I was confirmed during the Easter Vigil of this year, so I can definitely answer this question. I was raised Southern Baptist, but experimented with various denominations before leaving Christianity altogether. If I may, I would like to go into a bit of detail.
- prior entering the Church, I was a self-proclaimed atheist (I operated as an atheist, but I was quite angry at God, but still believed he exists, though I worked to try to destroy the faith of those around me as well as denying my own belief). During a visit to a Catholic Church for the first time, an early morning Sunday Mass, when the priest raised the Host, something tugged within myself. While I recognize in retrospect that I recognized second person of the Holy Trinity, I could not find a name for it. I just considered the Mass ‘neat.’ Over the next few months, I spoke with that same priest, as well as coming to Mass each Sunday. I would look at Catholic teaching and see the beautiful harmony between science and faith that I had longed for; an understanding of human pain that transcended even my own personal experience in it. However, it was a long while before my relationship with God was repaired – I am still working on it, but now have the help of not only the Church’s guidance, but also a priest who is an excellent confessor and the help of a spiritual director. I think in a way, the main hurdle was getting over the God is Love, not God Is. All of the Church’s teachings, once that one point was finally accepted, fell into place to create the most beautiful mosaic of thought that the world has seen.
- I would have to say the sources I used (I used the main site here as a “jumping board” for information a lot) that helped the most would be the one-on-one conversations with the priest, who is now at another parish (he is not the same one as the notedly skilled confessor).
