Converts/Reverts Conversion Stories and Fellowship

[Church_Militant]

Thank you. So do you! Interestingly enough, we had a Catholics Returning Home program at my parish. There was a gentleman who became Episcopalian because he married a lady from that faith back in the 1940’s. His wife died, and he wanted to return to the Catholic faith because he said he never stopped believing in it. He completed the program, made his Confession and afterwards became a volunteer for the next Catholics Returning Home program. This fellow is in his 80’s and is on fire for the Catholic faith. He helped another man who is in his seventies come back after being away for 40+ years, and he is in church all the time now; I see him at almost every Mass I am at.

I also have a friend from church who was Lutheran and married to a friend from church who is Catholic. When we had a Bible study on the book of Revelation, my Catholic friend decided to attend. Her husband, the Lutheran, decided to come to the Bible study as well. Out of the blue, he signed up for RCIA and became confirmed as a Catholic. This was four years ago. Both of them still attend Bible study and are also readers and EMHC’s.

Another couple I knew from church were a Catholic wife and Methodist husband. He said that he had no problem with their children being Catholic, but he planned to stay Methodist. That plan was not God’s plan, as he became Catholic two years ago.

**The Holy Spirit is definitely up to something great! **

Great stuff! Thanks!

You know that’s right my Friend!

 

[ElizabethPH]

I am a cradle Catholic, raised in the church and fell away when I married an Episcopalian back in the 60’s. I never joined his church or any church and always thought of myself as Catholic; as it was pretty much drilled into me growing up that ‘born Catholic, always Catholic’. Through the years I led a less then exemplary life-style. But I was blessed with two children. My husband passed away when they were in high school. I married again in 1990 this time to a Catholic! But he didn’t practice his faith anymore then I did. Through the years I have been going to Mass, off and on. I have had the desire to reconcile; but hubby was always that stumbling block for me. He became very ill; about a year and a half ago he died. It was all very hard and I turned to God in a way that I hadn’t in many, many years. I’ve been trying to come to terms with it all. I finally went to confession.

My Mom has always been a big influence and has always encouraged me, in a loving way, to come back. I have always wanted too but I was so blinded by my sinful life that there was always one excuse after another.

I have been reading a lot and learning many things for the first time; and I’ve had many moments of “I didn’t know that!” Even though I went to catechism for all twelve years in school, and was very involved in Mass and my Mom always reminds me of what a prayerful child I was, my brothers were altar boys…and my Mom took us to Mass nearly every day. I was in choir and CYO. But very little stuck. Now I am just trying to get back to a holy life; I am not that involved with the parish; but hope that will change in the near future. There are a couple of programs through the parish that I have joined and they start soon. I have gotten several books and read CA as well as the forums (a lot) and I’m in love with EWTN; I have a desire to be able to defend my faith when the opportunity avails; but at this point I am most likely to put my foot in my mouth then anything else ;-).

But for the Grace of God; Thank you Lord.

 

[Vittorio23]

I am a convert to Catholicism (whoohoo Easter Vigil 2007!!), but I consider myself in a life long conversion to Christ.

I believe I have posted my story elsewhere on this site, but I suppose adding the link to where my blog holds my story wouldn’t do any harm. You can read my journey

My Conversion Story

As for discussion… I have a question for other converts, old and new…

For those newer converts, do you ever feel frustrated at people constantly calling your zeal and enthusiasm “Convert’s zeal” (or something to the sort? As though this enthusiasm isn’t supposed to last long or is going to fade away?

For older converts, did the zeal and enthusiasm pass? Or are you still as passionate now about your faith as you were when you first converted?

I don’t like to think that my enthusiasm and zeal for the Lord is going to pass and lessen. It bothers me at times, when people say to me that it is only convert’s zeal, commenting as if it’s something that is temporary and won’t be with me all my life. And I’m not talking about the “good-feelings” or any of that sort that sometimes comes with a convert’s conversion; but a true love of Christ and desire to be His.

 

[lak611]

I am a cradle Catholic, raised in the church and fell away when I married an Episcopalian back in the 60’s. I never joined his church or any church and always thought of myself as Catholic; as it was pretty much drilled into me growing up that ‘born Catholic, always Catholic’. Through the years I led a less then exemplary life-style. But I was blessed with two children. My husband passed away when they were in high school. I married again in 1990 this time to a Catholic! But he didn’t practice his faith anymore then I did. Through the years I have been going to Mass, off and on. I have had the desire to reconcile; but hubby was always that stumbling block for me. He became very ill; about a year and a half ago he died. It was all very hard and I turned to God in a way that I hadn’t in many, many years. I’ve been trying to come to terms with it all. I finally went to confession.

