What Kind of Convert Are You?

[Lil Red]

revert to the Faith

[TeresaAvila]

I was baptised on April 10, 1977 a Zion United Methodist, until I converted to Catholicism and on April 10, 2004 I became a daughter of Holy Mother Church, The Greatest and Most Blessed Day of My life!!!

[Lil Red]

welcome home!

[Peccator]

Came from the Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church...

[Tarcisius]

I was a lapsed Lutheran.

[LouisvilleFan]

I read an interesting statistic the other day on a vocations web site that said one-third of seminarians are converts to Catholicism. That's pretty amazing... even with more Christians becoming Catholic, converts are still a small fraction of all Catholics, but we produce far more than our fair share of seminarians. It makes sense because converts are naturally taking their faith more seriously if they go through the trouble of attending RCIA and whatnot. There are people who convert only because their spouse is Catholic, but I believe most converts are sincere about it.

As it happens, I want to begin discernment ASAP... at least as much as I can for the time being. The Louisville diocese requires you to have been Catholic for two years, which is definitely a good idea. I wouldn't want to even think about pastoring a parish without knowing what it's like to be in a lay Catholic's shoes.

[Lil Red]

wow, thanks for sharing!

[HisChild]

Red, I see you're at it again! You are so lovable !!!! And yet. ...

Pax Christi,
d.

[Lil Red]

i am NOT crazy! just a little disturbed :

[Robbi]

All the time ive spent in Phatmass, ive never noticed this thread...so here it goes.....

Cradle Catholic brought up by strict catholic parents. Was "made" to go to mass every Sunday because "they said so". Once I got older and could make decisions for myself (... i was 25..) i only attended mass and confession on Easter and Christmas - just to make my parents happy.

One confession - i got asked to read a passage of the bible for penance. I didnt even have a bible, so I didnt do the penance for about a year until I bought one. (Not doing the penance was burning me inside!!)

Forgetting what passage I was supposed to read, I read the whole thing front to back (skipping Numbers as I recall.. ..).

The bible opened up a zillion questions I had, which my Baptist friend at work helped me on. What I didnt realise was he was pulling me away from the Catholic faith. Told me some fibs (un-intentional I hope) about Catholic Theology and I almost took his word for it! He gave me some Christian music - Third Day to listen to.

I finally had the internet at age 26!! I play guitar so I decided to get some Tabs off the interent and stumbled upon CGR. Before too long I found the forums, and a Catholic forum too. Believe it or not, it was an x-catholic by the screen name of ICTHUS on the Catholic - CGR forum, who had a huge influence on me becoming a practising Catholic.

From then on, ive been learning more about Catholicism daily and jumping into Apologetics now and again.

sorry for my life story.... woops.

Peace,
Rob

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Robbi' post='944502' date='Apr 12 2006, 02:00 AM']
The bible opened up a zillion questions I had, which my Baptist friend at work helped me on. What I didnt realise was he was pulling me away from the Catholic faith. Told me some fibs (un-intentional I hope) about Catholic Theology and I almost took his word for it! He gave me some Christian music - Third Day to listen to.
[/quote]

Nearly all of my Christian friends are Baptist of some flavor or another, like non-denominational or that funny "Christian church" denomination and none of them are knowingly telling lies about Catholicism to pull Catholics away. Most lay-Baptists have many misconceptions about Catholicism, but I'm noticing that seminarians and pastors are striving to accurately understand and portray Catholic doctrine so that when they argue against Catholicism, it really is Catholicism they are arguing against and not something else that they thing is Catholicism but really isn't (in other words, not making the same mistakes as Jack Chick . So if any Protestant is telling you things about the Catholic Church that you know are false statements, in all likelihood they simply ignorant of the truth. Someone who knows what they're talking about also knows it is pointless to tell lies when the truth is so easy to learn on your own.

On the other hand, if any Catholic is telling you things about the Church that you know are false, most likely they're a cradle Catholic between the ages of 20 and 45 ;-)

Edited April 30, 2006 by LouisvilleFan

[blovedwolfofgod]

amen to that LVFan. grrr to the cradle Catholics sometimes... dont know what they got...

As for me, baptised Catholic, then went the way of the Church haters... became a Baptist, marveled at the 'ease' of salvation. (faith alone sure is a good deal now that Im Catholic). Got 'saved' at the Baptist church... then my stepdad began a religous supression... so there was no God. Then I did that for awhile, as a staunch anti-Catholic... spreading the lies, stuff like that. (One time my Grandpa just screamed at me. He was a very humble man... so needless to say, im pretty sure I cried or almost did... he got tired of the lies and ignorance I was spreading and believing) Then I went to Catholic school, got my other two sacraments of initiation, then actually became Catholic in college when the prots challenged my faith. (my RCIA consisted of a pamphlet and a three week wait til the 5th graders got confirmed. I was sixteen.)

