Question for converts: What's your story?

[angiebaby]

I am in the process of becoming Catholic, and it was definately like planting seeds.

As a child I was bullied, badly and to such a state that my parents moved me out of that (C of E) school and into a Catholic school. I loved it there, everyone was friendly,there were still some silly boys who made silly comments about me but beause of the great people around me I learned to shrug them off. I attended church at that school so that was the first seed.

I went on to a Catholic High school where I met even more great friends and attended church with them, the second seed.

Now my children attend a catholic school and we have all met more lovely friends, including our fantastic priest Father Philip, I regularly help out with liturgy and I love attending that church.

Just the other day Father Philip asked me how a Catholic church differed from a C of E church in my heart, and I told him that in a Catholic church I feel welcome, like a long lost friend, God is welcoming me into his home but I feel a bit colder, and not as welcome in my local C off E, but untill he asked me, I hadn’t thought about it.
As for my fears, I havn’t told my Husbands family as they think I am weird for attending church as often as I do already, they call me the Bible basher behind my back and they think I don’t know:shrug:. My Parents, although not religious, are completely behind me and they understand why I need to do this as does the rest of my family.

 

[Memaw]

I am in the process of becoming Catholic, and it was definately like planting seeds.

As a child I was bullied, badly and to such a state that my parents moved me out of that (C of E) school and into a Catholic school. I loved it there, everyone was friendly,there were still some silly boys who made silly comments about me but beause of the great people around me I learned to shrug them off. I attended church at that school so that was the first seed.

I went on to a Catholic High school where I met even more great friends and attended church with them, the second seed.

Now my children attend a catholic school and we have all met more lovely friends, including our fantastic priest Father Philip, I regularly help out with liturgy and I love attending that church.

Just the other day Father Philip asked me how a Catholic church differed from a C of E church in my heart, and I told him that in a Catholic church I feel welcome, like a long lost friend, God is welcoming me into his home but I feel a bit colder, and not as welcome in my local C off E, but until he asked me, I hadn’t thought about it.
As for my fears, I haven’t told my Husbands family as they think I am weird for attending church as often as I do already, they call me the Bible basher behind my back and they think I don’t know:shrug:. My Parents, although not religious, are completely behind me and they understand why I need to do this as does the rest of my family.

Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks, your following your heart and God’s Will. Sometimes the ones that criticize you the most are the ones to follow your lead. The sister that gave my daughter-in-law the hardest time, was the one that later became Catholic herself. I taught religion in a Catholic school a few years ago and the 3 non-catholic teachers that taught there eventually became Catholic, once they learned that the Catholic Church was NOT what they were taught to believe about it. One of the teachers stayed in the room while I was teaching, (she was the only one that did) and she told me that was when she became interested. Prayers and God Bless, Memaw

 

[NewSeeker]

Erika 1707,

…and since secular divorces do not for them effect eternally binding temple marriges, they can have one woman at a time in this life legally while building up an harem of multiple wives for themselves in heaven. That would motivate a certain kind of Mormon guy, I suppose…
Jerry Parker

LOL! I about fell out of my chair laughing when I read that. You just described my dad. He’s been married to my mom, and just my mom, for 46 years, but he sure likes to talk about his celestial harem and jokingly propositions my mom’s unmarried sister from time to time.

I promised my conversion story, so here it is.

As I indicated in my earlier email, I was a sixth generation Mormon before my baptism at the last Easter Vigil (March 22, 2008). My LDS ancestry goes back six generations in my mom’s maternal and paternal lines, and six generations in my dad’s maternal line. All of the first Mormons in my ancestry were English/Scottish converts, who crossed the Atlantic and travelled to Salt Lake City after Brigham Young established his new Mormon kingdom there. One of my ancestors crossed the plains with her family pushing all of their belongings in a handcart. If you know anything about Mormonism, the handcart pioneers are always hailed as heroes and spiritual exemplars. We sang songs about them as children. I have polygamy in my ancestry, as well. One of my paternal grandmother’s ancestors was the first settler in the valley where Park City, Utah is located. The original settlement, Snyderville, is named after my ancestor (George Gideon Snyder), and is just outside of Park City; you pass through the town (it’s really just a crossroads with a sign) as you drive into Park City proper. Perhaps some of you have done so to ski or to attend the Sundance Film Festival. Anyway, George had three wives and a brood of children.

