The joy of conversion, Christian community, and the Catholic faith
(CatholicMom.com’s Lawn Chair Catechism lesson for this week from Sherry Waddell’s “Forming Intentional Disciples,” is Chapter 4: The Fruit of Discipleship.) Does this description of disciples make you yearn to be one? To know and follow Jesus as close as his best friends? “Disciples pray with passion. Disciples worship. Disciples love the Church and serve...
There at dawn all the shelling ceased for the first time since coming here, and an amazing, peaceful, stillness came and lasted for several minutes, with the twitter of a bird in the distance the only living sound.
Later, at sunrise, the same thing happened and lasted for almost an hour and the morning has been comparatively quiet.
I don’t remember participating much in that Mass because I spent that hour absorbed in the Nativity scene. I considered the Wise Kings, who answered God’s call and opened their hearts to his will. The kings traveled far and waited long, in faith, to discover their Savior. How expectant they were! God got their attention with the star, and they knew something wonderful was about to happen.
There at dawn all the shelling ceased for the first time since coming here, and an amazing, peaceful, stillness came and lasted for several minutes, with the twitter of a bird in the distance the only living sound.
Later, at sunrise, the same thing happened and lasted for almost an hour and the morning has been comparatively quiet.
Growing up Mormon allowed me to experience my teenage years in a safe and secure environment. While our family had periods of being considered “inactive” (infrequent attendance at Sunday church services), for the most part, we went to church every week. I was baptized on my eighth birthday, which I remember being a very special honor. My parents were “sealed” to each other and to my younger brother and me during my junior year of high school in the Dallas, TX, Temple. I participated in many of the milestones of Mormon youth and adolescence, such as Scripture-chasing during my early-morning seminary classes and singing in roadshows (although I was never lucky enough to perform in “My Turn on Earth” or “Saturday’s Warrior”).
Whether your faith started in the Catholic Church or eventually led you there, God has brought you to the Church to make you not just a Christian, but a Catholic Christian. This Divine action runs through your life like a living river that bears testimony to God’s transformative activity in your life. He did not make you a Catholic by chance. If this part of your story is written only on your heart at this point, the Holy Spirit has the power to reveal it, to give you spiritual gifts to understand and express it, and to prompt you to evangelize others by declaring it.
Each of us has an exclusive story that no one except God fully knows. Our experiences of conversion, renewal, and healing make up our faith story. God writes our faith story day by day, event by event, and decision by decision as we respond to that divine spark of his life that he created within us.
God used people who reflect his presence as well as people who don’t. He used both agonizing circumstances with unpredictable outcomes and jubilant celebrations. The Sacraments. More crises than I want to remember. Heartaches from losses, physical healings, as well as emotional healings from childhood scars and bad decisions as an adult. Through all these events flows the river of my story of how God has worked in my life to bring me the joy of a love relationship with him and with the Catholic Church, and how he has equipped me to glorify him as an evangelist.