Calling all converts!

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Dolores_IHS said:
When you are raised with Pentecostals around you, especially a very devout mother, who has been taught wrong things about Catholics and doesn’t know any better, you grow up believing what you are taught (especially that Catholics “worship Mary, so beware them!”), until God teaches you otherwise through someone – whether a friend or a book, sermon, etc. It took me a looooooooong time to undo all the prejudices I was taught about Catholicism, so I was initially fearful. I was taught the error that Catholicism is half Christian, half pagan, so if I thought of becoming Catholic, I was afraid of losing my soul, doing something that God was unhappy about.

That was until I saw the Protestants were wrong… what a blessed day that was!
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how did you begin to suspect the Protestants were wrong?

i think its interesting you thought of becoming Catholic despite feelings of… concerns for going to Hell… could you explain that more in-depth?

thanks…
 
Well, I first realized that I was meant to become Catholic when I learned that the early Church was Catholic. I first learned that the early Church was Catholic when I found out that Saint Peter was the first Pope and that there is a line of Popes going all the way from Peter to Pope Benedict XVI. At the time, it was Pope John Paul II when I learned about this though. It was shortly after I learned of this that Pope John Paul II died and Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
 
The Eucharist.

After going to a Bill Graham harvest gathering it was a great gathering the sharing of fellowship with others and there was the “build up” and then it was over,. It was at that moment that I realized that wait a minute, where is Christ! :confused: You are missing Christ! If they only knew what they were missing!
 
Leticia said:
The Eucharist.

After going to a Bill Graham harvest gathering it was a great gathering the sharing of fellowship with others and there was the “build up” and then it was over,. It was at that moment that I realized that wait a minute, where is Christ! :confused: You are missing Christ! If they only knew what they were missing!
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yeah, i know the feeling…

but you can lead a horse to water… 🤷
 
Full_of_Grace said:
:grouphug:

What I want to know is: what made you realise you were meant to be Catholic?
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My story is not as interesting as these people on here, so I will keep it short and sweet (or sour, your choice 🙂 ). I was raised as an unpracticing Catholic (if that makes sense) and eventually became atheist. I was doing the atheist thing of throwing all those “That is irrational”, “It is dumb to believe” bombs. I thought I was so unique as all others do. So on and so forth. I met a Catholic girl who said she would NEVER date an atheist, but she did. Little did I know that one year later I would be attending the RCIA program. She had stealthily hidden a green scapular under my mattress before I even knew I was converting! Sneaky! Well, we eventually broke up as I started RCIA but I kept going because my search for revealed Truth had already started and it was all becoming clear. Upon retrospect, God sent me so much grace that I just ignored it. Even since I was even 11 days old! (I would be dead if it were not for that by the way. I would just say that God could not have anything to do with it because He does not exist! Which begs the question anyway.) He gave me many opportunities but I still ignored it. He patiently waited and I impatiently “nastied” (for lack of vocabulary) everyone who would try to help me. Things like this (for me anyway) proves to me that grace perfects nature and predestination and free will are mutually inclusive!!! Grace has to yet perfect my nature! 🙂 I am patient this time though. Anyway, back to being boring. I know I was meant to be Catholic because I like to search for Truth. I am a huge fan of the sciences (astronomy, cosmology, mathematics, modern physics, so on… None of that biology stuff. It just blows my mind.) The Church teaches that there are two kinds of Truth. Divine revelation and natural. God created both and Truth cannot contradict Truth. I like Truth. I like being logical even though being an atheist proves otherwise. Haha… Atheism is a poison and it makes people hard-headed (I still kind of am but that is besides the point) and stubborn (do those mean the same thing?). If it bores you, sorry. I like to help people now. It does not hurt to try. I hope you get what you need out of this if there is anything at all.
 
