Conversion Stories

[Betrublu4Him]

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.

HI! Has anyone mention the Suprised by Truth series???? They are convert stories complied by Patrick Madrid. A must read for any and all 'Catholics' to be or otherwise. These stories truly brings one home and reassures one's faith. Can't beat the scriptural reasons why many (of different religions) come to the Catholic Church.

God Bless you on your journey!

 

[Franze]

Awesome thread, thank for tell your stories.

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

may this thread serv the purpose of our Lord

 

[Diane_Windsor]

Purpose fulfilled.

 

[JesseRaymondBassett]

Hi,
Not to bring back an old thread or anything, but I am in the process of conversion to the Catholic faith.

Its hard to explain here on the boards...but if someone wants to send me a PM I can explain it in fuller details.

 

[Franze]

I remembered this thread, unforgetable.

 

[D'Ann]

Tonight, I was sitting in Mass and my Father was saying the Homily. He mentioned something about conversion. When does one know when they have converted? He said something that caught me by surprise. He said that we all are continually the conversion process.

I believe what he was saying is that once we make this decision and turn our lives and hearts over to Christ and truly and sincerely start our walk of faith... that we slowly have our lives converting to be more like Christ. That we all are a work in progress or in other words a conversion in progress. That becoming Catholic is only the first part of the conversion... the other parts of conversion is the daily living our life for God. That the conversion continues on and on. I hope this makes some sense. It did to me at the time.

What is my conversion story? It started when I was very young. I grew up Pentecostal. After I married, I became Methodist. Then for some time, I grew away from going to church. One day, my grandma reminded me of how important Jesus is and she made me promise to take my kids to church. I kept my promise and we attended a Lutheran church. I've taught Sunday school at the Methodist church and the Lutheran church too.

I've always believed that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God and the message of salvation through my upbringing, but I grew far from God in my heart. I didn't truly embrace Him. Although, while attending the Lutheran church, I started to truly pray and open up my heart to God again. I reached out to Him and started to pray for my husband to start attending church again too.

About 6 months after I started praying for my husband, he came home one day from work and was soooooo excited. He was selling advertisement in his magazine and in the process of trying to sell to a Catholic Book Store owner, he discovered that the Catholic book store had tons of history books on Rome. He was independently studying the history of Rome and he was learning about the Christians who were being torchered and fed to the lions... etc... When he saw all of those books on Rome, he started to ask questions and the owner had the answers and was helpful. That is how it all started.

When my husband came home sharing this information with me, I was scared that he was going to become Catholic and he said..."no way"... "I'm not into tradition and I'm too much of a free spirit and independent... never into all of that discipline strict religious stuff". Famous last words. He kept going back to the book store asking questions and everytime he would come home and tell me about it. I started to really pray and I came to the conclusion that I wanted my husband to be with God and if he wanted to become Catholic than so be it. Atleast he would be back with God and attending church again.

My husband did attend mass and even stayed to pray the Rosary after mass with the Rosary group. I didn't attend mass with him at this point. I noticed that he was changing in a good way, although, he has always been a good person, a good husband and a good father, he was now a man of faith. I knew that I had to learn more about Catholicism and that I had a lot of questions myself. So I started asking questions and seeking answers. For the first time, there were answers to my questions.

But what really grabbed my heart and mind and soul... it was the actual mass itself. The first time that I had ever attended mass, I noticed a holiness and serenity that I never noticed before. There was reverence and honor that I hadn't felt ever. Also, I don't know why, but I had tears flowing out of my eyes... like a cleansing or something... it happened while we were kneeling and praying before the Eucharist was given out, I couldn't go up and receive the Eucharist because I wasn't Catholic... but I wanted the Eucharist so badly. I knew what then and there that God wanted me there and that for the first time in my life... there was complete truth in fullness. I don't know how to explain it... it is like waking up after a long sleep and feeling the bright sun shine on your face. The girls attended faith formation classes and hubby and I attended RCIA and 7 years later here I am... LOL

God's Peace,

Debbie

 

[benedictine]

I decided that Anglicanism had lost its roots, most likely its apostolic succession, and was just too liberal and too worldly. Far too often, a mockery was made of the Mass, including an official "Clown Mass" from the Flagship Episcopal Church Pariosh in the United States, complete with mimed sermon.

I find that the Catholic faith has the fullness of the faith, and therefore, to the Catholic Faith I go.

 

[bostonlass]

bump

 

[Tawny]

I have bumped this. I will post my story in a bit.....

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

I have bumped this. I will post my story in a bit.....

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

bump for advent

 

[Carrye]

Bumping for new conversion stories.

