Conversion Stories

[Franze]

Wonderful stories in a worrying and disturbing world. Congratulations to everybody.

 

[Isaiah 53]

My conversion story...I was born and raised in an agnostic household...I knew who God was and heard stories of Jesus but did not live or understand the lifestyle. I lived a very sinful life for 25 years...I met my now wife in 2000; she was hard-core Southern Baptist, so I would attend church with her, mostly just to spend time. It was like everyone was on one page and I was on another...none of it made sense. Then I began to read the Bible, specifically the New Testament, I would read two chapters a day; everyday. Suddenly, I felt God's presence and became "saved"...I was baptized and took off with true zeal for the Lord.

My wife and I were very active in the Southern Baptist church, she was the choir director, I taught Sunday School. I was convinced that my calling was to be a youth pastor. I applied for and was accepted to Moody Bible Institute.

I felt a deep and true passion for apologetics, still do! I would spend hours upon hours debating with whomever I could, about any various form of religion from Jehovah's Witnesses to Atheists. But, I found Catholics to be very vunerable and 'lost'. I remember, regrettably now, one person in particular whom I spent hours showing him verse after verse of how the Catholic Church was in error. He left the Catholic Church and joined a non-denominational church.

With a keen interest in apologetics, came the desire to learn what I could about different belief systems, so I could show them the error of their ways, I began to watch a lot of EWTN and wanted to attend a Mass so that I could 'pick' it apart and prove to myself that it was nothing more then a pagan belief system, dressed as a Christian church. My wife went to visit my sister in Las Vegas and I saw the opportunity. I decided to attend a Mass in town, I dressed nice, grabbed my NKJV Bible and headed to the Church. When I arrived I proudly proclaimed, "I am NOT Catholic, I am Southern Baptist! Do I need to sit someplace segregated?" The usher greeted me warmly and said, "all are welcome, sit where you like". So I did. I sat when they sat, stood when the stood, knealt when they knealt. Then during the consecration of the Eucharist, something amazing happened, now I have been to a number of retreats and have experienced the closeness of God first-hand, but this was something more. I couldn't move, I couldn't look away...I began to weep. I felt a closeness to God I have never felt...He truely touched me.

After the Mass, I stayed behind and began to ask a million questions of the Priest....he invited me to his office the next day. And so began my road to the Catholic Church. I tell everyone I walked into that Church Protestant and walked out Catholic! God is GOOD!!! It was as if He turned on a light...and so now, I spend my time showing the truth's of the Catholic Church to those that do not believe/understand.

My wife and I, along with our four children and now proud Catholics!

PAX CHRISTI

 

[MoNiCa4316]

wow thanks for sharing that!! Your story reminded me of Scott Hahn's conversion.

That's so encouraging what you shared about the Eucharist, I felt similarly at my first Mass.

God bless

 

[footprints1973]

Hello everyone...
I am guess what you would call a revert...a lapsed Catholic who has now decided to come home.

I was raised Catholic, went to Mass every weekend, went to Catholic schools K-12. I began to drift away from the Church and then God all together during my college years...they were stormy years emotionally. I had a lot of problems with anxiety, depression, and eventually drinking. I never became an atheist, but more of a deist--I believed an Almightly Power existed but believed he didn't care about me personally. He was just watching passively.

Flash foward several years...although I had been "absent" from the church for a few years, I was still able to marry in a Catholic chruch and have my daugther baptized as a Catholic, mostly to appease my parents.

However, I began to feel that God really did care about me...my problems with drinking, depression, and alcohol were shrinking away.

I felt a need to go to church again, but I thought at the time the Catholic church was not for me anymore. I thought I needed a new start. I attended a Methodist church for about a year, hoping to have some new sort of outlook on my relationship with the Lord and fellowship with others.

I attended mostly contemporary Methodist services. I learned more about the Bible (which I could have learned as a Catholic but chose not too). However, I never felt at home. I felt too much of the service was spent on praise music, church annoucements and updates to their new building project, and not enough time for praying. And communion was only once a month.

