Convert/Reverts - Who Inspired You?

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I am curious on who/what Catholic resources or people in the Church or your life helped inspire you to or back to the Catholic faith? What did they do/say that “planted the seeds?”

For me, it would be:
My best friend for being the first one to tell me that there were doctrinal differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Scott Hahn’s and Patrick Madrid’s talks and books that laid out the doctrinal differences and showed how the Catholic Church is Christ’s true church.

Cardinal Dolan for showing me that Catholics are not stuffy and rigid, as well as how there is accountability and hope in the Catholic Church (with humor)

Catholic Answers Live (specifically Jimmy Akin and Trent Horn) as well as Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire videos for teaching me the doctrinal reasons behind the Church’s stance on morality issues

The Busted Halo Show on the Catholic Channel for helping to clarify some confusing points in the Catholic faith (again with humor)

And of course, my parish’s RCIA program that used the Symbolon series, Priests, Director, volunteers, and speakers

So, how about you? :dancing:
 
I’ve never officially left the church, i just went through the motions without caring.

But I tried making some effort when a friend of mine became muslim and she kept talking about islam and how we got it wrong. So i did research and found out christianity had a stronger case. And then Scott Hann’s book kind of made me realize that this is the true church. If it isn’t, then there is no true church.

This is more of a ‘who’, but there are other events in my life that shaped my faith
 
First and foremost was my wife. She converted 3 years before me, and watching how she transformed pulled me in despite efforts of constant retrenchment on my part. The Holy Spirit shined through her to lead me back to Christ.

Others that helped inspire me? Pope Benedict XIV and his writings while Prefect for the CDF. I appreciated his straightforward defense of the faith. Dr Scott Hahn and Marcus Grodi (both Presbyterian converts like me). Frs. Levis and Trigilio on EWTN’s Web of Faith. Venerable Archbishop Sheen for his staunch teaching on faith and moral.

For me it was always about how the fullness of the faith was visible in the Catholic Church. I appreciated people who were not willing to compromise the faith to make people feel warm and gooey. That is one of the reasons I became disillusioned with Protestantism; the shifting sands of “truth” so that people wouldn’t get offended.
 
Well, I converted back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, so I had very few helps from modern apologists. 😛

When I was attending an Assemblies of God Bible college in the late 70’s I became dissatisfied with the limited theology they taught and constantly having to live up to other’s expectations regarding my spirituality. At that time God sent the writings of C. S. Lewis into my life. Here was a Protestant on fire for God who was a mainline Christian. And better, for me, he was an Anglican–I was brought up in the Episcopal Church until I was a young teen, when my widowed mother abandoned the ECUSA for the AoG. After leaving the AoG, I first returned to the ECUSA, but found it greatly changed from my childhood, it was, even then, teetering on the edge of modernism and heresy (it’s the truth, I only wish I could say otherwise).

I had also seen the animated version of “Lord of the Rings,” which intrigued me greatly. I bought the books and read Frodo’s story straight to the end. At the end of one weekend, I knew I could no longer stay in the AoG. I perceived that Tolkien’s vision of faith was deeper and richer than any I had yet known–just what I was looking for, but didn’t know where to find it.–I couldn’t accept that it could be the Catholic Church at that time Then, after I’d started going to the ECUSA again, I picked up and read “The Song of Bernadette” because I’d seen the film as a child and had wondered about the visions. I also read “The Faith of Millions” and was dismayed that I couldn’t counter the arguments for the Catholic faith the author presented.

Long story short, after I’d married a Catholic fella (who never tried to convert me), I attended RCIA and discovered that here was the faith I’d longed for all my life. Other factors played into my conversion, of course, but there’s not enough room to tell it all here. I’m just so grateful to God for gently, but firmly, guiding me to the truth, which was the whole desire of my soul–to love God not just in spirit, which I had done all my life, but also in truth. I’ll be forever grateful to God for the people, and also writings, he put in my path that led me to his Church. ❤️
 
It was a bunch of things that ended with me being put in a Catholic school to keep me out of trouble.

