We decided to host a foreign exchange student in our home the year that our daughter was a senior.   Kristine, from Norway, came to live with us. While driving to the lake, on our first short trip together, I had prepared some brownies to eat in the car.  I asked Kristine if she would like a brownie…she held up her finger indicating, “wait just a moment”, she looked in her translation book and then had a funny look on her face.  She said, “You want to give me a camera?”  (for those that are younger…there once was a camera named “Brownie”)  We all laughed and realized there are different meanings for the same word.  Kristina was happy the brownie I offered meant a sweet dessert!

A word could be an obstacle for understanding something!  We can get lost in the meaning of words.  I found that when I heard a term/word used, and I applied my understanding of that word based on what I had understood it to mean, I would be offended.  For example, the word “Conversion”.  As I understood the word…  My conversion to Christ happened at a very young age…so when someone Catholic would say to me about being converted to Catholicism… I thought…”I am already converted to Christ.”  Conversion has many aspects to its meaning.   Yes, we can get bogged down with the meaning of a word if we don’t know where a person is coming from… just like the English language… a word can mean opposites.. i.e.

dust: 1 to remove dust. 2 to cover with dust.

hysterical: 1 frightened and out of control. 2 funny.

fast: 1 moving quickly. 2 solid and unable to move.

Interesting title.. wouldn’t you agree.  If you are not a Catholic…the second title is probably the one you would pick.  Me too…before I became a Catholic.  I became a Catholic over three years ago.  I wrote three short chapters about events in my life that led me to join the Catholic church which is under my blog heading…”The Catholic Way”.  There were so many other stories I could have included about my journey…God incidences that led me on this journey and perhaps along the way you will hear more about those “God incidences”.

I have already stated that I am not scholar, or a professional writer…but what I am and know that many of you are as well … “Christian”.  We all hold that in common and love God.   Right up front, please forgive me if I offend you with anything I write… that is not my purpose.  But as I said in an early blog…”When you find something so precious – so life changing, you want others to experience it too”…this is where my heart is coming from.  So we may agree to disagree…but in the bond of Christian love we must try to understand.

There are many books written about these topics that will go more in-depth and I will list some for your reading “pleasure” as we go along.

So are you still with me???  I won’t list the 101 reasons I wouldn’t become Catholic as you already may have your own list… but I will tell you in Catholicism 101 what I did learn in my search for truth.

If you are curious about this..then read on to the next post called:

A word… Can it be an obstacle for understanding something?

A new priest had just come to the parish (Father Rick Heilman).   If I shut my eyes, I could have sworn that he was a protestant minister (and I mean this in a very good way).  He talked about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He was inspiring and on fire for God and this really appealed to my heart.

While attending our lake church and hearing the good news, I wondered why there was such a separation between Christians.  I never studied church history, so I decided it was time to read about it and try to understand why there is such a big division between Catholics and Protestants.  I spent over a year researching and reading and surprised how little I knew of Church history. There had been some nagging questions on my heart over the years that just hadn’t been answered in my faith background.  Some things that just didn’t make sense to me and I would often read scripture and then ponder how that related to what my Protestant church had taught me.

Ever since the start of the Protestant Reformation around 1517,  the LINE was drawn and both sides claiming right about their way of believing…forever creating a division in Christ’s church.   What happened in the past to cause this division?  For a long time, Christians were all of one accord….  They were Christ followers…not without their own problems.  “We are right, you are wrong.”   It is a shame that Martin Luther’s challenge to some of the Catholic Church beliefs soon took on a life of its own…far from what I suspect he intended.   We will probably never know all that happened back then—but the devil, our enemy, loves when we become divided.  In division, there is weakness.  However, what the devil doesn’t’ understand is that God’s love and his Church will never fail.

So as I started to seek material to read…from both sides, the more I questioned what I believed about the Catholic Church.  I was beginning to realize I had many misunderstandings about the Catholic Church that has been passed down through hearsay by well meaning Christians.

