As a Protestant convert to Catholicism whose journey culminates a week from today, at the Easter Vigil, I have some experience, oddly enough, in how to become a Catholic. For me, it was a particular, miraculous journey that I’ve been writing about for a few months now. For me, I can trace certain lines—a certain narrative—through nearly a decade’s long journey. In my own journey, I can check off certain boxes and say, definitively, yes, that made me become a Catholic.... Read more
I’m convinced, utterly, that confession is the single greatest gift God gave this weary world. A gift that’s found solely in the Catholic Church. A gift that, as a Protestant converting to the Catholic faith, has completely blown me away. I began my journey into the Catholic Church nearly a decade ago but I began the final leg, in earnest, this Fall, when I enrolled in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) at my local parish. I’ve had mixed experiences,... Read more
This Easter I become a Catholic. It’s been a strange, unexpected journey. Something I often think about, and reflect on, is what I would’ve thought of myself, today, if I’d met me ten years ago. What if, by some miracle of space and time, the twenty year old me was able to visit the thirty year old me, today. What would the younger me think? Becoming a Catholic is something I never could’ve imagined or envisioned. I became a Christian at... Read more
We need to make an honest examination of our beliefs. We need to, prayerfully, come before Christ and lay it all out on the line with fear and trembling for what the results may be, but with fear and trembling nonetheless. We have to do this, and it should be difficult because we’re Christians and the Christian life is not an easy ride. We forget this. We need to constantly examine our motives and consider our opportunities. We need to honestly ask... Read more
Prosperity Gospel Mega-Church Pastor Creflo Dollar is in the news again. This time it’s for soliciting donations to buy a mega-jet to fly to his mega-churches all over the world. His current jet, he says, is old and has become too unsafe. And people are donating. While it might be a stretch to say that someone like Creflo Dollar made me a Catholic—in truth, I’ve never paid any attention to the prosperity gospel movement—it would be accurate to say that the... Read more
I do not know Rachel Held Evans apart from the fact that she wrote A Year Of Biblical Womanhood and that her blog is incredibly popular amongst many of my evangelical Christian friends. Her articles appear frequently in my Facebook feed although, admittedly, I’ve only read a few. But, recently, an article about Rachel Held Evans, rather than one penned by her, has been appearing with frequency in my social media feeds. The article, which appeared in the Religion News Service, is... Read more
Father Gabriele Amorth is a fascinating man. Until very recently, the elderly Italian priest served as the chief exorcist for the area of Rome surrounding Vatican City. As an exorcist he’s seen it all, and he wrote about his experiences, eloquently, in two books translated into English, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories. Like I said, he’s an interesting guy, and I’ve always had a passing interest in the supernatural, even before becoming a Christian, and in... Read more
I’ve always said the last thing that I want to do is to put down my Protestant heritage. I wouldn’t be the person—or the Christian—that I am today without the experience of faith I’ve had these last fifteen years. I’ve been a Protestant, and I’ve been proud of it, but I’m becoming a Catholic and I’m trying my best to explain why. Understand, then, that this is my journey and I write from my own perspective. Understand that I try to do this... Read more
I’ve held a grudge for a long time, I’m not proud to say. I’m not exactly the grudging holding kind of person. You know who I mean, the kind of person who goes around dragging a thousand pound weight tied around their neck. The kind of person that you meet and you can tell they’re nursing a grudge. I’m not one of those people, but maybe I am. Maybe we are all, in our own private ways. And maybe Lent—a traditional time of... Read more
The Catholic life is a sacramental life. The means, at its core, that Catholicism teaches that God’s graces and goodness are mediated out through the sacraments, through humans. Through the Eucharist, chief amongst the sacraments, we receive the very body and blood of our Lord. Through matrimony, confession, the anointing of the sick, baptism, confirmation, and through office of the priesthood God gives us his grace in various degrees. Meditating on the sacraments, however, is a bit of a daunting exercise for... Read more
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