Dont get me wrong, I dont want to bash the Methodists AT ALL. They are very kind, giving people who Love the Lord. I just felt something was missing from the worship services. I stopped going because after a year of trying, I couldn't fit in.

Then a few weeks ago, I felt a strong urging, like God suggesting to me that I go back to the Catholic Church. He said "everything you feel you are missing is there".

So I went to a Catholic Church I had never been to before (I've only lived in this area a little while). I walked into the doors and immediately felt at home. I saw the votive prayer candles, the statues, the glorious stained glass, the pews (with kneelers!)...and tears came to my eyes.

During the service, all the familar words of the Litrugy came back to me, as if I'd just missed a couple weeks. Fond memories of childhood and Catholic schooling/upbringing came rushing back.

And when I received the Eucharist and went back to my pew to kneel down and pray, tears of joy welled my eyes. I can't explain it.

I can't wait to go to Mass again this weekend. There is one more parish I have to visit...I am looking for a parish that was a good faith formation program for my 3 year old. I have to learn more about the both parishes and then decide.

Thank you for letting me share my story!

God Bless,
Laura

 

[InTheCloud]

Good histories.
BTW Isaiah 53, (humm, you should add Wisdom 2), you should join the Coming Home Network.

 

[yourstrulyjulie]

Out of interest, is there anybody here that has converted to Catholicism?

I, myself, am in the process of converting to the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion and was really wondering whether others have had similar experiences. My own reasons were that there was no real faith anymore and that leaders were wasting there time trying to make the Church look "cool" and "modern" by pandering to atheistic and hedonistic ideals.

that sounds so like my current church
i'm technically presby.. but going to church there does nothing for me anymore. I've started going to catholic church more often, and I feel so much more like I'm supposed to in church now
I really want to convert, but I am away at college now, and I have no way of getting to a catholic church every week to do rcia, so I'm just going to have to wait a while or at least till I have a car on campus :/

plus presbyterians now allow gay and lesbian pastors as long as they are celibate? does anyone else see severe problems with this?

 

[ukok]

that sounds so like my current church
i'm technically presby.. but going to church there does nothing for me anymore. I've started going to catholic church more often, and I feel so much more like I'm supposed to in church now
I really want to convert, but I am away at college now, and I have no way of getting to a catholic church every week to do rcia, so I'm just going to have to wait a while or at least till I have a car on campus :/

plus presbyterians now allow gay and lesbian pastors as long as they are celibate? does anyone else see severe problems with this?

Julie, i will pray for you. Ask the Lord to help you to find a way to follow Him to where he wants you to worship. God will find a way.

God Bless you!

 

[InTheCloud]

plus presbyterians now allow gay and lesbian pastors as long as they are celibate? does anyone else see severe problems with this?

Some diosesis in the Catholic Chuch tried that in the 60s. The Church is paying for that today.

But to be true, there are many Gays that being celibate have lived excellent christian lives.
Think of Fr. Henri Nouwen, the wounded healer or fr, Michael Judge or 9/11 fame. Or of Fr Seraphim Rose in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

Hello everyone...
I am guess what you would call a revert...a lapsed Catholic who has now decided to come home.

I was raised Catholic, went to Mass every weekend, went to Catholic schools K-12. I began to drift away from the Church and then God all together during my college years...they were stormy years emotionally. I had a lot of problems with anxiety, depression, and eventually drinking. I never became an atheist, but more of a deist--I believed an Almightly Power existed but believed he didn't care about me personally. He was just watching passively.

Flash foward several years...although I had been "absent" from the church for a few years, I was still able to marry in a Catholic chruch and have my daugther baptized as a Catholic, mostly to appease my parents.

However, I began to feel that God really did care about me...my problems with drinking, depression, and alcohol were shrinking away.

I felt a need to go to church again, but I thought at the time the Catholic church was not for me anymore. I thought I needed a new start. I attended a Methodist church for about a year, hoping to have some new sort of outlook on my relationship with the Lord and fellowship with others.

