How did you come into your religion?

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Pax Christi!

I’m a revert. Wandered away in my early 20’s and wandered back gradually. Currently in love with Holy Mother Church and especially our Lady.

Pretty traditionalist but open to new forms of devotion, and I love being a lector.

God bless.
 
dolphinlove said:
Where and how did you learn about your faith?
Who introduced you to your faith? Were you born or a convert?
let us know how you learnt and come into your faith.
Please, i would like to keep this about this question, no arguments etc
Thank you
Click to expand...
Born into it. My mother and father (may he rest in peace) were both faithful Catholics. Both sung in the choir at Christmas Midnight Mass (in fact, that was how they met). They put me through Catholic grade and high school. Dug themselves a deep debt hole, too. And we went to Mass every Sunday. Mom and I still do.

I don’t quite remember what caused me to start studying the faith more seriously. Upon further reflection, I was already beginning to learn more about the faith, at least a month before my Dad passed on. I blame him having the local Catholic radio station on every day before and after school.:o

But it was still going after he died in April of 2010. Been going ever since. Have had some attacks on my faith. Have learned I’ve got personal demons to conquer. Have had some close calls with my life - spiritually and physically.

It’ll work out in the end.
 
Was baptised as infant in Catholic Church but then NOT brought up in the faith by my family. I just remember going to Church with my brother a few times when I was about 5 but not with my parents , and little things like my mother have a crucifix over her bed when she was dying, and my nan took me once or twice and showed me how to bless myself etc.

I always believed in God but it was the Jehovah Witnesses who started visiting me after I broke my hip who got me talking about religion and reading the bible which lead me to various local churches then finally back to the very one i was baptised in as a baby I was confirmed as adult aged about 40.

It was my mothers side of the family being descended from the Irish that are catholic my father was of no faith as far as I know but later was baptised when he was about 60 in the local baptist church.

I’m the only Catholic I think that goes to Church on Sundays even though quite a few were confirmed, and attended early in their life they drifted away it’s the opposite for me, I drifted back after my parents died.

I wish my family relations would come with me to church! The only time I see them in a church is at a funeral. Which I was surprised I thought they were the ones who were more religious than me as they had gone to church and been confirmed etc. When they were younger.

The Jehovah Witnesses have avoided me like the plague since I became catholic but turned up the other day first time in about 5 years, I have them to thank for bringing me back to the catholic faith and although I respect their devout ness I had to say I believe Jesus is God, all the rest they had to say although had elements of truth denying the divinity of God is too unimportant for me to get too friendly with them
 
My great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Finland and Germany; both go back centuries as Lutherans. I have Roman Catholic family members [in-laws, cousins] but everyone else is Lutheran. I was raised in a religious home and was baptized in the Augustana Synod but when my parents moved to a new town the only Lutheran parish was LCMS where I attended parochial schools, college and seminary. I left the Missouri Synod shortly after I got married and am now part of the ELCA.
 
Thanks, dolphinlove. Interesting topic.

I learned about my faith as a child from my parents and was raised in the Presbyterian Church, aka “God’s Frozen Chosen”, lol.

I was introduced by my parents to the Church, was required to attend church every Sunday and attend Sunday School. We were taught the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, to help and respect others, and to live moral, hard-working lives.

I was raised to fear and respect God and learned reverence for God at the Presbyterian Church that still resides deep inside my spirit. I miss that sometimes in my current denomination. As a teenager, I quickly distanced myself from the Church and God as I didn’t see any meaningful life-changing taking place there. I viewed it more like punching your spiritual clock every week and going through the motions of ritualistic church life. I wanted my spiritual life to be genuine and deeper than that. I felt like a had a big spiritual void in my life.

I became a born-again Christian when I accepted Christ in my later teens at a Billy Graham crusade when I came forward and confessed the Sinner’s Prayer and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. My outlook on life totally changed from that point on and my behavior got a lot better. I felt like I was finally on the right track spiritually.

After spending an additional year or so in the Presbyerian Church, USA, trying to make it work for the sake fo my parents, I finally visited an Assembly of God Church and could relate a lot more to the worship style and the sermons. The atmosphere was more alive and happy as people there seemed to actually enjoy being in church. Hymns and praise songs were sung with enthusiasm. I was spiritually fed and challenged by the sermons.

