I started this blog and then haven't posted because I've been trying to figure out if I should go the testimony and conversion story route or just jump in blogging. I was going to start with my backstory, but it seemed like a lot to write and I am very much still a work in progress, so I think I'll leave that for later and maybe just tell smaller parts of my journey along the way. Some of it can be found on the "My Story So Far" tab of this blog.
One of the things that's become clear to me in hindsight is all of the small things in my past that were slowly introducing me to Catholicism and drawing me towards the Catholic church. Many of these didn't have a meaning at the time, but I can look back now and see those small little nudges toward the truth and bits and pieces that I would later draw on.
One of the early things was an in interest in many of the miracles and saints recognized by the Catholic Church. Part of this was due to shows like Unsolved Mysteries and documentaries on things like the Shroud of Turin and the staircase of Loretto. It seemed odd to me that the Catholics had all the miracles, yet the prevailing attitude among many of the Protestants I knew, including my own family was that Catholicism was not even "real" Christianity. Even stranger were the people I know who criticized the Catholic Church yet pointed to miracles witnessed by Catholics and declared by the Church as evidence for the faith.
Other small nudges along the way that I missed at the time but recognize now were going to a daycare where the only children who said grace before eating were the handful who attended the local Catholic school and, later, going out for a snack after a church youth group meeting and noticing a girl in our group who was raised Catholic was the only one who stopped to pray. Thinking about this now reminds me that I need to remember to say grace, even in front of others, and teach my son to do the same.
At work, a coworker told me once that all Catholic churches in the world had the same service and that stuck in my mind, but I didn't understand what he meant at the time. Several years later, after sitting through too many random topical sermons with little or no reference back to scripture, I remembered and it was another thing that appealed to me about Catholicism.
This is a bit embarrassing to say, but I can also give some credit to cheesy horror movies and mob movies. If nothing else, I heard the Hail Mary enough times that I ended up learning it before I ever considered converting. I don't know when or how but it was ingrained in my mind enough that when I started praying the "Ecumenial" rosary that uses the Jesus prayer instead, I found myself frequently switching over to the Hail Mary. This led me to just give in and start praying the real rosary, even while I was still a Protestant, and I give most of the credit for my conversion to Our Lady and Her Most Holy Rosary.