I attended mostly contemporary Methodist services. I learned more about the Bible (which I could have learned as a Catholic but chose not too). However, I never felt at home. I felt too much of the service was spent on praise music, church annoucements and updates to their new building project, and not enough time for praying. And communion was only once a month.

Dont get me wrong, I dont want to bash the Methodists AT ALL. They are very kind, giving people who Love the Lord. I just felt something was missing from the worship services. I stopped going because after a year of trying, I couldn't fit in.

Then a few weeks ago, I felt a strong urging, like God suggesting to me that I go back to the Catholic Church. He said "everything you feel you are missing is there".

So I went to a Catholic Church I had never been to before (I've only lived in this area a little while). I walked into the doors and immediately felt at home. I saw the votive prayer candles, the statues, the glorious stained glass, the pews (with kneelers!)...and tears came to my eyes.

During the service, all the familar words of the Litrugy came back to me, as if I'd just missed a couple weeks. Fond memories of childhood and Catholic schooling/upbringing came rushing back.

And when I received the Eucharist and went back to my pew to kneel down and pray, tears of joy welled my eyes. I can't explain it.

I can't wait to go to Mass again this weekend. There is one more parish I have to visit...I am looking for a parish that was a good faith formation program for my 3 year old. I have to learn more about the both parishes and then decide.

Thank you for letting me share my story!

God Bless,
Laura

thank you for sharing!! that's wonderful! God bless you!

 

[AllFoHim]

...............................

 

[MrStain]

Let me try to point out the key moments/discoveries that moved me in the direction of Rome.

It Began at Bible Study

Who would have guessed that my conversion would begin in our Wednesday night bible study at the Baptist Church. Our study group was made up of an enjoyable group of people and we learned a lot from the bible, each other’s interpretations, and from each other. A few of the memorable things we studied were a book about Angels by Billy Graham; More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell; and a study of Ecclesiastes. I remember the group being very interested in the Angels book. It was very clear that nobody in our little group was steeped in the study of Angels and I must admit that I never really knew how powerful and even menacing cherubim and seraphim appear in the bible. We also got sidetracked on the subject of the Nephilim which generated some interesting discussion. The study on Ecclesiastes was very thought provoking and I’ll never forget Solomon’s “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” statement. However, it was the book by Josh McDowell, a Protestant, that started me on my journey to Catholicism.

In More than a Carpenter there is a great chapter in the book regarding reliability of the Biblical records. Within that chapter there are three tests (bibliographical, internal evidence & external evidence) mentioned to prove the reliability of the Scriptures. It is in the External Evidence section where I was first exposed to early Christian (Papias, Irenaeus & Polycarp) and how their writings validate the truth of the Gospel. There were just a few quotes and I did not dig any deeper into any other early writings, but that section of Josh McDowell’s book stayed with me.

“It is just so Catholic”

“It is just so Catholic!” These were the words from our Baptist youth minister’s wife regarding Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie. This comment came up at another one of our weekly study groups which was held at the youth minister’s house while we were just sitting around and talking about the movie we had just seen a few days prior. I recall my wife asking her to clarify and I believe her complaint basically came down to there being too much “Mary”. This struck me as odd that a minister’s wife would have anything negative to say about the mother of Jesus, but I left it alone.

Fast forward several months and I’m back in my Wednesday night bible study class. I don’t recall exactly what we were studying, but the subject of Mary and the ‘brethren’ of Jesus came up. My wife, never afraid to speak up, basically said she thought it was hogwash that Mary had other children besides Jesus. I wasn’t confident enough to agree with either opinion, but for some reason I’ve always felt inside that she was the Virgin. At our next meeting one of the members of the group brought in some information (which I found out later was from a Catholic hating web-site) that supposedly debunked Catholic teaching regarding this topic. So when I got home that evening I grabbed the Josh McDowell book and looked up the names of those early writers. The next few days I immersed myself on the internet looking for information from early Christians regarding the Brethren of the Lord. After my search I felt confident that I could go back to our bible-study group and show them that the evidence leaned toward the Catholic teaching regarding Mary and her virginity. Unfortunately, the next few bible-studies were cancelled and I just lost my enthusiasm for taking this information back to the group and sharing what I had found. I regret never sharing my thoughts with our wonderful little group, but I do recall quite vividly how all I could think was “It is just so Catholic”.

