A combination, but Iâll start with your list.
- Nurture - how we were raised at home - Dad told me and that is good enough, thank you!
Nope - I didnât grow up in a religious family. My father was Catholic but lost his faith, and had me baptised Presbyterian as an act of rebellion. On the other hand, there was no Catholic bashing, so I didnât have to ovecome that hurdle.
- Intellectual pursuit - Searched for Truth willing to go where the evidence led you and it took you here to the Bride of Christ.
I became (Protestant) Christian or Catholic first -
then I started the intellectual search. Until I became Christian, I wasnât much interested in religion generally, or theology, or church history or any other âreligiousâ intellectual pursuit.
- Iconic - You came to respect a religious authority or icon, say a great saint or a very persuasive priest
The most âiconicâ person Iâve met was actually my old Protestant pastor, yet he predicted Iâd become Catholic. But that wasnât the reason I became Catholic - it was just that his prediction was accurate (as he usually was). I also met a Catholic psychiatrist, and that was a significant help.
I was a postman at one time, and I worked with a rather left-wing Irish Catholic bloke, whoâs obituary was actually published in our local Catholic rag a few years ago. While I was a bit leery of some of his left wing opinions, i was impressed by his sincerity and concern for people.
His name was Garry OâReilly, and one of his sons was involved in knocking a hole or two in a B52 bomber during or around the first Gulf War. I didnât think that was very useful, but he was at least prepared to show the courage of his convictions, and go to jail for it.
I was impressed by the fatherâs sincerity.
- Intuition - life just makes more sense from a Catholic perspective
By itself - no. But Iâve had other influences eg. the old pastor I mentioned above turning up a few years after he died in a vision and saying âThe Catholic Church is CLOSEST to the truth.â That wasnât intuition - that was a plain statement of fact if it really was him.
- Schooled - attended Catholic school and what you learned there was affirmed by family and friends.
Nix - my education was completely secular. With hindsight I wish I had attended a Catholic School, but thatâs long lost history.
- Moment of Epiphany - A specific moment in time or a collection of them led your thoughts to believe that God exists and the Church is His best expression of His Will for you.
- Spiritual experience - a miracle or emotional religious experience brought you home.
I put these two together, as theyâre both âspiritualâ. Iâve had some very distinct spiritual expenences. But I became Christian whenI was at the end of my tether, and I kept getting this sort of spiritual impulse to go back to the same (Presbyterian) church where Iâd had some Sunday School years earlier.
Later, some years later, I had a similar sort of spiritual push to start going to a Catholic Church - you know, every time I drove past a Catholic Church, it would sort of jump out at me.
So it was more of a spiritual push, ratther than an âepiphanyâ. And both times there was a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo - life in general in the first instance, and the divided Protestant churches in the second.
- Something I left out; can you please share?
Well, I live in a âChristianâ society, so itâs easier than if I lived in some other culture.
But most of all, I think God just wanted me in the Catholic Church, and He has inconvenient ways of making His will known if you donât take the hint the first time.
Acts 26:14 NIV
We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.â/QUOTE]
