CONVERTS, do you have a moment?

[maltmom]

I am hesitant to share, but I will try. I had 3 “moments.”

The first was when I was thirteen. I borrowed my father’s copy of The Exorcist after he told me not to read it. By the time I finished I was enthralled by the idea that this man would give up his life for a girl he didn’t even know, couldn’t repay him in any way, and he had no reason to even care for.

The second time I was trying to find my religion. Of all things, I happened to be reading about Reveillon dinners, when it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved everything about the Catholic Church and culture. I loved great big cathedrals, Italian Renaissance artwork, the haunting sound of Gregorian chant, the prayers, Christmas, the Saints, Mardi Gras, Lent, the monastic life. There was just so many wonderful and amazing things that Catholics did to worship God. It had everything.

The third time I was in RCIA and I was constantly talking, trying to grasp the theology, failing, sometimes saying the dumbest things ever. My priest gave me a book, Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed. I ate it up, everything made so much sense. When I got the end, I was completely thrown for loop. I was sitting there thinking, “wait, scientifically speaking just because someone says something it’s still impossible for a piece of bread to become the God of the Universe, but logically speaking, this has to happen or else nothing would exist at all.” It really shook me up. Here was reading something that seemed more real than my own existence, realizing I was held in existence by someone I had sinned against, and fear that I didn’t love him enough to even care that this must be true. In fact, I didn’t feel like I was even capable of loving at all. There is more but I am going to stop here, because I already feel like I am oversharing.

Please don’t ever hesitate to share or to over-share unless your really feel uncomfortable on a public forum. Remember, there are people who are not Catholic who are reading these stories. You may say one thing that makes everything click for them.

God Bless!

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

Me? I left the Anglican church long ago. My path went like this:

Atheist
Agnostic
Pagan
Theist
Christian
Epicopalian
ACNA Anglican
Reformed Episcopal
Brief stay with the Antiochan Orthodox

Catholic

Wow. What a journey. So what was your moment that brought you home?

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

“This is the religion that people are happy to be tortured and killed for?” It was part of the reason I ended up becoming Catholic.

I used to often pass by a Unitarian church and would always glance at the sign at the door: “A variety of spiritualities that allow you to worship as your conscience allows.” I wondered how this pseudo-religion has anything to do with Christ being tortured and dying for our sins and thousands of people dying for the faith. Horrible.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

Part of this journey will be trying to figure out how so much evil has been able to take blatant hold, in the Episcopal Church, in the clear light of day, whilst its leadership around acts like all is good. What differences between the two churches have allowed one to deny it’s very creeds out in the open, and the other, still of course with it’s struggles, to cling to them even in the midst of its sin? One church has sinned, and denied its creeds to rationalize its sins, and the other has sinned (sex abuse scandal comes to mind here) and has turned to its creeds for Redemption. I must figure out where and how this difference came in to embrace Catholicism, I don’t WANT it to be “almost like” the Episcopal Church.

I’m sure it won’t be at all like the Episcopal church once you scratch beneath the surface. I like to joke that high church anglicans are just protestants who like lace
The blog I suggested discusses this a lot. Basically, the author argues that authority is the reason why the Catholic church doesn’t stray in doctrine and morals. If you don’t have a pope and the magisterium then people become their own little popes and make stuff up as they go along. When there is a problem to be solved someone must make a decision in the end. The pope is there to make sure this happens in accordance with the tradition. Otherwise you have lobbying and pressure groups who use the Bible in order to advance their cause. So now they have women priests, openly practicing homosexual bishops, abortion as a blessing, etc. A complete mess.

I have a feeling you will love being Catholic. It just makes so much sense.

 

[novusCatholic]

I was interested in Catholicism and had been attending Mass for a short while. One of my first big moments came as I was sitting on a beach during vacation, reading a book about the Early Church Fathers. As I read Justin Martyr’s First Apology, I saw the Catholic Church. Take a look at these exerts…

*But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.

Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss.

And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.

There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water

and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands

And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen

those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion

And this food is called among us Eu0xaristi/a [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins

For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.*

Sounds like Mass to me!