Thank God that He is forgiving!

[jswranch]

Baptized Episcopalian (Infant). My dad is an Episcopal Priest. As a child through highschool, I was sent to all sorts of various denominational youth events (Pentacostal, congregational, baptist, fundamentalist, evangelical). There, I have been slane in the spirit (twice), taught to read the bible as a fundamentalist. I have cheered when someone raised their hand in youth group for having asked Jesus to come into their heart for the first time, where the leader declared the new christian's name was written in the book of life and all present would be one happy family. I have received the lord's supper from the Mormons, and prayed the mormon prayer that God would show me whether the Book of Mormon was God's. I read the bible cover to cover. I listened to the youth pastor describe how God made the world look older than 10,000 years to test the faith of scientists.

Soon, I found myself dabbling in high anglicanism (or Anglo-Catholic), like my father. As I reasoned/bible read my way out of sola fide, sola scriptura, I pledged my alligiance to the Anglican 'branch theory' where one, holy, apostolic, catholic applied to the anglicans, orthodox, and romans. The Anglican church provided a great 'via media' or middle way between Rome and Luther. When I asked why we anglicans did not need to be in communion with the Pope, the response was, "Because the Orthodox are not in full communion, so we do not have to be either."

Eventually, I stumbled into the Catholic stance on contraception. We practiced NFP as a couple. Years later we learned of marital chastity and
Theology of the Body. Scales fell from the eyes. We loved the new discipline and found it to be an undeniable truth for all. I became inscensed when I learned all major denominations banned contraception until the 1930s when the Anglicans broke the beaver dam. I read some J. H. C. Newman and asked, "Why am I not Catholic?" I worked through the issues (BVM dogmas) and was confirmed Catholic 20 November, 2005.

(To their credit, the holiness, faith, and desire to serve Christ in non-catholics provides examples Catholics should learn from.)

[Luthien]

[quote name='jswranch' post='969469' date='May 3 2006, 09:46 AM']Eventually, I stumbled into the Catholic stance on contraception. We practiced NFP as a couple. Years later we learned of marital chastity and
Theology of the Body. Scales fell from the eyes. We loved the new discipline and found it to be an undeniable truth for all. I became inscensed when I learned all major denominations banned contraception until the 1930s when the Anglicans broke the beaver dam. I read some J. H. C. Newman and asked, "Why am I not Catholic?" I worked through the issues (BVM dogmas) and was confirmed Catholic 20 November, 2005.

(To their credit, the holiness, faith, and desire to serve Christ in non-catholics provides examples Catholics should learn from.)
[/quote]


Thats so awesome! I love how beautiful chastity and JP2's Theology of the Body is, it is truely a treasure trove.

As for myself, I am a cradle Catholic. Dont throw tomatoes at me!!

j/k Anyway

I've been a Catholic all of my life, my faith has and always will be a gradual growth. I've never had a Road to Damascus experience, but if I were to combine them all I would have one I suppose. Each year I see that I've been converted in little ways. My growth in maturity has been accompanied by a spiritual growth. Whenever I look back a previous year, I see how much I've changed for the better. My faith is organic and incremental. Its always building upon itself, obviously from the grace of the sacraments. I don't know what I'd do without Eucharist and Reconciliation, they are literal life savers. I'm sure I'll never fully appreciate these sacraments, not until I pass over into the next.

Im also extremely grateful for having been raised in the Faith. I know that many cradle Catholics tend to take this gift for granted, but I am not one of them. All I want to do now is to show others through example how awesome Catholicism is by educating myself and living a full Catholic faith.

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='Luthien' post='970791' date='May 4 2006, 08:53 AM']
Thats so awesome! I love how beautiful chastity and JP2's Theology of the Body is, it is truely a treasure trove.

As for myself, I am a cradle Catholic. Dont throw tomatoes at me!!

j/k Anyway

I've been a Catholic all of my life, my faith has and always will be a gradual growth. I've never had a Road to Damascus experience, but if I were to combine them all I would have one I suppose. Each year I see that I've been converted in little ways. My growth in maturity has been accompanied by a spiritual growth. Whenever I look back a previous year, I see how much I've changed for the better. My faith is organic and incremental. Its always building upon itself, obviously from the grace of the sacraments. I don't know what I'd do without Eucharist and Reconciliation, they are literal life savers. I'm sure I'll never fully appreciate these sacraments, not until I pass over into the next.

Im also extremely grateful for having been raised in the Faith. I know that many cradle Catholics tend to take this gift for granted, but I am not one of them. All I want to do now is to show others through example how awesome Catholicism is by educating myself and living a full Catholic faith.
[/quote]