My Mom has always been a big influence and has always encouraged me, in a loving way, to come back. I have always wanted too but I was so blinded by my sinful life that there was always one excuse after another.

I have been reading a lot and learning many things for the first time; and I’ve had many moments of “I didn’t know that!” Even though I went to catechism for all twelve years in school, and was very involved in Mass and my Mom always reminds me of what a prayerful child I was, my brothers were altar boys…and my Mom took us to Mass nearly every day. I was in choir and CYO. But very little stuck. Now I am just trying to get back to a holy life; I am not that involved with the parish; but hope that will change in the near future. There are a couple of programs through the parish that I have joined and they start soon. I have gotten several books and read CA as well as the forums (a lot) and I’m in love with EWTN; I have a desire to be able to defend my faith when the opportunity avails; but at this point I am most likely to put my foot in my mouth then anything else ;-).

But for the Grace of God; Thank you Lord.

Welcome back! God bless you.

 

[lak611]

I am a convert to Catholicism (whoohoo Easter Vigil 2007!!), but I consider myself in a life long conversion to Christ.

I believe I have posted my story elsewhere on this site, but I suppose adding the link to where my blog holds my story wouldn’t do any harm. You can read my journey

My Conversion Story

As for discussion… I have a question for other converts, old and new…

For those newer converts, do you ever feel frustrated at people constantly calling your zeal and enthusiasm “Convert’s zeal” (or something to the sort? As though this enthusiasm isn’t supposed to last long or is going to fade away?

For older converts, did the zeal and enthusiasm pass? Or are you still as passionate now about your faith as you were when you first converted?

I don’t like to think that my enthusiasm and zeal for the Lord is going to pass and lessen. It bothers me at times, when people say to me that it is only convert’s zeal, commenting as if it’s something that is temporary and won’t be with me all my life. And I’m not talking about the “good-feelings” or any of that sort that sometimes comes with a convert’s conversion; but a true love of Christ and desire to be His.

I’m not a convert, but a revert. But my desire has grown not faded since I’ve been back. I’ve also noticed that my convert friends from church are the same way. They have all become more involved in the parish over the years, not less involved.

 

[cranster]

I had no real experience with God until I was 17. One night Jesus was suddenly standing at the foot of my bed and asked me a question. The question went right to the center of my being. He asked, “Will you let me love you?” I said “Yes”. There is no way to describe what happened after that. I went to The Lords Ranch In El Paso after high school, and spent almost 2 years working with a Jesuit named Fr. Rick Thomas. We raised food for the poor in Juarez, and there were many actual miracles that took place, multiplication of food, healing of terminal cancer, both deaf and blind people regaining their faculties. Fr. Rene Laurentin stayed for a while when I was there and wrote a book about it called “Miracles in El Paso”.

 I returned home and quickly got caught up in a four square church through some friends, and was informed that there was no way I could be a Catholic and Christian. What was strange about it was the joy of the people in this church paled in comparison to what I had experienced among the poor in Juarez where it felt like faith was alive like it was during the time of the apostles with all the miracles happening. It didn't take long at all for me to realize that I was missing something, and I couldn't put my finger on it. I know now it was the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. 

  I married when I was 33 and had over time wandered from my faith. I got into trouble with drugs about a decade after I was married. It started with severe anxiety attacks, and a work related injury. I ended up on pain killers, muscle relaxers, sedatives, sleeping pills and a number of other drugs in which I started mixing with pot. 3 years went by with out seeing any of my family, I went on disability because I was no longer able to function, I lost contact with all my friends. My doctor told me "You are dying and you can't do it with me, you'll have to find another doctor to do that with!) My wife told me that I was functioning at the level of a 3 year old. I ended up sleeping about 18 hours a day because of all the meds.  somebody tampered with a prescription of benzodiazepines (sedatives). The prescription that was called in was 3 times the normal size. My ex wife being a registered nurse was supposed to dispense them to me which was an agreement we made with the doctor. I remember going to pick up that prescription and she said, "Score!!!, its like hitting the lottery!" She would ask me, "How many do you want?" There was an investigation with the DEA with 2 doctors and it was decided that I needed to be hospitalized to detox.  My wife wanted a divorce as soon as I got home from the hospital. She packed me a suitcase and dropped me on my fathers doorstep. I started to convulse that night and broke several teeth in the process. I was utterly helpless. I couldn't figure out how to call an ambulance. I felt a seizure coming on that wanted to collapse my diaphragm. I felt death in the room! I was awake for five days straight. I was only able to speak with very short one syllable sentences... "I need food!", "I need water" I was literally like a baby. There I was living with my father who was taking care of my dying mother, and I was unemployed, homeless, penniless, wifeless, friendless, and my health was gone. I kept my left hand in my pocket because I only had gross motor movement in my fingers. This was horrible for me because I am a songwriter. At that point I knew I had lost absolutely everything. I remember saying to my dad, "I feel like Job!" He said, "Son, you are like Job! You'd have to dig to go any lower!" 

