Mga Handog na Kaanib ng Iglesiyang Tatag ni Ginoong Felix Manalo, Umanib na sa Tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo!

Ang pagbabalik-loob ng mga naakay ng mga bulaang propeta, sa TUNAY na IGLESIANG TATAG ni Cristo

Isang komento ang hindi matanggap ang kanilang pagbabalik-loob sa tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo

Randy Baldoza

Nasa daan na ng kaligtasan, sinayang pa. Mas pinili sumamba sa mga josjosan na gawa ng kamay na gawa sa kahoy at bato

Walang sinayang ang pamilya Vargas sapagkat napagtanto nila na sila ay DINAYA ng mga bulaang propeta. PINANIWALA silang ang mga imahe at rebulto ng mga banal at santo ay mga 'DIYOS-DIYOSAN' na hindi naman.

Sa isang matinong Katoliko, hindi niya ipagpapalagay na 'diyos' ang mga santo sa langit. At sa mga nag-iisip na ang mga santo at mga banal at ang kanilang mga imahe ay mga 'diyos' ~ ayon LUMIPAT na sa INC™ at ang iba ay nasa Born-Again groups na. Hindi na sila kaanib sa atin. Tunay nga na NATUPAD ang mga WINIKA ni Cristo "hindi mananaig ang kapangyarihan ng Hades".

Salamat sa Diyos at nagbalik-loob na ang mga NADAYA ng mga bulaang propeta. Nagising na sila sa katotohanan na si CRISTO AY DIYOS at TAO. Nagising sila sa katotohanan na si Cristo ay mas mataas kaysa kay Felix Manalo (anghel o sugo). Samantalang sa katuruan ng INC™1914 si Cristo ay TAONG-TAO LAMANG!

Ang lahat ng kapurihan ay sa NAG-IISANG DIYOS AMA, ANAK AT ESPIRITU SANTO!

Isa na namang kaanib ng INC™ 1914 umanib sa tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo

Si Kapatid na Melorjen Saavedra Quinones,
Happy Valley, Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur. (ctto)

Anak ng Diakono at Diakonesa ng INC™ Nagbalik-loob na sa Tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo

Photo Credit: Bro. Wendell P. Talibong, SsVP

Welcome converts from Iglesia Ni Cristo to the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. & Mrs. Fernando R. Suerte & Rocelyn M. Suerte from Zone 4,Tiguma, Pagadian City. Rocelyn's parents are both currently INC deacon & deaconesa.

Steve Ray Conversion Story

Dr. Peter Kreeft's conversion story from Protestantism to Catholicism.

Convert G K Chesterton: Why am I a Catholic?

Convert: 'Everthing about the Catholic Church is beautiful.

“As my friends would ask me, ‘George, what did you find in the Catholic Church?’ my answer is always the same: sheer beauty! It’s beautiful. Her saints. Her faith. Her liturgy… Her devotions. Everything about her is beautiful.’ – Deacon George Butterfield

Ang Pag-Anib sa Iglesia Katolika ay Karapat-dapat at Tama!

Ang tunay na PAGBABALIK-LOOB sa Diyos ay hindi ang SISIRAAN ang dating kinaaniban iglesia tulad ng mga dating katoliko na umanib sa samahang tatag ni Ginoong Felix Manalo na walang bukambibig kundi ang siraan ang Iglesia Katolika.

Ang mga UMANIB sa Iglesia Katolika na sa "pasimula ay siyang [tunay] Iglesia ni Cristo." (Pasugo Abril 1966, p. 6) ay umanib dahil nakita nila ang KATOTOHANAN rito. Nakita nila ang tunay na kaligtasan rito at nadama nila ang tunay na pagmamahal ng IISA at TUNAY NA DIYOS ~ ang BANAL NA TRINIDAD ~ Ama, Anak at Espiritu Santo! Dito nila nasumpungan ang totoong PAMILYA NG DIYOS na kinaaniban ng mga banal. At ayon sa kasaysayan ay SIYANG NAG-IISA, TUNAY na Iglesiang TATAG ni Cristo at hindi ang nagpapanggap ng Iglesiang tatag lamang noong 1914 sa Pilipinas.

