Spiritual guidance

This post may be a bit long but I genuinely don’t know how to approach this, so please, bear with me.

I, 22 F, have recently felt a very strong pull towards Catholicism. I have always had a very rocky past with religion. Growing up my parents were divorced. My father was a Christian man who never attended church and my mother was agnostic, learning more towards atheism. I grew up going to some non-denominational churches on certain holidays but the stories and the ways of worship just never seemed to click with me. This caused me in middle school to completely renounce any ounce of faith that I had. I then went through high school and most of college, until recently, proclaiming myself as an atheist. I would even argue against the teachings in the bible. I realize now that this recent pull may be God trying to bring me home.

My mother used to be Catholic but she left the church at 16 due to personal reasons. This has caused me to never really explore my mothers side of religion nor for it to be really brought up while talking to my mothers family. I recently talked to my grandfather about this pull to Catholicism and I think it might have been the happiest I’ve ever seen him. We are making plans to go talk to the priest and take the next steps in my journey that way.

The part where I am having the most trouble though is explaining to my parents what I am going to be doing. When my mother saw me carrying around a bible in my purse she questioned me with almost disgust. And my father always makes fun of the Catholic Church, calling it fake. I don’t want to hide my faith from them, but I also do not know what the best steps to tell them are. If anyone has some advice or has dealt with anything similar, some guidance would be appreciated.