This only exception to all of the Mormonism in my ancestry was my paternal grandfather, who was a convert to the LDS faith from Lutheranism. In fact, he was expelled from the seminary for writing an essay defending Darwin, which made him my hero after I entered the university. He met my LDS paternal grandmother, who was a nurse in the hospital in Salt Lake City where my grandfather was conducting his medical residency. He converted to marry her.

 

[NewSeeker]

I grew up completely immersed in Mormonism throughout my childhood and into my early adult years. After we moved to Utah when I was 10, I don’t recall any non-Mormon friends. There were only one or two non-Mormons at my high school, which had 2,000 students. I certainly didn’t know any Catholics; all I knew about Catholicism was what I was taught at home and in church, that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon, the Great and Abominable Church, that was wholly corrupt and which removed many plain and precious truths from Jesus’ original gospel, truths which God restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The only other things I “knew” about Catholicism was that there was a lot of incense and the priests wore pagan robes and funny hats, and Catholics in general were deluded, not realizing that their faith was invented by Constantine and corrupt bishops, and got it’s start after the Great Apostasy and the removal of the priesthood from the earth had already occurred. Regarding Protestantism, what I was taught was that, since every denomination came from Catholicism, all of Protestantism was also fallen and apostate, since the original root was corrupt. If Catholicism was apostate, so too then was Protestantism, since their authority originally came from Rome. If Catholicism is true, then Protestantism is still apostate, since they cut themselves off from Rome beginning with Luther. Protestantism thus suffered a double condemnation in my upbringing, although, ironically, certain Protestant leaders (Luther, Wesley, Calvin, Williams) were hailed as inspired men, for seeking to return Christianity to the original gospel and paving the way for the eventual restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. For Mormons, as well as for Catholics, it all comes down to priesthood and apostolic succession. Mormons claim apostolic succession through divine revelation and angelic ministration (Mormons believe Joseph Smith was ordained to the higher priesthood by Peter, James, and John themselves).

I was groomed from adolescence, both at home and in church on Sundays, to take these beliefs and go on a two year mission to make converts, which I did in1985-87 in North Carolina. I was so devout that I extended my mission an additional month (the maximum allowed). Ironically, it was on my mission that the first seeds of doubt were sown. Mormon. Every Mormon is encouraged to gain a personal testimony of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling, and the historicity of the Book of Mormon, the book of scripture that Joseph found and translated through God’s power (as Mormons believe). Mormons (and those investigating the faith) are told to read the Book of Mormon and pray sincerely, and with real intent, to know whether the Book of Mormon is true, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will make the truth of the book known. Mormons seek such a testimony, which is typically manifested by good feelings about the book, or a sense of certainty that it is right. Every week in church during sermons (which the laity give), in Sunday School, in the men’s/women’s auxiliary meetings (which also meet on Sunday), and once a month during fast and testimony meeting, Mormons offer testimonies of how they know the Book of Mormon to be true and Joseph Smith to be a true prophet. On occasion, someone will include mention of Jesus in their testimonies, but typically the emphasis is on the truthfulness of the Church and of the Book of Mormon. During the monthly testimonies, kids offer their own version, with their parents standing behind them whispering the words to say: “I’d like to bear my testimony. I know the Church is true. I love my mommy and my daddy. I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” Week after week, month after month, year after year, this is what I heard all of my life. I heard the same at home, during Monday night family home evenings, and whenever extended family would get together, we would have family testimony meetings where everyone would go around the room and say the same thing. It’s the Mormon mantra. In suburban Salt Lake City, the final line (“in the name of Jesus Christ, amen”) would occasionally, inadvertently, be added to the end of a presentation or speech at school (e.g., one candidate for student body president in my junior high school concluded her speech with the line; she instantly got embarrassed, covered her mouth with her hands, while we all laughed). That’s how omnipresent this very unique brand of spirituality was in my upbringing. On my mission, we would encourage investigators to seek their own testimonies. And, of course, we had to have our own first. And my failure to obtain one was the beginning of my “downfall” and journey into the Catholic Church.