STORY SOURCE: BY REILLY COSGROVE for AMERICAN MAGAZINE

I didn’t need a degree in theology to convert. Being Catholic just felt right.

Worshippers hold candles during the Easter Vigil at St. James Church in Setauket, N.Y., in 2014. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz, Long Island Catholic)

While most people my age are leaving the churches of their childhood or declaring themselves “spiritual but not religious,” I decided, during my freshman year of college, to join a centuries-old hierarchical church. When I tell people about my choice to become Catholic four years ago, reactions vary from shocked facial expressions to genuine congratulations to complete disgust—even from people raised in the church. But there is one question nearly everyone asks me when I tell them I decided to join the Catholic Church when I was 19: “Why?”

It is a question I am not sure I have a satisfying answer to. I was recently out at a bar with friends from my graduate school and mentioned my conversion. A stranger who overheard this leaned over the crowded table to ask me what drew me to the Catholic Church. I laughed at the question, a bit taken aback that this man did not realize how personal the question was. I joked that “I was jealous of all the kids in my neighborhood that had first Communion parties growing up!”

If I had given this stranger a real answer, however, I would have had to tell him a drawn-out story of how God slowly worked in my life to pull me toward experiencing him in the Eucharist.

37,000+ to Become Catholic at Easter Vigil Mass in the USA

No match for much publicized "conversions" in the fake Iglesia Ni Cristo® 1914.

Image source: Google Images - Fr. Broom

News Source: Catholic News World

WASHINGTON— Dioceses across the country will be welcoming thousands of people into the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil Masses on the evening of April 20th. As the culmination of the Easter Triduum, the Vigil celebrates the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While people can become Catholic at any time of the year, the Easter Vigil is a particularly appropriate moment for adult catechumens to be baptized and for already-baptized Christians to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. Parishes welcome these new Catholics through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

Many of the dioceses across the nation have reported their numbers of people who intend to become Catholic on Saturday to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Based on these reports, more than 37,000 people are expected to be welcomed into the Church at Easter Vigil Masses.

Maligayang Pag-anib sa Tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo

Welcome Home, Handog Iglesia Ni Cristo converted to the Catholic Church Ralph Navarro Gingoyan (Larawan mula kay Kapatid na Wendell)!

Kaanib sa INC™ Nagbalik-loob sa Tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo ~ ang Iglesia Katolika!

Welcome Home from Handog member of Iglesia Ni Cristo® -1914 to Catholic Church

Sis. Melorjen Saavedra Quinones,

Happy Valley, Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur.

Source: FB Kapatid na Wendell Talibong, Ssvp

PURIHIN ANG DIYOS!

Pagbabalik-loob ni Kapatid na Lisa Macalisang

(Source: Facebook) Mila Macalisang, 48, Brgy. Gata Diot, Clarin, Mis. Occ. Member of Iglesia Ni Cristo. She received series Doctrinal Instructions with Bro Thata Rosal

Sa tunay na Iglesiang tatag ni Cristo, mga ordinaryong manggagawa lamang ang nangangaral tungkol sa tunay na Iglesia.  Sila po, tulad ni Kapatid na Wendell Talibong, Kapatid na Thata Rosal, Kapatid na Marco Evangelista, si Tatang Larry na dati ring INC™ at  nagbalik-loob sa tunay na Iglesia ~ silang lahat ay WALANG BAYAD sa kanilang mga ginagawa. Kung tumatanggap man sila ay ito ay hindi bayad kundi isang tulong sa kanilang gastusin sa kanilang krudo at iba pang mga pangangailangan.

