Why did you convert?

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studychristian

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I am studying Catholicism and was wondering if willing, if you could explain why you converted to Catholicism?
 
I started with what “Communion” or the Eucharist was, symbolic or Real Presence. Then researched my way into the Church. I questioned everything from Scripture Alone to Mary and the Saints. I found that the Catholic Church was the only real option that I had. I was raised Presbyterian, but found that history clearly supported the Catholic Church and not a “make your own version” church.

Study and prayer were my tools and the Lord led me home!

If you would like more info, pm me.

God bless you on your journey,

Newsy
 
studychristian said:
I am studying Catholicism and was wondering if willing, if you could explain why you converted to Catholicism?
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I converted around two years ago. First, some background on me. I was raised Protestant, mostly Pentecostal and Baptist, with a bit of non-denominational thrown in there. As you might imagine, I had a lot of anti-Catholicism ingrained in me throughout my life. I married a Catholic girl when I was 20 (still married, 15 years!) and we decided to raise our kids Catholic, but I has always had this latent hatred of the Catholic Church for the reasons you’d expect: “worship” of Mary, the Pope, etc.

It is difficult to say when my conversion began, but it probably started in college around seven or so years ago. I decided to go back to school to finish out a Bachelors degree, and I needed a couple religion classes to fulfill the general education requirements. One of my religion classes was taught by a Catholic and the other was taught by a Protestant (Fundamentalist, I believe). I learned a lot in both of these classes, but one thing kept bothering me: who was right? I couldn’t accept that God intended two different interpretations of His word – SOMEBODY had to be right.

This prompted me to start doing a lot of independent research, both inside and outside of Christianity. I studied everything I could get my hands on regarding Church history, how different beliefs formed over the years, and major philosophical / theological differences between Christian denominations. Additionally, I studied the teachings of other religions, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, and probably a dozen others I can’t think of right now. In short, I was on a quest to find the ONE truth. This continued on-and-off for a couple years, and became a bit of a hobby of mine, but nothing really ever came of it. It bears noting that through all of this, I held on to my staunch “anti-Catholic” attitude.

Around three or so years ago, I had what I can only describe as a true “conversion event”. I laid down for a nap, and I awoke… changed. I knew that I had to convert to Catholicism NOW. Words are inadequate to describe it, but this far surpassed a mere desire; rather, this was a burning “requirement” that I had to act on immediately. In fact, I found the idea of not converting to be inconceivable and even physically painful (similar to the feeling one has when I loved one passes away). Again, conversion to Catholicism did not ever register as an option for me until this point, but in an instant I knew that God had a purpose for me (which, incidentally, He is still slowly revealing to me at present), and He **required **I me to convert to Catholicism whether I wanted to or not.

I sat up and told my wife (in no uncertain terms), “I have to become Catholic.” My poor wife thought I was joking (I had previously given her a lot of grief over the years for being Catholic), but I was insistent and she helped get me in touch with one of the people at her church. From there, I got enrolled in RCIA, and the rest is history. 😉

Feel free to ask any questions – I’m happy to help in any way I can. I’m sure my story is atypical, put perhaps I can offer some shreds of wisdom in your own quest.

God bless,
Dean
 
I overcame a drug and alcohol addiction through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous which sent me on a spiritual journey after about a year of sobriety. I found myself wanting more God than what was in the churches I was going to which were mainly non-denominational. I’m great full to those churches as well. My girlfriend is Catholic and I started to go to mass with her and something about it interested me. Then I noticed the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart telling me to “come in to his church”. I had asked God “if you’re here at this church, reveal yourself to me”. And it turned out he did more than that, he literally told me to come in!

I’m so in love with his church. It’s beautiful. That’s about one-tenth of my story. Glad I’m here!

God bless 🙂
 
After studying MANY different religions (from paganism to going to the hare krishna temples), I found that Catholicism was the only religion that could “walk the walk and talk the talk”. They could back up pretty much everything they said. Look at how long it’s been around. Look at how long these other man-made religions have been around. The more I studied the Catholic faith and history, the more I wanted to put my faith and trust in a Church established by Jesus Christ than on a church established by just some average Joe who interpreted the Bible six dozen different ways. As I was going through the RCIA process and learning more about the Church and her history, I KNEW I had made the right choice.

And then we have the source and summit of our faith, the Holy Eucharist. Nothing even begins to compare with that!
 
Mgray82 said:
I overcame a drug and alcohol addiction through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous which sent me on a spiritual journey after about a year of sobriety. I found myself wanting more God than what was in the churches I was going to which were mainly non-denominational. I’m great full to those churches as well. My girlfriend is Catholic and I started to go to mass with her and something about it interested me. Then I noticed the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart telling me to “come in to his church”. I had asked God “if you’re here at this church, reveal yourself to me”. And it turned out he did more than that, he literally told me to come in!

