How I became Catholic - added note for Part 2

I am going to be finishing this series. I got a little derailed going back to Canada and such, and also because the next part was probably THE most important part to my conversion, and I'm having difficulties in writing it. What DO I say, what DON'T I say - it could turn out really long, or just too short. But it IS coming!

If you haven't read the other 2 parts, here they are:

How I became Catholic - Part 1

How I became Catholic - Part 2

Anyways, I wanted to add something that I forgot to part 2.

I said "I loved that (getting "lost" in a big Church) aspect of going there – but more than anything, I really really liked the Senior Pastor there. It’s been awhile now, I can’t even remember what the first sermon was about that he gave, but it was important to me at the time."

When I went home for Dad's funeral, two of my brothers and I got together to talk about funeral arrangements, and to just talk about Dad and ourselves and our relationships with him, and something jogged my memory about that first sermon I heard at South Abbotsford.

My Dad suffered from bi-polar depression - he was diagnosed when I was 7, but had probably been suffering from it for a lot longer than that. I've always been a sceptic of doctors and medicine. It's more from a lack of understanding than anything - but I do believe in mind over matter sometimes, and that people ARE over-medicated. I never really understood how Dad's depression could actually be helped by the use of medicine. Not only that, I just really didn't understand depression at all - I've always been a very optimistic, happy person.

It's never an easy thing to come out and tell the world about, but that Sunday the Pastor shared with the congregation his struggles with depression. He shared about his decision to see someone about it, and actually had his, or a, psychiatrist come up and talk about the psychology as well as the physiology behind the diagnosis. It made me come to more of an understanding and an acceptance of what my Dad was going through, and what kind of help he was getting.

I think, more than the separation and subsequent divorce of my parents, my dad's depression affected my life a lot. So hearing this sermon was very important to me, I had already felt a connection with the church South Abbotsford, and it helped then to feel a connection with the Pastor as well.