If you're a convert or revert: What led you back to the Church?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WordisLove
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

WordisLove

Guest
I was reading this article by Rod Dreher on his website and it brought to mind an interesting questions. If you are a former atheist, protestant, or simply have lived your life without faith before coming to the Church, what small or large epiphany led you to this decision?

As Rod said in his blog, please keep from criticizing or negatively commenting on other posts. Thanks 👍
 
I didn’t have a huge “ahhh haaa!” moment or anything…I just knew my soul was restless. I wasn’t happy as a non-denom…I felt empty as a Methodist…and in the back of my heart, I kept hearing “look at the Catholic Church.” I can say the thing that influenced me and made an impression on me is Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Saint Meinrad, IN. I would make “pilgrimages” there long before I was ever Catholic just because it is such a peaceful, holy place. So when I finally converted, it was just like I had finally came home after a long trip away.
 
I was away from the Church and Christianity for 27 years before I returned. In the three years that preceded my return several things occurred that ultimately led to my return.

I married a wonderful man who gave me unconditional love, and we took in his 8 year old niece as my SIL is unable to care for her. So, with my new life I was now experiencing a depth of love that I had never had before and I was raising a wonderful child. My priorities changed from my job being the most important thing in my life to my family being most important. That set the stage for what happened next.

I began to feel spiritually restless and my search for spiritual meaning in my life intensified. I looked at different religions, trying to find some place that felt like home. At this point the thought of returning to the Catholic Church had not crossed my mind.

One day while I was cleaning the house a question popped into my mind:

“Why is it that you are so open-minded about other religions, but you won’t look at the one you were raised in? Why do you hate Christianity so much?”

I swear I would never have asked myself this question and I was rather surprised to hear it in my head. Without thinking I answered that it wasn’t Christianity or God I hated, it was my father that I hated and was unable to forgive.

(My father was a devout Catholic and he was emotionally abusive to my mother and physically and emotionally abusive to me. As a result I decided to reject everything he cared about and that included the Church. My father died when I was 14 and that is when I left the Church.)

Well, when I answered that question I immediately felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. A door in my heart opened and I let God in. I remember feeling rather stunned at that moment because I didn’t understand what had happened.

It took me several weeks to realize that at that moment God gave me the grace to forgive my father completely and when I let go of all the anger in my heart it was filled with God’s love.

Still, I was resistant to the idea of going back to the Church. I found all sorts of excuses not to go, but I kept feeling this push to go. I told myself that I could at least find out where the Catholic churches were in the area. I learned, much to my chagrin, that I had been driving by our cathedral every day on my way to work and that I worked within walking distance of it.

After that, everything just seemed to fall into place. I went to a couple of weekday Masses then saw an announcement in the bulletin about a program for returning Catholics, which ended up being very helpful for me. Every time I tried to put up an obstacle or find some reason not to come back the way was cleared for me and it was obvious that God wanted me to come back.

I have been back for a year and a half now and I couldn’t be happier.
 
Hello everyone,

Thanks Anne1964. Your story resonated quite strongly with me.

I am a cradle catholic who has been lapsed for many years. I attended a private college run by Catholic monks, for which my parents made great sacrifices in order to pay the fees. The first year was a very happy one for me. I felt secure and came in the top three in most subjects, and just enjoyed learning. Then the head retired and was replaced by a man I can only call a monster. He ushered in a reign of terror, with physical abuse, public humiliations, and floggings in which blood was frequently drawn being an almost daily occurrence. I internalised it to such an extent that I could almost feel my organs liquefying. I endured this torture for 4 or 5 years before walking out and being placed in a state school for emotional rehab. The whole staff became infected with this brutal sadism, and I was bullied unmercifully every day. I learned much later that the brutal head was the son of a former Catholic RUC officer, who was an alcoholic and used to beat his mother in front of him.

However, after many confused and dark years, and countless therapists later, I eventually found myself in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, where I began my slow and painful journey of recovery. I have to say that I found more spirituality and unconditional love among the ex drunks of AA than I ever did in a church, and I think that is a shameful indictment of the church’s mission…

One of the critical turning points in my recovery from alcoholism was the moment that I finally had to take responsibility for my own recovery. Up until then I wanted everyone else to make me better. It is truly a self help group, but with lots of ‘tough love’.