My search intensified.  Some of the main questions I wanted answers to:

Saved by faith alone vs. Saved by faith and works

Communion as a remembrance of Christ vs. the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Communion)

Why Catholics don’t allow Christians outside the Church to take communion in the Church?

Praying to Jesus alone for forgiveness of sins vs. Praying to Jesus and confession to a priest

The role or Mary, Saints, Pope, icons, relics and many other things…that were not a part of my Protestant upbringing…

During my search, I suddenly found myself needing a knee replacement. You are asking… what does that have to do with my search?  Good question!  While I was in the hospital recovering, our priest came to visit and pray for me.  All the sudden, I felt the need to tell Father Heilman that I was not a Catholic.  (On this particular day, I was hurting and on pain medication, so I blame my confession on the drugs! But I know it was the Holy Spirit working in my hospital room that day.)   I confessed that I had been married before my current marriage.   I told him how Holy Spirit had led me to apply for  an annulment of my first marriage two years after I had remarried, and how I still had the annulment approval papers in my file cabinet after some 30 years.

He said, “After your annulment, did you renew your vows in the Church?”  With a funny look on my face I said, “I don’t remember that we did.”  He replied that he could take care of that and we could meet after I recovered from knee surgery to start the process.  Then I told him that I had been taking communion all these years due to the guidance of a priest before our marriage (which by Catholic teaching is wrong).  He told me that he knew I was a Christian but that he would prefer that I stop taking communion until I became a Catholic. You may wonder why the Catholic Church doesn’t offer communion to all Christians.  If you are really interested in understanding this…you will do some research as I did.  Anyway, I was very sad about not receiving communion, but I respected our priest so much I did as he requested. From that point on, I did not receive communion, which meant I had to stay seated while others went forward to receive communion.  Staying seated in the pew when Communion is served meant one or two things: you are not Catholic or you have not confessed your sins.   Putting aside what others may think of my staying in my seat…I started to miss taking communion and I knew a decision had to be made in the near future.  You see taking communion meant a lot to me, although I didn’t believe in the real presence of Christ at that time, I still felt close to Christ.   So either I needed to go to a Protestant church for communion or join the Catholic Church.

At the end of our conversation, while I was in the hospital, Father Rick asked me if I liked to watch DVD’s.  I said sure…I would be having a lot of time to watch while recovering from knee surgery.  He just happened to own a series of DVD’s on the Catholic Catechism and wondered if I would like to view them.  I said yes.   Well…God stirred my heart and although some questions were answered, now I had new ones.  I knew until I answered these questions, I wouldn’t be taking communion soon.   After watching 48 hours of catechism explanations, I then decided to go through the RICA program at church.  This is a program for those looking to join the Catholic Church.  My dear instructor, Marie, was very kind and patient with all my questions in class and via email but I was still not ready to join.  What was left?

I had told my priest that out of respect for my mother, I would not join the Catholic Church as long as she was living.  Not that she would be displeased or reject me…just that my mother was a wonderful Christian and she and dad gave me a wonderful Christian heritage and I wanted to honor them.  My mother passed away two years later and now I had no excuse for not joining.

Another question I wanted answered, what did it mean to pray to Mary?  Ask and you will receive…as I was sitting in our family room, I picked up a brochure that had a portrait of Mary on the cover.  As clear as day, I heard the Holy Spirit’s voice say, “It is ok.  You are coming home.”  I then knew it was OK to have questions.  These questions would be answered in time.  God spoke clearly to my heart while I was seeking an answer.

Then, in June, one Corpus Christi Sunday, our priest gave a homily on the Eucharist (Communion)…and as I sat there listening to him, I developed a huge lump in my throat. I desired to have communion (Eucharist) so much that my heart ached and tears streamed down my face. I knew that the Eucharist was the Real Presence of Christ.   It was at this point I knew I would join the Catholic Church but when?

