The moment I knew I had to be Catholic

It’s always interesting to find out what attracts converts to the faith.

Being baptised aged 3 weeks I had no "conversion experience" , but this is a little story about my mum .

She too was baptised as a baby , went through the "sacramental programmes" at Catholic school , but was never brought up by my grandparents to go to church .

She was a weaver in the local cotton mills , but in the 1930s depression trade was bad and many of the weavers were laid off .

My mum got a job as a maid in the town's main hotel . She was allowed home after tea but had to be back at the hotel for 10 pm to sleep there and be ready for an early start the following morning , lighting fires , preparing breakfasts etc .

Sunday was the only morning when they could stay in bed a bit longer .

My mum shared her bedroom with a lass from Scotland who did not have a lie-in on Sundays , but got up to go the 10 minute walk along the road for 7 o'clock Mass at the Sacred Heart church .

This got my mum wondering . As she used to tell me , "I thought I had better see if there is anything in this ."

So she began going to church with this Scottish lady , and she continued to go , and gradually the rest of the family started to go to church .

In WW2 , when my dad was on leave from the army , my parents were married at the Sacred Heart church where my dad had been a faithful parishioner all his life .

In 1991 , their Golden Wedding anniversary , at the same time and on the same spot they knelt for a Mass of thanksgiving where they had married each other 50 years previously . And I was privileged to be server at the Mass .

I never knew the name of that Scottish lass .