Praise be to God for all the converted hearts, mine included! It’s a wonderful testimony to the Power of the Spirit, alive and well in the Church.
I’ve never heard of someone going elsewhere and saying the same!
Keep the stories coming for the Glory of His Name!
AMEN
 
I recall as a kid we used to go on camping trips etc…and when it was time to start a small bonfire I would help collect some small twigs. The fire would smoke and all of the guys would move out of the way of the smoke…this made sense to me! Later tho,after the meal was over some of the same guys would take a pack of cigerettes out of their pockets and start smoking…inhaling the smoke with gusto!!! I know,odd but true…I never smoked because I simply could not give a reason for avoiding the smoke from a camp fire then actualy inhaling smoke from an item bought at a local store…This is the core belief I have on being a member of the only church that can trace its heritage back to its Founder!!! It has withstood thousands of evil attacks from both without and within yet is as vital and strong as ever! As a retired Catholic HS teacher I can fully attest to the facts that only the RCC is the rudder that holds us steady on our course so that we dont sink down into the depts of being PC and thus a watered down version of just what Jesus taught us to do!.>Good luck …all the best Pas
 
I was a liberal, tepid Methodist. When I met my now-husband, I saw that he was on fire for Christ! He had true faith and believed it with everything in him. It wasn’t just words and catchphrases with him. That was so fascinating to me. I’d never seen that kind of real faith in action. He taught me what he knew and I was more than open to it. In the meantime, we fell in love.
 
MaryTeresa2 said:
Praise be to God for all the converted hearts, mine included! It’s a wonderful testimony to the Power of the Spirit, alive and well in the Church.
I’ve never heard of someone going elsewhere and saying the same!
Keep the stories coming for the Glory of His Name!
AMEN
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Also Praise be to God for some unconverted hearts too and please take a look at this other story of mine which I think is as beautiful as my conversion story posted earlier:
  • MY mother-in-law who lives with us is a protestant and does not join us during rosary. But she is a remarkably true christian, loving, serving and forgiving. At 82 she puts us to shame with her selfless loving service. In my opinion she is a living saint; she also happens to have been the assigned nurse of Mother Teresa for over 30 years.
  • My wife is an eastern orthodox christian whose church is in communion with ours. She joins me for some Sunday masses to the catholic church but not so regularly. Ocasionally she joins me for rosary. Daily mass is unthinkable for her. But she too is a truly wonderful and loving christian and I don’t find anything amiss with her beliefs.
  • We have no denominational disputes or differences but only some healthy good intentioned debates and some “lighter vein” criticisms.
 
distracted said:
how did you begin to suspect the Protestants were wrong?

i think its interesting you thought of becoming Catholic despite feelings of… concerns for going to Hell… could you explain that more in-depth?

thanks…
Click to expand...
I suppose I began to suspect the Protestants were wrong, because I wanted the Catholics to be right 😃

When I was about 12 and my Catholic friend took me with her to Mass when I was at her house for a weekend sleepover, I was subconsciously touched by the beauty of the Mass. I had never seen anything like it before, and although I was not necessarily excited when I went, something changed that day. I saw there were more churches other than Pentecostal; it was then when I found out what denomination we were of. I have a love for traditions, and the Catholic faith impressed me deeply. My mom knew my friend was Catholic and when I brought a brown scapular home, I was told to return it, as “we don’t worship Mary”. This opened my eyes to the rifts between Catholics and Protestants. With this, I began my journey of discovering the Christian Faith for myself. In my adolescence, I didn’t do much about it, but I was fascinated with Catholicism as it was so much more beautiful and solid to me than Pentecostalism.

Another thing was that I stopped going to the Pentecostal church services, because their emotional emphasis on the Holy Spirit made me scared. I was afraid I would fall down or start shaking like others I saw, and I didn’t want it to happen to me. Pentecostalism was a “ghostly” sort of faith where the spiritual was so strongly emphasised over doctrines and traditions that I felt I was not safe from spirits coming and going as they pleased. I was terrified of both the devil and the Holy Spirit and I felt that I had little control. I had a negative experience in 1999 when I was 15 and suffering from anxiety attacks. My mother was concerned for me and took me to a well-meaning pastor for “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”, so that my anxiety would go away. In the end, he tried an attempted exorcism of some sorts which made me scream the place down until he stopped. I was terrified, and it was after this I stopped going to church at all.