That same month, the doctor told me that I had uterine cancer.  And that I would need to have surgery.  In reflection, I decided I didn’t know what the Holy Spirits words “coming home” meant when I had looked at the brochure with Mary’s picture on the cover.   Did it mean that I was going to die from cancer?  Was I “Coming Home” to heaven, my new home?  Or, did it mean that I was “Coming Home” to the Catholic Church.  Since I didn’t know the outcome of my cancer surgery… I decided that I should join the Church before surgery… then “Coming Home” would be covered either way.

That week, we invited our priest over for dinner and during dinner I surprised my husband and our priest and announced that I wanted to become a Catholic.  Since I had already gone through the RCIA program and had been baptized as a young adult, there were just a couple things I needed before I entered the Catholic Church and our wonderful priest said that he would help me take care of those things and agreed to take me into the Church before I had surgery. (see posts about my Cancer Journey)

I thank God for this journey of faith starting from a small child to today.  Never did I think he would lead me to join the Catholic Church, but I am glad that this is where my journey has taken me.

Many are on a journey of faith…one that we are on throughout our life.   The learning never stops, unless we stop it.

I was blessed with a wonderful foundation of faith and now I had found a new love for  the Catholic Church.  In my face book site and blog, The Catholic Way, I will share with those who are seeking the explanations of misunderstandings Protestants, like me, had/have about the Catholic Church in hopes of bringing unity in the body of Christ.

There were so many other things that happened along this journey…to many to write… I love my new Church… the reverence, the beauty, and the truth that it holds.  I want you to know I love my Christians friends…both Catholic and Protestant…they have all taught me so many things.  We can agree to disagree about doctrine…but the one thing we have in common is our love for The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit… God, three persons manifested in one.  We must come together to share God’s blessings, to encourage one another, and to build up the body of Christ.

Now is the time we come together… honoring and obeying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We are accountable for what we learn and the insight we are given. Thank you for reading “Why I became Catholic”.  I hope this inspires you to find answers to your questions.

I welcome you to return to my blog… I am in the midst of placing all  my posts in categories so it will be easier for you to find what you want to read be it Spiritual Encouragement, My Cancer Journey, My Mother’s Journey or The Catholic Way, etc.  I will also be testing out some new designs for this blog as well… so please leave your comments about how each one appeals to you and the ease of use.

So you ask, what took me so long, or perhaps you wonder why now?  Good questions… God’s timing is always perfect.  One of the things I have learned is never give up praying for someone.   What do I mean by this?   Well, there are a lot of God stories on my faith journey that brought me to this point in my life. 

My husband, being raised Catholic,  is a faithful practicing Catholic, but he would admit that he didn’t have a personal walk with God until we moved to Wisconsin 15 years ago.  That is when his faith became alive. Before we moved, He faithfully attended Mass each week but didn’t pray much or read the Bible.  He did what he thought he should do…and he use to say, “He went to get his ticket to heaven punched”.

Back in the 80’s, the Catholic Church we attended held classes called “Renew”.  The classes were held in private homes.  Renew taught exactly what I had known for so many years, how to experience a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  This appealed to me so much that I volunteered to guide our small study group. 

When Vatican II happened, many things changed that made me feel at home in the Catholic Church.  Since I didn’t understand Latin…I didn’t like Mass before.   Now everything was in English.   Along with that, the Renew study encouraged Catholics to read their Bibles, which I was accustom to do since a child.  So in incremental ways…I started to feel more accepting of the Catholic faith, even though I still did not understand some of the things that the Catholic Church teaches.

I would go to Mass occasionally with my husband and to satisfy my longing for fellowship with other Christians, God provided opportunities for me to serve him through non-denominational Bible studies, Youth for Christ, even as a leader of a Christian Women’s Fellowship at a local church.  All these things were able to satisfy my need for what I was familiar with from my upbringing.  