 

[LisaA]

I used to often pass by a Unitarian church and would always glance at the sign at the door: “A variety of spiritualities that allow you to worship as your conscience allows.” I wondered how this pseudo-religion has anything to do with Christ being tortured and dying for our sins and thousands of people dying for the faith. Horrible.

Your post brought a smile. My parents who were atheists thought the Unitarian Church was perfectly acceptable. In an era where one needed to go to “church” it provided a place to go at 11am on Sunday so one’s neighbors didn’t notice the car in the driveway as they headed for Mass or church .

At the Unitarian church one need not be bothered by standards or ethics. As the sign said, you can be gods…hmmmm does that sound familiar?

That being said, my experience with Unitarians is that they were very nice, well meaning folks who perhaps thought this was enough for Pascal’s Wager…if there were actually a God, well maybe a few points for attending a church.

Take care and you clearly see the differnce between the “church of what’s happenin’ now!” and the OHCAC
Lisa

 

[GoldenSunflower]

I was recently unemployed and was walking to the store when I passed the library and saw a sign saying there would be a used book sale in a few days. I went inside and kind of accidently/onpurpose went into the room where they were setting up boxes of books on long tables, fully expecting them to tell me to leave at any second, but I wanted to see what they were going to have.

I was in the far back corner of the room, and still no one had come in, when I came to a box that had a book on top with a picture of young girl in peasant clothes kneeling. I kind of like medieval stuff, so I picked it up. Instantly as I am looking at it, there is this elderly lady right at my elbow… and she says, ‘Oh you’d like that book - its a very good story’.

I was so utterly amazed at her suddenly being there that I literally couldn’t think of anything to say - just frozen in surprise. She looks at the book and now she says ‘You know, that book looks so well-loved, that I don’t think it would even sell. You can take that with you. It really is a good story.’

Well, when someone offers me a free book, yeah I’ll take it! And I read it all in one single day! When I was done I went on the Internet and looked for things associated with the young girl in the book… and well, I’m sorry, but people who have been dead that long have no business looking like she does today! That was the beginning of what turned out to be a very unusual journey all right - one that reached a milestone on 7 April 2012, when I was baptized, confirmed and received first communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

My path had followed the lines of Raised Very Lax Protestant, Baptist Summer Camp, Buddhism, Zen, New Age Things, Episcopalian in-laws, The Christ Family Cult, Native American Spirituality, Paganism, Wicca, and finally to just Casual at-home thinker of God… and then this happened!

The name of the book: “The Song of Bernadette”.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

Golden Sunflower,

I got goosebumps reading your story. Wow. St. Bernardette does it again

 

[Daizies]

My story is rather long, but I’ll try to condense it as best as I can.

I was raised primarily Baptist, although I have vague memories of seeing my parents being baptized at an AoG church. We went to a few other churches, but I was too young to really remember.
My mom was VERY anti-Catholic. I was told that Catholics were not even Christians, and I was to have nothing to do with them so as not to be corrupted.
Well, as I got older, I started to question a lot of things. I dabbled a little in Wicca and stuff like that, that my friends were into. I never really got how church was related to what I read in the Bible, because to me, the sermons always seemed to contradict things I read. I decided to try and find answers, so I attended an nondenominational Bible school for one year. I wound up with more doubts than when I started.
I eventually moved to a larger city to attend University, and I tried a plethora of churches and denominations. I even wound up in a cult for a while (long story there). Eventually, I got sick of it all. No one could answer my doubts and questions, and most never even tried. So I gave up.

This is the where the weird part happens- I decided I wasn’t going to be a Christian anymore, and declared myself a neo-pagan. I practiced that for a while, until one day, out of nowhere, when I was meditating, I heard this voice. It told me to stop, before it was too late, and if I didn’t, there was no going back - and I was abruptly thrown out of a trance into full consciousness. It really freaked me out. I thought about God, and the church, and I felt full of despair. How could I go back to something that was meaningless to me. I tried a few churches, but it was all the same as before. I was ready to give up again, then a thought popped into my head “you might as well try the Catholic Church. It’s not like it can get any worse than that.”
So I went to the library and signed out Catholicism for Dummies and read it cover to cover. And I found the answers I was looking for. It hit me that the Catholic Church was what I had been searching for my whole life, I just didn’t know it until that moment.

