Posted on 08/05/2007 4:39:51 PM PDT by NYer
I started to write about how I found the Church, but that isn't what happened. The Church found me. Reached out and grabbed me as I was muddling through my life half-asleep.
Grabbed me twice, I think. There have been two times in my life when everything changed with astonishing speed. The second was this last year, the first was when I met my wife Charlene. We got married, bought a house, joined a church and had our first child, all in the year 1985! My background was Evangelical, and she was a cradle-Catholic, though long estranged from the Church. So we compromised and became Episcopalians. We happily let the beautiful liturgies wash over us. I felt like this was just right, and she was thrilled by the resemblance to the Mass of her youth.
But I see now that I was expecting something to happen. Some sort of magic, but I wasn't sure what. I won't criticize the Episcopalians; it just wasn't happening there.
Charlene started to return to The Church in 2005. Her deeply religious nature and good Catholic upbringing made this a difficult step—not like a Protestant switching denominations. Luckily a friend recommended St Dominic's Parish in San Francisco (beautifully photographed by Gerald). I tagged along with her, but at first I couldn't SEE what was around me. It just looked like Anglicanism with diversity! Remember what Chesterton wrote, about how the Church is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? I had to move a little ways inside to actually see.
What woke me up to the reality that was all around me was a homily preached by one of our Dominican brothers, Br. Bernhard Blankenhorn. (Now Father Bernhard, in, I think, Seattle.) I must explain that I've always hungered for an indescribable something, something spooky and magical, something "otherworldly." Something that I could never pin down, and which ordinary life never seemed to have enough of.
The homily was about how Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, replacing the Israelite Ark. I learned later that this is a very early Christian idea, and I'd it's guess elementary to any knowledgeable Catholic. You'll probably laugh at my naiveté, but I'd never heard anything like it, and I found it electrifying. Why? Because it wasn't a metaphor. Or an analogy, or a simile, or symbolic. He wasn't using a clever figure of speech. It was a fact. She IS the Ark. And, evidently, it was coming from a world-view where such facts were normal and expected.
To me this was like suddenly finding myself inside a fairy tale, and having trees or animals talk to me. What it was, it turns out, was the sacramental worldview, or imagination. (Catholic Encyclopedia: "...we can say that the whole world is a vast sacramental system, in that material things are unto men the signs of things spiritual and sacred, even of the Divinity.") What I had been missing in my life was the knowledge that the world, and my ordinary life, were charged with meaning. That the world was fizzy with signs, and the signs were real, not just notions. They are, you might say, metaphors that have come alive. What I was missing were sacraments. That was the spooky and mysterious something that I'd been longing for all along.
I could write LOTS more about many exciting ideas and things that have happened to me, but that's the essence of it. I became Catholic at Easter of this year, 2007. We have a superb RCIA at our parish, if anyone's looking.
(BTW, for any Protestants worried about Catholics "worshipping" Mary, it's not so. That Marian homily (sermon to you) was the only one I've heard so far. Most homilies are on the Gospel reading of the day. In fact, I find that the Church is more "Gospel" than those Gospel places.)
Gerald Augustinus, blogmaster exceptionel, runs Closed Cafeteria. Recently, several visitors have written to share their conversion stories which are now posted to his blog. This is the most recent one. I will try to post a few more.
Thanks, NYer. They are always to inspiring to read.
Gerald Augustinus, blogmaster exceptionel, runs Closed Cafeteria. Recently, several visitors have written to share their conversion stories which are now posted to his blog. This is the most recent one. I will try to post a few more.
12 Reasons I Joined the Catholic Church
The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism: The Converts
Journey Home - May 21 - Neil Babcox (former Presbyterian) - A minister encounters Mary
Going Catholic - Six journeys to Rome
My (Imminent) Reception into the Roman Catholic Church
A Convert's Pilgrimage [Christopher Cuddy]
Lutheran professor of philosophy prepares to enter Catholic Church
Patty Bonds (former Baptist and sister of Dr. James White) to appear on The Journey Home - May 7
Pastor and Flock Become Catholics
The journey back - Dr. Beckwith explains his reasons for returning to the Catholic Church
Famous Homosexual Italian Author Returned to the Church Before Dying of AIDS
Dr. Francis Beckwith Returns To Full Communion With The Church
Catholic Converts - Stephen K. Ray (former Evangelical)
Catholic Converts - Malcolm Muggeridge
Catholic Converts - Richard John Neuhaus
Catholic Converts - Avery Cardinal Dulles
Catholic Converts - Israel (Eugenio) Zolli - Chief Rabbi of Rome
Catholic Converts - Robert H. Bork , American Jurist (Catholic Caucus)
Catholic Converts - Marcus Grodi
Why Converts Choose Catholicism
The Scott Hahn Conversion Story
FORMER PENTECOSTAL RELATES MIRACLE THAT OCCURRED WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD
Journey Home - May 21 - Neil Babcox (former Presbyterian) - A minister encounters Mary
Going Catholic - Six journeys to Rome
My (Imminent) Reception into the Roman Catholic Church
A Convert's Pilgrimage [Christopher Cuddy]
Lutheran professor of philosophy prepares to enter Catholic Church
Patty Bonds (former Baptist and sister of Dr. James White) to appear on The Journey Home - May 7
Pastor and Flock Become Catholics
The journey back - Dr. Beckwith explains his reasons for returning to the Catholic Church
Famous Homosexual Italian Author Returned to the Church Before Dying of AIDS
Dr. Francis Beckwith Returns To Full Communion With The Church
Catholic Converts - Stephen K. Ray (former Evangelical)
Catholic Converts - Malcolm Muggeridge
Catholic Converts - Richard John Neuhaus
Catholic Converts - Avery Cardinal Dulles
Catholic Converts - Israel (Eugenio) Zolli - Chief Rabbi of Rome
Catholic Converts - Robert H. Bork , American Jurist (Catholic Caucus)
Catholic Converts - Marcus Grodi
Why Converts Choose Catholicism
The Scott Hahn Conversion Story
FORMER PENTECOSTAL RELATES MIRACLE THAT OCCURRED WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD
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the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail.[1] And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: [2] And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. [3] And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his head seven diadems: [4] And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son. [5] And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne.
[6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her a thousand two hundred sixty days. [7] And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: [8] And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. [9] And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night.
(Rev. 11-12)
It is not an "idea", it is straight from the Bible.
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