I finally changed my church membership to Assembly of God Church after a few months of going back and forth to both churches. My mother had a hard time with my decision at first but finally relented after my behavior towards her and the family actually improved after I started attending there.

I remain in AOG to this day and like most things about it. However, sometimes I don’t feel the reverence as much. The tone sometimes is like God is your buddy instead of the maker and creator of the universe who deserves all honor, glory, and reverence.

I have always respected Catholicism like a child respects his elders. After all, the Catholic Church has been around a lot longer than either the Presbyterians or AOG. I like the idea of confessing my sins to a priest and receiving absolution – not because I have to because I can pray directly to God through Christ – but because I want to have human accountability in my life from someone in spiritual authority whose heritage comes from the disciples. I find the hierchical nature of Catholicism appealing to my orderly nature and I have always respected Catholicism. I also remember the reverence and awesomeness I felt when I visited the Vatican while I studied in Europe for a year as a college student.

I still struggle with some Catholic doctrines and don’t fully understand others, but I am contiuing to inquire into Catholicism and really enjoy CAF. That is where I am at in my spiritual journey. Thanks for letting me share my story, Dolphinlove.
 
dolphinlove said:
I thought I would raise a topic that is non religious and non argumentative.
This is now my 10th year on this forum and we have had many characters pass through here.
Few have been less than stellar in their debates, but some of the debates have been truly interesting.
Where and how did you learn about your faith?
Who introduced you to your faith? Were you born or a convert?
Many questions can be asked about this, but please, let us know how you learnt and come into your faith.
Please, i would like to keep this about this question, no arguments etc
Thank you
Click to expand...
I have been in a lot of religions. I was baptized in the Wisconsin Synod Lutheran Church as a baby. I was raised in my dad’s faith(s). I was Baptist and then we went to Assembly of God (Pentecostal). As an adult I converted to Methodism and became a clergy, went to seminary. My son died tragically and I quit believing in God–stepped down. Dabbled in paganism, then married a Jewish man and was involved in a Jewish community. Then I became Catholic after having a dream where my son asked me to have Masses said for him. In retrospect I really wasn’t told what the church taught enough to make an informed commitment. (tired yet?)…after a series of horrible devastations, and a lot of spiritual counseling, I’m leaving the Catholic Church and going to the Episcopal Church, which is very similar to where I am at at this juncture. I have read books on Buddhism, Hinduism, and have found wonderful gems in all of them. Everything I have been with has each given me wonderful things but I always feel like a gypsy in that I have to wander and learn more. So I have my bandana tied to a stick and off I go.
 
I was involved in Christianity since I was a little squirt, my mom got converted at an revival meeting and started going to the local Presbyterian Church and than there was a falling out with another parishioner and we went to an Assembly of God (AOG) church. Later on I went to a Christian school in a Baptist Church and for a while went there because if you went there you got a discount, though my mom never liked it much.

Than we went back to the AOG Church and after I graduated from High School I went to an AOG college where we were challenged about our faith. I started to study about Catholicism and eventually converted. I was never settled in the Church and I disagreed with some small things and spent many years going back and forth between Protestantism and Catholicism.

I than found out about the Charismatic Episcopal Church and I went to a Mass there and took the Holy Eucharist, and I can not describe this accurately because words do not seem adequate but I will try, where I had an encounter with Christ and came close to tears of Joy with the experience. Me and my wife have been going ever since and got confirmed last Sunday by the Bishop

My journey has been long with a lot of twist but finally feel at home
 
Born into a Catholic family by tradition but never catechized.

Became Mormon at age 15 and did a great deal of study as the years went by. Knew by age of 26/27 I no longer believed in the very foundational doctrines of Mormonism so I left…

For about 15/16 years was pretty much agnostic/borderline atheist.
Ended up looking at Catholicsim thru study and came into full communion on '07
Find myself, spiritually speaking, far more Orthodox in spiritually and less what would be considered “Catholic”.

Pray for the two lungs of the Mystical Body of Christ to figure it out. 😉
 
A lot of fascinating stories here. Keep 'em coming.

