Dinner and a chat

I went and had dinner with a lady in the parish called Sue Ryan. She is the mother hen of a discernment house that is connected to the parish (it used to be where the priests lived in days passed). Anyways, we had a great talk about everything and she even asked my opinion about an idea that the Bishop has about moving the house to Palmerston North (the city). I personally thought it was a good idea as Feilding is a bit out of the way especially for 20-somethings most of whom moved to the city anyways either to study or because there is more jobs. However, it needs to be in the center of the city and connected to either the Cathedral (it's in the centre of town) or St Mary's or Our Lady of Lourdes parishes. I'm more for the Cathedral because it's more central. So yes. Thats my bit about that.

Next, I've noticed that I'm really, really interested in Church history, and how things arose as they did. Sue and I talked about the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Trent and then also about the reformation and counter reformation. I had no idea there was a counter reformation. Sue mentioned something about Luther being some sort of prophetic witness or something like that. Pointing out something that needed to be changed or done, but it being too early. She brought up the illustration of global warming and the environment. There are still the nay-sayers who deny anything is wrong just like in Luthers time. It's a shame that Luther didn't stick it out with the Church because as Sue says, "it's my church too!"

Does anyone know of some good books that give an overview of Church history that won't confuse someone like me?

Oh Sue also said that its possible for someone to be baptized at any Mass because people come into the Church with all sorts of previous history. And that its possible for me to not have to wait until Easter. But she said that we will just have to wait to see what happens with my hopefully-future job.