Long story short, I was received into the Church Easter 2011, and it was the best decision I ever made.

 

[Della]

@Daizies…I too heard a lot of anti-Catholic rhetoric and hate that kept me from looking into the Church. And I also had one of those “Well, I’ll even go to the Catholic Church to find the truth, if that’s where God wants me” moments. Considering all the animus against the Church in Western society it’s just plain miraculous that God calls people, seemingly out of the blue, to investigate his Church. Every little seed planted along the way, induced by frustration at being told half-truths, fudged speculations and outright lies by well-meaning people often does the trick. I have to wonder what those who tried so hard to drive us away from Christ’s Church would think if they knew their tactics only made us all the more curious and hungry for the truth, don’t you?

 

[josephback]

After reading C.S. Lewis and “Mere Christianity”, followed by Augustine’s “Confessions”, I began to undertake a study of the book of Revelation. I wasn’t looking to convert. Anyway, I had a theory that Revelation is the interpretation of the OT prophets, and since most of the symbols can be found in Scripture it meant reading the whole Bible. Including the Deuterocanon(called by some Apocrypha).

Now I had accepted Calvinism and its denial of free will, which I saw as the only way to reconcile sola fide to God’s justice. Reading the Bible led to many discoveries, the first that although I thought I knew Bible there were parts I ignored, like Leviticus and Chronicles. The second in the New Testament was that free will existed. This brought back doubts I had ever since hearing Sola Fide and thje Sinner’s prayer as a kid. Back then I had searched the Bible in vain to find where, anywhere, that it explicitly said we are saved by faith alone. I was taught the Bible as my final authority, but for some reason I never remember thinking sola fide might not be true. That was then.

Some time after coming to re-acccept free will, I read the book of James, and 2:24 to be exact. Although I had been taught a certain way to read this and seen it before, it occured that nothing in the context changed what James was saying. This torpedoed the entire Reformation in my mind. Justification/the Gospel was the central issue, and if Luther had been wrong then nothing else he or the Reformers said mattered.

This started a traumatic period in my life which did not immediately see me embrace the Catholic Church. Even though Luther was wrong I had a cultural and ingrained bias against Catholicism. I took a detour through Eastern Orthodoxy, but came to have questions about their teaching on the Pope. If there isn’t some truth to the papal claims, where did they get started? Shortly after that I contacted the local Catholic Church, and well here I am - by the grace of God

 

[rikkk1958]

I am not a convert but was thinking converting to protestantism sometime in college when I was studying in a protestant school. I thanked my mother for stopping me eventhough her father was a protestant. She was a Catholic.

I did not grow up ideally a Catholic but a generallly considered Catholic which means that I just branded myself as “Catholic”. Learning Catechism in elementary grades makes you forget as you grow older if your parents are not that religious.

The moment of truth came during the 9/11 incident. I was in New York working. It did not strike me as a Catholic at first but had to think for several days the acts of those who gave up their lives for their “faith”. May it be terrorism for the innocents but I don’t think those Muslims acted with malice, but faith “maybe” in their religion. Many Catholics in our Church walked out when the Franciscan Priest mentioned about how proud those men with their faith because they offered their lives for it. It was a very sensitive statement for those who lost love ones, but I understood what the Priest was trying to explain.

It woke me up from my slumber of being a “Catholic”. I gave a hard thought on “Why” and how their faith a religion to die for. Suddenly, it struck me for an answer, “it was not faith but hate”. From then on, I restudied my faith. It brought so much joy for me because for all those years I took my religon for granted, now I found peace in learning that my faith is the true faith and thanked God for not letting me go.

 

[PerfectTiming]

I was far too young at my conversion to have been convinced by deep theology so it really was much more subjective for me. I wrote this for my blog a while back:

I don’t really know why I became a Catholic. My decision to join the Church was about 13 years ago now, though I wasn’t actually baptised until 4 years after that. I was never baptised as an infant and my parents were always very open as to why: my father was a Catholic but my mother was an Anglican. They couldn’t decide which church to have me baptised in so left it up to my own decision.