When we moved to Wisconsin in 1999, we attended a small country church near our home.  The priest didn’t present good (sermons) homilies.  The homilies were weak in substance and always started out with a joke.  That did it; I rebelled and wouldn’t go to church there again.   However, we attended church near our lake home during the summer months.  A new priest had just come to the parish (Father Rick Heilman).   If shut my eyes, I could have sworn that he was a protestant minister (and I mean this in a very good way).  He talked about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He was inspiring and on fire for God and this really appealed to my heart.

Next Chapter will describe why I chose to join the Catholic Church and what God incidences happened to bring this about….

It is strange that nobody asked me why I became Catholic.  I say it strange because I have been a Protestant all my life.  Perhaps they just didn’t think twice about it since my husband is Catholic.  Of course it took me 32 years of marriage before I actually joined the Catholic church…so surely it couldn’t have only been because my husband was Catholic.  What changed?  Why now and why has no one asked?   Well, perhaps it doesn’t matter why I haven’t been asked, perhaps my sharing why is what matters…  Thus this is my story of how I became a Catholic.  If you are someone drawn to the Catholic church but have a lot of questions…I was right there where you are..so I encourage you to hang on and read further.  If you are a Christian but not a Catholic… I encourage you to read what truth I have found and I encourage you to do your own research as well. The scripture from Matthew 7:7-8  “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

When you find something so precious – so life changing, you want others to experience it too. There have been some major milestones on my Journey. The first was when I gave my life to Jesus at a very young age.  I was brought up in a wonderful Christian home.  My parents (are) would be saints, if there was such a thing being a Protestant. Mind you, they were not perfect, and if you study the saints, you will find they were not perfect…but what made them so different? Their obedience to God in their daily lives, praying and serving others. That was my parents for sure and my family is so blessed to be raised by two wonderful obedient Christians. They are now in heaven enjoying the fruits of their labor and  walking and talking with Jesus in person.

To understand where I am coming from, I’ll share a bit of my journey. I attended the Wesleyan Methodist Church and during my teens years we started to attend the Church of the Nazarene. I received wonderful biblical teaching, memorized scripture, and saw first hand at home what it meant to live for God.

My first encounter hearing about Catholics….

As a little girl, while sitting in a little country church at a Wednesday evening prayer meeting, I remember my mother came to the defense of my fraternal grandmother during the service. I don’t remember everything said but I later learned that another relative said something mean to my grandmother out loud in church about having a son that went off and joined the Catholic church. My mother stood up and defended my grandmother.

Funny how I remember that so many years later.  This obviously made a big impression. Although my mom defended my grandmother, when I was as a little girl, she said, “Marilyn, never  marry a Catholic as there are to many differences in how we worship and believe.”  Yet years later, after I married my Catholic husband, my mother told me, “Marilyn, it is better for you  to worship together than part ways to different churches. So if he will not come with you, you should go with him.”  This is not the advice I wanted to hear and surprised that it came from my mother. I wanted him to come to church where I wanted to attend. I wanted him to find his way “out” of the Catholic church.  I see now that my mother’s advice was very wise.

As a little girl, I wasn’t sure Catholics were Christians…although they attended church, they did many things I thought Christians shouldn’t do… such as drink alcohol, smoke, play cards, dance, or use God’s name in vain….etc. They worshiped statues, they prayed to people who were already dead, they even believed that the Eucharist actually turned into the body and blood of Christ. Do you relate to any of these ideas?  Catholics went to church, confessed their sins to a priest (not to Jesus directly) and then went right back out and sinned all week. That is what I thought…   I  made my own assumptions based what I witnessed and thought was sin. So, along with being told not to marry a Catholic…I assumed that my assumptions were correct.

Growing up, I was around God-loving people, who took their faith seriously. Who prayed together with their families and read the Bible together. Who attended church as often as they could. They talked about their relationship with God through Jesus his Son.  So, what led me to join the Catholic church 33 years later?
My story will be continued…. Stayed tuned…Follow this blog and you will get an instant email message that I have posted.