 

[sempervirens]

I love this story

How Father Brown Led Sir Alec Guinness to the Church

http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=6679

In his biography Sir Alec first felt the tug of the church seeing the warmth complete strangers had for him while walking about in his costume of Father Brown.

on a related side note - St. Padre Pio and Obi-Wan Kenobi - separated at birth?

 

[Febe]

Ah... someone wants my story?! ... He, he...

I was an ordained deacon - gr: diakonos - in the Swedish church for several years, and served God that way...
But as time went on, my church changed a lot...:o
It went pro gay-marriage, accepted abortion, liked pre-marriage sexual relations (practised among our priests) and more of the kind... I felt not at home anymore...
And I was embarresed about some sermons that my children heard...
So I went to a Catholic church, and liked it...
I chosed a catholic school and studied moore about the Church history. We, as a family, desided to convert. As I worked in another church, I had to wait, but my daughters became catholics, and my husband also... And now, this blessed Easter, I became a fully catholic also!!! See photo...

 

[Kusanagi]

Right now, I am in the process of my Journey Home. I feel that I have been converted in the heart by the seeds that have been planted through out my life, though I have yet to answer the call for continuing conversion to recive the rest of the sacraments of initiation. However, I am willing to offer my story on how I came back to the Catholic.

I was baptized into the Catholic faith and been raised in the Catholic faith up untill I was around six years old. To this day, I hardly remember anything from the CCD classes. I fell out of the church at the age of six after my parents moved to a different town and never bothered to look into a Catholic Church as well as my spiritual upbringing. My biological father only cared for himself and my mother could not raise me to be Catholic since she was a Baptist. Though with my father's self-centerness lead to my mother divorcing him when I was eight years old. After I fell out of the Church at the age of six, I slowly became an agnostic.

Through out my agnostic years, I oftenly question if there is a God but I did not actively searched for the answeres. I found out why I was not interested in religion, it was because I felt that I was not ready. After my mother remarried to my step-father (He was a lapsed Catholic). They tried to get me to go back to church, but I did not want to because I was not interested/not ready and it was a wrong denomination (They tried to get me to attend a Baptist church). However there have been seeds planted in my mind about Jesus. One primary source was from my Grandparents on my father's side, who are devout Catholics. My other source was from the History Channel when they do specials on Jesus and the Catholic Church as well as dating a couple of Catholic women (whom had been through CCD and recived their sacraments) and having Catholic friends in college.

It was not untill two years ago that I was involved in a fender bender accident when driving out of my college parking lot shook me to believe in God. What I came to find out on my own is that after the accident, I began to realise the value of life and at that moment felt the Holy Spirit that has been dormant in me tugging at my heart. From there I began to actively believe in God as well as accepting Jesus as my savior. For a while I was a non-denominational Christian in a search for a home church as well as what I believe within Christianity.

I came to a conclusion that I was Catholic at heart because I believe in transubsantiation as well as the spiritual infalibility of the pope. After that conclusion I started to attend weekday masses in many local Catholic churches in my area and eventualy to my home parish that I am in now. Just recently, I introduced myself to the parish priest and told him that I had been inquiering about the Church and that I wish to revert back, I also let him know that I want to get my feet wet before I make a comitment.

 

[foxsta]

i am in the thinking process atm...thinking, should i continue through with it now, wait or not at all...the dilema

 

[Bartek]

I was an ordained deacon - gr: diakonos - in the Swedish church for several years, and served God that way...

hello, great news and welcome home
may i ask You? i read a book about monastyr community in benedictine way in Sweden, created by Protestants (!). They became later Catholics, but part of brothers are still Protestant. they need a priest and one Polish benedictin came to Sweden. th ebook was wrote in 1980s.
have You some information about them?

 

[Bartek]

i was rised Catholic, but not intensive practising. When i was 17 i was fascinating in zen and martial arts.
i started to practice aikido. it was the way of my life. i chosen all in my life only to have time fr aikido.
after 3 years somethings wrong started to happen with me... when i stayed before some opponent i exactely knew, what that man will do after a moment. first, i feeled like a God, what a power over all men...
but later i lost control over that power. i had terrible halucinations all the time. i heard voices, abusing Mary and Jesus.
I meat a priest and tould him all. he sended me to exorciste. and he ordered me to make "general confesion" . after that i feeled peace in heart. i was later in monastyr in my town asking monks for pray. they prayed over me and i was free.
it was 8 years ago.

 

[Virgil the Roman]

I was raised Lutheran (LCMS). Entered the Church 3 1/2 yrs ago on Epiphany Sunday.

what made you join the catholic church? sorry old thread i'm reading.