 It was a very long recuperation. I remembered on the Lords Ranch, I had prayed, "God please break me down to nothing and rebuild me!" I had also prayed to the little flower, "Please guide me all the way, I want to walk where you walked, and go as close to Jesus as a human can go!" Be careful what you pray for, there are some prayers that our loving God is not shy about answering. The first part of the first prayer has been answered, and still rebuilding. The second prayer, God willing, still remains to be realized. 

  Eventually I regained the use of my hand and I started writing music like I had never written in my life. I had built a modest recording studio but had a lot of pirate software on my computer. One day I was getting ready to record, and I felt an interior voice say, " My friend, this is the point in your life where the rubber meets the road... CHOOSE! ... ME OR THE WORLD! I said, "I choose you Lord!" I immediately got rid of the software... went right to confession, and got right back into the sacraments. Today daily mass, confession , and the daily rosary are a part of my life. I feel like an empty slate and ready to truly begin. I am currently having a rather profound experience with the Blessed Mother concerning my music, but that's another story.

 

[fellowChristian]

Cradle Catholic who did as she was told but did not know why.

I got lost for awhile

I never had the questions to ask so they never got answered.

But working with people of different denominations gave me the questions I needed to ask.

I looked up everything about the Lutheran church and found they broke off the Catholic Church.

Then I looked up everything about the Church of England and that they too broke from the Catholic Church.

So on down the line I went Presbyterians,Quakers,Amish,and Protestants. Yup I thought that was a church too

Until I said to myself “Who did the Catholic Church break from?” Yup I’ll admit it I asked this question

Boy I am glad I did!

Then more questions like…

Where did the Bible come from?

And then all the other questions like…

Why do Catholics

pray to the saints
bless themselves
genuflect
pray to Mary
go to confession

You know.

But truly it was my dear old devout Catholic grandmother. She prayed for me and my family. I only saw her for two weeks in the summer months when we were on vacation. But she always pointed to Jesus and His mother.

It was because of her my father made me go to CCD and Mass.
It was because of her I finished my sacraments.
It was because of her my husband made his sacraments.
It was because of her all our children finished their sacarments.
It was because of her my husband and I married in the church.

She shinned with the **Light of Christ **
and it is because the
**Holy Spirit **worked through her that I said

“I want to be like her!”

Praise be to God!

My husband and I teach CCD, Youth Group.
My husband is a Knight of Columbus
and with the help of the Holy Spirit I have lead ten people into RCIA this year.
I evangelize to people in the store at the bank at work and to my neighbors. And to my family.

I heard my husband’s uncle tell someone at a family gathering last month
“She is our Light of Christ and she is going to lead us to God.”
He was pointing at me and smiling.
I still cry when I think about it.

Because I know I am not the same. I was lost and now I am found!

 

[lak611]

Cradle Catholic who did as she was told but did not know why.

I got lost for awhile

I never had the questions to ask so they never got answered.

But working with people of different denominations gave me the questions I needed to ask.

I looked up everything about the Lutheran church and found they broke off the Catholic Church.

Then I looked up everything about the Church of England and that they too broke from the Catholic Church.

So on down the line I went Presbyterians,Quakers,Amish,and Protestants. Yup I thought that was a church too

Until I said to myself “Who did the Catholic Church break from?” Yup I’ll admit it I asked this question

Boy I am glad I did!

Then more questions like…

Where did the Bible come from?

And then all the other questions like…

Why do Catholics

pray to the saints
bless themselves
genuflect
pray to Mary
go to confession

You know.

But truly it was my dear old devout Catholic grandmother. She prayed for me and my family. I only saw her for two weeks in the summer months when we were on vacation. But she always pointed to Jesus and His mother.

It was because of her my father made me go to CCD and Mass.
It was because of her I finished my sacraments.
It was because of her my husband made his sacraments.
It was because of her all our children finished their sacarments.
It was because of her my husband and I married in the church.

She shinned with the **Light of Christ **
and it is because the
**Holy Spirit **worked through her that I said

“I want to be like her!”

Praise be to God!

My husband and I teach CCD, Youth Group.
My husband is a Knight of Columbus
and with the help of the Holy Spirit I have lead ten people into RCIA this year.
I evangelize to people in the store at the bank at work and to my neighbors. And to my family.

I heard my husband’s uncle tell someone at a family gathering last month
“She is our Light of Christ and she is going to lead us to God.”
He was pointing at me and smiling.
I still cry when I think about it.

