Got a Catholic?

It’s a new year. A new beginning. And therefore I must come clean.

I have been keeping a deep dark secret.

I have never dated a Catholic.

Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, I’ve tried the religion sampler platter when it comes to men. So far however, Catholic has never been on the menu.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I danced with anyone at prom that was Catholic either.

Please don’t stone me.

In my defense, growing up in Minnesota the crop of Catholic boys was rather slim pickins.

(Minus the one monster dreamboat who forever changed the way I felt about the name Luke and pretty much captured my heart from first grade on. And almost made me pass out at the doctor’s office when I ran into him Christmas break junior year of college. Once a dreamboat always a dreamboat.)

Anyways, practically all of the Catholic boys knew me when I had that crazy perm between third and sixth grade. And a decent chunk of them might even remember my pre-kindergarten mullet. Which definitely ruled me out as dating material.
But to be completely honest, I didn’t really care. The faith of the people I dated never really made much of a difference. Being cute, funny and a good hand holder always topped the list of requirements, but Catholic? Not so much. I’d much prefer he was on the football team or could at least drive a tractor. (Said by a true small-town Minnesota girl).

My own faith as well was something that for a long time didn’t really matter. Which yes, makes me one of those kids. In our house, if you didn’t go to church on Sunday you couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day except sit in your bed. So I went to church. But it took me a really really long time to enjoy it. And it wasn’t until freshman year of college, when I was terrified out of my mind to be 350 miles away from home and not know a soul, that I realized nothing—particularly a cure for homesickness—is possible without God.

The same can be said for a marriage, or any relationship for that matter. Nothing is possible without God, and with God, nothing is impossible. Except maybe the idea I’ve been entertaining that John Krasinski is going to come into the Catholic Herald office at any moment and sweep me off my feet and we’ll ride off into the sunset.

That is likely impossible.

So maybe this whole online Catholic dating isn’t so bad. It at least puts faith in the picture. Even if some of the pictures are really strange and include mothers, power saws and the occasional man of the cloth.

I think Ecclesiastes 31: 10-31 says it best. Well, okay. Swap out some of the girlier aspects of the “ideal wife” and put in some manly stuff and therein shall be my future husband.

I hope.

“When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good and not evil, all the days of her life…Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”