Having finally resolved the alcohol problem I then had to go back into therapy to resolve the emotional problem, during which time I discovered the powerful link between childhood abuse and later adult addiction.

This left me with the final question of how to resolve the problem of my eternal rage against the church. I found that this rage against the church was holding me prisoner and I would never be totally free until I had confronted the problem. So, after many, many years I booked up for a 3 day retreat at a Benedictine monastery, where I was looking forward to doing battle with the monks, and with the aid of my dossier that I had built up for the prosecution of the church, I was going to nail them to the wall (so to speak).

However, I was rather surprised when, on one of the early sessions the monk chairing the session said that one of the richest things we would take away from the retreat would come, not from the monks, but from the interaction between ourselves (17 of us). It was during one of my informal chats that one of the retreatees suggested that perhaps my relationship with the church was an inappropriate one and that perhaps I was playing the child/parent role. He suggested that I should grow up, become mature and establish an adult/adult relationship. Then it hit me that this was an exact re-run of the day when I took responsibility for my recovery from alcoholism, and now I needed to do the same for my spiritual development. It was as if an enormous weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and my anger with the church just melted away. On the final day (a Sunday) I attended the sung High Mass in the Abbey (something I had resolved I would not do) and found myself with tears running down my face, as I remembered Martin Luther King’s words…“free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last”

It reminded me that if you take risks and open yourself up to God, then great and wonderful things can happen. It was rather ironic that it seemed to be God working through my colleagues on the retreat that worked the ‘miracle’ and the monks had seemed to be little more than bystanders! God certainly works in mysterious ways!

I know that I have a long journey ahead of me, but at least now I have cut the shackles and can put one foot in front of the other, and I know that all the pain I have endured has only served to make me stronger.

Thanks for listening
 
I’m sure there are many ways in which and many reasons for which I was called to Catholicism, but God’s first call to me came as a young child. When I was 7 years old in the mid-1950s I told my mother I wanted to be Catholic. (Bit of a shock to her, I might add . . . ) Why? Because of what I saw at the home of my best friend.

In retrospect, the family across the street was not remarkable. Just a working class Catholic family, raising their children in the truths, traditions, and rituals of the Church as best they could. And it made all the difference in the world to the child who came to play.

Never forget, when you wonder if your boring, routine, existence really “matters” to God, that someone may be watching and learning about God through you.

(That friend stood as my sponsor when I made my profession of faith in 1971; as my maid of honor; as Godmother to my eldest; as mother to my Goddaughter; was in attendance when each of my three daughters was married in assorted Catholic churches around the country; and present when my first graddaughter was baptised.)
 
There are lots of things that made me want to convert, but this was the main one. During college, I had a desire to switch churches. One Sunday I had no church to attend, so I attended an on-campus Catholic Mass. I expected a dull dry service filled with lukewarm Christians. Boy was I was wrong.

The Mass blew me away. I was awestruck at its beauty (“Them Catholics say the same thing every week, but what they say is so good!”). And more importantly, I “felt” the presence of God in a deep and profound way – that is hard to describe. Looking back, I’ll bet it was the real presence.

I joined RCIA as well as met with a priest weekly and grilled him on my misconceptions of Catholicism; he’s getting extra “saint points” in heaven for what I put him through. Nine months later at the Easter vigil, I made a profession of faith, received first communion and was confirmed.

That was about 17 years ago, and I’m still a wonderfully happy Catholic.
 
I came back after 35+ years because something was always missing. I had a void somewhere and I couldnt put my finger on it.
I have been back now for over two months and now I look forward to going to Church and Confession.

This forum and the great people who post here, helped me make the decision.

I feel different now. The struggling is still there, but the rewards are great.
 
Hi WordisLove, that is a very good question! A little early in the day, but what the hay, I’ll bite. As you can tell by my forum name, I would be a convert, and am in the process of converting. I guess for me, it’s a gradual process. I’ve always been exposed to Christianity, but never really let it take root, until recently. The real catalyst was the passing away of my grandmother. I don’t want to go into all the details, but certain circumstances confirmed it for me that it is indeed the journey in which I’d like to partake.
 
I, too, am in the process of converting. What led me to the Church? Truth did. I’ve been searching my whole life for the answers, and until I started learning about Catholicism, I could never find all of the answers. Now that I’ve seen and heard the truth, I can’t turn from it. I admit that I never thought my search would lead me to the Catholic Church.
 