Because I know I am not the same. I was lost and now I am found!

That is a beautiful testimony! God bless you. :hug1:

 

[ChrisWRIT]

While my story is long, my return was amazingly fast, especially since I was away from the Church for 20 years!

I was baptized into the Catholic Church as an infant, & was Confirmed at 13. Shortly thereafter, my religious education had slowed to a trickle. I never received enough education to be able to explain or defend my faith even to myself, much less anyone else, so I left the Church at about 18 years old, due to questions I had developed about the Catholic faith.

Over the course of several years, I became very depressed. I was told by others that I needed spirituality to help it, & I must have looked into at least half of the religions out there for it. None made sense, nor seemed to bring me any closer to God, so I dropped them.

Then a close friend and “mentor” helped me to return to a “primitive” faith in God. I discussed many things with him, and learned many things as well. While not “anti-Catholic”, he was an evangelical Christian. I learned some things that were correct, & others that weren’t. I tried various protestant churches, but never found one that I felt was “right”. (Maybe due to the fact that at every one, I was constantly asked “Are you saved?”

!!!

I was baptized as an infant – of course I was “saved”! Why was I being asked every 5 minutes?!?
:banghead:

Many protestant friends shared the “truths” of their faith, like “faith alone”, “scripture alone”, “once saved, always saved” - but the inconsistency & illogical nature of these concepts stuck in the back of my mind. For years, I tried to just ignore them & stick to “Jesus died for my sins - believe in Him and you will be saved.” (Unknowingly buying into “faith alone”, ironically.)

I was married 6 years ago, in a Baptist church, and have since been blessed with 2 children (a 2 y.o. son and a 1y.o. daughter.)

This July, my wife & kids went to visit her mother for a week, leaving me at home alone. It was odd to have them all gone, but it turned out to be a kind of “retreat” for me.

About that time, the media was wetting it’s pants over the fact that Pope Benedict XVI had repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church “has the fullness of the means of salvation.”

I felt an incredible urge to lay them all of my old questions & oubts about Catholicism & find out what the Church said about each of them. This led to a 4 day frenzy of reading the NT, the CCC, the Summa Theologica, Catholic apologetics articles, & listening to MP3 talks & lectures I found on the internet.

Not only were all of my questions answered, I also started to learn WHY “Sola Fide” & “Sola Scriptura” were wrong; WHY the Catholic Church baptizes infants. I learned that I could understand Catholic teaching, if I just gave a bit of effort!

Thursday of that week, I found myself at the local Catholic Church. It was after 6PM & they were closed, but just being there, I felt a need to go to daily mass the next morning.

When I went, unlike Protestant “churches” (which are usually auditoriums & admin buildings), this Church actually *felt[/t] the same as every other Catholic Church I had entered – like it was really God’s house.

The Mass felt like real “worship”, as opposed to the hour of Christian pop songs and 30 minutes of reading a few verses out of either the gospel of Matthew or of John.

I felt like I felt like I had “snuck back home”; dirty and unworthy to participate. I abstained from the Eucharist, sitting in the pew feeling like a retard for having left at all.

At that moment, I knew that I had to return to the Catholic Church. Such an insistent pull could only be by the Holy Spirit calling me back, & I could refuse it no more than I could disembowel myself with a Swiss army knife.

I went to Confession the next day, & the Saturday vigil Mass afterward. I have returned to praying the rosary. I’ve made a lot of progress in the last couple of months, but I’m still working to completely leave the sinful habits that I had developed while away from the Church.

I will be going to “Landings” for a couple of months, a program for lapsed Catholics who have decided or are thinking about returning to the Catholic Church, to explore and reconnect with the Church; to ask questions that they might have, and meet others. My wife is a “new Christian”, although she was baptized & raised Catholic until her grrandfather died when she was 7. She was surprised & a bit shocked when I told her that I had to return to the Catholic Church, but she is now thinking about returning to the Church she began her life in, so wants to go too too!
:extrahappy:

I have striven to learn something more about my faith every day since. I want my children to be baptized asap (hopefully by Christmas), & my marriage to be blessed in the Church. I know I belong in the Catholic Church, & will not leave it again, so I want to learn how to explain and defend my faith as much as I can.

Chris*

 

[Pauli]

To Vittorio23’s question about losing that first enthusiasm and joy

I am 86 years old and am a “revert”. It happened in 1963 and the next few years it was as if God were with me every day, showing me marvels, my joy, hopes, love, can hardly be described to anyone who hasn’t experienced it.

And here I am today. Today, for instance, I spent a long time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at the local hospital chapel. I listened to the local Catholic radio station this morning.
I have missed Mass only twice in all those years, once because I was prevented, the other time when we were on a car trip and couldn’t find a church. I don’t think I’ve missed a day of offering my morning prayers. I pray for others. I try always to conform myself to God’s will.