 

[NewSeeker]

The importance of gaining such a testimony in Mormonism cannot be underestimated. It is crucial. Those who seek one and do not gain one by experiencing the positive feelings, “warm fuzzies”, or sense of peace and/or rightness regarding the Book of Mormon, are always accused (sometimes nicely, sometimes not) of being insincere, of not really wanting a testimony, of not being willing to live up to the standards of the Church, of not listening when the Spirit was speaking. The person is always blamed. “The Church is true: I received a testimony: the fact that you didn’t proves that you did something wrong.” To someone like me, completely immersed in Mormonism, who desperately desires a personal witness, such comments from family and church leaders are utterly devastating, a fact I discovered when I was on the receiving end of them. It was the beginning of many years of severe depression. I never received the witness and first realized this while on my mission. Given my upbringing, this was very disturbing. And once I began to make that fact known, the well-meaning, but psychologically-damaging comments from family, friends, and leaders began. I eventually become very, very angry; and very, very depressed.

But before that happened, I returned from my mission, met my future wife (whose father was from a similar Mormon upbringing, and whose mother was an ex-Catholic convert to Mormonism from Mexico), and married her in the Salt Lake City temple. We attended university together, which is when I first seriously begin to look into Mormon origins, by consulting the primary documents on which Mormonism assembles its official history. I also delved into philosophy. Combined with my lack of a testimony, the discovery of significant contradictions in Mormon doctrine and history, and the logical implausibility of Mormon cosmology and Mormon conceptions of God’s nature, I soon realized that Mormonism could not possibly be what it claimed to be. I stopped searching for a testimony since I knew, based on the evidence from history and logic, that Mormonism could not possibly be true. I remember the day in 1992 when the thought “it’s not true” first crossed my mind. The world and everything in it changed for me that day. It was the beginning of troubles in my marriage and eventual distancing from my parents. It also set me off on the path to depression and anger, since, despite what I had discovered, I still worked to retain my Mormon connections for the sake of my wife and family. I continued to attend Church every week and would hear repeated, again and again, each of the comments about why someone like me did not gain a testimony. I began harboring resentments toward Mormons the longer I would continue to subject myself to the criticisms. It would have been healthier to cut all ties and move on, but I did not. I eventually became a very angry, depressed man. Shouting, holes in walls, etc. etc. You can search my other posts on CAF to learn the ugly details; I won’t repeat them here. It was my desire to finally resolve my spiritual crisis that brought me to CAF in the first place, back in summer 2007.

 

[NewSeeker]

But rewinding a bit, in secret, I had become an atheist, with all that entails. I also became a hedonist. For the first time in my life I took drugs (nothing major, just pot and mushrooms, but bad enough, I know) and became a party dude. I was in the perfect place for all of this, in a graduate program at a university located in America’s most hedonistic (and most Catholic, ironically enough) city - New Orleans. But I could not shake a profound desire for God. I needed God, like I needed air to breath. I was tormented by that desire, and my doubts that he even existed in the first place. Given my Mormon upbringing, I could not believe in anything without some sort of profound spiritual experience on which to hang my hat. For years I vacillated between atheism and modes of Eastern spirituality, especially Zen Buddhism. I read zen literature incessantly; I sat zazen; I attended Buddhist temples, searching for spiritual awareness and experiences. I became enamored with any mystical literature I could get my hands on. Eastern though was my starting point, but I soon enough discovered ancient mystical traditions in the West. My studies eventually led me to St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, and Teresa of Avila. That’s how I discovered the richness of Catholic spirituality. I also discovered the writings of C.S. Lewis, who probably more than anyone, provided the intellectual basis I needed for a reasonable faith in a personal God (rather than the impersonal God-consciousness of Eastern religion). C.S. Lewis and the Catholic mystics planted the seeds that would eventually grow into a strong desire to learn more about Catholicism. All along, I was still attending Mormon services with my wife. In graduate school, I travelled to Mexico on a grant and first visited a Catholic church. There I saw people on their knees praying, even though no services were being offered. I was very impressed. Here were people who evidently took their faith and relationship with God seriously; seriously enough that they would travel to the church to pray by themselves. Mormons also take their faith seriously, but they do not visit the chapel to pray. It’s closed except for meeting times. I loved the fact that Catholic churches are open 24/7 for prayer. I was also impressed by the amount of time Catholics spend on their knees. They don’t just pray like that at home, like Mormons; they also do it in church! But most importantly, I was completely blown away by the fact that the Eucharist (what Mormons call the Sacrament) was the final act, the culmination of the entire Mass. In Mormon services, the Sacrament is offered about 1/3 of the way in, in passing, right after announcements and before the sermons, or talks, are offered by the laity. Jesus is given very short shrift in Mormon services. They pay lip service to him, but more time is spent talking about Joseph Smith during church meetings, and the most important element in Christian faith, Christ’s sacrifice, is glossed over in favor of indoctrination provided over the pulpit. Worse, Mormons don’t accept that Christ offers himself to us fully, offering his body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist. We literally have God himself in our hands, and within ourselves, whenever we take communion. That is just incredible! And it is humbling. Mormons will protest at my characterization, but the fact is, more time is spent preaching Mormonism’s rules and what Joseph Smith did than who Jesus is and what he did and does for us. The Mass is organized so absolutely everything aims, like an arrow, directly into the heart of Jesus’ one, eternal sacrifice. Mormon services are not organized this way. Instead, they are organized to aim at Mormonism’s idiosyncratic rules, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the importance of gaining a testimony that the church is true.

