Rejoicing in new members of the Church

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

GARDNER - Bunnies helped lead a man with Jewish roots to Christ. So did his daughters.
Eucharistic adoration moved a woman who had some faith, but no religious affiliation. So did a friend's invitations.
These were steps on the journey for Matthew Morse, 47, and Leah Sigall, 51, who received sacraments at the Easter Vigil Saturday in Annunciation Parish's Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church. Also that night, two sisters - Briana Peasha, 23, and Alyssa Peasha, 24 - and Bradley Kum, 10, were initiated. Mr. Morse, the Peasha sisters and Bradley were baptized. All five received their first Communion and were confirmed.
Ms. Sigall said she was baptized Catholic as an infant, in part because of her grandmothers. Her parents were not practicing but tried to give her some religious foundation. She studied different religions, but nothing clicked.
At Saturday's Easter Vigil, she joined the Catholic Church and finally felt included.
Mr. Morse said his mother was Jewish but didn't practice much.
"We did go to the high holidays" at the synagogue, he said. "At 16 years old I did study with a rabbi." He said he had a relationship with God.
Last Saturday, his former wife, Mary Gianini, was his sponsor and their daughters, Emma and Molly, were altar servers at the Easter Vigil. Mrs. Gianini's husband and father came too.    
After the vigil, Mr. Morse proudly introduced himself to people at church saying, "Hello, I'm Matthew; I'm a Catholic."
He told The Catholic Free Press how he got to this point.
As a certified nursing assistant, Mr. Morse spent nights one-on-one with patients.
"One night I forgot my book," he said. "The only book in the room was the Bible." Over time, "I read the whole thing up until the Book of Revelation. ?    If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been open to dating (his wife) because she was so intensely Catholic."
He said he thought their marriage fell apart when he stopped attending church regularly with her. He told people he believed in "science," which didn't prove or disprove God.
"I still would talk to God" if worried about someone, he said. But, not having seen Jesus' miracles personally, it was hard for him to believe Jesus was God.
Then, Mr. Morse began seeing bunnies, in coincidences that he considered signs that led him to faith in Jesus.
Two years ago, while cleaning his yard, he found a ceramic rabbit.
"That's the bunny my mother got me on my first Mother's Day," his former wife said, when she came to pick up their daughters to celebrate Mother's Day with her dying mother, Janet Chaves. It would be Mrs. Chaves' last Mother's Day.
"I found that bunny when Mary really needed it!" Mr. Morse said.    
After Mrs. Chaves' funeral, Mr. Morse worried about the well-being of his former wife and family.
Then he saw a live bunny that looked like the ceramic one - in the same spot.
"That's Janet talking to me," he thought. (Mrs. Chaves, one of the most Catholic mothers he'd experienced, had encouraged him to do what was best for his children.)
Seeing that real bunny was a sufficient sign, motivating him to become a Catholic, Mr. Morse said.
He said he felt he wasn't good enough to be a Catholic, but eventually called the religious education director at Annunciation Parish, Maura Sweeney, where he had attended Mass with his family.
He hadn't been taking his daughters to Mass when they stayed with him, but they went with their mother, he said. One day last year Emma, then 16, told him she was going to walk to church. He said he would go too. The next week Molly, then 11, wanted to go. That "cemented" his decision to be a Catholic.
He chose their mother for his sponsor for his initiation "because she's been praying for it for 20 years."
He felt blessed receiving three sacraments, he said later. Exiting the church, he saw a bunny - yet another sign for him, and for others, he believed.
Ms. Sigall experienced God's presence in different ways.
While her parents didn't practice any religion "they raised me to believe in God," she said.    Her mother took her to different churches, but "I didn't feel welcomed."
Ms. Sigall read about mysticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, but "nothing totally stuck." She felt judged by Catholics and considered their religion hypocritical.
Despite that, she attended the Easter Vigil at Annunciation Parish last year to support her best friend, Rebecca Root, who was becoming Catholic.
Ms. Sigall, sitting apart from her friend, felt she was treated like a "weirdo."
"They passed out candles," she recalled. "I didn't get one. It made me feel bad. I have a tattoo on my neck and I'm wearing a black dress." She left early.
She continued to see her friend, who one day invited her to eucharistic adoration.
"I had never heard of that," Ms. Sigall said. "I had just gone through a tumultuous breakup and my heart was broken." So that day last spring she went to adoration in Holy Rosary Church with her friend.
"I never felt more peace," Ms. Sigall said. It was the best church experience she had ever had.
"And then I attended Latin Mass with her at Holy Rosary," Ms. Sigall continued. Before going a fourth time, she asked her deceased grandmother to pray for her, because she didn't want to be a hypocrite who attended church but did not live the faith. She said she was looking for a sign, and it seemed like the priest was preaching to her, which she attributed to her grandmother's prayers.
Ms. Sigall contacted Mrs. Sweeney about going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults to become Catholic. She said she loves that "catholic" means "universal" - that includes everyone.

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