And ah. Then I met this girl, you see. And she was such a bright and shining example of faith. She lived life in a way I’d never thought possible. So I sort of was in awe of her. I used to kind of follow her around. And sit in the back of the chapel when she’d pray her daily rosary with friends after school.

So yeah. Me acting up + good role models = Catholic me :cool:

My mother wasn’t all that impressed though. :rolleyes: 😉
 
:hmmm:

Your question got me thinking. I guess for me it was just divine intervention. 😊

After some 14 years away from the Church, and participating in Wicca and other new age spiritual practices – and with NO intention of returning to the Church, or even considering it, or interacting with anyone Catholic or Christian…

I had a dream.

OK, in the midst of my agnostic-leaning-towards-atheistic mindset, I became overwhelmed with life stuff. One night before bed, I decided to ask for help: “If there is someone out there who can help me, please send me a dream to show me what to do.” But then I thought, I need to make sure I ask that negative forces stay away, so I asked Jesus (whom I considered an “ascended master,” not the Son of God) to serve as a filter for my dreams.

That night, I had a dream that I went to mass and prayed the rosary!

I had been trained that if I ask for coaching that I need to follow the coaching even if at first it doesn’t make sense. What’s the point of asking for coaching if we’re not going to follow the coaching we get? 🤷

So that very day (a Wednesday) I went to the noon mass at a local parish, and after mass I went over to a little side area in front of the tabernacle and prayed the rosary.

It would be maybe 6 or 8 months before I experienced actual faith and went to confession. But it all started on that summer morning ten years ago when I had a dream.

Thanks be to God! 😃
 
For my husband who converted there were lots of people who contributed seeding, watering, etc. The usual suspects; it started with listening to Venerable Fulton Sheen and Father Corapi on the radio, he read Scott Hahn, finally a co-worker who was not afraid to share his Catholic faith. He finally converted to Eastern Catholicism.

I reverted* after a lifetime of wandering in the protestant desert and lastly exploring Eastern Orthodoxy. Biggest influence on me was an older Russian Orthodox babushka, she told me we shared the same faith, encouraged me to return to my cradle faith.

*I was not able to revert to my cradle Roman Catholic roots, however, I transferred rites when my husband converted to Eastern Catholicism.
 
Gertabelle said:
:hmmm:

Your question got me thinking. I guess for me it was just divine intervention. 😊

After some 14 years away from the Church, and participating in Wicca and other new age spiritual practices – and with NO intention of returning to the Church, or even considering it, or interacting with anyone Catholic or Christian…

I had a dream.

OK, in the midst of my agnostic-leaning-towards-atheistic mindset, I became overwhelmed with life stuff. One night before bed, I decided to ask for help: “If there is someone out there who can help me, please send me a dream to show me what to do.” But then I thought, I need to make sure I ask that negative forces stay away, so I asked Jesus (whom I considered an “ascended master,” not the Son of God) to serve as a filter for my dreams.

That night, I had a dream that I went to mass and prayed the rosary!

I had been trained that if I ask for coaching that I need to follow the coaching even if at first it doesn’t make sense. What’s the point of asking for coaching if we’re not going to follow the coaching we get? 🤷

So that very day (a Wednesday) I went to the noon mass at a local parish, and after mass I went over to a little side area in front of the tabernacle and prayed the rosary.

It would be maybe 6 or 8 months before I experienced actual faith and went to confession. But it all started on that summer morning ten years ago when I had a dream.

Thanks be to God! 😃
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God’s ways are mysterious, aren’t they? I didn’t mention it in my other post, but I too had a life-changing dream that opened my eyes, and my heart, to realize that many things I’d believed and lived by were not of God, but man’s ideas about God, faith, mercy, love, etc. It’d take too much space here to relate my dream, but it made a lot of sense to me and helped me look in a direction I’d never seriously considered–towards the Catholic Church. Not that we rely on dreams to inform us about doctrine, etc. but sometimes we need something outside the usual means of discernment to prompt us in the right direction, yes? 🙂
 
First and foremost, it was the Holy Spirit, as I am sure it was for everyone. Others were merely instruments of His will.
 