Late Nights with some Priests and a Bunch of Nuns.

Thank God for my bladder, my inability to get back to sleep most nights, and the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)! A few years back, as I was channel surfing in the middle of the night and trying to fall back to sleep, I happened upon this hard talking Catholic priest (Father Corapi) on TV. He was speaking with a very distinct voice and preaching with such conviction that it reminded me of a fire and brimstone Southern Baptist minister. I was so impressed with his message and delivery that I kept waking up in the middle of the night to try to catch him on TV again. This guy was clearly no Nancy Pelosi-Boy! He also provided a great lesson on the Rosary. Wow! I was so surprised to learn that it was “the prayer of the Gospel” and centered on the “Fruit of thy womb, Jesus”.

However, I wasn’t just being exposed to Father Corapi and his powerful messages while waking up in the middle of the night. Before long, I was learning about our brothers in sisters in Christ who have done so much in the way of teaching, sharing, and living the Gospel throughout the past 2000 years. When I would hear the stories of these saints who loved the Lord with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength I was in such awe. The only problem though, is that they were all Catholic! But that didn’t stop me from returning to that network every night to try and learn more about ‘those Papists’.

I was next extremely blessed by stumbling across an episode of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s “Life is Worth Living” television show which originally aired in the 1950’s. He was talking about Communism and the Church. He was expounding on freedom, authority, and the love of Jesus as compared to the evil philosophies of communism and materialism which can only lead to unhappiness and death. If only the young adults of the 50’s had been forced to watch Bishop Sheen, the 60’s would have been a significantly different decade. FYI…. You can listen to his “Life is Worth Living” episodes here if you are interested: http://www.bishopsheen.excerptsofinri.com/

I would be remiss if I failed to mention how I then started watching Mother Angelica, the founder of EWTN, and her bible studies to see what the person behind this network had to say about the Holy Scriptures. I was amazed at the love this women had for the Bible and the teachings of our Lord. She would hold that bible so tight and just talk and talk about the message given to us by Jesus and His Apostles. She also had a segment where the audience could call-in with questions and her answers always made so much sense to me. She was also one of the funniest people I had ever seen on t.v., and she could quite easily handle antagonistic callers. I eventually even worked up the courage to turn on the Holy Rosary with Mother Angelica (9:30 pm EST). Since Father Corapi had given me a real understanding of what the Rosary was, I was not afraid that I was going to be struck down for just watching this nun and the other Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration meditating on Jesus Christ. I lay down on my bed and just began to meditate on Jesus and the Mysteries as the nuns kept on praying the rosary together. It was such a peaceful experience to just lay there with my eyes closed and think about our Lord and His life. Unfortunately, it was so soothing that I fell asleep and never actually made it through the entire rosary with the good nuns. Night after night, I returned to listen to the rosary and night after night I fell asleep in peaceful bliss. I know my wife thought it was a bit strange at the time that I, a non-Catholic, was listening to a bunch of nuns pray the rosary but I know we both now appreciate how this began a significant change in our lives.

