Who brought you to Christ?

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FaithHopeCharity

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I know there are some people are devout Catholics from the day they there are able to understand the faith. But I also know there are some people that become devout Catholics only later in their life (regardless if they were raised Catholic or not). For these people, who did the Lord use to help you become closer to the faith?

I was once very far from the Lord and lived a sinful life. But the Lord came to me in an unexpected way, through somone I had met unexpectedly at an unexpected time. This person was how God came to me and I will forever be thankful for this person and pray for them.
 
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It’s so funny to me that I was raised Catholic but did not understand very well the most important parts about the real presence, etc… so I got married and had a child and God sent me to the desert 200 miles from any of my family. I still visited them sometimes but I didn’t know any Catholics in my new place… my mom was older and not tech savvy but she wanted me to copy mother Angelica episodes for her. Mom gave me a book about Fatima that brought the truth to my eyes and then mother Angelica told me how to get on the right track, she even answered a letter that I wrote to her! It has been a really wonderful journey. I’m still in the discovery mode…
 
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My parents, but then I was away from the Church for most of my adult life. I came back when my mother got sick in 2012
 
Thank God for mothers and grandmothers and other people who pray for those gone astray…
 
I came back because I didn’t know what else to do. I desperately wanted her to be healed. And I was struggling mentally with her illness. I’ve come to understand things that I never really did before.
 
Yea, the Lord has come to me in a similar way. I am only 16 but for most of my teenage life I have lived a very sinful life. God had introduced me to someone who would later mean a lot to me. But as something threatens the relationship/connection I had with this person, I become desperate. And out of duspair I resolved to prayer even though I did not like it as there was nothing to lose. But then as I prayed, I began to realize the love of God before me.

I dont know for sure, but I feel like this would somehow be similar to your story?
 
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My parents had also played a huge role in bringing me to the faith! God Bless you and your parents!
 
I was raised in a sound Catholic home and educated all my life by religious sisters in our Catholic education system. I was very devout and unquestioning until my teens when I began to wonder about many things related to religion. That period of questioning and difficulties (I was still prayerful and attending Mass and The Sacraments) I think of as a positive stage in my spiritual development rather than a negative stage. Prior to that stage, I was more of an unreflective slave stunted in spiritual growth (Jump! How high please? attitude) than a reflecting and maturing spiritually member of The Church.
My college years, when my questioning stage began, was a time when the Dominican nun who taught me had seeded a love of Scripture and Catholic Theology, which has never left me for one second.

KNowing of my difficulties at the time, that same nun said to me “A thousand difficulties cannot make one doubt”.

What ended that difficulties stage? I had read about a pagan historian during the time of Jesus and what he had written about Jesus and suddenly questioning ceased and light entered the dark hole I seemed to be in at that time. I entered a new stage in my journey. The Holy Spirit is not a snob, nor can He be pinned down to this or that alone, boundaries established for Him. He has endless means at His Disposal.

I still can have difficulties and question. But I no longer feel there is an endless dark abyss lurking threateningly around me as before in my teens. I think it can be quite healthy to have difficulties and question. I think it of not much use at all to deny that one has difficulties and questions and just be slave like to an authority.
Anthony de Mello wrote something about authority which caused me to burst out laughing. And yes, I know The Church’s position on de Mello:

A little boy is in a picture theatre with a tall man sitting in front of him. The man turns to him and says “Can you see, sonny?” “No sir, I can’t see”

“Oh you will be fine, just laugh whenever I laugh and you will be ok”.

Warning re Anthony de Mello (Indian Jesuit priest)

Catholic Answers re Anthony de Mello (3 mins)

Vatican website - Doctrine of The Faith - Warning re de Mello
 
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Hahaha, that excerpt from de Mello was hilarious hahaha!

I think I am/or have gone through a similar faze such as you. My transition to become closer to the Lord happened rather recently (almost exactly a year). But during this time, there was much confusion as to what path I should take. Further more, I have gained experiences that made me question my faith. It was frustrating as I wanted to know where God wanted me to go exactly and I hated questioning my faith. Me questioning the faith was more of a thing I could not control although I wanted to stop I should mention.

But as time went by and I began to lose my sinful habits and started looking into the faith a but more, I think its safe to say that I am (or almost) completely positive about my faith. Even as people question my beliefs, I no longer question my beliefs along with them. I believe through prayer and the sacraments, the Lord has answered my prayers and has engraved in my soul a source of love that cannot be questioned. Although I must admit that I too experience difficulties and questions per se. But this no longer effects the level of faith that holds so strong in the present if the Lord.

I myself have grown up in a very Catholic family. Although I had not been educated in a Catholic environment. That is until now when I recently transferred from a public school to a Catholic School in my junior year which I am greatful for.

God Bless You!
 
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I was at a summer Methodist youth camp sixty years ago when one of the other teenagers there gave his devout testimony. When I heard him, God entered my heart and I never let go.
Later I was at a Protestant college intending to be a Protestant minister, when I came to believe in the Catholic faith. I never have had the slightest doubt afterward about Catholicism.
 
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I converted through a program at Catholic Christian Outreach. Baptized (conditionally) and confirmed. Best choice I’ve ever made. I don’t know what to do without His guidance. He’s my everything- not even sure how I can survive without Him.
 
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I’m a cradle Catholic, although my family wasn’t very practicing until the last few years. The reason I was brought back to Christ, or more fully understood Christ, was because of all the theology department at my Catholic high school. The theology department was sensational. It was compromised of four teachers, three laity and one deacon, who all lived out the Catholic faith so profoundly and lovingly. The deacon was more of the “this is why we believe this” guy, while one of the teachers was the “biblical scholar” and another teacher was the “philosopher” and the last one (the most influential one) was more of the “interesting conversation about anything in class” type of teacher, which allowed me to really learn so much. The combination of those four, which still runs that department at the school today, is transforming lives.
 
Do you remember the teenager who gave that speech? And do you still know them? This is a beautiful story overall and God Bless you for that!
 
Wow, your so lucky and blessed in a sense of who your teachers were. This year I transferred from a public to a Catholic school and I love my theology class. But it is taught by only one teacher and he is primarily a US History teacher.

I have nothing against my teacher as he is great as a person, but the way you have been taught makes me wish I went to your school hahaha. As well as the veriaty of teachers you describe with their different ways of teaching is also fascinating. I have a high interest in philosophy, and my theology teacher has little to no background in philosophy at all.

God Bless You!
 
And none of the teachers seem to be on the verge of retirement either, which is great for the future students. The faculty throughout the entire school are terrific and the school is only getting more and more Catholic by having a chaplain who is extremely involved and offering the sacraments more regularly. My biggest regret of high school was not appreciating it until my junior/senior years. They prepared me extraordinarily well not to fall into the college trap of secularization as well as academically.
 
It sounds great there to be honest. And I dont blame you for regretting nit taking advantage as I myself should have taken advantage of my parents offering me to transfer to a Catholic School when I was a freshmen. I’m currently a junior and I truly wish I had transfered to Catholic school earlier haha. But things will always find its way I guess:)
 
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