Years passed, I graduated from High school in 2002, had a nervous breakdown, and then recovered after three years of depression. Mom and her friends prayed a lot for me and I was so grateful to them. It was then I felt grateful to God for saving me from my deep depression, and wanted to go to church again. So I looked around for a church which would be more peaceful and traditional than the Pentecostals. Deep down I was curious about Catholicism ever since going to Mass with my friend, but I had not enough courage to go against what I was taught about them. I went to a Methodist church and then found my way to a High-Church Anglican parish six months later at the end of 2005. By this time I was drawn to the idea of being a nun, and Anglicans had nuns, as well as the traditional, liturgical worship I so loved. I began some traditional practices, like making the sign of the Cross, praying at set times and using Anglican prayer beads. It was there in the Anglican Church that I was baptised in April 2006 and my true Christian journey began; my faith became my own, not just a faith I had just because my parents had it.

With this, it was as if God felt I was ready to be slowly introduced to the Catholic Faith. At first I studied it secretly, because I was afraid of what my mother would say, but by this time I was an adult so she gave me freedom to make my own decisions. In the end, I was heading towards Rome, drawn by an irresistible force. I was afraid, but earnestly wanted to find out the Truth. So I read conversion stories and prayed a lot. Once I had the breakthrough I needed to convince me of Catholicism being right (the Marian doctrines, especially the Immaculate Conception were the hardest to accept with peace in my soul, due to the things I was told), I was not afraid anymore to “lose my soul” by becoming Catholic, because I saw I would only gain from converting. So I began visiting my parish in early 2007 and began with classes, and a year later I was home.

I hope this helps to make it clearer. Do feel free to ask if you are still confused…

God bless
Dolores
+
 
GreggAlvarez said:
… I know I was meant to be Catholic because I like to search for Truth. I am a huge fan of the sciences (astronomy, cosmology, mathematics, modern physics, so on… None of that biology stuff. It just blows my mind.) The Church teaches that there are two kinds of Truth. Divine revelation and natural. God created both and Truth cannot contradict Truth. I like Truth. I like being logical even though being an atheist proves otherwise. Haha… Atheism is a poison and it makes people hard-headed (I still kind of am but that is besides the point) and stubborn (do those mean the same thing?). If it bores you, sorry. I like to help people now. It does not hurt to try. I hope you get what you need out of this if there is anything at all.
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I also love Truth and the search for it. When I was a teenager I was crazy about astronomy and science, and had a beautiful telescope to stargaze with. Then I also read a bit about philosophy and psychology. I love creative thought, as well as art.

I was just thinking when I read your post, about a book in my personal library you reminded me of. Have you read Scott Hahn’s “Reason to Believe”? It will be a perfect book for you! 👍

Dolores
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Pitcharan said:
Also Praise be to God for some unconverted hearts too and please take a look at this other story of mine which I think is as beautiful as my conversion story posted earlier:
  • MY mother-in-law who lives with us is a protestant and does not join us during rosary. But she is a remarkably true christian, loving, serving and forgiving. At 82 she puts us to shame with her selfless loving service. In my opinion she is a living saint; she also happens to have been the assigned nurse of Mother Teresa for over 30 years.
  • My wife is an eastern orthodox christian whose church is in communion with ours. She joins me for some Sunday masses to the catholic church but not so regularly. Ocasionally she joins me for rosary. Daily mass is unthinkable for her. But she too is a truly wonderful and loving christian and I don’t find anything amiss with her beliefs.
  • We have no denominational disputes or differences but only some healthy good intentioned debates and some “lighter vein” criticisms.
Click to expand...
Yes, Dear Friend, I missed this post, sorry I overlooked it! Thank you so much for sharing that you are a united family no matter some differences in beliefs. As someone on another thread just said, it’s the Holy Spirit who unites and the devil who divides… May God abundantly Bless your family, it’s clear He has already. Also Pitcharan, thank you for your support of Mother Teresa. I grew weary of the arguments there on that thread, she needs no defending, the truth stands on it’s own. Peace be with you!
 
