Written Stories

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God Doesn’t Know Me

“Brother Merrill began to pray, and placed his hand on the forehead of the littlest child who stood first in line. Like a line of dominoes, each child tumbled backward — except for me. Later, my mother explained that these children were ‘slain in the Spirit.’ As I stood, awkward and embarrassed, in front of the packed living room, I had my first encounter with a fear that God did not know me. Why would every child in that line experience God, except me?”

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Nov 03 2011
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My Conversion

Mark McNeil | Assemblies of God, Conversion Stories, Pentecostal, Uncategorized

I am about to turn 40 years old. The older I get, the less inclined I am to speak about myself. I’d rather talk about Augustine, Aquinas, or someone else that time has vindicated their right to be heard. On the other hand, telling my story reveals to those who listen that the things I speak about are things that have guided the course of my life and truly reflect what is most meaningful to me. There is an enduring value, I think, to listening to the life-story of another. The more durable, coherent and compelling the discoveries of another turn out to be, the more meaningful and transforming they may turn out to be for another. Since my life has several significant “twists” and “turns,” some find it at least curious that I have settled in the Roman Catholic Church. My arrival in the Catholic Church was neither quick nor easy. This arrival was not in the recent past. My initial choice to be Catholic and the present are separated by more than ten years. I think time has shown that my choice to be Catholic was neither hasty nor shallow. I hope you will find the following brief account helpful in your own journey.

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Oct 31 2011
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Hauled Aboard the Ark

Peter Kreeft | Calvinist, Conversion Stories, Presbyterian & Reformed, Reformed Presbyterian

I was born into a loving, believing community, a Protestant “mother church” (the Reformed Church) which, though it had not for me the fullness of the faith, had strong and genuine piety. I believed, mainly because of the good example of my parents and my church. The faith of my parents, Sunday School teachers, ministers, and relatives made a real difference to their lives, a difference big enough to compensate for many shortcomings. “Love covers a multitude of sins.”

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Oct 04 2011
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I Have Come Home

Janice Lockwood | Conversion Stories, Evangelical, Jewish

I needed to know how it was that Marcus Grodi and his guests, such as the Jewish convert Rosalind Moss and some former Pentecostals, had a personal relationship with Christ. How could this be if they were Catholic? One Tuesday, when the Pentecostals were testifying, I beckoned to my husband.

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Sep 26 2011
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Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic

David Currie | Conversion Stories, Evangelical, Fundamentalist

The day President John F. Kennedy was shot is one of my most vivid childhood memories. I was in sixth grade playing on the playground when the rumors started. Just before the dismissal bell at the end of the day, the principal made the announcement over the PA system: JFK had been assassinated.

School was dismissed in eerie silence. Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked the half mile home that afternoon. My sorrow was almost overwhelming for a sixth-grader, not only because our President was dead, but primarily because in my heart of hearts I believed that he was in hell.

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Sep 12 2011
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Into Peter’s Ark

Thomas Storck | Agnostic, Anglican & Episcopalian, Atheist, Atheist/Agnostic, Conversion Stories, Uncategorized

I found other aspects of Catholic life attractive as well. For example, while a senior in high school, the reading of Richard Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism began a lifelong passion for the social teaching of the Catholic Church. All these things were attracting me to Rome during my years as an Anglican, although I tried to keep the emotional pull of Rome separate from my intellectual considerations about conversion.

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Aug 30 2011
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Preacher’s Kid & Catholic

Denise Bossert | Conversion Stories, Uncategorized

The Christian tradition that emerged from John Wesley’s eighteenth-century Methodist movement has developed several branches. One of them is called the Wesleyan Church, and I was born into a family in that denomination. My parents met at a Bible college in Oskaloosa, Iowa. My father was studying to be a minister, and my mother was there to pick a husband out of the pool of future preachers.

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Aug 23 2011
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From Hatred to Hope

Daniel Burke | Anglican & Episcopalian, Calvinist, Conversion Stories

From Hatred to Hope: One Man’s 20 Year Journey into the Catholic Faith by Daniel Burke. My first exposure to Catholicism was through an abusive step-father. A few key memories include our home being destroyed end-to-end in a drunken rage, and forensic photographs of my mother after a brutal encounter. My most prominent memory is of gunfire in our home during a shouting match between him and my mother. I was only nine years old. Not the greatest introduction to the faith.

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Aug 16 2011
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A Child of Abraham Becomes a Catholic Priest

Jonathan Toborowski | Conversion Stories, Jewish

For the first time in my life, I began thinking of the “big picture”: What do I want to do with my life? Who am I? What do I believe? It was about the time I began asking myself these questions that I started attending daily Mass at the local parish, St. Anthony’s Church. Why did I start going to Mass? Today, as a priest I would say that it was God’s prompting, an action of the Holy Spirit. But back then I thought the reason was familiarity. I had been going to Mass there since I was seven, and thanks to scouting, I’d spent plenty of time in this building (more than I ever did in a synagogue).

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Aug 08 2011
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A Long Journey Back Home

Catherine Canino | Conversion Stories, Mormon, Reverts to the Catholic Faith

As I became disillusioned with the Mormons, I became nostalgic for, and then attracted to, the Catholic Church. The lack of passion or spirituality in the ward meetings made me think of the saints, such as Teresa of Ávila and Thérèse of Lisieux, who actually went into a spiritual ecstasy just thinking about Christ. You would never find that in the Mormon church, nor in any Protestant church that I attended. There is simply not that connection to Christ.

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