Faith and prayer allow Elect to remain patient while waiting to receive the sacraments

Friday, Apr. 24, 2020

OREM — Sarah Carter was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but “I never understood it. ... It never felt right for me,” she said.

As life events kept happening, her despair over not being comfortable with her faith grew. In 2017, one of her nephews was killed in a freeway accident. That event marked a turning point in her life.

“A daughter of one of my dear friends started producing a podcast, and for whatever reason I started listening to it,” Carter said.

She got hooked on the words that she was hearing, so she asked for more information on the podcast. Her friend told her, to her surprise, that she had been listening to a Catholic priest.

“So I asked her if I could send several questions to the priest,” Carter said.

After receiving the responses to her questions and listening to several more podcasts, she started feeling a special love and warmth growing in her heart, she said.

“I really started searching for a Catholic church in my area but, living in the middle of Utah Valley, I was wondering if there was even a Catholic church,” she said.

Then she discovered St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish in Orem.

“So I went there. ... At the beginning, I just went into the chapel, and I really liked it,” she said.

Then people started greeting her and talking to her.

“I told them that I had no idea what I was doing there, but I was trying to figure it out, because it just felt right,” Carter said.

Those at the church told her about the Mass schedule. Then, one day, the friend who had done the podcasts suggested that Carter ask about the parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program.

“So in September I started RCIA, but by that time I had already devoured several Catholic books,” said Carter, adding that she had made up her mind that if she was going to become Catholic, she was going to put her all into it.

Her journey into the Catholic faith has been a little bumpy.

“My family has been on and off about it,” she said. Although she would like her family’s total support, her mother has been taking her decision to become Catholic personally, which has been hard, she said. 

“I kept trying to tell her that has nothing to do with her,” Carter said.

Through the RCIA program she kept on going, helped and supported by people of the parish, she said.

She participated in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion that took place on Feb. 29 at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Then, as the time to be formally welcomed into the Catholic Church approached, Carter was excited about the Easter vigil. 

“Beginning the month [of March] I was jumping out of my chair, waiting to be baptized in the Church and to be able to get the Eucharist,” she said. 

Then the COVID-19 pandemic crushed her plans, because all public events in the Church have had to be postponed.

“I was hoping to live the whole Catholic experience at the Easter Vigil. ... I was really sad, but I am trying to be patient. Things are the way they are,” Carter said.

The words that Bishop Oscar A. Solis said at the rite have been resonating in her head; he asked for the patience of those gathered “so that everybody will learn the significance of this liturgical celebration.”

“When the time is right, I will receive the Eucharist and it will be amazing,” Carter said.

In the meantime, she is praying.

“I would tell people that are losing the faith or that feel helpless in these times to just get on their knees and pray. ... God is good and everything will be all right and happen when the time is right,” she said.