My Comfort Zone

The next several months I continued to watch the Rosary and I even began to pray along with the nuns on EWTN since by now I had learned most of the different prayers. My wife even started to watch some of the shows and listen to the teachings of Father Groeschel, a wonderful and loving Franciscan Friar. At the same time we continued to go to our little Baptist Church and join in with the fellowship of believers that God has placed us with. My wife and I worshiped as we always had at the traditional service where we sang the old hymns, listened to the sermons from our wonderful pastor, received communion in the Lord’s Supper service once a month, and hugged new believers after altar calls. Our church was an important part of our family life and we believed in doing our part to participate and help out as much as possible. My wife and I both taught Sunday school for our 1st graders, we would watch the nursery, I sang in the traditional worship choir and there wasn’t ever a Sunday where our family would not be represented toward the front pews of our little church. I have to thank my wife for not missing church more than anything. You see, she still had that Catholic “guilt” in her as she called it, and even though we were attending a Baptist church she believed it was sinful to miss a service unless we had a really good excuse. If either of us even hinted at not wanting to go to Church, she would just say, “If we can’t give just a few hours on Sunday to God?” and leave it at that. We knew that God sacrificed all for us sinners, so we’d get up, get ourselves and the kids ready, and go worship Him.

All in all I felt very comfortable where we were in life and I could envision my little girls growing up happily in our church, being baptized, and joining in the youth groups. However, unknowing to me, my wife was feeling less and less comfortable in the Baptist church and was feeling called back to her home in the Catholic Church, while at the same time my Baptist church would be calling me to more responsibility.

Me.. Reverent and Blameless?

I got home one evening from work and my wife told me that there was a voice-mail from the Church. It was our pastor and he wanted me to give him a call at home as soon as I had a few minutes to talk. I was a little worried about this, because the last time I got a message like that it resulted in me having to give a testimony in front of the congregation at church. I am not necessarily afraid to speak in front of groups, but when it comes to personal testimonies of how people have come to know Jesus, I have heard some powerful “born-again” stories and I felt like any testimony I could give would be kind of boring. Anyways, I called the Pastor and he just wanted to inform me that I had been nominated and selected to be a deacon of the church for the upcoming year. WOW! I didn’t know what to say… My Pastor could tell that I was a little surprised and he just told me to think about it and to let him know by the upcoming Sunday whether or not I could accept the role of Deacon in the church. I told him thanks and that I would definitely prayerfully consider this honor and get back to him on Sunday. He then gave me some bible verses to read regarding the responsibilities of Deacons and specifically said I should read 1 Timothy chapter 3. I hung up and spoke to my wife about this and she said, “It is completely up to you honey”, in that way my wife does when she can tell that I might just be looking for an easy way out.

Well, I didn’t read chapter 3 of Timothy right away, but I did get to it over the next few days and as I read it all I could feel was unworthy. When I read about how people with positions in the church should be blameless, temperate, not greedy for money, etc. I knew I was in trouble. These are things that I struggle with everyday and now they expect me to be blameless and faithful in all things? Although, I do like the part about wives being reverent and me ruling over my children and house. : ). Ok.. I’m kidding. Another important thing I noticed was the use of the term Bishop. I don’t think this was really ever expounded upon in our sermons, but I knew we didn’t have any Bishops in our little Baptist church or in the Southern Baptist convention. However, I knew what church had Bishops and it was those darn Catholics again. From my new found knowledge of some early Christian writings I was sure that Bishops have always been part of the church. For just a short instance I asked myself why there were no Baptist Bishop’s, but then I got rid of those thoughts of church hierarchy and got back to the important stuff. You know… my own comfort!

Eventually, after praying about this decision I felt that it was something God wanted me to do. Although, I felt unworthy to become a deacon I knew it would force me to prayerfully contemplate my actions and teach me better how to conduct myself as one of God’s children. On Sunday I informed the Pastor of my decision and he immediately set me up with a senior member of the church to begin my training on the duties of a Deacon in our church. I was thankful for the decision that God had forced me to make and now I could get back to my comfort zone of being a Baptist by day and a Catholic channel watching sponge by night.

 

[MrStain]

Continued...

