- May 31, 2004
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Hi everyone. 
I would like to tell you all the story of how I came to be a Catholic. Here goes.
I was raised as a Southern Baptist. My family almost never attended church together but my parents usually made sure that I made it to Sunday School at the local Southern Baptist church with my other two sisters who are younger than me. During this time, I learned mostly about moral theology. I mainly remember being taught that drugs were wrong and premarital sex is wrong and that sort of thing. I don't remember ever being taught anything at all about the Protestant concept of being born again.
One day I started picking up these tracts that were at a tract rack near the entrance of the church. I took them home and read them. I remember understanding them but I never really made the step to become born again yet. Then one day I think it was for Easter my Dad got me and my younger sister (but not the youngest sister because she was too young) an NIV Bible. I went to Sunday School one day and told the Sunday School teacher that I wanted to become saved. She told me to read the Gospel of John. So I went home and read the Gospel of John and became saved that evening. I literally read the entire Gospel of John in one evening. I had a hard time putting it down!
So that is how I became born again.
Unfortunately I did not become baptised at that time and I kept backsliding numerous times. I think that at one point I didn't go to church for a few years. The people at church didn't seem to care either. They never called to see how things were going and they never came by and visited to make sure that everything was okay. You'd think they would have done that.
Then at around the age of 16 or 17, I started going to church again. This time i experimented with a couple of denominations. Namely I experimented with the Nazarene church and a Fundamentalist Baptist church. Neither of these churches provided the answers that I needed and I was left unsatisfied because I did not yet have these answers. I knew that there was some explanation to many of the verses that confused me but neither of these denominations could explain them. I even looked online in a lot of different places and none of the Protestant or Evangelical apologetics websites explained them either. I also looked on various web forums and such and I still received no answer. I prayed that God would show me His Truth.
During the next few years I experimented with the Occult, Wicca, and Islam. I studied many different religions. I experimented with Islam for only a few weeks. As for the Occult and Wicca. Well, I was involved with those for about 6 months for each. I finally gave up on both and went back to Christianity.
Then a couple more years passed. I was on Christian Forums one day when I noticed this guy with a Catholic icon posting in the News and Current Events forum. I won't name who he is. I PMed him and he offered to help me understand Catholicism. The first thing he taught me was that there was a line of popes that is documented and that goes all the way back to Peter, the Apostle. Being that I love history, this really amazed me and I did some research. What he said was true! Over the next few months he taught me more and more about Catholicism and answered any questions I had.
Soon enough I was convinced that I wanted to convert to Catholicism and so I contacted my local priest. This was about a month before Easter of 2005. He taught me for about a month and I read a book that was about 500 pages long about Catholicism and was going to convert that Easter. Well, I wasn't ready. I freaked out about a week before it and moved away from the Catholic Church for a while.
During the summer of 2005 I decided to check out a different church. I loved it! The church was beautiful and they also offered an RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program. I signed up for this program and met with a priest there for about a month or two. He helped to answer questions I had. I went to Mass each Sunday (without receiving communion) and met with him and did reading.
Finally, RCIA started in September of 2005. I started the classes and really loved the classes. I was learning a lot and was loving it! I grew and grew spiritually and although I "flip flopped" a couple of times, I finally entered into full communion with the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil of 2006!
I would like to tell you all the story of how I came to be a Catholic. Here goes.I was raised as a Southern Baptist. My family almost never attended church together but my parents usually made sure that I made it to Sunday School at the local Southern Baptist church with my other two sisters who are younger than me. During this time, I learned mostly about moral theology. I mainly remember being taught that drugs were wrong and premarital sex is wrong and that sort of thing. I don't remember ever being taught anything at all about the Protestant concept of being born again.
One day I started picking up these tracts that were at a tract rack near the entrance of the church. I took them home and read them. I remember understanding them but I never really made the step to become born again yet. Then one day I think it was for Easter my Dad got me and my younger sister (but not the youngest sister because she was too young) an NIV Bible. I went to Sunday School one day and told the Sunday School teacher that I wanted to become saved. She told me to read the Gospel of John. So I went home and read the Gospel of John and became saved that evening. I literally read the entire Gospel of John in one evening. I had a hard time putting it down!
So that is how I became born again.Unfortunately I did not become baptised at that time and I kept backsliding numerous times. I think that at one point I didn't go to church for a few years. The people at church didn't seem to care either. They never called to see how things were going and they never came by and visited to make sure that everything was okay. You'd think they would have done that.
Then at around the age of 16 or 17, I started going to church again. This time i experimented with a couple of denominations. Namely I experimented with the Nazarene church and a Fundamentalist Baptist church. Neither of these churches provided the answers that I needed and I was left unsatisfied because I did not yet have these answers. I knew that there was some explanation to many of the verses that confused me but neither of these denominations could explain them. I even looked online in a lot of different places and none of the Protestant or Evangelical apologetics websites explained them either. I also looked on various web forums and such and I still received no answer. I prayed that God would show me His Truth.
During the next few years I experimented with the Occult, Wicca, and Islam. I studied many different religions. I experimented with Islam for only a few weeks. As for the Occult and Wicca. Well, I was involved with those for about 6 months for each. I finally gave up on both and went back to Christianity.
Then a couple more years passed. I was on Christian Forums one day when I noticed this guy with a Catholic icon posting in the News and Current Events forum. I won't name who he is. I PMed him and he offered to help me understand Catholicism. The first thing he taught me was that there was a line of popes that is documented and that goes all the way back to Peter, the Apostle. Being that I love history, this really amazed me and I did some research. What he said was true! Over the next few months he taught me more and more about Catholicism and answered any questions I had.
Soon enough I was convinced that I wanted to convert to Catholicism and so I contacted my local priest. This was about a month before Easter of 2005. He taught me for about a month and I read a book that was about 500 pages long about Catholicism and was going to convert that Easter. Well, I wasn't ready. I freaked out about a week before it and moved away from the Catholic Church for a while.
During the summer of 2005 I decided to check out a different church. I loved it! The church was beautiful and they also offered an RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program. I signed up for this program and met with a priest there for about a month or two. He helped to answer questions I had. I went to Mass each Sunday (without receiving communion) and met with him and did reading.
Finally, RCIA started in September of 2005. I started the classes and really loved the classes. I was learning a lot and was loving it! I grew and grew spiritually and although I "flip flopped" a couple of times, I finally entered into full communion with the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil of 2006!