But, if you ask me how I “feel”, the answer is no, it’s not quite like it was at first I think it’s more like if you asked a couple on their Golden Wedding day if they feel the same as when they were first married.They would think about all the things that have happened, the growth, all they’ve been through together, the ups and downs,
in sickness and in health, thick and thin, in all kinds of situations, and the love is very deep but not necessarily like when it was new. Love grows. You needn’t worry, each day is still always new and surprising. There is no one, no one like Jesus!

 

[Melissa]

A long and winding road, or how the Rosary and NFP led me to conversion.

To begin at the beginning, I grew up in a family which was quite devout and non-denominational Christian. For as long as I could remember, I was in a family where Christian vocabulary was the norm, my father was on the board of elders of the various churches we attended, and I had all the ‘right credentials’ just like St. Paul–I was baptized at the age of 7, began playing the piano for church services when I was 14, argued with people who didn’t believe as we did in my non-denominational church, and generally speaking was the very model of what a ‘good Christian girl’ should be.

When I was 21, I did not know then that I was embarking on a long road which would end with me in the Catholic Church. If anyone had suggested such a thing, I would have laughed–it was ludicrous beyond belief. But in July of that year, one of my cousins was killed in a single-car accident due to failure to wear her seat belt, and slowly but surely, I fell off the pedestal that I had been on–I may have looked like a model ‘good Christian girl’ but the truth was that there was little to no spiritual life underneath the appearances. I had grown up believing in the "once saved, always saved’ (OSAS) doctrine, and yet I found myself in a position which–had I been Catholic then, I could have identified as–being in mortal sin. And I knew that no matter that I had been baptized, that I was as prominent in the church as my parents–there was no way God was going to let me into heaven after that.

At the time, I was going to college some 35 miles away from my parents’ house, and drove there on a daily basis in a car with no radio. That’s when the voices began. Most of my commute was on interstate highways, my car had no radio, and I heard voices in the car with me.
The voices had specific messages: “kill yourself” they said. “You cannot be forgiven for what you’ve done. You belong to us–why go through all the suffering of this life when you cannot escape.” The voices were insistent, urging despair and suicide. I began to plot how I could commit suicide and make it look like an accident.

Things came rapidly to a head, and one Sunday I just could not go to the church that I’d grown up in. To avoid the appearance of being ‘bad’ I bargained with my parents that I would go to another church. I ended up in an Episcopal cathedral–now at the time, I didn’t know that cathedral meant something other than ‘large church’. It was true that this cathedral was a large church: compared to the approx. 200 souls of all ages in the church I grew up in, their roster of official members included 500 families. But somehow, my hopes for anonymity were dashed–I was immediately recognized as a newcomer, and they rolled out the welcome red carpet. This unnerved me–I knew well enough when someone identifies a “prospective convert” and that, combined with the sight of a collar on the priest almost led me to flee.

However, the ‘net’ had been cast, and I couldn’t get away without looking really bad, and so I went into the church service with the wife of the bishop. Now, as the service continued, we reached a point at which they were saying a prayer I now know as the Confiteor (although the timing was way different than it is in a Catholic Mass). So I made my own prayer: “God, if I can be forgiven for You-know-what, please give me a sign.” The bishop started saying the absolution after, and I felt an almost palpable weight roll off my back–and the demonic voices I’d been hearing were silenced, I never heard them again.

For some time, I thought I had found where I was supposed to be–I was content being Episcopalian. Slowly but surely, various prejudices against Catholic teachings and practices began to fall away–I believe it was to erase those that I spent my time as an Episcopalian, that it would have just been too much of a leap for me to go directly to the Catholic Faith from the non-denominational roots. Infant baptism, communion of saints, tradition–and I met my husband (a cradle Catholic), and we began our marriage with a wedding in the Episcopal church. Still, I was quite certain that the Catholic Church had to be wrong about birth control, and was not about to reconsider–and my husband was more than happy to agree with me.

—to be continued in next post—

 

[Melissa]

–continuation–

What changed, was another serious jar in my road. One Sunday, we had a visiting homilist, one of the first women to become a priest in the Episcopal church. Her homily set me adrift into a no-man’s land: I knew I could not go back to the Episcopal church, I could not go back to the non-denominational church that I had left before that–and I was still unready to consider the Catholic Church. (The topic of the homily: “What the feminist movement owes to the lesbian community”–and motherhood was treated as a horrible fate that women were now spared from–yet after the birth of my first son, I felt that I had found the thing I was meant to do in this life, and for the whole of this homily, that was being treated as so much rubbish.)

