Calling all converts

[Oren]

I was brought up a ‘none’. After a long search for the ultimate truth, the meaning of life, I despaired of ever finding an answer. I prayed to God if He was there to answer me and show me He was there and who He was. He gave me an unmistakable feeling (feeling is not very accurate it was more a knowledge or awareness or like being consumed) of supernatural love. I knew He was love and that He wanted me to love Him. I knew that meant Christianity and I knew that meant Catholicism just from my knowledge of secular history. I went into RCIA very soon after I prayed.

 

[Catholic_Wife]

I am a lifelong Protestant on my way into the Catholic Church. I will begin RCIA classes in the fall to join the church next Easter. I am curious - if you are also a convert to the faith, what was the thing that most convinced you and drew you to Catholicism?

God Himself drew me into the Church.

I grew up in a non-religious home and always asked my parents if we could go to church. When I was a young teen, they said they would drop me off at church and pick me up, but that I would miss Sunday breakfast (it’s hard to give up French toast when you’re a 'tween). When I was a senior in high school, I went to church a few times with a friend of mine, but knew her church was NOT for me. I visited almost every mainstream Protestant church, and the only one that even halfway interested me was the Episcopal church because it seemed most like what I thought “church” should be like (a more “traditional” setting rather than a more “modern” one). When I went to boot camp a couple of years later, we had to go to church the first weekend - no exceptions! I chose to go to the Protestant service, but ended up at Mass. That’s where I felt the Real Presence. I kept going back to Mass, and eventually I asked to be baptized and confirmed. I didn’t have much catechesis, but I knew that I needed the Eucharist.

After a short period away from the Church (human failings and other issues), I read a couple of histories of Christianity which convinced me that I was in the right place historically. I also picked up a copy of the Catechism and began learning all the things I should have learned before, and I fell more in love with God and the Church the more I read the Catechism.

 

[Lifesong]

Jesus invited me I have told my story before but I was raised Methodist and married a Catholic man who was out of the Church. Thanks to his mother, we had a minister and priest at our wedding but that was the end of any Catholic influence in our marriage. Long story short, we were unchurched and then when we had our two girls and as a default we raised them Methodist. I was one of those who believed all I needed was to believe in Jesus and I could pray to him anywhere kind of people- however sadly I was only praying when I needed something. But I was smart enough to realize my kids needed some kind of faith formation so we drove them to Sunday school, church choir, and finally confirmation classes after which like many young people they stopped going to church. My oldest daughter became very ill due to a diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease when she was graduating high school and for the first time in my life I realized I did not control my universe. I asked Jesus to walk with me and He has led me down an amazing path. I told Him I would do anything if He would just carry me through my daughter’s health crisis and the first thing I thought to do was to actually be a better Methodist. So I started going every Sunday even in the summer and joined a group called Stephen Ministry to walk alongside others in crisis. I also started watching Joyce Meyer every morning (still love her!) and started praying and reading the Bible every morning. So here I was learning to surrender to Jesus and I was mostly happy as a “good” Methodist though my family thought an alien had taken over my body, but my heart was still felt restless. Sermons started to feel like Christianity 101 and I wanted red meat I could sink my teeth into. My family life was filled with some trials due to a rebellious teen and an aging Dad who needed my help and one morning after a tense fight at home which had me upset because I had left that behind with my new walk with the Lord, I was taking my usual three mile walk and out of the blue I heard interiorly the Lord asking me “Do you trust me?” I had no idea what it meant at the time but I said yes and told my pastor I had a road to Damascus experience in the park. Sometime later that year much to my husband’s reluctance he helped me as a communion server at church but was visibly upset all week before it and afterwards he felt his faith had been shaken having to do that and I had no idea why. So I began to investigate why including Church teaching on the Eucharist which led to Church Fathers which led to listening to Catholic Radio which led to living Lent 2011 as a Catholic in a Methodist body while I discerned whether the Lord was really asking me to be Catholic. During this time my mother and grandmother (who was Catholic) who are deceased appeared multiple times in dreams- it was as if there was a campaign in Heaven I prayed the Divine Mercy Novena in 2011 after I saw on my google news feed the Divine Mercy Messengers taking the Jesus I Trust in You message around the country. My heart just knew that was the answer to the question the Lord asked me in the park. After the novena was done in May 2011 on the ninth day I had a knock down drag out wrestle with the Lord and I demanded he tell me whether all I was starting to believe was true was true. Well he won and here I am, came into the Church last Easter Vigil. My husband has reverted back and was my sponsor. I am still praying for my unchurched young adult children who finally have at least a comfort level with what has happened to me. Oh, and right next to that park is the Shrine of Czestochowa and there is a side alter with the Divine Mercy message- Jesus I Trust in You! I now attend daily Mass, am in the Legion of Mary, and am on the RCIA team- and I am no longer restless!

 

[novelista]

I was converted through the magic of television: watching Mother Angelica on EWTN and seeing how joyful and joy-filled she was, despite living as a nun. I thought nuns’ lives were pretty confined and stultifying, but the more I watched her, the more I realized what I was missing: Jesus. The first time I entered a Catholic church, however, I was very young, attending a family friend’s wedding. I remember seeing people genuflect, and wondering why my family didn’t participate. I don’t remember much else about that wedding, but something must have made an impact, even at that young age.

So after about a year of studying on my own, I began RCIA, which took another 9 months, and was baptized on Easter 2011. No one else in my family is Catholic. I try to dispell false ideas that some non-Catholics have, especially my in-laws, and I am trying to live my life the way Jesus taught. I might be the only Catholic some people meet. I want to represent the faith accurately, so that people don’t get the wrong idea. Catholics are misunderstood from way back.