Thank you. Thank you so much for the encouraging words, as well as for the reading list. I needed both.
I live outside of Houston, and apparently there is a cathedral that offers a Tridentine Mass on this side of town, even. The idea of attending Mass there is exciting to me!
I think I may owe Madame Progressive a thank you for pushing me to air my frustrations on FR!
Ping me anytime for reading suggestions. I now spend most of my time on the internet and at medical appointments so I can suggest books and other things.
I don't know if you saw the movie For Greater Glory about the Catholic Cristero revolution in Mexico in the 1920s. If not, I am sure it would be available on Netflix or at movie rental stores. Andy Garcia, Lawrence O'Toole (I believe it was his final movie, and a wide cast of actors/actresses who did a magnificent job. Very Catholic movie. As the final credits roll, the background is the film of the martyrdom of Fr. Miguel Pro, SJ, shot by firing squad for saying Mass in a private home in Mexico City.
When you deal with Madame Progressive, you will be fortified by the Tridentine Mass and by good books. When you become a Catholic, you will be fortified and nourished by receiving Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the sacrament of the altar. You might talk to those at the Tridentine Church about continuing your journey to Catholicism there. It may well be simpler and quicker. The novus ordo churches up here make converts wait until Easter to be formally received into the Church unless they are in near danger of death. I regard that as ecclesiastical malpractice. All that waiting without the sacraments!
As one who is converting you might be delighted by the works of Gilbert Keith Chesterton whose parents had been Unitarians and who became a High Church Anglican himself before converting to Catholicism when he was 48 years old. Look him up on Wikipedia for a comprehensive story of his life and friendships with George Bernard Shaw (not at all one of us) and author Hillaire Belloc (also well worth reading) and a bibliography of his many books including Orthodoxy which is a good starting point. Chesterton was humorous and sarcastic and penetrating in his insight. You could spend years enjoying his prolific work. He influenced C. S. Lewis to return to Christianity but Lewis never quite followed him in swimming the Tiber as we say. Belloc wrote short books brilliantly on single topics.
Enjoy and God bless!