I continued in the no-man’s land until for reasons that I cannot explain even to this day, I started reading on the sly my husband’s copy of St. Louis de Montfort’s “The Secret of the Rosary.” And then I got the idea that I should pray this daily, and so I began doing so quietly (and secret from my husband). I had, in the time I was working before my oldest son was born, worked in the receiving department and had ended up with a habit of swearing as bad as any of the truck drivers who came in–it was to the point that I didn’t think I was swearing unless I’d strung three expletives consecutively. So I decided to put the rosary to the test: say this is a powerful prayer, ok–I’m going to offer it for the intention of control of my tongue. Now days went by, and quite suddenly, I found myself not even able to think the words that had been flying out of my mouth when I was aggravated by another driver while going somewhere.

But something else had happened while I was praying the rosary–slowly but surely, I was being needled by the thought “what if the Catholic Church is right about birth control?” So, after two weeks, a habit of several years had been broken, and I decided to offer my rosary for the intention of understanding this Catholic teaching. I’ll be honest: I did not think it was possible to be understood. I thought I’d found my fail-safe ‘out’.

Three days of this went by, and I heard the Voice as I was praying my rosary. The Voice spoke one word to me: “Obey.” Now, in re-telling this, by my use of capitals, I suppose it is obvious Who spoke–at the time, I did not know. So I protested–as you remember, I was praying for understanding, so being told to obey was just not an answer that I was expecting/prepared to accept. So I said, “But I want to understand.” The Voice spoke again: “I want obedience.”

Now I knew. And I was scared. Not only that, but I realized at that moment that obedience also meant that I was to become Catholic. I could see clearly how each division away from the Church had been precipitated by an act of disobedience, and to be fully obedient meant to return (well, not me personally returning, as I’d never been Catholic before this point) to the Catholic Church. This was May 17, 1997.

I began looking for RCIA classes, and after one false start (where texts defined sin as ‘violating one’s conscience’ and mortal sin as ‘seriously violating one’s conscience’ with no mention at all of how conscience is to be formed, nor the fact that there are some things which are always and everywhere objectively wrong, and treated the ordination of women as a matter still open to debate), found one and formally entered the Church on April 11, 1998.

Thanks for sticking through this looong story.

 

[jmcrae]

Melissa;

Wonderful!! :yup:

 

[Pixie_Dust]

My parents were Methodist In Name Only. We didn’t go to church unless someone got married or died. I did go to church with friends if I happened to spend the night on a Saturday, and did the VBS thing a couple of summers, but that’s about it.

I was visiting a Baptist church with a friend when I was 16 years old, (we’d go hide outside and smoke while her aunt was in choir rehearsal) and I saw someone get baptized. I thought perhaps I should be baptized if I hadn’t been - not sure why I wanted to other than it seemed like the thing to do. I had seen my on-again, off-again boyfriend get baptized at that same church a year before. My friend told me that I had to be saved first. I said, “OK, I’ll get saved!” not having the first clue what that meant.

She took me to the pastor, who took me into the church library and showed me the ‘Romans Road.’ I nodded and agreed with everything he said, and when he asked me if I wanted to pray, I informed him that I was not sure what to say. So I repeated a prayer after him and got dunked the following Sunday. It was right after that that my friend started working on Sundays and quit going to church. I sure wasn’t going if SHE wasn’t going!

After I graduated from high school, I moved in with my then boyfriend, now husband. The ONLY pastor available to marry us over Labor Day weekend was the same pastor that had baptized us and believed we were Christians. We had our first baby 9 months, 5 days after the wedding. When she was about 6 months old, he was looking in the classifieds for a better job and ran across an ad that read: “666 is COMING! Call 1-800-###-####” and out of morbid curiosity he called the number, expecting to hear some demonic message but instead it was an end times, repent and be saved, turn or burn message.

We found ourselves at the same Baptist church and this time, we both had a true conversion of the heart.

So, I was “born-again and raised” Independent, Fundamental, Pre-millenial, KJV-only Baptist. And I thought that I had the Truth. I believed everything they taught me because they could point to Bible verses and say, “That means this…” and I never doubted. When the Left Behind series came out, I thought maybe Mr. LaHaye had a bit of his eschatology mixed up, but the premise of the series gave me NO pause.

Then, we got Internet access. I started frequenting the Christian chat rooms and was shocked to find that there were Christians who didn’t believe dispensational theology or eternal security, believed that baptism was necessary for salvation, and lo and behold THEY TOO could point to Bible verses to back up their statements.

