What happened?

Editor’s Note: This new three-part series, Three components of your faith story, answers three questions:  Part 1:Who was I? Part 2:What happened?and Part 3:Who am I now? These are excerpts from Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies by Nancy HC Ward.

What happened?

Part 2 of Three components of your faith story series

Your faith story, as with every conversion, reversion, renewal, healing, and miracle story, has three components that answer these questions:

• Who were you before your conversion, reversion, renewal, healing, or miracle happened?
• What God-moment — or Galilee moment, as Pope Francis called it—changed you? Was it a tidal wave of love sweeping over you or an undercurrent of God’s love swelling in your heart?
• Who are you now? How has your life changed?

I’ll take you through my longer conversion story, using these three elements and answering these questions.

Part 2 . What happened to me that led to my conversion?

For me, conversion came as a tidal wave of love, followed by a seeping undercurrent of how God wanted to change my life. The tidal wave was the sudden and absolute certainty that Phil was God’s gift of love to me—and it swept over me before Phil realized I was the one for him. We resisted getting serious, but we were falling deeply in love. I wanted a man with a strong faith. The trouble was, Phil’s strong faith was Catholic! Before he even proposed, I asked myself, “Can I marry in his church or should I just move on? Can I live without Phil or my church family?”

One turning point came when I struggled with how I would tell my mother that our plans for my wedding in our beloved church might never happen. I realized that I had made my choice. I wasn’t choosing Phil over God, only over my dream of marrying a Protestant in the church I loved.

Love quickly changed everything in my life—except my relationship with God. You see, I would do just about anything for Phil, but I knew in my heart that worshiping God must be between God and me. Even though I wanted Phil and me to be united in one faith, I couldn’t change the way I worshiped God that easily. Perhaps as we raised our children Catholic, I would become one, too. Perhaps like my father-in-law, I might remain Protestant, yet attend Mass with my family. My full commitment to the Catholic Church would have to come later, if ever. When I found that my conversion to the Catholic Church was neither required nor expected, Phil and I became engaged.

Our wedding plans, like a sudden whirlpool, surprised everybody and disturbed many. My mother insisted we meet with our pastor about our plans, out of respect for all he meant to our family. When we told him we were marrying in the cathedral down the street, the exasperation in his eyes startled me.

Fr. Andrew Burke, the pastor of the cathedral, gave us a talk on marriage preparation and I met with him for six lessons of instruction. This was the custom before Vatican II. He married us under the huge golden wings of the Holy Spirit in the cathedral, but without Mass. Somehow both families were pleased. I was twenty and Phil was twenty-two.

Another turn of the river came almost three years later. We were finishing our two years in the service and heading home with a toddler and an infant. Away from family pressure, I had chosen not to attend the services of my Protestant denomination. I spent those years in the service trying out the disciplines of the Catholic Church, which at that time meant no meat on Fridays and trying to follow the Latin Mass.

In the Catholic churches in the three ports where we were stationed, I marveled at the universality of the Church, the consistency of the liturgy and the instructions from three different priests. The third priest said, “Nancy, you know enough to become Catholic. When you go home, have the priest who married you baptize you.”

That was the moment I knew I was ready, the culmination of three years of practicing and learning Catholicism. And I knew by the peace in my heart that I belonged in the Church. Our two sons were Catholic. It was time for me. When we returned home, Fr. Burke gave me the grand trifecta of Sacraments. He baptized me (conditionally), heard my first Confession, and gave me my First Eucharist in the cathedral under the golden wings of the Holy Spirit. What an afternoon!

Read Part 3:Who am I now? next week.