Gertabelle said:
I had been trained that if I ask for coaching that I need to follow the coaching even if at first it doesn’t make sense. What’s the point of asking for coaching if we’re not going to follow the coaching we get? 🤷

Thanks be to God! 😃
Click to expand...
Very good point. I remember when I first came back to Christianity (was trying non denomination for a year or so) I asked God to lead me to a church he wanted me to be at. Obviously, that ultimately led to the Catholic church. I am so thankful I listened to his coaching! 🙂
 
Believe it or not it was the local Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Prior to that I was a minimal Catholic who attended Mass on Sunday and that was about it.

The JWs actually forced me to think about my faith and the Bible in a way I never had to before. I came out of the experience a stronger Catholic than ever.
 
I was pulled out of the Church as a child and in no hurry to go back as an adult, seeing how I was having so much “fun” breaking every rule in the book.

Some twenty years ago, my regional manager (three levels above me, one below the head honcho) took me out to lunch one day; to my surprise, he didn’t want to talk business. He told me how he met his wife, and how he was sure he wanted to marry her when she accepted his invitation to attend Mass with him during the week. At the end of the story, he told me how important it is for him to go to Mass every day.

All this came out of the blue, but in the course of the conversation that followed I eventually understood he was concerned about how I was living (I made absolutely no secret of all the awful things I did). He knew I had been born Catholic, and he wanted to steer me in a different direction from the one I was obviously headed in.

The following Sunday, I went to Mass for the first time in 15 years and knew I was home. That gentleman is long gone from my life, but I’d like to think seeing me as I am today would bring a smile to his face.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
…he wanted to steer me in a different direction from the one I was obviously headed in.

The following Sunday, I went to Mass for the first time in 15 years and knew I was home. That gentleman is long gone from my life, but I’d like to think seeing me as I am today would bring a smile to his face.
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What a great act of love that man showed you that day!
 
signit said:
Believe it or not it was the local Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Prior to that I was a minimal Catholic who attended Mass on Sunday and that was about it.

The JWs actually forced me to think about my faith and the Bible in a way I never had to before. I came out of the experience a stronger Catholic than ever.
Click to expand...
Awesome!
 
My biggest inspiration was my ex-wife’s son. About 5 years after my ex and I split, he was born and pretty soon had symptoms of a neurological disorder. The doctors could never give an exact diagnosis but said that it most closely resembled Parkinson’s. As the years went by, this boy’s symptoms got worse. He lost his ability to talk, walk, and feed himself but he never lost faith in God and he loved the Church. Finally at the age of 13, he lost his battle with his condition, dying in his sleep. At his funeral Mass, the priest told about how this young man, who loved superheros, would say that Jesus was the greatest superhero of all. My heart felt crushed by the loss of this sweet kid but some of the resentment I held toward God went away. I had built up a lot of resentment over the last few years because my own son, born a year after my ex’s son, has been battling muscular dystrophy. I began to think that if this boy and my own son could keep their faith then maybe I should lighten up a little.

That was 3 years ago and I’m only now going back to Mass. God has been working on me for a while but it took another event to get me back to the Church but that is a story for another time…
 
For me, at first, it was my spouse. Thereafter. It is very obvious that the pastor of our church loves Jesus very much.

Also, I felt God drawing me to the church. I tried to ignore it. but I couldn’t.

There are other factors, but I don’t want to disclose too much information.
 
saellis said:
That was 3 years ago and I’m only now going back to Mass. God has been working on me for a while but it took another event to get me back to the Church but that is a story for another time…
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I am glad you are going back to Mass! I will pray that the Lord continues to help you grow in your faith.
 
Revert here - What inspired me was finding out about Fatima, and reading the book “How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”
 
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