I was about 8 years old when I decided to become a Catholic. I attended an Anglican church every Sunday and to all intents and purposes I was considered an Anglican. I went to Sunday School and every week I’d go up to the altar with my arms crossed across my chest to receive a blessing. I did, however, attend a private Catholic school. Most of the students were Catholic, this being in an area where almost 80% of the population is Catholic. At school I went to chapel several days a week, every day when I was older.

I remember the rest of my class preparing for their First Holy Communion. As an Anglican I, along with a few other Anglicans and a Muslim classmate, was not involved. I also remember being intensely jealous of my Catholic classmates. I can’t remember exactly why and there was probably something very silly about it but also something intensely providential as well. I didn’t even understand really what it was, I knew nothing of the Real Presence. All I knew was that they had something I intensely wanted and looking back I think even then something drew me to the Eucharist. I could easily have been baptised Anglican and taken First Communion with my friends from Sunday School. But the desire in my heart was the the Catholic Eucharist, something I didn’t really understand but have come to love so intensely.

I may only have been a child but I saw something in Catholicism that Anglicanism lacked. I don’t know what that was, realistically my understanding of the differences was basically non-existent but all I knew was that I belonged in the Catholic Church. I suppose in the end what it comes down to is that I became a Catholic because I felt God calling me there.

 

[dal61]

I was recently unemployed and was walking to the store when I passed the library and saw a sign saying there would be a used book sale in a few days. I went inside and kind of accidently/onpurpose went into the room where they were setting up boxes of books on long tables, fully expecting them to tell me to leave at any second, but I wanted to see what they were going to have.

I was in the far back corner of the room, and still no one had come in, when I came to a box that had a book on top with a picture of young girl in peasant clothes kneeling. I kind of like medieval stuff, so I picked it up. Instantly as I am looking at it, there is this elderly lady right at my elbow… and she says, ‘Oh you’d like that book - its a very good story’.

I was so utterly amazed at her suddenly being there that I literally couldn’t think of anything to say - just frozen in surprise. She looks at the book and now she says ‘You know, that book looks so well-loved, that I don’t think it would even sell. You can take that with you. It really is a good story.’

Well, when someone offers me a free book, yeah I’ll take it! And I read it all in one single day! When I was done I went on the Internet and looked for things associated with the young girl in the book… and well, I’m sorry, but people who have been dead that long have no business looking like she does today! That was the beginning of what turned out to be a very unusual journey all right - one that reached a milestone on 7 April 2012, when I was baptized, confirmed and received first communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

My path had followed the lines of Raised Very Lax Protestant, Baptist Summer Camp, Buddhism, Zen, New Age Things, Episcopalian in-laws, The Christ Family Cult, Native American Spirituality, Paganism, Wicca, and finally to just Casual at-home thinker of God… and then this happened!

The name of the book: “The Song of Bernadette”.

Goosebumps here,too. Thanks for sharing .

 

[pablope]

I

Well, when someone offers me a free book, yeah I’ll take it! And I read it all in one single day! When I was done I went on the Internet and looked for things associated with the young girl in the book… and well, I’m sorry, but people who have been dead that long have no business looking like she does today! That was the beginning of what turned out to be a very unusual journey all right - one that reached a milestone on 7 April 2012, when I was baptized, confirmed and received first communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

[CleverUserName]

Wow. What a journey. So what was your moment that brought you home?

I had been praying the whole time for God to please just choose the church for me. I was so tired of going from church to church, feeling homeless, still not finding what I was looking for. In the end, God finally simply answered me and chose the Catholic Church. What a relief. Looking back, I think I know why He let me go through all of that before answering.

I think I had to find out what I am NOT, to be able to embrace what I am.

 

[CleverUserName]

I am hesitant to share, but I will try. I had 3 “moments.”

The first was when I was thirteen. I borrowed my father’s copy of The Exorcist after he told me not to read it. By the time I finished I was enthralled by the idea that this man would give up his life for a girl he didn’t even know, couldn’t repay him in any way, and he had no reason to even care for.