It was eye-opening to me to see how devout and Jesus-centered Catholic spirituality was. I always thought that, if there was a God, there’s nothing more important than that fact. It was important to me to find people who took their faith very seriously. The outward observances of Catholicism helped me to see that Catholic spirituality takes God very seriously indeed. In fact, everything about it focuses the mind on our subservience and dependence on God. If God is real and we are his creation, then to me cultivating an attitude that acknowledges our dependence on God is absolutely requisite. This discovery about Catholicism was crucial. As a Mormon, I was brought up believing that I would one day be a god myself, with my own spirit children populating the worlds I created and praying to me as their Heavenly Father. That belief places us on an equal plane with God; it makes it impossible to truly grasp the sheer difference between us and God, which is absolutely requisite to properly acknowledging our dependence on him – which is the hallmark of true spirituality. Humility and gratitude toward God are impossible to cultivate if you think you’ll one day become just like him.

 

[NewSeeker]

Anyway, after about 7 or 8 years of searching, the seeds had been planted and I was on my way into the Catholic Church. Ironically, something I was taught early on in my life (and which I referenced earlier), helped to clinch my determination to learn more about the Catholic Church. If Catholicism is true, then I shouldn’t follow Protestantism; if Catholicism is false, then so too is Protestantism, since those sects came from Catholicism. This idea thus, quite naturally, focused my mind on the Catholic Church (and on Orthodoxy more generally), once I decided (thanks to C.S. Lewis) that there might be something to this Jesus business after all. So I began to delve into Church history. I read the New Testament seriously, for the first time in my life, especially Paul’s letters. I explored the scholarship about the New Testament manuscripts. I read the Early Church Fathers. And to my utter and complete amazement, I discovered how Catholic the earliest Christians were. I also learned about the linkages between the Liturgy and the Jewish temple. Suddenly, I no longer thought about Constantine and Rome when I thought about the Catholic Church. I was now thinking about Jesus and Jerusalem. It was insane that I had discovered this, since I had once believed that the Catholic Church was a tool of Satan to keep the truth hidden away. Now I was confronted with overwhelming evidence that Catholic traditions were biblical and rooted in the New Testament. All of this was the icing on the cake, really. I had already decided that Catholic liturgy was all about Jesus and I was very impressed by that fact.
I found the Liturgy to be very beautiful and rich, once I finally educated myself about what it all meant (and why we stand and kneel). And I wanted God! And there he was, every day if I wanted Him, in the Eucharist.

