Who is the Catholic that influenced you the most?

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Who is the Catholic that influenced you the most?
Why were you ? What age?
How it changed you?
 
JPII from high school on, so about 2000 until his death. Great great Saint. John Paul II pray for us!
 
Its only with the benefit of hindsight that I can say this, but my dad. My dad is a cradle Catholic and he either wanted to be a priest or a teacher (obviously, he chose teaching). At a really early age I rejected the Church, I rejected Christianity and started a pretty long journey to find the “Truth”. I never really saw my parents’ faith lived out in daily life; we never talked much about what my sister and I learned in CCD classes, didn’t talk about Church teachings, I basically went to confession once and that was to make my 1st Communion. But my dad has the charity of a saint. And he’s always been like that, he’s always helped anyone and everyone. He’s a KofC so he’s always done a lot of work for them. You could call my dad to bail you out of any situation and he would do whatever he could to help, no matter where he was or how inconvenient it might be.

My dad also prayed the Rosary every morning. For a long time I didn’t understand it, and of course through my adolescence I thought both my parents were complete knuckleheads. I kind of saw it as a waste of time, sort of an empty ritual. But that memory always stuck with me and it showed me that, no matter what I believed about my dad’s faith, he took it seriously.

Now that I’m an adult, a husband and a father, AND Catholic, I can see how much grace operates in my dad’s life. I’m pretty intellectual and I like to read a lot of theology and stuff. My dad isn’t in to that stuff, but he lives a life of sacrifice and charity. His life is a testament to his faith and to God’s grace and more and more I see him as role model.
 
My parents, from the moment I can remember anything at all from my youth until the day they each passed away. The example they set of happily taking us to Mass every Sunday and Holyday and their way of always following our Lord’s teachings all the days of their lives, even when times got very rough, will never be forgotten. As I’ve gotten older and more mature myself, their example becomes even clearer and more meaningful in my mind.
 
Ok, to my explanation on why Father Kapaun. I was born and raised Lutheran. Parents were Lutheran, and on back many generations. Later on we moved to a town where there was no Lutheran Church, so out of convenience we were Methodist. Later I went to college, and as so many do, fell away from faith completely. Met a girl, dated, got married, and we returned to the Lutheran Church. It was OK, but as we’d attend studies and things with them, I was uneasy with some of the theology. After having a couple of children, we found ourselves Episcopalian for 7 years. There were things going on within the hierarchy of that organization that didn’t sit right with us so we quit going to church altogether. One Sunday, while travelling, I asked my wife what she wanted to do. She said, “Well, we haven’t been to church in a long time.” I immediately agreed and pulled into a parking lot and said, “There is an Episcopal Church right here! Let’s go!” She told me no, and pointed to the Catholic church across the street and said, “I want to see what these Catholics are all about.” I was curious myself, so in we went. This was around 8 or 9 years ago, at the beginning of Father Kapaun’s cause for canonization, and the homilist that day was the guy leading the effort. He spoke of how Father Kapaun saw and experienced horrible things as a prisoner in Korea. He spoke about how Father Kapaun, despite the horrors of war and hardships to himself, remained committed to serving his fellow man. He told of how Father would sneak out at night and steal food from his captors, just to keep the fellow prisoners from starving to death. He spoke of Father sneaking from barracks to barracks to pray with his fellow prisoners despite being warned not to. He even spoke of Father praying for his captors, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Father Kapaun’s fellow prisonmates developed a love for him that can’t be described. They saw in him something special. One prisoner, a practicing Jew, who didn’t believe in Jesus, carved out of driftwood a Catholic crucifix to give to Father. This crucifix was unique. The face on the corpus was the face of Father Emil Kapaun. This crucifix still hangs in the foyer at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School in Wichita. The homilist pointed out, that rather than this crucifix being some sort of sacrilege, it was an example of what all of us should be striving for. When someone sees us, they should see the face of Jesus. Well, I was hooked. This was my first exposure to the truths of the Catholic faith. What a powerful message.
 
It’s difficult for me being that I’ve travelled so far my whole life.

I suppose Archbishop Twal, he gave me a lot of guidance when I first signed onto the IDF and struggled with Christian history. That’s given me a far better understanding of where ‘we’ came from than when I was living in Europe and Canada.
 
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Priests & authors, Thomas Merton & Henri J.M.Nouwen and my dear priest friend and spiritual companion Fr. J. who introduced me to both of them.

We’re it not for these 3 men, I would not be a practicing Catholic today.
 
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Probably Mother Angelica. Things she talked about and EWTN really helped me see finally that truth, beauty, and goodness could be found most fully in this life in Jesus, true God and true man, and in his Church and its Saints.
 
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My dad

Other than my dad (who was the only one to remain Catholic in my family), I’ve been influenced by authors of books. Here are a few:

Thomas Merton. His books such as 7 Storey Mountain, Life and Holiness, No Man is an Island, New Seeds of Contemplation, etc. etc. are still important to me.

In the 1980s when I was wavering under pressure from evangelical friends, I read an old book called “This Tremendous Lover” by Eugene Boylen. His chapter on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ was exactly what I needed at that time.

Bishop Barron’s ”Catholicism” helped me understand that Catholicism contains Heart, Mercy, Beauty, Joy, Depth & Diversity, which I couldn’t see (and still struggle to find)
 
My parents. Especially my father. He was the most humble, holy man that I have ever encountered. Well into his 98th year he prayed on his knees in front of the crucifix in his den. He and my mother prayed many rosaries everyday.
 
RKS89,

I think this is probably the most truthful and beautiful post I have read on CAF in a really long time. ❤️

Your father lead by example and continued to quietly lead even when no one was paying attention to him.

I am so happy that you recognize all that your father is, and hope that you will honor him by continuing to be a good leader and father for your own family.

May God bless you and guide you.
 
Monsignor Patrick Bishop who was at Transfiguration, and my confessor Father Mike at Saint Joseph’s in the Atlanta suburbs. He is in a wheel chair and has been fighting cancer off and on. He still sees people for confession and counseling. The rectory is in this very old mansion you see pictured. When you show up to see him, he drops the key off the balcony, you unlock the door and go up to an upstairs dining room. I stayed away for a while, I Thought he might be weak from treatment, but he told me he likes to keep busy, to stay sane.

He is the only priest that I have ever had a general [lifelong] confession. I cherish my relationship with him.
Please think of him in your prayers. He was once approached to be an exorcist, so he is up on spiritual warfare. He is very kind, but used to wave his cane around during homilies for emphasis!
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PJM; he posts on these forums! one of the kindest, PATIENT human beings on this site.
 
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