One More Day Alive

It’s that time of year again to rejoice in the coming of Christ, Who redeemed us from sin and offers eternal love.

It’s also when many “non-practicing” Catholics return to church for their annual visit out of tradition, family duty or habit, even though their hearts aren’t in it and some may be questioning the existence of God altogether.

Let’s all support them because you never know when that thread of faith will pull them up from the abyss of despair and ultimately inspire the rest of the world too.

Case in point: Anne Rice, the best-selling author of “Interview with the Vampire” and the “Vampire Chronicles,” had an amazing awakening after decades mired in despair and a career devoted to writing about the undead and the damned.

She recently shared a few thoughts with me about her rich Catholic upbringing and how suddenly in the summer of her 18th year, she inexplicably lost her faith. There was no major traumatic event; it just happened.

What followed was an extraordinary career writing the fictional accounts of a vampire named Lestat, a desperate soul searching for meaning in an eternity doomed to darkness. Rice married the love of her life, endured the horrible loss of her daughter to leukemia, then the miraculous birth of her son.

Faith rediscovered

But just as nothing made her lose her faith, nothing particular brought it back; the latter just happened — one day in December of 1998, right before Christmas.

“I wanted so desperately to get back to God,” revealed Rice. “I was running around so afraid and in such a state of despair for so long. I wanted to stop running from things and run to God.”

But Rice had struggled for years with “deep sociological questions.”

“How could I believe in God if so many bad things happened in the world?” explained Rice. “I wondered if the Church was right on one issue or another. Then I realized I didn’t need to know all the answers. All I needed to accept was that I loved God and wanted to reconnect with Him through the Church. I could surrender to Him in His infinite mercy. It wasn’t about avoiding questions; it was about love.”

She went to confession that day, and received holy Communion afterward. She remarried her husband in the Church. Soon her random loss and rediscovery of faith started to make some inspiring sense.

“Catholicism wasn’t just a religion for me,” said Rice, “it was a way of life. It influenced everything that I wrote even when I was away from the Church. I thought I was an atheist writing that book [“Interview with a Vampire”] but why did I write about someone who was grieving for loss? Why did I write about someone who was lost and searching? It was me searching for my faith, searching for what I had lost.”

That faith guided her, even when she was “lost,” and eventually led her back to the Church.

“When you grow up Catholic you feel that you have to be connected to the meaning of life,” said Rice.  “When you break away from your faith, you still have that yearning. I never lost my desire to understand what the point of my life was.”

Since then Rice has devoted her life and career to the Lord. In her recently released “Angel Time,” she examines redemption, hope and the merciful, healing love of Christ for a hit man who retains an ounce of faith and is pursued by an angel until he comes to his soul’s senses — an experience Rice identifies with metaphorically.

“Coming back to the Church allowed me to replace a quasi despair about everything with optimism. I am no longer running around every minute afraid. Now I don’t feel like I am running at all. I am calm yet driven. I feel like life is a celebration.”

Hopefully this holiday a few “lost” Catholics can take solace in Rice’s redemption and might even celebrate their own. Merry Christmas!

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