I was not raised to be religious at all. Both of my parents were raised in strict christian households, but as far as I’m aware, they were extremely nominal by the time they got married and started having kids. I’m a convert of Islam. Prior to my conversion, I went through a period of New-Atheism and that lasted about four years. Frankly, I was just playing games as an atheist. I liked to research various religions so that I could understand them; the reason I wanted to understand them was so that I could debate people and try to prove how smart I was. That shtick eventually faded, though. I became sincere in looking for answers.

If there was no God [as I thought], there would be no harm in me examining my own worldview, right? after all, I was constantly ridiculing religious people for what I thought was a distinct lack of critical and independant thought, so I wanted to be consistent. As mentioned, even though I was severely ego-driven, I was already interested in comparitive religion, so I had had a Qur’an for years, but didn’t read it all the way through.

Without getting all preachy, one thing lead to another and I challenged my presuppositions about Islam. There came a point where I could no longer ignore evidence, so I said the shahada. That was three years ago; I was 21 at the time (I’m now 24). Though I have not been a muslim very long, I can honestly say that I’ve learned more in the last three years than the 21 years as a non-muslim (theologically, philosphically, ethically, etc).

How I came to embrace Sufism is a lot more straight forward :yup:. For me, Sufism is a way of understanding a muslim’s relationship with the Almighty. I don’t see it as necessarily contrary to Islam-- in fact, I think the Qur’an affirms Sufism (that claim gets some muslims hot under the collar, but I don’t care :p). I read some poetry by Rumi [may Allah have mercy on him] and it took my faith to another dimension. It showed me a way of understanding Islam that I didn’t know existed.

So, in other words, I believe that true Sufism is not a different religion from Islam (I say “true” because there are a lot of deviant Sufi groups out there). It’s just a kind of Islam that’s esoteric or mystic. We’re the hippies of Islam. 😉
 
Born into a large and very devout Catholic household. Been Catholic for more generations than I know. I’d go to mass regularly in college and with getting a degree in a science related field I started to have my doubts. With time I drifted away from the Church. I tried to come back multiple times and engulfed myself in the faith but I just didn’t believe it as much as I wanted to.

Went awhile where I didn’t really know what to call myself. Hopped from website to website reading in on all the different faiths and what they believed. Stumbled across the term Deist, didn’t know what it was so I figured I’d check it out. Going through their basic beliefs I realized that it fit me perfectly and so I “converted” to Deism.
 
I first came to know of Jesus while reading the doctrines of the Catholic church and about what Christ did, I remember crying at the sacrifice Jesus had given for us. I then went through a series of liberal ideas, briefly giving belief to fundamentalism then to Arianism (though I did not know it at the time) and then to messianicism (I never became messianic but i did consider it as a legitimate option with Catholicism or Orthodoxy). I then came to read the letters of Ignatius of Antioch who convinced me truth was in either the Catholic or Orthodox church by asking this question. If Ignatius, so close to the apostles could get it so wrong as many protestants said he had it, then there is no hope for Christendom. I then began and continue that journey through the orthodox church to this day.
 
I was born into it. 🙂 Later I investigated various religions and found the claims of Christ the most compelling. So Christianity it is for me.
 
I was born and raised Catholic. Did all my Sacraments and was ready for marriage at a young age lol

It was in middle school when I stopped going to Mass and classes throughout the week. My mom would always say I needed to go to Church and since I was a rebellious kid -I didn’t go. This was the beginning of darkness…taking advantage of being young and giving in to things. Over the years I tried going to Bible study but it was difficult finding a good one.

After going through an absolute nightmare, I finally gave myself to Christ at 27. Now, I’m trying to be a better Catholic and still trying to understand everything. There is so much to work on but I’m so thankful I’m here 👍 Thank GOD!!
 
I went to mass a few times with my mother as a kid, but I didn’t not receive any training in the faith.

Around the age of 19 I read the bible for the first time, and upon further historical study and philosophical study, realizing the irrationality of my previous atheism and naturalism (which I had imbibed from the media and the public school system) and the historical basis for the resurrection of Christ and the establishment of the Catholic Church, I converted.
 
God taught me daily growing up via my parents and going to mass. I am a mustard seed.
 
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