Do you have a 'moment'?

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I’m curious. One of the things that I often hear from other Christians is the “moment” they became a Christian, a real conversion experience. Only I don’t really have one. I decided Christianity was true, quite dispassionately, and just ran with it. I didn’t always feel the way I do now about Christ, but I couldn’t tell you when that change happened.

It wasn’t. And now it is. Thanks be to God.

How about you? Do you have a moment or are you more like me.? If you are, do you feel you missed out? Do you think I did? Interested to read your thoughts.
 
The way conversion happened to you is authentic and beautiful.
As it happened in the way it did, you don’t have a particular emotional high that can be ambiguous.
Emotion can arise from many things, yes the Spirit’s effect within your being, and also possibly from a normal human pleasure in reaching a desired point.

I love how the gift developed in you, like a child growing from infancy to adulthood.

You are blessed, and having seen many of your posts, we are blessed to have you with us
 
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I guess I had a few “moments”.

My parents are lapsed Catholics. They fell away from the faith well before they were married. Thus, I wasn’t raised in the faith. When I was around 13 years old, I used to be an angry, anti religious, atheist. Later, probably around 14-16 I became more of an agnostic with many nonsensical superstitions. I believed in demons during this time period, so when I was 17, I made a wooden cross for protection from demons. I looked up online about crosses protecting people and went to Yahoo Answers. People there were saying that crosses have no power, they just show that we are Christians. They also said that if you wear a cross you should live as a Christian.

This is when I began seeking out God. I love history, and from knowing about history, I knew that Catholicism is the true faith as it is the oldest Christian faith. I also come from family with Catholic heritage. Thus, I knew Catholicism is the one True faith, and that was where I went. I didn’t join RCIA in 2014 as I believed it was too late to join. However, I started attending Mass pretty much every Sunday on about the last weekend of 2014.

This is my story.
 
I was big into journeling so I can tell you the exact moment that my life changed for Christ. It was the smallest of decisions. There was a bus to WYD and they needed a warm body to pass customs. Someone who knew someone who knew me basically offered me to go.

The bus we got stuck on had a reeking bathroom, and we were sitting right next to it. Some other kids wanted to change buses because it was “too noisy”

It was there I met an amazing youth minister who taught me a TON. I didn’t know Catholics could sing praise and worship. I didn’t know about rosary or adoration. I was hooked. I also had no idea there were that many Catholics in the world–and I also had no idea that Catholics still actually followed a Pope. I thought that was something from the middle ages!!!

That fall, I joined Lifeteen and learned about things like transubstantiation and more.
Conversion to being a believing Catholic took a while, but I know exactly when that started.
 
I think I continue to have more and more “moments” as time goes on.
 
I was in college and a “Jesus Freak” came knocking at the door. He asked me if I believed in God and Jesus. I said, “Yes”. Then he asked if I wanted to pray and I felt uncomfortable and confused as to why. I had to ask myself what I really beleive. It was a turning point.
 
I have seen both kinds happen to many different people. I think it is fair to say the the way it happened to you is perfect and you are missing nothing. I will say this also though-- I just watched a woman who came in rather ordinarily enter a massive growth spurt very much like the kind of thing many people have in the beginning. The difference is she is already somewhat mature in Christ being 9 years into her journey.

A monk at a Trappist monastery that I visit wrote a rather lengthy article on the subject of mystics and non mystics. He said that he has seen both types achieve a high degree of holiness. He said that the mystics have many of these types of extraordinary experiences, that some of them are true and from God and some of them are not and if the person reaches maturity it is because they have successfully navigated through these. He said the non mystics dont have any of these or very little and if they grow to maturity it is because they dont allow the lack of mystical experiences and/or the dryness deter them from continuing to pursue holiness. He said that both groups achieve the same degree of holiness but that the mystics gain greater discernment through their path and the non mystics gain greater inner strength…
 
As in a Damascene 'moment, no; I’ve always felt the presence of God. My conversion was when I could no longer justify not acting on it.

But as for ongoing ‘moments’, absolutely, they occur in all kinds of situations but in Adoration is a common one. It is wonderful to feel suddenly enveloped by a physical knowledge of God’s love.
 
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Well, one thing is during conversion it is a time of superabundant grace, but emotions and feelings can become heightened.

