A Christian's Road Home to Rome and Journey Onward
The other day was the three-year anniversary of my entering the Church. And as I’ve been helping dear ones through their own conversions this year, it occurs to me that once again, I’ve left my own conversion story hanging. Here is another chapter. The first week I moved to Oxford, Mississippi, for graduate school, I …
Continue reading “I went to Mass and didn’t like it: Faltering steps in my journey to the Church”
My next post in the current series is already queued up and scheduled; but I think I’m going to delay it for a timely reflection that turns out to be quite apropos. [Part one. Part two.] Last night I gave my testimony to a room full of Baptists. On Wednesday nights I attend a home …
Part two of a longer piece on “Falling from Grace.” [Part one.] Catholics: Salvation is a Journey So then, Catholics view salvation not as a single, momentary event, but as a road, a journey, a pilgrimage, a race (Hebrews 12:1). We have not yet arrived at our destination, the heavenly Jerusalem. There is certainly, in …
This came out of the blue, off the cuff, just as you read it, when a friend on Facebook asked me to sum up in one point why I converted to Catholicism. This is probably the most succinct account you’ll ever read from me. It’s hard to narrow down to just one. But I’ll give …
Today at Mass we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. According to the Roman Missal, the actual date of the feast worldwide was last Thursday, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday; but in countries in which Corpus Christi is not a Holy Day of Obligation, …
I’ve been doing some reading lately. Feeling slightly ashamed, I used to admit to my Catholic friends that I was reading a Protestant book, but I don’t anymore. No one has ever said anything. Whether a book is Catholic or Protestant has little bearing on its read-worthiness; both Catholics and Protestants have worthy things to …
Tonight, I go to bed a Catholic, having been sealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, welcomed into the arms of the Mother Church, and communing in the true Body and Blood of my Lord. I am entirely overwhelmed.
One of the biggest questions in my Catholic journey has been this: How does God view the Catholic and Orthodox and Protestant churches, and their schism with one another? God desires unity in His Church. St. Paul writes to us, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all …
Since I’ve been on this road, I’ve been reluctant to use the term “conversion” in referring to my becoming Catholic, since in common parlance, “to convert” connotes a changing of form or character: con·vert (kən-vûrt´) v. con·vert·ed, con·vert·ing, con·verts v.tr. 1. To change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product; transform: convert water into ice. 2. To change (something) from one use, function, …