The second time I was trying to find my religion. Of all things, I happened to be reading about Reveillon dinners, when it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved everything about the Catholic Church and culture. I loved great big cathedrals, Italian Renaissance artwork, the haunting sound of Gregorian chant, the prayers, Christmas, the Saints, Mardi Gras, Lent, the monastic life. There was just so many wonderful and amazing things that Catholics did to worship God. It had everything.

The third time I was in RCIA and I was constantly talking, trying to grasp the theology, failing, sometimes saying the dumbest things ever. My priest gave me a book, Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed. I ate it up, everything made so much sense. When I got the end, I was completely thrown for loop. I was sitting there thinking, “wait, scientifically speaking just because someone says something it’s still impossible for a piece of bread to become the God of the Universe, but logically speaking, this has to happen or else nothing would exist at all.” It really shook me up. Here was reading something that seemed more real than my own existence, realizing I was held in existence by someone I had sinned against, and fear that I didn’t love him enough to even care that this must be true. In fact, I didn’t feel like I was even capable of loving at all. There is more but I am going to stop here, because I already feel like I am oversharing.

You are not oversharing!!! I would love to hear more!

Whew, very powerful moments you’ve had. I love the path you went down intellectually in RCIA. I can relate!

 

[CleverUserName]

I’m sure it won’t be at all like the Episcopal church once you scratch beneath the surface. I like to joke that high church anglicans are just protestants who like lace
The blog I suggested discusses this a lot. Basically, the author argues that authority is the reason why the Catholic church doesn’t stray in doctrine and morals. If you don’t have a pope and the magisterium then people become their own little popes and make stuff up as they go along. When there is a problem to be solved someone must make a decision in the end. The pope is there to make sure this happens in accordance with the tradition. Otherwise you have lobbying and pressure groups who use the Bible in order to advance their cause. So now they have women priests, openly practicing homosexual bishops, abortion as a blessing, etc. A complete mess.

I have a feeling you will love being Catholic. It just makes so much sense.

Contra, I just have to say how much I love your posts. Thanks so much for everything you’ve contributed to this little thread of mine. I think I could read you forever.

 

[CleverUserName]

I was interested in Catholicism and had been attending Mass for a short while. One of my first big moments came as I was sitting on a beach during vacation, reading a book about the Early Church Fathers. As I read Justin Martyr’s First Apology, I saw the Catholic Church. Take a look at these exerts…

Sounds like Mass to me!

!!! Thanks for sharing !!!

 

[CleverUserName]

I was recently unemployed and was walking to the store when I passed the library and saw a sign saying there would be a used book sale in a few days. I went inside and kind of accidently/onpurpose went into the room where they were setting up boxes of books on long tables, fully expecting them to tell me to leave at any second, but I wanted to see what they were going to have.

I was in the far back corner of the room, and still no one had come in, when I came to a box that had a book on top with a picture of young girl in peasant clothes kneeling. I kind of like medieval stuff, so I picked it up. Instantly as I am looking at it, there is this elderly lady right at my elbow… and she says, ‘Oh you’d like that book - its a very good story’.

I was so utterly amazed at her suddenly being there that I literally couldn’t think of anything to say - just frozen in surprise. She looks at the book and now she says ‘You know, that book looks so well-loved, that I don’t think it would even sell. You can take that with you. It really is a good story.’

Well, when someone offers me a free book, yeah I’ll take it! And I read it all in one single day! When I was done I went on the Internet and looked for things associated with the young girl in the book… and well, I’m sorry, but people who have been dead that long have no business looking like she does today! That was the beginning of what turned out to be a very unusual journey all right - one that reached a milestone on 7 April 2012, when I was baptized, confirmed and received first communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

My path had followed the lines of Raised Very Lax Protestant, Baptist Summer Camp, Buddhism, Zen, New Age Things, Episcopalian in-laws, The Christ Family Cult, Native American Spirituality, Paganism, Wicca, and finally to just Casual at-home thinker of God… and then this happened!

The name of the book: “The Song of Bernadette”.

Yet another testimony for The Song of Bernadette! That is amazing! You had me hanging on every word, waiting to hear what it was. Thanks for sharing!