Power of the Real Presence

As noted in other entries, I've been reading Christian Fiction lately. Sometimes it takes a bit of a thick skin because there are veiled (and sometimes not so veiled) derogatory comments about Catholicism. I just finished SisterChicks Say Ooh La La! If you aren't familiar with the series, Sisterchicks books are about 40 something women who have been long-time friends who take the vacation of a lifetime together, and in the process learn about themselves and about God in their lives. They aren't conversion stories in that a character goes from dissolute sinner to self-sacrificing saint in one emotional experience but rather I'd say the experiences tend to be more "Catholic", more of a new take on things by an old Christian, which is the way we see conversion--as something we are all called to all our lives.

While reading this book I grimaced when the author described the character from France, as a girl, going to church with a doily on her head. The other main character's mother wouldn't let her attend that church with her friend and encouraged the friend to attend church with them. Later in the book we learn that the reason their friendship broke up when they were seniors in high school was an evangelization effort by the non-Catholic friend's mother--though it seems that the French girl as an adult has an Evangelical Protestant view of God and salvation. However, I had to smile when the conversion experience of the woman who was raised Protestant happened, in of all places, Notre Dame. I won't give you the details, but they were in the church to pray, not just to sightsee, and while there, she experienced God's healing. That Real Presence is powerful even if you don't believe in it.

I do wish someone would write fluffy fiction from a Catholic perspective.