All of this was enough to convince me that I wanted to be a Catholic. I made that decision before entering RCIA. Yes, RCIA was boring from time to time. It only superficially addressed some profound theological matters, but that didn’t matter. I had already been converted by God, pushed and pulled incessantly through a quiet, persistent sense that I needed to learn more about Catholicism, which resulted in a growing conviction that to have Jesus meant having to become a Catholic so I could possess him fully in the way that he intends me to have him. And, thanks be to God, I was baptized last March. Ironically, my son was baptized a Mormon by my nephew the very next day. That’s another story that you’ll find in posts I wrote last year. But, although that hurt, I have God with me. I attend daily mass regularly at St. Mary’s Cathedral here in Austin (it’s close to work, I’m very lucky and blessed). I receive Christ sacramentally and he strengthens me. I have a relationship with his Blessed Mother through the Rosary I pray. One day I hope that my wife and boys will join me. I am on the third day of a novena to St. Jude for his intercession; my cause really is desperate, it seems to me right now. My decision to continue to practice my Catholic faith estranges me from my wife. But I have hope that in God’s own time, he will send his Spirit to heal my family and bring my wife into the fold.

I am so happy to be a Catholic. I am home at last.

NewSeeker

 

[lilcindylou]

I decided to convert for many reasons. One reason is my boyfriend, who I have been with for about a year and we plan to marry later on, is Catholic. But my most important reason for converting is that my questions and wonders were never answered. I was raised Baptist, but I always had an interest in other cultures and religions. I read a lot about the Catholic traditions as a young child. Throughout my life growing up I questioned things, like why is it this way and not that, what is the history of the Baptist faith, etc…but my questions were never answered by people within my own religion. To find my answers I turned to google and searched through there. The answers to my questions were all on Catholic websites, and I felt that if this faith answers my questions, then that’s where I need to be so that I can grow on my spiritual journey. I am still currently in RCIA, but I will be accepted into the church March 1st; then confirmed on April 20th.

 

[Jerry_Parker]

Fabric Dragon,

You wrote: For a while I could deal with Mary, but any mention of God or Christ set me off, because I had such negative experiences. It took Mary a long time, through the Rosary, to soften my heart.

Yes, it is strange how the All-Holy Theotokos, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Mary Ever-Virgin, affects us, even when we are wandering astray or in doubt. By far most of my life I have been a Christian believer, apart from a short stay in L.D.S. Mormonism of my Mother’s family heritage, when she converted back to it with the rest of us in tow (and then exited that paganism again later, as did all of the family) and later, doubtful and rather unbelieving, as an university student and young professional. However, even at the furthermost bottom of my agnosticism of the latter period of those years, I said my daily prayers, long before memorised, even if the only one that affected me deeply enough each morning to saying it less mechanically than the other prayers which I would pray, was the “Salve Regina”. Somehow, in saying that prayer to/through Our Lady, my faith would flare briefly each day, and occasionally I even would say the Rosary, as you did also.

When I read Peter Kreeft’s book, Ecumenical Jihad: Ecumenism and the Culture War, when going through revived faith (Anglican/Lutheran), I was scandalised and troubled by Kreeft’s chapter on the ecumenical importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and rather scoffed at it, while yet feeling stirred and troubled by what Kreeft said of Our Lady. I gave a copy of that book to a Kurdish Muslim friend, tearing out the chapter on Mary and tidying up the binding for the large remainder of the book. I feared that my Muslim friend would be scandalised by what Kreeft said of our Blessed Lady. (I did leave the same chapter in my own copy of the book.) Now I know better! I even know now how much the Blessed Virgin Mary, the only female prophet of Islam, means to Muslims. The lure and lore of Our Lady is irresistible! She is, indeed, a path to her Son, Our Lord. Coming to this realisation is only part of taking on the spirit of Catholicism, whether of Eastern Orthodoxy or of the Roman Catholic Church and of its Eastern rites.

I wish that I could explain it better. Perhaps others in touch with, or part of, Catholic Answers are able to do this.

Jerry Parker

 

[Jerry_Parker]

New Seeker,

We had said, between our letters bringing up L.D.S. Mormon polygamy:

Jerry Parker: …and since secular divorces do not for them effect eternally binding temple marriges, they * can have one woman at a time in this life legally while building up an harem of multiple wives for themselves in heaven. That would motivate a certain kind of Mormon guy, I suppose…*

New Seeker: LOL! I about fell out of my chair laughing when I read that. You just described my dad. He’s been married to my mom, and just my mom, for 46 years, but he sure likes to talk about his celestial harem and jokingly propositions my mom’s unmarried sister from time to time.

