Jacob Faist’s Story
I came into this with a strong faith in Jesus as our savior but looking back at it now was lacking direction in it and I believe that I have found that direction in the Catholic Church. I believe with all my heart the teachings of the Catholic church are not simply the rules or teachings of some human institution, but fundamentally inseparable from Jesus. The Catholic Church was founded on earth by Jesus and continues through him today, but my journey to St. Johns and being Catholic started in 2021.
My wife, Loren, does agriculture in the classroom programming with all the elementary schools in Jackson County through our county Farm Bureau organization. She came to St. John School to meet the principal and third grade teacher to try to organize their attendance at our big event at the fair grounds each April. Loren went to the school and called me as soon as she was done and said she wasn’t sure what it was, but as soon as she walked through the door to the school she just felt something. She said that it felt like home and that I had to get in there to visit the school for Palmer, our oldest daughter.
I reluctantly went and as soon as I stepped foot in the door I felt it also. It was like a calling; I knew that our children had to attend that school. All the way there and even walking up I was giving Loren a hard time about this feeling she got there. Needless to say, I ate my words fairly quickly. Since that day the school has felt like home, I still get that feeling every time I walk into it. We feel that school is a very special place to us and we love it greatly.
Once we got going in school and Palmer had progressed through the years of pre-school into kindergarten when the children started attending the weekly mass, and having the occasional school, or grade specific Sunday mass, we started attending those. One day something that I really remember with Palmer was that when she got home, she said the craziest thing happened today. She said at lunch she was late getting to the lunch room and the tables where all her classmates were sitting were full and she had to go sit at the other table by herself. She said that she was really feeling down and then walked in Fr. Chas. He came and sat with her and it made her day talking to her. I thought that was great and showed how wonderful it was how involved and caring everyone was.
Then as Palmer, Margo, and eventually Emma started coming home and telling me about all the great things they were learning at school about the church, I really was pulled towards it. I was still very skeptical and apprehensive, but I was doing it with and through them.Things kept lining up as they told me things and I started looking into things on my own. We started going to mass much more, not just on the school related days, and I kept getting more and more “Catholic curious,” I guess is how I would put it. All the things I had been told growing up by non-Catholics about what Catholics believed were just false or totally based on half-truths.
We started attending mass more and more eventually making it pretty much every week. What struck me was just how great everyone in the church was. Our youngest daughter Emma can be a little crazy at times and sitting quietly for an hour was not her strong point. At the end of each mass I would always apologize to those around us and everyone was always very kind to us. One gentleman in particular I remember saying, “We are just glad she is here.”
As the kids kept getting older, I started finding them each night praying their prayers they were learning at school and it finally got this fire that was burning inside me really roaring. They had their little rosaries that they made in school. I started asking them how to do it and learning the prayers. We kept going to mass and learning more. The more I learned on my own the more everything made sense and that is what led me to make the decision to join.
It’s not easy being Catholic. You don’t just show up occasionally on Sunday when you want to and somehow it’s all good. We need to be challenged to change and be better. To truly grow spiritually takes work. I believe that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Eucharistic miracles, such as in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, prove this to be true. I also am really drawn to Penance through
confession. This is one that I spent a lot of time looking into and in John 20:21-23, it is clear that Jesus is talking about what we would call confession.
I believe that the Catholic Church is truly holy. For 2000 years the Catholic Church has worked to make disciples of all nations preaching the good word to all. One podcast I listened to asked who remembers what emperor put Saint Peter to death? Nobody remembers Nero, and the empire that he ruled has long since faded into history. The Church that Saint Peter was the rock for is still going strong today.
I was always told that Catholics worship Mary. I thought that devotion to Mary replaced devotion to Jesus. What I have found, believe, and now practice is it is both. Mary is the Mother of Jesus and leads us to Him. The assumption of
Mary was also misrepresented to me. I was taught that Catholics believe Mary ascended into heaven. I have learned that Mary was redeemed and assumed – brought – into heaven through the power of Christ. Jesus ascended into heaven by his own power alone. Major difference there.
What I’m trying to say is that I believe everything in the Catholic Church is REALLY all about Jesus because it is truly Jesus in the Eucharist. And it is truly Mary who leads us to him.