I really thought that the Baptist view of Scripture was the only truly biblical view. (Lord, forgive me!) Imagine my surprise I was also shocked to discover that Baptists did not have the corner marketed on salvation. Baptists would say that you could be saved in other denominations (except for Roman Catholicism) but they didn’t act like they really believed it. They teach that baptism is the first step in obedience for a new believer, the “answer of a good conscience toward God.” There was nothing salvific about the water in the baptistry, they made that pointedly clear. B U T if you happened to have been raised in a church that practiced infant baptism or did not immerse, you HAD to be re-baptized, “scripturally.”

I learned through discussions with those believers on AOL that there WERE other genuine Christians out there that had never darkened the doorstep of a Independent, Fundamental, Pre-millenial, KJV-only Baptist church, in fact, they rejected a lot of the doctrine that I held dear. And they challenged me to search the Scriptures, like the Bereans did. Not that they directly challenged me, but as they’d back up their opposing views with Scripture I realized that there was a possibility that I could be wrong.

…

 

[Pixie_Dust]

I was obsessed for quite some time, researching different denominations and finding out what their essentials and distinctives are. If I was going to be conversing with these people regularly, I wanted to know EXACTLY where they were coming from, so I could “lovingly” show them the errors of their belief system. (I was still mostly right at this point)

I was searching for devotional materials when I ran across the Book of Common Prayer at CBD. I asked my friend (who is a deacon in the Episcopal Church) about it - she said “Sure, it can be used as a devotional!” (I think she knew exactly what she was doing to me!!) So I ordered one. Something happened to me when I started reading through those ancient prayers and reading through the services. I just knew that liturgical worship, far from being dry, stale ritual, was alive and filled with the Word of God!

While I really felt like the Episcopal church was everything I was looking for in a church, basically Catholicism sans the Pope, I couldn’t in good conscience attend the church in my city after I contacted the rector and found out he was totally supportive of the homosexual bishop in NH. What to do? I was ready to experience liturgy for real and didn’t know where to go. I wasn’t about to become Catholic and my options around here are very limited.

A friend recommended an ELCA Lutheran church, as the ELCA and the ECUSA are in communion with one another. There just happens to be an ELCA church less than 5 minutes from my house, so I began going to their 8:00 service then joining my husband for church first at the Baptist church and then he started running the sound board at a very contemporary, “seeker friendly” church. I didn’t last long there at all.

So I began by dipping a toe in the Tiber, really looking deeply into the Roman Catholic Church. I didn’t see myself converting unless I got a better response to my “insurmountables,” those teachings which I could not accept based on Scripture. I had come a long way in changing my own beliefs about the Sacraments, (yes, there are seven!) liturgical worship, and the role of Mary and the Saints in our lives today. I was still pretty content at the Lutheran Church. Even with some ELCA churches going the way of liberal feminism, the one I attended was quite conservative.

I read a book called The Prayer of Mary, an in-depth look at the Fiat and the Magnificat. In it he says that “God is waiting for us to believe that He can do the impossible.”

One of my Catholic friends urged me to get the “One Church” CD from the Bible Christian Society. I call it my “burning bush” moment.

My husband and 15 yo dd are in RCIA now. My younger two dc are going through FEP, which my youngest (unwashed heathen son) will also be in RCIC on a rotating basis. They’ll all be entering the Church Easter 2008, Lord willing.

 

[lak611]

I was obsessed for quite some time, researching different denominations and finding out what their essentials and distinctives are. If I was going to be conversing with these people regularly, I wanted to know EXACTLY where they were coming from, so I could “lovingly” show them the errors of their belief system. (I was still mostly right at this point)

I was searching for devotional materials when I ran across the Book of Common Prayer at CBD. I asked my friend (who is a deacon in the Episcopal Church) about it - she said “Sure, it can be used as a devotional!” (I think she knew exactly what she was doing to me!!) So I ordered one. Something happened to me when I started reading through those ancient prayers and reading through the services. I just knew that liturgical worship, far from being dry, stale ritual, was alive and filled with the Word of God!

While I really felt like the Episcopal church was everything I was looking for in a church, basically Catholicism sans the Pope, I couldn’t in good conscience attend the church in my city after I contacted the rector and found out he was totally supportive of the homosexual bishop in NH. What to do? I was ready to experience liturgy for real and didn’t know where to go. I wasn’t about to become Catholic and my options around here are very limited.

A friend recommended an ELCA Lutheran church, as the ELCA and the ECUSA are in communion with one another. There just happens to be an ELCA church less than 5 minutes from my house, so I began going to their 8:00 service then joining my husband for church first at the Baptist church and then he started running the sound board at a very contemporary, “seeker friendly” church. I didn’t last long there at all.

So I began by dipping a toe in the Tiber, really looking deeply into the Roman Catholic Church. I didn’t see myself converting unless I got a better response to my “insurmountables,” those teachings which I could not accept based on Scripture. I had come a long way in changing my own beliefs about the Sacraments, (yes, there are seven!) liturgical worship, and the role of Mary and the Saints in our lives today. I was still pretty content at the Lutheran Church. Even with some ELCA churches going the way of liberal feminism, the one I attended was quite conservative.