I got quite the chuckle, too, at your comment that you “laughed out loud” at my assumption that some Mormon men might find the prospect of polygamy appealing! Yeah, that is some understatement! Actually, though, in Deseret i.e. Utah, when the L.D.S. Mormon hierarchy were urging all Mormon men to marry multiple wives, a lot of men did balk at this (as certainly many more women did so, too, even more understandably). Those 19th Century L.D.S. authorities were promoting an open immorality that even the majority (apparently) of the L.D.S. paganised Mormon men resisted!

The human decency of most Utah men (according to expert historian, D. Michael Quinn’s book, Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example, kept them from falling into polygamy, however enthusiastically others embraced the sizzling prospects. Alas, my grandfather, Gerald Roach, happily got married 22 times, mostly polygamously, and, while I find it perversely humouous in a way, I sure am not proud of that hankering of his (not to mention how it vexed the heart of my poor, suffering mother, his daughter). It is complicated, anyway, to have, as I have had, 22 grandmothers on one side alone of one’s family, let me tell you!

I really enjoyed your lengthy sequence of testimonies of how you, in a surprisingly gradual and very earnest process, left L.D.S. Mormonism to become Roman Catholic. Folks out there in Catholic Answers Land, if you think that “New Seeker” surely must be exaggerating, you are wrong, wrong, wrong-o! New Seeker, you tell it like it is (or was, for you!). I remember all of that same sort of Mormon stuff, down to the last details of L.D.S. Mormonism’s excruciatingly boring services of worship and testimony!

Fortunately, and, I think, quite extraordinarity, the entire Mormon maternal side of my family, i.e. the whole extended family of it (aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins of first to fourth degree, et al.), with only the exception of my Great Aunt Genevieve, exited Mormonism, one by one, as the years passed. Praise be to God!!

May Catholic Answers help many other L.D.S. Mormons to “ditch” Mormonism for the Holy Catholic Faith!

Jerry Parker**

 

[fabricdragon]

its funny, isnt it?
i see so many people who are scandalized by the pagans adapting the rosary , and Mary… to a “pagan rosary” but you know… as awful as it would be for a Catholic to do that… for a Pagan its often a way to gently get to know some small amount of Grace… there are people who see the Grace in the church, but have some strong opinion that the church contradicts (abortion, for example) and often if you push them on it they will leave. let the grace of the church and Christ, and Mary work on their hearts. and just try to be a good example.

there are an awful lot of people who cannot deal with one or another aspect of the faith, usually due to misconceptions about it, but sometimes from earlier abuse or problems…

and truly…if all they can deal with is apostolic succession, and cant deal with Mary … fine… let them, eventually the apostles own succession and words will let them better know her…

if they can only deal with Mary, and are hostile to God , his Church, and the Son… dont push… encourage them to study what the orthodox teachers have said about Mary, the history, the prayers. and she will lead them to the church and her Son…
she did for me.

it is often a case of God’s will leading a stubborn donkey one step at a time… (and i say that from the perspective of the donkey…)

i dont have a gift of clever words… but i hope i am clear…
i WAS hostile. i hated Christianity, and everything i thought it represented… because i saw nothing but hypocrisy and received nothing but hostility. lies… false statements. and “dont question, just do what i say”. i mean i knew i wasnt doing anything hurtful, but i had so called Christians accuse “all pagans of animal sacrifice” and more…
how could they be in anything good?

the Rosary, though… something about it appealed… i made them, made pagan versions, knew the prayers… and then God sent Lynn into my life. Lyn, may she rest in peace, was everything a Christian could possibly be… patient, kind, accepting… she knew i wasnt evil. wasnt trying to do anything wrong… but she was also certain in her faith… and i made Rosaries for her … and she said the Rosary for me constantly. and when i remembered i said it for her…
i said a Novena to St Peregrine, and got her 3rd order relics of St Katherine Drexel, and St John Neumann… had my first contact with the saga of St Pio of Petrelcina (then Blessed Padre Pio)

she NEVER asked me anything other than to keep her in my prayers, whatever prayers they were. and she told me she prayed for me, because i was so kind to her. and she cared for me.

its funny. the conversions i know about all came about like that…gentle words, good examples,

“the stony ground watered by the Grace of the Lord”… and the Ave Maria

 

[narrowpath]

I am of C. S. Lewis’s opinion that paganism was “good dreams” given to the gentile nations…

 

[moen]

