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Now I get it. And, I am in full agreement with you that if all people do is make some "intellectual" profession for Christ ... it's just so much hot air. Truly, to be born again is a real, life-changing experience and the change must be in the heart, not the head.

As to the fulness issue you mentioned, I was born and raised RC in the Dominican traditions through HS. Gotta tell you that I never had any relationship with the Lord no matter how many masses, novenas, sacraments I was a part of. It never really caught up with me until my early thirties, after I was married with 3 kids and a successful career. It wasn't until I came to grips with life's basic questions that I realized that I really could know Jesus like the apostles did. I wanted that. That's when I finally got serious with God. My whole life changed when I finally asked Jesus to come into my life, sit on my heart's throne and make Himself real to me. WOW!!!! That was 19 years ago. It was a life-changing experience :)

I agree with you, we have had similar experiences. I was baptized Catholic but not really raised Catholic. It wasn't until I got married and had kids -- I was pregnant with my third -- when I got the desire to go back to Church. I haven't willingly missed a Sunday since, and I am much closer to God through His son today than I was growing up.

However, I stayed in the Catholic Church and have found the fullness and richness of the faith that I never knew growing up. It may have been bad Catechisis, or the fact that I was never made to go to Church and had no one in my life who was religious, or whatever, but I did make a conscious decision to go back to Church and I have felt more complete now than I did in the first 30 years of my life.

When I went to confession for the first time since my First Holy Communion, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, and Jesus was truly with me, at that moment. It was an awesome experience.

God bless.