Full_of_Grace said:
What I want to know is: what made you realise you were meant to be Catholic?
Click to expand...
The teachings of Jesus Christ is what brought me to the Catholic Church as well the Church’s apostolic succession. The truth was slowly made known to me by the help of the holy spirit. I couldn’t have come here myself. I was on a long spiritual search and I know the hopelessness of relativism. The holy spirit had saved me from being lost in that. That’s all I can say really. I had search through a lot of different religions and the Catholic Church is the thing I could see that I saw had absolute truth. Love for neighbor and God, the love of truth, the survival of the Church, the beauty, the universality all these things and more has brought me to the Catholic Church.
 
Gem02 said:
The teachings of Jesus Christ is what brought me to the Catholic Church as well the Church’s apostolic succession. The truth was slowly made known to me by the help of the holy spirit. I couldn’t have come here myself. I was on a long spiritual search and I know the hopelessness of relativism. The holy spirit had saved me from being lost in that. That’s all I can say really. I had search through a lot of different religions and the Catholic Church is the thing I could see that I saw had absolute truth. Love for neighbor and God, the love of truth, the survival of the Church, the beauty, the universality all these things and more has brought me to the Catholic Church.
Click to expand...
Welcome, welcome, welcome! Yes, one KNOWS when it’s the Holy Spirit! You sound like a well informed and humble servant. Jesus and His Church need you! May you be abundantly Blessed. I bet you are itching for RCIA to start. The journey never ends, it’s a river with may turns, fast places and slow places… just pray and keep going, He will never leave your side and in fact He’ll carry you over the rough patches.

If I may make a suggestion that I didn’t know way back when… Pray for Our Blessed Mother to be your guide, she always points you towards Her Son. He loves those who honor His Mother as He gave her to be our Mother too. Her intercession is priceless. I found that out after I’d converted, then many years when by and I fell away… it was Our Mother who brought me back to Him and His Church. I’ve never been the same since.

Your Sister in the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary,
Mary Teresa, OSSM
 
I can not wait for RCIA to start. It’s like you know me!😛 I’m so happy to have found Jesus and I will ask for Mary to guide me. I could use all the help I can get. I think one of the reasons it took me so long to come to the church is because I’m so stubborn really. I pray that I can be more humble. I’m so glad to hear that Mary has brought you back. I love conversion stories they give me so much hope and make me feel so grateful.
 
Good thread. Seeing as I am soon to be received I will bite and post a quick note.

I am young for a convert, only 24. It started when I was 17 or so. Grew up in a moderate Methodist home, very active in the church. But something was missing, something didn’t add up. So I strayed. Met a wonderful girl who was Catholic, albeit cafeteria type. But through her I was introduced to the Catholic faith. I knew I was home even though over the next few years I fought it at times, choosing atheism. But I am a man of reason and intellect. It is my nature and training. Catholicism is reasonable. I say that with the caveat of not everything taught can be accepted on reason alone. Teachings like the Virgin Birth, Resurrection, and miracles, amongst many others, must be accepted on faith. But all can be mixed with reason. It also is historical and authoritative.

Just my little story.

DU
 
Dolores_IHS said:
I suppose I began to suspect the Protestants were wrong, because I wanted the Catholics to be right 😃

When I was about 12 and my Catholic friend took me with her to Mass when I was at her house for a weekend sleepover, I was subconsciously touched by the beauty of the Mass. I had never seen anything like it before, and although I was not necessarily excited when I went, something changed that day. I saw there were more churches other than Pentecostal; it was then when I found out what denomination we were of. I have a love for traditions, and the Catholic faith impressed me deeply. My mom knew my friend was Catholic and when I brought a brown scapular home, I was told to return it, as “we don’t worship Mary”. This opened my eyes to the rifts between Catholics and Protestants. With this, I began my journey of discovering the Christian Faith for myself. In my adolescence, I didn’t do much about it, but I was fascinated with Catholicism as it was so much more beautiful and solid to me than Pentecostalism.

