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Hello, fellow pilgrims! My name is Amy Thomas. In 2009, I converted to Catholicism and I started writing to share the Faith. I’m a military spouse and my lifestyle has afforded me the opportunity to travel all over, exploring Catholic places. I have since expanded my writing to include a podcast and videos. My goal is to travel with fellow pilgrims and help them to discover the richness of the Catholic Church and grow closer to Christ. If interested in having me speak at your event or ask me a question, please click below.
Contact Me >When my husband and I were first married, he was the lukewarm cradle Catholic and I was the lukewarm Protestant. But, because we had our new baby girl, we both realized that we wanted her to have faith in God. Where we once didn’t think our religious differences mattered, now it did and so we met on the figurative battlefield to square off. I was strongly anti-Catholic and a bit of a hot head. My husband is an engineer and the calm to my storm, so with his logical way of explaining things without getting too mad at me, I was continually proven wrong about Catholicism. When he would talk about the Eucharist, it was like he was speaking another language. The real Body and Blood of Christ? What?! As my husband dismantled all my arguments and after having a very strange experience when I went up to take the Eucharist without being a Catholic in a state of grace, I decided to look into things. John 6 was huge for me. Then, I also started reading what the early Church Fathers said. St. Ignatius of Antioch, who heard from St. John, so he would have learned from him, once wrote, “Take care, then, to partake of one Eucharist; for one is the Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one is the cup to unite us with His Blood, and one altar.” When I started reading things like this, I started to open my mind and soul to the possibility of the Eucharist being really what Christ said it was—His Body and Blood. Once I got it. Once it clicked for me, I knew I had to be Catholic immediately. I could barely wait. Because once you realize not what the Eucharist is, but Who, everything changes in your life, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday. St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!
Continue ReadingWhen I was younger, I watched, listened to, and read anything. I had no discerning process for what entertainment I consumed. It was just entertainment, after all. That was my defense. After awhile, I noticed that the very sinful things I was watching and reading started playing in my mind pretty frequently. That made me uncomfortable, but I pushed down my conscience. I lacked courage to say no to the popular culture. Upon becoming Catholic, I came to fully understand that we should seek out the true, the beautiful, and the good, especially when it comes to entertainment. Entertainment does shape our views and thoughts whether we think it does or not. Sometimes, we must wade into the darkness to deal with evil, like when your job takes you there. Specializing in the study of sexual violence crimes has brought me face-to-face with utter evil and depravity, but I will wade there to fight it. Recently, I was told that I needed to watch and listen to full episodes of the filthy podcast I mentioned a few days back. I was told that I needed to do this because I couldn’t be taken seriously if I didn’t and it ruined my credibility if I didn’t basically do a thorough deep dive into the smut. When I explained that I heard and saw enough to know it was bad, like really bad, that wasn’t enough. Shame on me for not giving the podcast a chance to show me how truly excellent it could be. 🙄 I responded with “How long do you need to stare at a train wreck to know it’s bad?” It is morally wrong to encourage people to wade into sinful entertainment just so that they can give you a fully-formed opinion. This is highly dangerous because they could be occasions of sin for people and really sink their souls. Where I once entertained all entertainment, I now know to turn off or close anything that steps out of bounds. I don’t need to keep feeding my mind and soul with filth. The reasons people would encourage such a thing are because they either like that entertainment and are trying to justify themselves or they agree with the topic and again are trying to justify themselves. Encourage people in the good, the true, and the beautiful, Catholic Pilgrims. We should be helping each other get to Heaven, not sending people off on paths of occasions of sin. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday.
Continue ReadingI just finished reading a book called “All That Remains” for my book club. It’s written by a forensic anthropologist from Scotland. The book was a bit disappointing for reasons I don’t have time to go into, but much of the book was centered on the author talking about death. There was one point in the book where she was describing different family members that had died. Commenting on the day of her uncle’s funeral, she said, “I realised that day that when the animation of the person we were is stripped out of the vessel we have used to pilot our way through life, it leaves little more than an echo or a shadow in the physical world.” Later, she commented on how when someone is sleeping, they are still animated. We know the difference between someone asleep and someone who is dead. The reason we can tell the difference is because the soul has gone in death. We’ve all experienced this at funerals. We see our loved one lying there and we know it’s no longer them. As humans, we are both body and soul, but it’s the soul that truly makes us who we are. Twins essentially have the exact same body, but they are two distinct persons because of their souls. Why do I mention all this? Well, today is the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila. I read her book “The Interior Castle” for my podcast last year and I grew to love her. She once wrote, “Because we have heard and faith tells us so, we know we have souls. But we seldom consider the precious things that can be found in this soul, or who dwells within it, or its high value. Consequently, little effort is made to preserve its beauty.” The more we care for our souls, Catholic Pilgrims, and the more we make them an acceptable place for God to dwell, the more we will transform into who God envisioned us to be at the moment our soul was created by Him. Take care of your body, take care of your soul. Have a beautiful day. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!
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