My Wife Had Other Plans

I mentioned earlier how both my wife and I began to watch the Eternal Word Television Network. The channel was becoming an integral part of our spiritual lives and it helped us learn so much more about the Catholic Faith and the history of the Church. I know, some of you might be thinking right now, “What did you expect? You are bound to become a Catholic watching Catholic t.v. all the time”. It’s not that we didn’t try to watch the other Christian networks. It was just the fact that the messages were so very inconsistent across different channels or sometimes the same channel but with a different preacher. Plus, we all know about the occasional televangelists who would just give us the creeps. I always felt I was getting a clear, consistent, and loving message from the Catholic network that just made sense deep down. I remember even getting the courage to mention to our youth pastor and his wife one night while we were playing Scrabble at their house that I was regularly watching a Catholic channel. Before he could say anything I quickly pointed out that there were some great shows on early Christians as well as some Priests and Friars that I thought even he would like. He had a slight look of surprise in his face, which I expected, and he said “What…are you going to become a Catholic?” I suppose if I was a die-hard Baptist those would have been fighting words, but I think I just told him something along the lines of, “No way! I am just pointing out that there is ‘some’ redeeming value on the Catholic network”. Despite what I thought about EWTN and what I learned about the Catholic Faith there were just some things I couldn’t easily buy and I was not going to become one of ‘Them’.

My beloved wife had other plans. In a nutshell, I can think of two major things that kick-started her on the return to Rome. It was the great catechesis on EWTN (including the nightly rosary) plus anti-Catholic bias from some members of our own Baptist Church.

As far as I know, my wife did not begin to say the Rosary when I first started listening to it nightly in our house. However, I do recall asking my wife when I first started trying to actually meditate during the Rosary, to help me decipher what exactly the Poor Clare nuns were saying on t.v. My hearing has not been great in years, and when I first heard them all praying together I wasn’t always sure what they were saying. My wife, being a lapsed Catholic, but always faithful to our Lord, helped me get on track with the prayers and I think it was about that time Our Lady took notice of our little family.

Regarding the bias, I won’t go into great detail as I’m sure most of us know the usual things that are said about Catholics. I believe hurtful things are typically said in ignorance, willful ignorance, or just plain old hate. I don’t believe even a majority of the things that we heard were meant to be hateful or even hurtful, but when you’ve got a short-tempered Irish-(lapsed) Catholic girl in a room full of Baptists there might be some static. Plus my Wife, God Bless her, had a knack for bringing up some topics that could create some discomfort with devout sola-scriptura believers. I recall her more than once in Bible studies mentioning that Peter was actually buried under the Vatican when we would get to Matthew 16:18 (“..on this rock I will build My Church”) . The Shroud of Turin (http://www.shroud.com/) was another thing that my wife had studied tremendously and she knew that there was a very good possibility that it ‘might’ actually be our Savior’s burial cloth. When she brought a National Geographic article over to our youth pastor that explained the Shroud in great detail he quickly dismissed it. He didn’t dismiss it by saying it can’t be real, but by saying there is “no point to even wonder since those things only lead people to worship things other than God.” This was the typical ‘If it is Catholic, it must be from the Devil’ reaction that I now recognize, but I did not at the time. To me, the Shroud of Turin and Peter’s burial were things not to be feared, but viewed with traditional and historical glasses. I could not really understand the disdain for tradition and history, but my wife already recognized what was really going on. It wasn’t a dislike of tradition or history in general, but a dislike of Christian traditions and history pre-reformation i.e. Catholic.

To sum this part of the story up, it wasn’t long before a Catholic Answer Bible and a Baltimore Catechism ended up on our bookshelves and my wife was sneaking over to the Catholic Church where she could pray and feel at peace. It didn’t take her much time, and some sit-downs with the Priests, to recognize that the feeling of peace was due to the Real Presence or Our Lord and she shortly thereafter left our Baptist Church for good. Oh, did I mention that the Church is also called St Mary of the Immaculate Conception. The Blessed Lady was still watching over us.

Who’s Church is it?