Another thing was that I stopped going to the Pentecostal church services, because their emotional emphasis on the Holy Spirit made me scared. I was afraid I would fall down or start shaking like others I saw, and I didn’t want it to happen to me. Pentecostalism was a “ghostly” sort of faith where the spiritual was so strongly emphasised over doctrines and traditions that I felt I was not safe from spirits coming and going as they pleased. I was terrified of both the devil and the Holy Spirit and I felt that I had little control. I had a negative experience in 1999 when I was 15 and suffering from anxiety attacks. My mother was concerned for me and took me to a well-meaning pastor for “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”, so that my anxiety would go away. In the end, he tried an attempted exorcism of some sorts which made me scream the place down until he stopped. I was terrified, and it was after this I stopped going to church at all.

Years passed, I graduated from High school in 2002, had a nervous breakdown, and then recovered after three years of depression. Mom and her friends prayed a lot for me and I was so grateful to them. It was then I felt grateful to God for saving me from my deep depression, and wanted to go to church again. So I looked around for a church which would be more peaceful and traditional than the Pentecostals. Deep down I was curious about Catholicism ever since going to Mass with my friend, but I had not enough courage to go against what I was taught about them. I went to a Methodist church and then found my way to a High-Church Anglican parish six months later at the end of 2005. By this time I was drawn to the idea of being a nun, and Anglicans had nuns, as well as the traditional, liturgical worship I so loved. I began some traditional practices, like making the sign of the Cross, praying at set times and using Anglican prayer beads. It was there in the Anglican Church that I was baptised in April 2006 and my true Christian journey began; my faith became my own, not just a faith I had just because my parents had it.

With this, it was as if God felt I was ready to be slowly introduced to the Catholic Faith. At first I studied it secretly, because I was afraid of what my mother would say, but by this time I was an adult so she gave me freedom to make my own decisions. In the end, I was heading towards Rome, drawn by an irresistible force. I was afraid, but earnestly wanted to find out the Truth. So I read conversion stories and prayed a lot. Once I had the breakthrough I needed to convince me of Catholicism being right (the Marian doctrines, especially the Immaculate Conception were the hardest to accept with peace in my soul, due to the things I was told), I was not afraid anymore to “lose my soul” by becoming Catholic, because I saw I would only gain from converting. So I began visiting my parish in early 2007 and began with classes, and a year later I was home.

I hope this helps to make it clearer. Do feel free to ask if you are still confused…

God bless
Dolores
+
Click to expand...
that wasvery clear and interesting…

and uplifting… cuz some Catholics don’t appreciate the Church (or seem to) like you do… 🙂 but i have always thoguth that converts make the best Catholics… In a way i am a convert… I’m a revert, even though i never officially left the Church, just stopped going to Mass… and etc… I wasn’t catechized so didn’t know what the heck i was doing, what i was missing… but one day i prayed the rosary and God knocked some sense into me… 😃 Now I am on the same page with you… 🙂

I’m glad you didn’t listen to al that anti-C stuff…

kinda strange how some listen and beleive that stuff and some don’t… but i thnk eventually everyone begins to question all the hostility some non-C’s have toward Catholics…

dont you think?:confused:
 
snowman10 said:
Good thread. Seeing as I am soon to be received I will bite and post a quick note.

I am young for a convert, only 24. It started when I was 17 or so. Grew up in a moderate Methodist home, very active in the church. But something was missing, something didn’t add up. So I strayed. Met a wonderful girl who was Catholic, albeit cafeteria type. But through her I was introduced to the Catholic faith. I knew I was home even though over the next few years I fought it at times, choosing atheism. But I am a man of reason and intellect. It is my nature and training. Catholicism is reasonable. I say that with the caveat of not everything taught can be accepted on reason alone. Teachings like the Virgin Birth, Resurrection, and miracles, amongst many others, must be accepted on faith. But all can be mixed with reason. It also is historical and authoritative.

Just my little story.

DU
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I’ve found that the rosary brings faith & reason together… at least for me anyhow… when i focus on Jesus’ life… and death, resurrection… that seems more real to me than … “real stuff”… the so called "real " world…
 
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