I \u201cmet\u201d Ricky Jones earlier this week after he responded to a guest post on the universality of the Church. Meredith Cummings\u2019 post talked about how, as a white woman and a convert, she grew to understand the Church is not just for Hispanics. Her post spoke to Ricky, who is an African-American man married […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/__dQCWErAY9c\/S_8VTRksxOI\/AAAAAAAAASg\/dFTy5M7AYGs\/s200\/we_are_safe_in_GOD__s_hands_by_maddy_mk.jpg\")
<\/a>Guest post by Ricky Jones<\/a><\/i>
I wasn\u2019t born Catholic\u00a0nor have I been a Catholic for very long.\u00a0I\u00a0was baptized about two years ago.\u00a0Like most people, I never thought I did wrong, or that I was a sinner. I didn\u2019t even know what sin was. Until the age of 23, no one ever had taught me anything about God. All I knew was that some people believed that He created us and that if we don\u2019t do His will, we\u2019re going to go to hell. I met my girlfriend, Johana, five and a half years ago in Phoenix, and thanks to her and her family, if not God Himself, I began to learn about God.
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I would go with her and her family to Mass every Sunday, but just to go. I didn\u2019t understand the majority of what they said in church. They are Mexicans and were all raised as Catholics. At the beginning, I didn\u2019t want to know anything about religion, because in school they had taught me that God doesn\u2019t exist and that we come from monkeys. That\u2019s probably why I came out so hairy. My mother was never \u201creligious,\u201d and did she not teach me anything about God. <\/p><\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/__dQCWErAY9c\/S_rkxN0zbXI\/AAAAAAAAASA\/HdUFoZL4o6g\/s200\/Prayer+%281%29.jpg\")
<\/a>After I hung up the telephone, I began to cry. But something made me fall to my knees and I told God, \u201cThank you my Lord. I know there is a reason for this. I know that you want me to be humble and that you will give me a better job than this one.\u201d This is was the moment that I was reborn.\u00a0I still haven\u2019t found another job. I now run my own business as a website designer, focusing on websites for Catholics.<\/a> Most importantly, I have found God and His word. He has taught me so many things. I feel richer than ever. Not rich in money, but rich in love, faith, wisdom, understanding, and much more.We have had many problems between us, with family and with neighbors, but with God as the center of our relationship and our family life, everything came out fine. Thank the Lord, we married in August. Every day, I give thanks to God for the changes He has made in me. My wife and I now are Eucharistic Ministers at our parish,\u00a0<\/span>Mary Immaculate Catholic Church \u00a0in Pacoima, CA<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>where<\/span><\/span>\u00a0I<\/span> a<\/span>lso serve as a lector.<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/6738513599344023043-7724266817286763583?l=yimcatholic.blogspot.com\")