For Catholics--if you are Catholic, are you a life long Catholic or did you eventually convert to Catholicism.

Question

If you did convert, I am really curious to know what it was that you believed before, and especially, what it was that made you turn to the truth.

I myself am a life-long Catholic, but I am always curious to know what it is that brings others and love hearing stories of how the Holy Spirit works within us, to open up our eyes to the truth. The Easter Vigil mass is my favorite all year...when we witness the baptism of those becoming Catholic. It is a beautiful mass and I am just filled with emotion at the site of seeing others being born into a life with God.

So please, share your stories. I would love to hear them.

May God be with you all!

Answer 1

sorry for interrupting, but I can't help noticing that none of you actually found your own path!! you were all influenced by at least one person of significance. this shows how how easily led you are. the whole point of belief in to believe with conviction, you all seem to believe because that's what someone told you to do. where was the personal journey, where are the personal Epiphany!

I have spoken to tebone and know that she has walked in with at least some knowledge of doctrine and Apostolic history, though we disagree, I respect her opinion, but do the rest of you ever question the churches past?

hey! I love everyone, but I don't think the sins of your church should ever be forgotten or absolved

live 4 love
ST

also, coverts do you know the atrocities that your new church caused to mankind in its infancy, never mind its adolescence

Answer 2

Iam a Catholic convert. I was raised with a Roman Catholic father, a Baptist mother, and a Roman Catholic grandmother who left the church but the church did not leave her. I was not baptized as a baby and basically my grandmother taught me about God and the bible and I went to Baptist church with her. After church each Sunday she would ask me what was the lesson and I would tell her, and then we would go home and read her bible concerning that days lesson, say the Lord's Supper, and she would give me the correct interpretation of that lesson.. I was raised basically Catholic. After my grandmother passed away. I continued in the baptist church for a while. That was until I was in Sunday school one Sunday and the teen preacher was giving a sermon about the things we should not engage in, such as smoking and drinking and drugs, having sex before marriage etc. And I was thinking yeah those things do harm. Well it was Mother's Day, and after church we were taking my Mom out for brunch. When lo and behold here is my teen preacher sitting there drinking a beer and smoking. I left the baptist church that day.I was 15. I went on thru the years trying to find a church(100's of them) that preached what I believed , finally I just gave up and followed my own path, the way my grandmother taught me. And had done so for most of my life. Then 2 years ago the Lord led me to His Church, the Holy Catholic Church. I finally found the church I had been searching for for so long. I will be baptized and confirmed and partake of Eucharist Easter 2008

Answer 3

I was baptized Catholic (at my grandmother's insistence), but raised atheist. I was taught to mock religion when I was growing up.

As a teen, many of my friends became born-again Christians through the work of a fellow student who was very evangelical. I tried to see what they were understanding was true about God, but it didn't make sense to me.

As a young adult without a moral compass, I did all the usual things young adults do when they are self-indulgent. Then when I was 24, I had a rather amazing encounter with God and finally had to admit that He is real.

Not knowing what to do next, I started attending a friend's charismatic protestant church. I learned enough about the Bible to teach the middle and high school kids, met my husband and got married. Then that church took a major left turn and got really scary.

We left and began to search Church History and visit churches to find something True. We were evangelical anglican for a while, but also investigated numerous other denominations. Which wasn't difficult as my husband played in a Christian band and was a very popular worship leader who filled in for other people in numerous congregations when they were on vacation or ill.

Eventually, my husband told me he thought we were supposed to be Catholic. I thought he was crazy! But I agreed to take the classes because I knew he was pursuing the truth and there was "no way" we'd find the truth in Catholicism.

Boy was I wrong! There is so much misinformation about Catholicism out there...and on Y!A, too. Anyway, we converted in 2003.

Answer 4

Life-long Catholic. Raised by a Catholic mother and Protestant father. I was 28 when my dad converted to Catholicism. I'll never forget the look of joy on his face when he became Catholic during our church's Easter vigil. Sadly, he passed away very suddenly six weeks later.

Answer 5

Lifelong Catholic.

I stopped practicing my faith when I entered college, and then started attending a non-denominational church because a girl in whom I was romantically interested went there. The girl eventually dumped me.

I then started going to a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witness because an acquaintance wanted to set me up with her daughter. I found out that she merely used her daughter to recruit me to the Kingdom Hall. It was very twisted.

All the while that I was away from the Catholic Church (about 8 years), I felt that I was missing something in my life. Attending the other churches did not satisfy my soul and my yearning to be close to God. I returned to the Catholic Church will love, humility, and gratitude.

Answer 6

I'm a lifelong Catholic, and I really don't see myself converting to any other religion. My religous teacher told me this story once though, about a Mormon man who wanted to prove just how corrupt and evil the Catholic church was. What he wanted to do was write a book about it and enlighten people, so in order to do so he attended the sermons at a Catholic church for about a year. At the end of the year, the Morman man converted to Catholicism and instead devoted his life to trying to get others to do the same. Ironic, huh?

Answer 7

I am a convert. I was raised in a liberal Protestant denomination that really had no firm convictions about anything. They were completely compromised with the world.

As a teenager I became an atheist and enjoyed asking tough questions to Christians. Only one person gave me reasonable answers: A young Catholic seminarian. He showed me that Catholicism is faith seeking understanding. I began to rethink my life, how my self-seeking as an atheist was making me unhappy, and how God designed us for happiness in him. I enrolled in a Catholic college, met Catholic friends, studied philosophy with Franciscan thinkers, and eventually married a beautiful Catholic woman.

God has blessed our lives with the happiness he promised.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 8

I came late to the Church, and so feel a particular kinship with St. Augustine in that regard.

From a "no particular religion" childhood, I became Baptist in early adulthood. Although I owe my Baptist brethren much, especially developing the habit of reading and studying the Bible, this was also what started me questioning what I was being told ... there seemed to be something (rather, a lot of somethings) missing.

I stopped going to church and got more deeply into studying the Scriptures as well as the early Church fathers, and one thing led to another until I found myself in an RCIA class. There was an immediate sense that I had, finally, come "home".

Deo gratias.

Answer 9

I am a life long Catholic.

I was raised Catholic and when I grew up and looked around at other faiths, I found that Catholicism answered all of my questions. I was already home.

With love in Christ.

Answer 10

I was baptized Catholic, got my First Communion and First Reconciliation.
I am no longer Catholic, I consider myself Christian. If this denomination brings you closer to God, good for you.