L
Livnlove55
Guest
The Iambic Pen:
Words can hardly express how much I have been enjoying reading your posts. God’s grace is obviously overflowing in your heart and touching your soul profoundly.
In another thread, I mentioned the book “Surprised by Truth” and I was delighted to hear that you ordered the book. Your comments here made me want to give you a little sneak preview taken from the Forward to the book. It was written by Scott Hahn, a former Protestant pastor and well-known Catholic convert and author. I suspect his words may comfort you as you begin to contemplate the idea that you just *might *have been on the “wrong side of the fence” all these years.
Scott wrote:
"I’ve often thought of my own journey to Rome as a mystery story, a horror story, and a love story. Sometimes being surprised by truth is intially being horrified by truth. The Catholic Church has the truth? The fullness of the truth? Confronting this fact is a gut-wrenching agony for stanch, Bible-based Evangelical Protestants who’ve thought and taught, largely because of misunderstandings and prejudice, that Catholics are not even Christians… Conversion to Catholicism means hardship, sacrifice, and often loneliness. It means following Jesus all the way to the Cross.
And for what? Once someone snidely remarked to Steve Wood that he became Catholic “for the money.”
“No, not for the money,” Steve replied. “But I did do it for the riches.”
We converts have been made so rich. We have been given wealth beyond our wildest dreams! What words can express the sense of a child who, after passing through a series of ophanages and foster homes, finds himself standing in the doorway of an unfamiliar mansion staring into the loving faces of long-forgotten family members? He is reintroduced to his Father, Almighty God, and to Mary, his mother and queen, who is standing, arms outstretched in welcome, next to his elder brother, King Jesus – in the midst of that glorious company of angelic and saintly siblings who stretch forth from heaven to earth and under the earth. Can you imagine a holier homecoming or a more royal reunion? Few joys surpass the ones related here by these former theological step-children who have finally come home.
The anguish endured is not worth comparing to the riches gained: the Holy Eucharist, the pope, the magisterium, the sacraments, Mary, the saints – the splendor of Christ mirrored in his Church. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8)
Then the horror turns to surprise, and surprise turns to delight, and bliss, and fire, and a desire to share all this with others. Loneliness fades away as one discovers more and more people who have also been surprised by truth."
Someone else also mentioned David Currie’s book “Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic.” Currie was a former Baptist minister and like Scott Hahn, he describes his mixed feelings on becoming Catholic in the following excerpt from his book:
“Yet I had to make this change to Catholicism anyway. Truth was calling me. When I had finished writing my letter of resignation to our Baptist church, I sat down in our living room and wept like a child. After proofreading the letter, Colleen sat on my lap and mixed her tears with mine. That night I told good friends of our decision to become Catholic and that I was not happy about it. I found it easy to relate my feelings to those of C.S. Lewis when, at his conversion to Christianity, he said he was the unhappiest Christian in all of England. Once I had become convinced that the Catholic Church really was Christ’s Church, however, at no point did I doubt that I would join her. If I had discovered a pearl of great price, I knew I would sell all I had to buy it. (Mt. 13:44-46)”
Bottom line, it may be uncomfortable but hang in there, as Scott and David wrote, it’s more than worth the pain to seek the Truth, wherever it may be found.
In His love,
Rhonda
IB,
Words can hardly express how much I have been enjoying reading your posts. God’s grace is obviously overflowing in your heart and touching your soul profoundly.
In another thread, I mentioned the book “Surprised by Truth” and I was delighted to hear that you ordered the book. Your comments here made me want to give you a little sneak preview taken from the Forward to the book. It was written by Scott Hahn, a former Protestant pastor and well-known Catholic convert and author. I suspect his words may comfort you as you begin to contemplate the idea that you just *might *have been on the “wrong side of the fence” all these years.
Scott wrote:
"I’ve often thought of my own journey to Rome as a mystery story, a horror story, and a love story. Sometimes being surprised by truth is intially being horrified by truth. The Catholic Church has the truth? The fullness of the truth? Confronting this fact is a gut-wrenching agony for stanch, Bible-based Evangelical Protestants who’ve thought and taught, largely because of misunderstandings and prejudice, that Catholics are not even Christians… Conversion to Catholicism means hardship, sacrifice, and often loneliness. It means following Jesus all the way to the Cross.
And for what? Once someone snidely remarked to Steve Wood that he became Catholic “for the money.”
“No, not for the money,” Steve replied. “But I did do it for the riches.”
We converts have been made so rich. We have been given wealth beyond our wildest dreams! What words can express the sense of a child who, after passing through a series of ophanages and foster homes, finds himself standing in the doorway of an unfamiliar mansion staring into the loving faces of long-forgotten family members? He is reintroduced to his Father, Almighty God, and to Mary, his mother and queen, who is standing, arms outstretched in welcome, next to his elder brother, King Jesus – in the midst of that glorious company of angelic and saintly siblings who stretch forth from heaven to earth and under the earth. Can you imagine a holier homecoming or a more royal reunion? Few joys surpass the ones related here by these former theological step-children who have finally come home.
The anguish endured is not worth comparing to the riches gained: the Holy Eucharist, the pope, the magisterium, the sacraments, Mary, the saints – the splendor of Christ mirrored in his Church. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8)
Then the horror turns to surprise, and surprise turns to delight, and bliss, and fire, and a desire to share all this with others. Loneliness fades away as one discovers more and more people who have also been surprised by truth."
Someone else also mentioned David Currie’s book “Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic.” Currie was a former Baptist minister and like Scott Hahn, he describes his mixed feelings on becoming Catholic in the following excerpt from his book:
“Yet I had to make this change to Catholicism anyway. Truth was calling me. When I had finished writing my letter of resignation to our Baptist church, I sat down in our living room and wept like a child. After proofreading the letter, Colleen sat on my lap and mixed her tears with mine. That night I told good friends of our decision to become Catholic and that I was not happy about it. I found it easy to relate my feelings to those of C.S. Lewis when, at his conversion to Christianity, he said he was the unhappiest Christian in all of England. Once I had become convinced that the Catholic Church really was Christ’s Church, however, at no point did I doubt that I would join her. If I had discovered a pearl of great price, I knew I would sell all I had to buy it. (Mt. 13:44-46)”
Bottom line, it may be uncomfortable but hang in there, as Scott and David wrote, it’s more than worth the pain to seek the Truth, wherever it may be found.
In His love,
Rhonda
FYI, baptisms are generally performed outside of Mass. In our parish, for example, they are done on Sunday afternoons after the last morning Mass. The main exceptions are adult baptisms which generally take place during the Easter Vigil Mass ( on the Saturday evening before Easter.) The Easter Vigil is the highest, holiest day of the Church calendar and new members of the Church are traditionally baptized and/or received into the Church on that night (usually after having gone through a lengthy period of instruction in the faith known as RCIA. = Rite of Christian Initiation).
I will light a candle for you to Our Lady