I’m so glad to have seen this thread!
It would take hours to write my story, and it’s still unfolding since I’ve yet to take the full plunge into the Tiber Studied CC for about 5 1/2 yrs, been through RCIA, nagging doctrinal issues and persecution from friends/family kept me back. Ready to put the whole thing down as a result of the turmoil of should I or shouldn’t I convert. I sort of put it on the back burner…THEN I picked up a pamphlet to learn about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I prayed a Novena and then several times the general/rosary portion. I began to see changes in my thinking and circumstances that my intellect/choices had nothing to do with! THings I didn’t even pray about came out w/ positive answers! AND I offered the prayers for others, not for myself and my issues!!!
That clinched it. This whole thing had to bypass my mind, since I’ve been hanging on the intellectual/doctrinal part with white knuckles, thinking I had to have everything make sense to my mind. The rosary was the last thing I would have thought would be part of my life, as I always believed it was the “vain repetitions that the pagans use” as Jesus said not to do. If my friends knew I was praying a rosary they’d laugh and scream and I know I’d see veins popping out of their necks and nostrils flared
Yet the same could be said of people who speak in tongues, while the angry mob of fundamentalists have smoke coming out of their nostrils! —You know what they say about fundamentalism: No Fun and all mental . I love them, but I’m on this wonderful journey now away from the judgementalism and desert maze of protestantism!

 

[Jerry_Parker]

Moen,

It was great for us others, too, that you discovered this thread of Catholic Answers! Just a couple of comments about two passages your contribution.

Regarding that much cited and usually abused phrase of Our Lord’s, “vain repetitions that the pagans use”, Fundamentalists (and other Protestants and sectaries, as well) have cited this to condemn the the Rosary, the litanies, and so forth of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican worship. However, have these blind guides ever stopped to wonder if all “repetitions” really are “vain”? I think that most of them assume that any repetition is vain, which is nonsense! So long as one is not praying inattentively, repetition is not “vain”! Furthermore, the repetitions in Catholic worship of all of these and other traditions of like liturgy and personal devotions is not “pagan”. The repetitions in our liturgies and devotions are Christisn! Talk about men blind in the conceits of their own minds and perceptions! They cannot even parse fully the meaning of the phrases which they thow about so recklessly and automatically!

Your characterisation (which I have encountered elsewhere, of course) of Fundamentalism as “No Fun and all mental”, is apt. I have others of my own (at least, I think so). Fundamentalists of the American sectarian kind are “fundamentally wrong”! As for clinging to the true fundamentals of the Holy Catholic and credal faith, it is better, I think, to be a Catholic “fundamentalist” in the sense of one rooted in the foundational truths of the Holy Catholic Fatih, than to be an “Incidentalist” strung out on the latest panoply of sectarian trends that so sweep American sectarian and even Protestant enthusiasms.

Yeah, it can be hard, at times, especially when the “Fundies” link their misshapen faith to fascistic political agenda, as they do when they confect the latest version of American Civic Relgion, to love them, but one does have to try to do so!

Jerry Parker

 

[Memaw]

I’m so glad to have seen this thread!
It would take hours to write my story, and it’s still unfolding since I’ve yet to take the full plunge into the Tiber Studied CC for about 5 1/2 yrs, been through RCIA, nagging doctrinal issues and persecution from friends/family kept me back. Ready to put the whole thing down as a result of the turmoil of should I or shouldn’t I convert. I sort of put it on the back burner…THEN I picked up a pamphlet to learn about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I prayed a Novena and then several times the general/rosary portion. I began to see changes in my thinking and circumstances that my intellect/choices had nothing to do with! THings I didn’t even pray about came out w/ positive answers! AND I offered the prayers for others, not for myself and my issues!!!
That clinched it. This whole thing had to bypass my mind, since I’ve been hanging on the intellectual/doctrinal part with white knuckles, thinking I had to have everything make sense to my mind. The rosary was the last thing I would have thought would be part of my life, as I always believed it was the “vain repetitions that the pagans use” as Jesus said not to do. If my friends knew I was praying a rosary they’d laugh and scream and I know I’d see veins popping out of their necks and nostrils flared
Yet the same could be said of people who speak in tongues, while the angry mob of fundamentalists have smoke coming out of their nostrils! —You know what they say about fundamentalism: No Fun and all mental . I love them, but I’m on this wonderful journey now away from the judgementalism and desert maze of protestantism!