I’m so in love with his church. It’s beautiful. That’s about one-tenth of my story. Glad I’m here!

God bless 🙂
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I just started reading the posts in this thread and I’m loving all of the responses.

Although, I am not a convert to Catholicism, in your particular post, I caught a glimpse of my own conversions (I used to think to have a conversion meant leaving the Church I was in to become a “born again” Christian and join a different Church. Probably my cradle Catholic mentality at the time.

But, in all seriousness, I too found myself at different times in my life wanting more God in my life especially during my second conversion. And it was during that time, when I experienced Adoration of Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament, and I too felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart strings to allow Him in and to fully surrender to His will. I remember it was quite a beautiful experience as I really don’t remember Adoration growing up but as soon as the service began, I knew that I was in the presence of the Almighty God and got on my knees, I wept and I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest. It changed my life and I am very grateful to God for revealing Himself to me in such a special way. Praise God for He knows exactly what will stir our souls to move.
 
Hello everyone,
I grew up in a family who never went to church. At age 20 I was introduced to Jesus in a Four Square Pentecostal Church. I made a decision to follow him, was baptised and my life turned 180 degrees. I was an unwed mother who who did too much partying on the weekend. In no time flat I craved the scriptures and turned my life around. Jesus became my best friend. I enjoyed all the charisms of the church and came to love Contemporary Christian music.

At 29 I got married to a United Methodist man and changed churches. It was a steping stone to the Catholic church as I look back, as I jumped the hurdle of infant baptism when my second son was born. The United Methodist church does no acknowlege some of the charisms (spiritual gifts) that I was used to in the Pentecostal church. I did become active and became the Youth Administrator. Then the pastor talked me into taking training to become a Certified Lay Speaker, so I preached in small Methodist churches when pastors where on vacation. Through that I started studying early church history. I also was a delegate to the Annual Conference and started seeing the political size of the United Methodist church and found out how liberal it is as a whole.

Studying early church history and the history of protestant denominations began to draw me closer to the Catholic Church. Some of the sacraments, purgetory, Mary, the pope were some of the hurdles I had to get past. Once I understood that a lot happened before the Bible was canonized, and stopped believing Solo Scriptura (the Bible alone), then I could understand more of the Catholic doctrine.

I came into the church Christmas morning 2004.
 
studychristian said:
I am studying Catholicism and was wondering if willing, if you could explain why you converted to Catholicism?
Click to expand...
This is a very heartwarming story…chnetwork.org/2012/06/history-brought-me-home-conversion-story-of-dustin-mantz/

What he witnessed here…really tugs the heart…During my journey of conversion, I worked in the medical wing of a local prison. Although we had continuous changeover, one, particular inmate stood out to me. He was a sickly fellow, dying of cancer, and in prison for a crime he committed 40 years ago, but still just as bright-eyed as ever. When the Catholic chaplain would visit, this inmate made sure that he had no medical appointments scheduled so he would have the opportunity to make his Confession. After Confession, he did the most beautiful thing: getting down on both knees — on that terribly hard, concrete floor — he would touch his forehead to the ground, come up, and receive the Eucharist on his tongue. The utter beauty of the gesture struck me; it was much more reverent and deliberate than the communion services we had at the Methodist Church.
 
I became convinced that the Catholic Church is the One True Church established by Jesus Christ. To me, that’s the only truly valid reason to convert.
 
I started to read through this thread and new I had to post something. Without going into the whole story which would take a long time, I’ll just do my best at a short story summary. This is a call for prayers. Left catholic school in 5th grade for financial reasons. 15 years later I was a complete mess on my knees begging for help, asking God to save me from this mess I had made of my life. He answered. Ten years later I am a married mother of four. I took the long way home, is how I like to put it. Now I am in need of many prayers. I have asked my husband to enter RCIA classes with me and join the church, baptize him and the children in the church and remarry me in the church. It’s a tall order for him, being from a protestant background, not much of a church goer. He doesn’t see why we have to go through this “initiation” when he can just go to the Christian church down the street and be baptized that same day. He knows it’s important to me and has seen the Holy Spirit working in me for the past few years. He’s willing but reluctant. Classes begin next week. My two younger children are raring to go, the older teens are reluctant also. Please pray for us. I would like to add…the yearning to receive the Eucharist is very great within my heart also. Not since catholic school over 25 yrs ago, have I received the Holy Eucharist. I hear many conversion stories that insist the eucharist is what pulls them the most to enter the church. Thank you Lord for all your graces you have given us.
 
Short answer: the Eucharist–if Orthodoxy/ Catholicism had it right on this, where else could I go?

Of course, there were lots of twists and turns in the journey–but the Eucharist is what drew me in and started me thinking…
 
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