u/MemencrowMori

I got a lot of feedback on my post looking for accountability partners, so I decided to create a server just for Maestro students looking for an accountability group! There will be a daily ping to remind you to work on lessons, as well as chat spaces to interact with the community and talk about all things Maestro and studying! All current Maestro students are welcome. :)

This server is neurodivergent-friendly, specifically because I have ADHD and daily reminders are extremely useful for me. So there is no judgment on your progress or falling behind!

Link to the Maestro Accountability Group!

I've been struggling with my faith for so long. Which in comparison to lifelong Catholics or cradle Catholics, my "long" is laughable -- I converted 2 years ago.

OCIA was enriching. I LOVED it. I loved the level of study, involvement, everything. But about a year after OCIA ended, I was left feeling conflicted.

I stayed conflicted about the level of veneration for Mary and the saints. It was never "pray to God about it", it was always "pray to x saint" or "ask Mary to XYZ" and I know the typical talking points of "well, we ask them to pray for us!" but it never sat right with me.

The legalism and constant mental distress of keeping the tally of sins to bring to confession, not being able to receive the Eucharist because I couldn't make it to confession on time, being shamed for cohabitating and going through divorce. It's a LOT to deal with and I was already on thin ice.

The final straw was visiting my home parish states away, and the deacon giving the homily asked the parish of 100-200 attendees during the mass, "How many of you have a favorite Bible verse?" Now my home parish was always very interactive, so a show of hands was pretty regular. But for this specific question, ONE man raised his hand. Legitimately only one. Even the Deacon was shocked.

I'm still Christian. I love Jesus, I love Christianity, I love theology. But... having an entire church full of Christians and only a single person was brave enough to raise their hand to say they have a favorite verse? I thought about it for over a week after coming home and was just dumbfounded. We put all this emphasis on legalism, praying to all these different things, observing all of these traditions, and yet nobody there had a favorite verse out of the BIBLE.

I think I'm over it. I'm not sure if I'll find another church denomination or not, but I think I'm out of Catholicism. Catholics can be the most arrogant denomination sometimes, especially online, but seeing the truth of the masses (no pun intended) was baffling. My fiancé (cradle Catholic) and I were both completely blown away by that experience.

Just wanted to vent to a group who might understand my frustration. Thanks for reading.

I'm about to out myself here, lol.

I am about 3 weeks behind. Lots of life events, stress, etc. going on and I've completely fallen off the wagon. I've maintained enough to keep my enrollment, but I am absolutely behind. I also have ADHD and due to losing my insurance coverage, have not had access to my medication in over a month now. So really I'm behind in every life area on top of it all. It's a struggle.

Would anyone like to be an accountability partner to do daily productivity checks? Basically just to check in and hold me accountable for doing at LEAST one or two lessons per day to get me caught up? This might be a bit of a long shot but I'm hoping someone out there is in the same boat. I'd love to have someone or a group to buddy with and make sure we are all staying productive with classes.

Totally down for either Reddit or Discord for platforms!