends are making with the \u2018told you so\u2019 line. \u00a0After all, it couldn\u2019t have been God\u2019s will for us to be Catholic, and this just proves it. \u00a0Right not, we just want to avoid economic collapse, for at that point, I fear the witness to those who know our story will be all but unsalvageable. \u00a0At least if we get our life going and are at least able to stay afloat, we can point to something. \u00a0But as it is, following years of having almost every picnic rained on, and having the doors of ministry opportunity firmly but lovingly closed, proclaiming to those around us that it was God\u2019s glorious will for us to lose everything and be shut out of ministering in the Church is a hard sell. \u00a0A life well lived might go down better and prove that there really was more to it all than people had seen, and that the Catholic Faith and ill fortune do not need to be synonymous.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the big focus over the next months. \u00a0Once we have the time and ability to get the computer up, I\u2019ll hopefully be back on a regular basis. \u00a0And once again, have to rebuild my readership. Until then, when I can. \u00a0In the meantime, here are a few links to Christmas posts of old, when visions of ministry still danced in my head, and Christmas was that time for future hope. \u00a0Have a very merry Christmas, those who are still visiting.<\/p>\n

A 2012 reflection<\/a> on the Joy of Christmas
Some musings on A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/a>, the best Christmas special ever.
My own thoughts on the War on Christmas<\/a>, from the blog\u2019s first Christmas season, 2010
Last year\u2019s Christmas<\/a>, before the boys homeschooled and hope for ministry futures was in the air
And a quippy little post<\/a> aimed at the growing impatience that our corporate structure has for that pesky religious holiday it annually exploits.<\/p>\n