I read a book called The Prayer of Mary, an in-depth look at the Fiat and the Magnificat. In it he says that “God is waiting for us to believe that He can do the impossible.”

One of my Catholic friends urged me to get the “One Church” CD from the Bible Christian Society. I call it my “burning bush” moment.

My husband and 15 yo dd are in RCIA now. My younger two dc are going through FEP, which my youngest (unwashed heathen son) will also be in RCIC on a rotating basis. They’ll all be entering the Church Easter 2008, Lord willing.

What a wonderful testimony! God bless you and your family. Welcome home! :hug1:

 

[homewardbound]

God has been working in my life since my conception. My biological mother had wanted to abort me, but my grandmother talked her out of it. The day I was born. I was over 3 months early, and definitely wasn’t expected to live. I had several surgeries and didn’t leave the hospital until I was 4 months old.

I went to my biological parents and was shared between them and my maternal grandparents for the first 4 years of my life. I wasn’t wanted by my parents but they liked using me as a punching bag. When I was 4 years old, my parents didn’t bring me for my time with my grandparents. My grandparents were hoping this meant this time I was finally wanted. They hadn’t yet realized my abuse. A few months later they received an anonymous letter stating I was being abused. They drove all the way from Pennsylvania to Florida to find me. An angel of a man at CYS helped them find me, even though he could have been fired for it. I was adopted by them at age five.

I was raised in a Baptist home. I loved church and was “saved” at age 7. I was baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit on Feb 14th, 1993. Church then was my favorite place to be and I was strong in my faith.

At age 13, my life was destroyed. My youth pastor, who was also the pastor’s son, began sexually molesting me. I can’t even explain what happened. I lost everything in one moment. My innocence, my youth, my faith. This went on for two years. I began hating myself and doing destructive behavior, like self harm. I tried at age 15 to tell my family what happened. I told enough to get them to take me out of that church but I was never allowed to talk about what happened or explain. My family blamed me. As my mom had us jump from church to church I no longer cared. At 16, I started using drugs and alcohol and entered into my first relationship with a very abusive guy. Anything you can think of, he put me through. I dated him until the end of my senior year of high school. I had been attending church the whole time but it was all for show to make my mom happy. I wanted to trust in God, but I just couldn’t.

I left for college the Fall of 2004 and my freshman year I stayed as far away from God as possible. I convinced myself I was fine and everything would be wonderful from here on out. Sophomore year, I had a mental breakdown. I now realize it was because it was October, which is a time when I was 17 where the abuse of my ex boyfriend had been particularly bad(sexual assault etc). I began therapy in November of 2005 and began attending church at the local United Methodist Church. The people there were so nice and loving. I remember one Sunday the pastor preaching on his infant baptism and how it was so important to who he was today. Definitely unlike anything I had ever heard before. Something was still off though. I quit going there after 4 months. Mainly because I was hospitalized in the local psychiatric ward. The pastor there visited me, but was so visibly uncomfortable while I talked to him I was embarrassed to see him anymore. I stopped church and praying again. Obviously, I was not doing well mentally and I didn’t think God cared anyway. I gave up on finding where I belonged spiritually.

Spring 2006, I decided to transfer schools and on a particularly good day I instant messaged a good friend of mine from high school and poured my heart out to him. Telling him how much I had always secretly loved him. He was the most amazing man ever, and I couldn’t let my thoughts go unsaid for forever. I transfered to the school he was attending and we began dating.

Catholic! Oh boy I had forgotten he was Catholic! For the first 6 months of our relationship we debated about anything and everything. Though I guess I was the one trying to argue, he was just answering my questions and I just kept getting frustrated cause I kept getting shot down! He kept making sense, how was that possible?

I read everything Catholic I could get my hands on. At first, I did it to try to refute it and prove it wrong, eventually I was reading it to find out more and learn more about this amazing faith. Six months into my new relationship, I was attending Mass regularly, praying the rosary, and for the first time in a long time feeling closeness with God. I realized He forgave me and that although I blamed myself, He was always near me just waiting for me to come back to Him.

Now, a year and a half later, I am so strong in my new faith. I am struggling a lot with my family and was just told this past Thanksgiving that Catholics are not Christians and I will have to answer for leaving behind the faith I was raised believing. Its hard, but my cross to bear. I have not been confirmed yet because I still am struggling a lot with mental health issues and I haven’t been able to handle RCIA. I know all the basics of Catholic faith though and I believe everything with my heart and soul. I love Catholicism and I’m so glad God has led me Home.