World Youth Day 2002 then a great Lifeteen Program.

I don’t know if I’m considered a convert or a re-vert. I was given the sacraments, but not raised in the faith. I didn’t know that Catholics could read the Bible, never learned the Rosary, had no idea of the Real Presence, and so on.
 
I converted from being an evangelical, Bible-based, born-again Christian nearly 20 years ago simply because it was important to my husband that we be the same religion and bring up our children in it together. I did not see anything “wrong” with the Catholic faith, and was open to it (unlike many evangelicals that I knew, who warned me about dating a Catholic!) I never would have assented to joining a non-Christian church. If Christ wasn’t present, neither would I be present there! Of course, now I am a lot older and wiser, and feel tremendously blessed to be within the Catholic Church, which alone has the four marks of the one true church, and which has the living Jesus Christ present every day in the Eucharist.
 
kettle said:
I admit that I never thought my search would lead me to the Catholic Church.
Click to expand...
You and me both! There are still times that it hits me that I’m seriously thinking about being Catholic. It just seems totally crazy! 😃

As for what got me here, It kind of started because I was curious about liturgical worship. I decided I wanted to go to a liturgical service and the only ones I could find here that didn’t interfere with my current church was a Catholic Church. I loved it so that set me off searching for truth. I think the biggest thing that has influenced me is church history. Just reading how things have developed and about the splits and breaks and such got me thinking a lot!
 
WordisLove said:
I was reading this article by Rod Dreher on his website and it brought to mind an interesting questions. If you are a former atheist, protestant, or simply have lived your life without faith before coming to the Church, what small or large epiphany led you to this decision?

As Rod said in his blog, please keep from criticizing or negatively commenting on other posts. Thanks 👍
Click to expand...
your post asks 2 questions in the headline, convert or revert. revert means someone who has always been a catholic, but left and came back. this applies to me. so i will gladly answer it!

i left the church around 26 years ago. i became involved with the jw’s in the early 90’s. i was baptized in 1996. i left the watchtower organization in 1999 officially. ( officially means to submit a letter to the elders stating you no longer want to be a jw ) i left in 1997 for good.

i had always missed the holidays with my family, and was always lonesome for them, as i had to disassociate myself from my family because they were not jw’s. association was not permitted.

i had had enough of the alienation and enough of the lies they teach. i stayed away from religion for quite a long time after that. i came back to the Catholic Church officially in 2003. it was an incredible journey from the falsetower to freedom. suffice it to say, iam glad to be back!
 
9/11.

I drifted away some time in 1995 - pregnant with my first child and sad from the reassignment of a beloved pastor. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones. Another child in 1997 made getting to church on Sundays a nightmare. Lame excuses, maybe.

I’d been trying to figure out how to come back before 9/11, but that pretty much sealed it. We were in church that Sunday and every Sunday after. That still left the matter of confession, which I was very nervous about. I was afraid of what the priest’s reaction would be. During Advent, I finally sought out the beloved pastor who had been reassigned. I knew I’d be met with compassion and mercy there. That confession was a turning point in my life.

I have found a couple of treasures since then - daily Mass as often as I can get there and confession more often than once every year or so.
 
I too drifted away from the church because I went to several different religious orders including the Trappist which I loved after spending a month as an obeserver I was told I wasn’t excepted. I also looked into the priesthood in my diosese and they didn’t except me either, but recommended me to religous orders. I know one of the reasons the orders turned me away was because of a vision I had when I was twenty three.

Even after such a beautiful vision and experience with God I still fell away from the church, but I do believe God knew I would. It’s complicated to explain, but I saw it in the vision. But to get back on the subject what lead me back is my step dad who I grew up with as a baby turned from an atheist to a christian,not Catholic, but Baptist so I saw it as a sign. I had tried to come back earlier to the church, but I didn’t feel anything then something inside me just shifted and I understood again how Jesus was Alive in the Blessed Sacrament.
Code: 
I am thirty four now and I still am interested in religious orders. I have other reasons too but that was the main reason that lead me back to become a devoted catholic and I know now that if I don't get excepted into religious orders this time I will not feel so hurt and confused.  Because I have created my own interior monastery like saint Catherine of Siena.  Sorry it was so long and sorry for the spelling I have dislexia and my spelling suffers.
“If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire.”–Saint Catherine of Siena
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top