One must remember that faith is a belief in something that we may not have evidence of but we believe it anyway. Of course our Faith is handed down by the Chirch so that gives us the knowledge that its true. Faith, a gift of God must not be judged by a feeling. As one may know the spiritual life is full of ups and downs, consolation and desolation. If one judges their faith only by a feeling their faith will be superficial and in great danger of loss of faith.

Everyone’s experience is different, God has deigned that your experience is for you, so try not to compare your self to other people. Just thank God that He has given you the one true gift that no money can buy.
 
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I was always Catholic, lukewarm.

There was a weird moment where a couple was praying over us during my camp (confirmation prep)…you know, the part where people get slain and all that. in the midst of prayer, she said to me, as if in God’s pov that she loved me even though I hate myself and that I was his daughter. It was a weird experience and it didn’t really change my life after the camp.

I still have lots of doubts about that experience, but that was the only time where I had anything close to an experience :confused:

I do feel like it’s “unfair” because everyone else around me seemed to have amazing experiences, or it’s as if they have a direct hotline to him.
 
I believe conversion is a process. One can have a ‘moment’ but what of when that ‘moment’ passes which it will. Conversion involves searching for Truth and learning the One True Faith…growing in the Faith. Being close to the Church and the Sacraments that Jesus instituted for us. St Paul says…
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Rom 12:2
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July 15, 1962…the day of my baptism, 10 days after my birth, was the day of my conversion. Since then my spiritual path has been a process of conversions.

But you’re talking about experiential conversions, filled with consolations. I try to focus my life on the God of consolations, not the consolations of God. That said…

As a teen I was involved in the Charismatic Movement - lots of feelings but not a lot of depth for me. It did help guide me to other, more challenging groups where I experienced significant growth in my early adulthood.

In my thirties I left the Church. About a decade later I returned. That process of return was a significant conversion experience. Going to Mass and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation really felt like I was coming home, an experience I’d never felt before in my life.
 
After many years (decades in fact) of saying the ‘sinners prayer’ i wondered why my life wasnt changing.
 
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I understand. I went to a few protestant services where ppl were falling down with the Holy Spirit after being prayed over but it never happened to me.
 
I love threads like this. ❤️

Everyone’s story is a little different, which is great. Some people have a clearly defined , distinct turning point. Some have several. For others, it is more gradual and hard to p(name removed by moderator)oint.

I have many moments (and my conversion is still very much ongoing), but I have one moment in particular that really changed everything for me. I was on the team for a retreat while in college. I was feeling like a total hypocrite because I still didn’t really think that Jesus was anything more than a good man, that the Bible was anything more than a classic work of literature, and the Church was anything more than a human institution.

I went to hang out with a guy who had been on team for the retreat that I had just been on as a participant. He did most of the talking as I didn’t know what to say. He offered to pray together, and—again—he did all the talking. I left feeling even more sheepish and hypocritical and wondering what it all meant. I found myself wandering absent-mindedly to the Catholic chapel on campus to pray.

It was nighttime. I walked in to the chapel and the only light on was shining right on the tabernacle. Another friend was just leaving the chapel as I was walking in. He said, “It’s all yours,” and motioned up front. I was now alone in the chapel.

I went up and sat down on the floor beneath the mysterious golden box. And I prayed. I always maintained my belief in God, but I wasn’t sure about the whole Catholicism thing. I just didn’t know if I could accept it all. I didn’t know what I was doing on team for this retreat. I was just very unsure of a lot of things.

It was then that the overwhelming Presence of God washed over me. And I knew in that moment, I wasn’t really alone in that chapel after all. Jesus was there. He was right in front of me. He had been the whole time. I still had some intellectual hurdles to clear (which came later). But in that moment, everything changed. I knew that Jesus was my God and my Savior and that He was Present in the Eucharist.

It still brings a tear to my eye recalling that great gift of grace in that moment. God is good.
 
Thank you so much everyone for contributing. I hope others do too. For the record, I had no damascene conversion experience, and I’m not overly worried about it except at times when well meaning Christians suggest that I need to have one.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had any experiences at all once I have become a Christian. One in particular that springs to mind was one of my first visits to Mass and being quite close to the front and hearing each person being told “The body of Christ” as they received Him. It was like suddenly I believed every detail of transubstantiation - I absolutely knew that Christ was substantially present; body, blood, soul and divinity.

So yes, I totally agree that ‘moments’ can happen all the way through our progress as believers. And bless God for that mercy.
 
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