Guest Post: Seven Reasons Why I am Becoming Catholic

Just before Easter, I posted an article written by one of my friends on her one-year anniversary entering the Catholic Church. Now that we reach the end of the Easter Octave, here is another article which she wrote shortly before entering back in 2017…

As the Easter season quickly approaches and thousands of adults around the world prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion), I thought it would be an appropriate time to explain why a person converts to the Catholic Church.

Of course, with hundreds of faith traditions and spiritual experiences, there could be hundreds of reasons, but I want to give you the top seven reasons why I left my life-long Protestant faith to become a member of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church (although that may describe it right there ☺).

1. Silence

I list this reason first because it was one of the first aspects of the Church that drew me in. When I refer to silence, I simultaneously refer to the feeling of peace within a soul. We live in a chaotic world, a world of incessant noise, a world pulling us in so many directions we sometimes don’t know which way is up. These noises and distractions make our souls crazy; our souls are crying out for inner peace, to just slow down and let God fill us in the silence.

When I first began attending Mass about two years ago, this phrase jumped out at me again and again, “Jesus said to his disciples, My peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.” How our souls yearn for this peace! Imagine how different our lives would be if we consistently let God give us His peace. One of the ways Catholics allow Christ to do this is in adoration. To kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and simply allow the silence to infiltrate our whole being is such an incredible gift; to allow the noises and distractions of the world fade away as we worship God in the quiet stillness of the Church. It feeds our hungry souls.  And amongst our busy lives, God reminds us: “The Lord will fight for you; you have only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14)

I think St. Augustine perfectly described our yearning for the peace of God when he said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.”

2. Reverence

God is our Father. Jesus is our friend and brother. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. While these descriptions of God are 100% accurate, He is also our Great Redeemer, a Mighty Fortress, and an all-powerful God. He is an all-consuming fire, He is righteousness itself, He is King of the universe. The Catholic Church so beautifully recognizes these two seemingly paradoxical aspects of God and gives us “formulas” for appropriate reverence.

The way in which Catholics show their respect and reverence for God in the Liturgy, for example, is breathtaking.  We genuflect, we kneel, we stand, we raise our hands, we sing Holy Holy Holy, we hold the Gospels high, our priests kiss the altar – the list could go on forever. I had never experienced this type of reverence until I entered a Catholic Church. It is a constant reminder of the greatness of God, the vastness of His goodness, and the holiness of His entire divine nature.

When we are able to recognize and revere God’s almighty power, how much more meaningful is it to realize that we are also beloved children of God and co-heirs with Christ.

3. The Old Fulfilled in the New

The very first Catholic podcast I listened to was called Jesus the Bridegroom: The greatest love story ever told by Dr. Brant Pitre. I remember driving in my car listening to it completely speechless. I had never heard anything like it. I had never heard the love of Jesus explained in that way, a covenantal love. I was struck by the narrative of salvation history all through scripture, that God has pursued us since the beginning of time with a love so deep and so wide, we cannot understand it fully.

What Dr. Pitre was so eloquently able to explain was how the Old Testament is a precursor to the New Testament; how each event in the Old is a perfect setup for what is to come in the New. It is an absolutely incredible series of events! And finally, we end with the New and Everlasting Covenant, Christ’s life given to us in the Eucharist.  To quote just a small part of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about this: “God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.” (Catholic Church 72)

4. Message of Mercy

As we all know, last year was the great Jubilee Year of Mercy. How timely this year was for those preparing to enter the Church. In his homily for First Vespers for Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis exclaimed, “Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favourable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone, everyone, the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.” This message of mercy proclaimed through the whole year around the world was, to say the least, moving.

The love God has for us is incomprehensible; it is unimaginable and it the most true and perfect love we will ever experience. The love God has for His people is so deep that it is manifested perfectly in His unending Mercy. I have been able to see and experience this mercy to its fullest degree in the Catholic Church.

5. Role Models

In our lives, we have mentors and role models for almost everything – sports, careers, hobbies, education, etc. We look to the people who have successfully executed whatever we are trying to accomplish to guide us in our pursuits.  The only area we don’t seem to have this guidance is in our spiritual lives, at least until we become Catholic. How rich are the lives of the Saints! They were human, as we are, struggled with sin and failure, and yet pleased God through their lives of perseverance and love. How blessed are we to have friends in heaven who offer their prayers for us before God.

Of course, the communion of Saints is a completely foreign concept to a non-Catholic and is, in full honesty, an extremely difficult belief for many (including myself) to accept. However, the more you read about the lives of these seemingly ordinary people and their extraordinary love for God, the more it begins to make sense. You begin to realize that they are our spiritual role models and cheerleaders in heaven teaching us how to better love God and our fellow brothers and sisters.

6. Life of Grace

Grace, as defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church is “favour, the free and underserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of internal life.” (Catholic Church 1996) We can call for this grace at any time and as Christians, should frequently do so. However, as Catholics, we are given the unique gift of the Sacraments where we inwardly receive grace through visible rites. The Sacraments are so beautifully described as “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,” concrete ways in which “divine life is dispensed to us.” (Catholic Church 1131)

We could spend a life time contemplating the divine life freely given to us in the sacraments. To those entering the Church, this is an overwhelmingly beautiful gift. We are able to participate in three Sacraments at the Easter Vigil and then given the opportunity to go to Confession and receive the Eucharist for the rest of our lives to strengthen us on our Christian walk.

7. This Rock called Peter

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 18-19) And so the Catholic Church, and thus the papacy, was born! It may sound naïve and uninformed, but as a lifelong Christian, I never knew the Catholic Church was essentially founded on these verses. Sadly, I don’t think this is unique to my situation.

The historical context of Christianity is enormously important, yet in the midst of our busy lives, do we stop to ask the necessary questions? Where did Christianity come from? How did the Church come about? Why does the papacy exist? What does infallibility mean? On what foundation does my faith stand? What do I believe?

As new Catholics and even lifelong Catholics, the more we find answers to these questions, the stronger our faith becomes. We begin to see that the Catholic Church is not one church among the many but the Church founded by Christ himself.