Prayer for guidance on ones own conversion

[Salamandrina]

I did a couple of searches, in case this was already here, but couldn’t find anything like it, so, here it is.

There are various things I am doing already, with a view to conversion, Benin touch with my local priest, have several friends
I email with, and also read a lot.

What I’d like to know is:
Are there any particular Saints to whom I can pray for guidance and support on my conversion? (Would take too long to explain, but I do have health issues which make doing certain things problematic)

Or is there a particular prayer I can say?

I’d really appreciate any help with this. I have ‘favourite’ saints already(St Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein - my background is secular Protestant/Jewish), St. Martin de Porres, and a couple of others, and have a Spiritual Communion set and card.
Thanks
Alex

 

[Nik]

St Augustine is my go to guy for this. I ask for his help regularly for my conversion.

Reading his Confessions made a big difference to me as well.

 

[Salamandrina]

Thank you…and purely by chance, I remember reading(well, more of a ‘dipping in’ to, but I bought it and liked it, and have always remembered him and the stolen pears)around thirty years ago…sounds like a great place to start. Need toget me a new copy of Confessions though…but I never mind an excuse to get a book

 

[Salamandrina]

Sorry…meant to ask, and only answer if you’re ok with it, are you inthe process of conversion too?

 

[Maximian]

May I ask what you are converting from? If from Anglicanism, Cardinal Newman and his autobiography come to mind (Apologia pro vita sua).

 

[Nik]

I couldn’t put the book down, it was glued to me until i finished it!

Yeah I’m in the process of converting. Done one year of RCIA but for various reasons I can’t enter the Church quite yet. It’s been an eventful journey so far though

 

[dscath]

Not sure what “conversion” means in your post…are you speaking of the continuing conversion (which is the act of turning from sin and toward God) which all Catholics are engaged in?

Or are you speaking of coming into full communion with the Catholic Church (which “conversion” is often a misnomer for)?

Or, perhaps both?

“Come Holy Spirit” is a good prayer.

 

[Vico]

I did a couple of searches, in case this was already here, but couldn’t find anything like it, so, here it is.

There are various things I am doing already, with a view to conversion, Benin touch with my local priest, have several friends
I email with, and also read a lot.

What I’d like to know is:
Are there any particular Saints to whom I can pray for guidance and support on my conversion? (Would take too long to explain, but I do have health issues which make doing certain things problematic)

Or is there a particular prayer I can say?

I’d really appreciate any help with this. I have ‘favourite’ saints already(St Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein - my background is secular Protestant/Jewish), St. Martin de Porres, and a couple of others, and have a Spiritual Communion set and card.
Thanks
Alex

I am Byzantine Catholic. Here is a good prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth,
everywhere present and filling all things,
Treasury of Blessings, and Giver of Life,
come and dwell within us, cleanse us of all stain,
and save our souls, Ο gracious One.


https://mci.archpitt.org/index.html

 

[Salamandrina]

Well, the easiest way to describe it is to say “Heinz 57” …my family background is a basically secular but nominally mostly varieties of Protestant, with Russian Jewish, Church of Ireland, and some agnosticism.

I’m in my 60s, now, A widow, technically halachically Jewish(mother’s Mother…it’s passed on through the female line)and have had a lot of extremely unpleasant and disturbing things happen. Big stuff, like my mother being burned to death in a fire, and being my husbands carer for eight years through a series of worsening strokes.

I gave my Jewish background @ try, but…seven years on,it wasn’t for me. I’m now a widow, no children, one cat, lot of health issues of various kinds(some which go back to childhood - my husband was the only one who ever understood, and he left the earth six years ago.)And I need something which will fill this ‘gap’, inside, which I’ve had as long as I can remember.

So, I’m coming from everywhere and nowhere, you might say…

PS Isay this not to cause offence, but just to offer as information…I find the Anglican way very confusing. In Scotland, Protestant = Minister, Catholic = Priest.

Finding out that there are Anglican priests, and that a lot of Anglican worship seems so similar to Catholic, is something that confuses me immensely, but that’s because of my background. So, I try to steer clear oif it.

Big example…Walsingham, having a Catholic Shrine and an Anglican one. That just boggles my mind completely. I would imagine it’s easier to process if you’re brought up with this kind of background.

 

[Salamandrina]

I’m coming from a halachically but never practising Jewish, plus secular Protestant background. Unbaptised, unchristened, un-anything. Blank slate, I guess.

 

[Salamandrina]

Thank you, that’s beautiful.

I meant to add that I’ve been going to a lot of the live streaming services…one particular I do every morning, Divine office and morning prayers. I love the Divine Office. Feel very pulled to it. I have the Universalis app, and the books. I’m a bit of a Luddite and like the feel of a book

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Hmm. If you’re Jewish and wish to convert, St. Edith Stein is a good one, but also, Our Lady of Sion aka Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Rome.

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/rome1842/index.html

You might consider wearing a Miraculous Medal, like Alphonse Ratisbonne did. Very easy to find one for cheap or even free some places.

If your Protestant side is Church of Ireland, then of course St. Patrick, but also Blessed John Sullivan who was raised Church of Ireland and converted at age 35 and is now beatified.

And for widows who converted, there’s St. Elizabeth Seton, who was raised in the Church of England in USA (in what would later be the Episcopal Church) and converted after her husband’s death.

Good luck on your faith journey, I will pray for you and hope you will be crossing the Tiber soon!

 

[Vico]

Thank you, that’s beautiful.

I meant to add that I’ve been going to a lot of the live streaming services…one particular I do every morning, Divine office and morning prayers. I love the Divine Office. Feel very pulled to it. I have the Universalis app, and the books. I’m a bit of a Luddite and like the feel of a book

You are welcome. That is a good practice.

I do (Byzantine) Great Vespers [Evening Prayer] on some feast days and have prayed the (Byzantine) Matins [probably the equivalent to Office of Readings] before. For the Byzantine versions, they are each an hour or more in length, probably because they are sung.