In modern time, as has been the case most of the time, people get deeply involved in endless chores of life, get engaged with various mundane luxuries to the point that they deliberately ignore the presence of the Divine Power that controls every minute details relevant to daily affairs.
People are regularly involved with concerns relevant to securing financial affairs, among others, to ensure a decent life at a time when turbulent affairs stand in the way and difficulties continue to emerge from time to time.
Yet, despite the successes that people achieve in life, they incessantly suffer from spiritual vacuum that fades all the achievements made in every field. This is simply due to the fact that no matter how successful, energetic, proficient, and powerful they are, they are still very weak and need a supreme power that can effectively give them the needed protection to proceed successfully in life.
Religious vacuum is the chronic problem emerging in our world today. It tarnishes all achievements made and makes people realize that the great vacuum that they are going through tarnishes all achievements attained. That is why we, from time to time, learn about people who reached the pinnacle of fame, yet they sought to commit suicide and end their lives as they feel that life is meaningless. This is basically attributed to religious vacuum.
Those who suffer from religious vacuum say, “there is something missing in life.” In this regard, press reports indicate that the Diocese of East Anglia has revealed that “spiritual vacuum” which causes spiritual restlessness is driving adults to join the Catholic Church.
So why do adults become Catholics? A study from the diocesan Commission for the New Evangelization found this “restlessness” to be “specifically spiritual” rather than participants having a sense of “general unease with their lives”. Many said, “something was missing” in reference to their previous faith practice.”
Being is seclusion and free from contacts with the Lord makes life meaningless. Over the years, the Catholic Church has enriched the faithful with divine blessing though the various tenets, namely Baptism, the Confirmation, and receiving the Holy Communion representing the body and blood of Lord Jesus Who died on the Cross to save humanity, among others.
Press reports indicate that nearly 1,000 people became Catholics while marking the Feast of the Resurrection (commonly known as Easter) in the Archdiocese of Southwark and Diocese of Westminster while on Good Friday 2024, Westminster Cathedral had to turn worshippers away after reaching its 3,000-seat capacity. In the Diocese of East Anglia, 65 people on average join the Church every year. Bishop Peter Collins wrote to every parish priest in East Anglia to find participants for the qualitative research study.
One of the recent reports of driving people to become Catholic is relevant to 21-year-old Marla Lucas who opted to leave her job at “the Washington Post” and move to the Maronite Convent to become “Mother Marla Marie”.
It was 1983, in the last years of the Cold War, when 21-year-old Marla Lucas’ eyes filled with tears at the sight of a political cartoon prepared to be printed in the Washington Post criticizing then-Pope John Paul II during his activism against communism in Poland.
Before the cartoon of the Pope, Mother Marla had been discerning religious life and spent several days visiting the Daughters of St. Paul at their convent in Alexandria, Virginia.
Recounting her last days at the newspaper in the fall of that year, Mother Marla said she went to her boss, Block, and his assistant and said she had some news to share.
Mother Marla recounted their response: “‘You’re getting married?’”
“Well...” Mother Marla said back to them. “Sort of. I’m marrying Jesus.”
She said both of their jaws “dropped open” and they looked at her with “almost horror and disbelief.”
She made her first vows in 1986 and her final vows in 1993.
May Lord Jesus bless the Catholic Church and continue to energize its activities in the service of needed communities by spreading the message of love, peace, and harmony.