You should have seen the looks of disappointment on the face of some of the parishioners when my wife told them she was returning to her Catholic roots. When they spoke to me I generally received warm condolences. Most of the condolences I received were genuinely sorrowful that my family would no longer be worshiping together, while a few just felt like ‘wow… I hope you can change her mind before she burns in eternal damnation’. No matter what others thought, I felt that my wife was being guided by the Holy Spirit and there was no need for me to get in the way of God’s plan. Besides, aren’t we supposed to believe as members of a Protestant church that individuals should be guided by the Holy Spirit in all things to include individual interpretations of scripture, what church you attend, etc. Although, I must admit that it hurt my pride a bit to appear as though I, the head of the household, was not able to keep my flock together in one church. Well, we know what the scriptures say about pride so I tried not to let those feelings get to me. However, I could not avoid the other feelings that arose as a result of my wife leaving our church. I would sincerely miss dropping and picking up my daughters off at Sunday school and quizzing them on what they learned. I would miss praying, singing, and receiving communion alongside my wife. Heck, I would even miss the morning rush to get all the family thrown in the car and off to church with just minutes to spare on Sundays. Just recalling those feelings right now brings such sadness to me heart. Nevertheless, I realized that I would just have to get over those feelings because I wasn’t going to leave My Church.


Undoubtedly, over the next few Sundays, I would be asked by parishioners who knew my family where my wife and kids were and I had to tell them the truth. Most of the people at my church were faithful Christians who provided warm support when I gave them the quick answer. However, in almost all cases I got the “why?” question. More often than not I would just repeat what my Pastor said when we spoke about the situation together. He said, “I knew in her heart that she never left the Catholic Church”. That answer worked in some cases, but in most cases I would get a puzzled ‘what does that mean?’ look. Not wanting to be unprepared with answers as the weeks went by I knew I had to dig even deeper into what I was learning about the Catholic Church, but what I thought was even more important… What should we believe as Christians?

Initially, I thought that in order to figure out true Christian beliefs all I had to do was open up the Bible. I knew all of the answers would be there for me in the infallible Word of God. But then reality kicked in! How was I, someone of mediocre intelligence; no real knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic; and being removed 2000 years from Jesus and the Apostles going to know how to accurately interpret the Holy Scriptures? I then started thinking about how all of these churches over the last 500 years have been spreading the Truth, but each might have a slight or significantly different version of what that means. If the founders of these various (thousand’s) Protestant faiths can’t seem to agree on the Truth, how was I ever going to figure out what Christians should or should not believe. Also, didn’t Christ say that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13). If you were to ask each of these denominations what they believe, I am certain they would say they were guided to their beliefs by the Holy Spirit. Which truth is the Truth?? I knew that the only way for me to figure out what is closest to the Truth, was to step back in time and to determine what the early Christians believed who were closer to the Truth in the Flesh. That was the epiphany moment for me… It wasn’t My Church, but it was His Church that I needed to better understand.

 

[MrStain]

Continued...

Lord, Help me Understand

In order to improve my understanding of the Catholic Church, I continued watching EWTN and I actually started paying better attention to some of the apologetics shows. My wife was also throwing curveballs at me using her Catholic Answer bible that addressed, using Scripture and Tradition, the common arguments against the teaching of Catholicism. I remember one discussion we had regarding the term “Mother of God” to be used for Mary. In my mind that meant Catholics were elevating Mary to deity status and therefore it is just a bogus teaching. Even though the logic was very sound I just couldn’t get myself to use that term.

- Mary is the Mother of Jesus
- Jesus is God made Flesh
- Mary is the Mother of God made Flesh – She is the God-Bearer (Theotokos)

I eventually made my wife mad since I wasn’t willing to accept such plain logic and the argument ended there. Over the next few days I scoured the web for early Christian writings regarding this topic and to my surprise the teaching on this was ancient and very clear. Looking back, this was just another nail in my Baptist coffin and it made me realize that it was pride preventing me from accepting my wife’s logical arguments. You see, if the Catholics are right about this, they may also be right regarding other teachings. If they are right, I must be wrong and that would hurt my pride.