Monsignor Chiodo, a former Pastor always said, " The longest journey you’ll ever make is the 12 inches between your head and your heart!" He is sooo right.
Don’t worry about your friends, what goes between you and God is the most important. HE will help you thru whatever comes. Continue on and soon you’ll be able to receive Our Lord, himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Holy Eucharist. Prayers and God Bless. Memaw

 

[luminoushope]

God bless you very much, Moen, your post encouraged my heart. I also have had a long walk towards conversion and it may be longer still (annulments required).

Pardon my repeating what I said in a previous post, but my arrival at the Catholic Church was by the goad of the Holy Spirit, not the Holy Intellect. In my opinion, I am sorry to say that there is so much missing from Protestant Christianity, that has been willfully thrown away, that they have to worship the intellect, the song service, the song leader, certain spiritual gifts, and other things that are not the heart of the matter.

I believe with all my heart that if people like us will continue on the right path, what we seek will be given to us!

In Christian love,

Luminous Hope

 

[Jerry_Parker]

Luminous Hope and Moen,

You have the essence of what it means to be right, Luminous Hope. Moving from sectarian group to another is just a matter of making theological adjustments (if even that much!), and the same is only slightly less true, due to their retention of sacramentalism, of Lutheranism and Anglicanism, but in the cases of Eastern Orthodoxy and of Roman and Eastern Catholicism, it the shift requires accepting an whole different view of the Church and authority in it, the spiritual life that it cultivates so amply.

The “Church of the living God is the piller and ground of the Truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), also the Eucharist is our lifeline in the new life, both of these truths making demands for allegiance that the sects and even the Lutheran and Anglican sectors of Protestantim will not accept in the fulness that God demands. While a man or woman may be saved apart from them, s/he puts the soul in grave danger without them and cannot nourish the true life of Christ’s Body without them. Without the Church and its sacramental life, without feeding on Christ through the Eucharist, the soul languishes. The Church itself and the Holy Sacraments are not nice-to-have incidentals, but are of the very essence of Christianity.

Jerry Parker

 

[pedro22031]

I was in the Army from 1996-2002.

In 1998-1999, I was deployed to Bosnia. I was a military policeman, and I was the Provost Marshal’s driver. He was the most devout Catholic I had ever met. He would pray on long road trips and would tell me a little bit about his faith if I asked. He was a Lieutenant Colonel, and the Catholic Chaplain was a Major (he outranked the Major), but he addressed the Chaplain as if he were his military superior. I remember studying about Catholicism because of him but that fell off once I was switched to a different job and when I left the Army. Sad thing is, I don’t think my boss knew about my interest in Catholicism; because he was a senior commissioned officer, I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about something personal like that. I look back and wish I had talked to him about it…maybe I’d already be a Catholic by now.

I moved to my current residence about 2 years ago and every day, I pass by one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It just happens to be a Catholic Church, so that got me studying Catholicism again. I started RCIA a few months ago and will be baptized on Easter. I can’t wait!

Great topic. Thanks for letting me share my story!

 

[pedro22031]

I was in Bosnia with 1AD from 97 - 99. I might know you…anyway I have recenlty been attending RCIA. This is the real thing. My story is different that most. I was Presbyterial…went Baptist, then Methodist, but none of if was making a difference. I realize that this is the one true faith and can not wait for my confirmation.

 

[Cinette]

God speaks to me every single day; every time you read His word He is speaking. Everyday i listen to a sermon, God is speaking to me. If I go a day without reading, studying or hearing the word of God; it is not peasant. If you God to speak with you more, like everyday, then read the Bible.

I would recommend reading the longest prayer from Jesus we have recordein Holy Scripture. John 17.
searchgodsword.org/desk/?language=en&query=John+17&section=0&translation=nkj&oq=joh%252017&new=1&nb=joh&ng=17&ncc=17

These passages are so rich and so meaningful of you are part of God’s elect.

May God grant you His peace and joy!

*Your recommendation is very good but just think, Snerticus attends Daily Mass where he is not only fed the Word of God but Jesus himself in the Eucharist.

You can’t beat that! *