I also spent a lot of time lurking on one of the premier religion forums to obtain Catholic opinions on a variety of topics. I recall there being a debate once where the validity of the Catholic teaching on the Communion of Saints came up and many Catholics had very convincing arguments. I believe it was Mark 12:27 (“He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living”), that was the clincher for me. From that point on I felt certain that ‘soul-sleep’ was bogus and that the saints were worshiping our God in heaven and offering up our prayers. However, those were just my feelings and I needed to see if they were in-line with the interpretations of the early Christians. Guess, what? The Catholics were in-line with the early Christian teaching authorities again.

The Sweet, Sweet Spirit

Fast forward a few months to the night of my first official Deacon meeting where we discussed our plans for the new-year. The Head-Deacon spent a lot of time going over all of the action plans to share the Gospel in the new-year. As I and one other gentleman were new and soon to be ordained Deacons, we spent a lot of time discussing the details of the plans and the general duties of the job. The Pastor and the other Deacons also said some wonderful intercessory prayers asking for a special blessing for us soon to be ordained Deacons. Although, I was a little nervous about this new role for me, I left the church with a positive outlook and went home to my family.

Later on that night I continued my prayerful study of the Gospel of John. I first said a few prayers and I then picked up at the beginning of Chapter 17 where I had left off the night before. When I got to verse 11 of Jesus’ intercessory prayer, a verse I know I have read dozens of times before, I saw it in a whole new light and I felt that our Lord was speaking to me directly from His Word. It was a light that pointed to our Lord’s desire that we be one as a Church, and a light that meant that my family and I should be united in our worship of Him. Right then and there I made my decision that I had to leave my church.

I called the Pastor in the morning and as usual he was happy to hear from me and he inquired about my family. This made it all the more tough, but I had to let him know my decision before I chickened out. I must say that this was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. This was the church that brought me back to God. This was the church where as soon as I heard the first sermon I knew I was being called to Him. This was the church where we had wonderful revivals and I learned so much about putting on the armor of God. This was the church where I said the sinner’s prayer and was ‘born-again’ into eternal salvation (although I now realize that it was my Baptism as a child that brought me into God’s Family and Graces). This was the church where I had made some wonderful like-minded friends. This was a church with the sweet-sweet spirit. This was My special church! To tell a man, that I am eternally indebted to for helping me know and love God, that I was leaving his church was not easy. So, I just spit it all out about how I was studying the Gospel of John in my quite time and I ran across Jesus’ intercessory prayer. I told him that when I read those verses I just knew I had to leave and go be with my family in the Catholic Church. My Pastor, kind as always, didn’t stand in my way. He just reminded me that as long as I’m praying about it he would never stand in my way or in the way of any man and his family. I appreciated that answer, because I was afraid I would have gotten into a doctrinal discussion and there was no way I wanted to argue with this man I highly respect and I still believe is doing the work of God. Besides, I’m sure it was my Pastor’s and the other Deacons’ special intercessory prayers for me on the night of the Deacon meeting that led me to the blessings I am now receiving in Catholic Church via the Sacraments.

Thanks for allowing me to share this story. Peace.

 

[InTheCloud]

Great story!

 

[New Creation]

MrStain, that was absolutely delightful! What a compelling story!

 

[BAChristian]

Inspiring story. God Bless.

 

[MrStain]

Great story!

MrStain, that was absolutely delightful! What a compelling story!

Inspiring story. God Bless.

Thanks so much for your kind words! I wrote that shortly after joining the Church a few years back (2006) and my journey continues to be full of excitement. It seems that there is a never ending deposit of things to learn about our faith and each one just adds to the beauty of the Church in my mind. Thank you God!

 

[MrStain]

I want to convert to Catholicism.

Are you serious? If so, that is wonderful!!!

I would first recommend you visit your nearest Catholic Church and ask to meet with the Pastor and enroll in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA).

Also, please feel free to reach out to us on this forum if you have any questions about our faith in Christ.

God bless.

 

[flapperjacker2]

on tim i found jess nd he said tht i shuld be this thing and id d

 

[G-Com]

I'm really only a couple of months in on my journey. I can't wait to receive the body and blood of our Lord this Easter.

But right now I am exactly where I need to be. For that, I am thankful.