Kaya't pinupuri natin ang IISANG DIYOS Ama, Anak at Espiritu Santo biyayang ibinigay niya sa Santa Iglesia, mga magigiting na mga TAGAPAGTANGGOL ng PANANAMPALATAYANG KRISTIANO ~ at hindi tayo nawawalan ng pag-asa sapagkat tayo ay pinapanalangin ng mga BANAL at mga ANGHEL sa digmaang ito laban sa mga maling aral tulad ng mga nagsulputang mga relihiyon kuno sa mga huling araw.

MALIGAYANG PAGBABALIK-LOOB KAPATID NA MILA MACAKALISANG! 

WATCH CONVINCED!
KWENTO NG PAGBABALIK-LOOB SA TUNAY NA IGLESIA NI CRISTO!

Why would intelligent, successful people give up careers, alienate friends, and cause havoc in their families...to become Catholic? As he was considering his own move into the Church, Donald Johnson traveled around the country to get the story for himself, from some of today's most interesting and articulate Catholic voices.

Featuring Jennifer Fulwiler, Holly Ordway, Abby Johnson, Jeff Cavins, Brandon Vogt, Scott Hahn, Francis Beckwith, Patrick Madrid, Devin Rose, Mark Shea, Leah Libresco, Kevin Vost, Richard Cole, Mark Regnerus, David Currie, Matthew Leonard, Taylor Marshall, Jason Stellman, John Bergsma, Patrick Coffin, Christian Smith, and Kenneth Howell.

Run Time: 1 hr. 25 mins.

DAGSA ANG UMANIB SA TUNAY NA IGLESIA NI CRISTO NGAYONG PASKO NG PAGKABUHAY 2018!

Glenn Crocker and his children converted to the Catholic Church in 2015 Easter (Source: Catholic Anchor)

Dagsaan ang UMANIB sa TUNAY na IGLESIA NI CRISTO ngayong PASKO ng MULING-PAGKABUHAY!

-The Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone welcomed 1,700 catechumens and 1,127 candidates

-On Easter, Fordham Welcomes Converts to the Catholic Faith

-U.S. church to welcome thousands of new Catholics at Easter Vigil

-Major Protestant YouTube Star Announces She’s Converting to Catholicism

-Leading figure from Vietnam War baptized … at age 92

-Mongolia, Sweden and Algeria: the unlikely centres of Catholic conversion

-For converts, Easter brings sense of relief

Cristina's Conversion Story: From Hinduism to Catholicism

Patheos: What I Wish I’d Known About Catholics (And Why I Became One Once I Did)

Source: Patheos

Posted in February 13, 2017 by K. Albert Little

Photo Credit: Karol Franks.

I‘m a Catholic, but I didn’t begin as one.

I began my faith journey at the age of fifteen when, with the help of a good friend, I decided to become a Christian; an Evangelical Protestant, although I didn’t know the particular brand name at the time. And I meant well. I found a local Pentecostal church populated by a group of devout young Christian who welcomed me unequivocally. We were a motley crew. I fit right in.

Then in university, at a time when so many Christians lose their faith and their identity, I plugged into an incredible campus ministry. There I met lifelong friends, grew a great deal both emotionally and spiritually, and met my beautiful wife. (It was evident, she’d say, that I still had a lot of maturing to do.)

But the trajectory of my faith life would take a subtle but noticeably fork in the road one day when an Evangelical pastor asked me what’s more important, the Bible or tradition.

I didn’t have an answer, and that stumped me.

And when I dug for answers, I was even more stumped, and unsatisfied. This began a long journey of searching, prayer, and unexpected discoveries.

A journey which culminated at Easter, two years ago, when I entered full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

When that Evangelical pastor asked me about the Bible and tradition I knew very little about either, as it turns out, and my research eventually led me to look into Catholicism and its historical claims.

What I thought I knew about Catholics, as an Evangelical, was a lot.

Turns out I was wrong about almost everything.

I’m became Catholic because of what I’ve learned.

St. Francis de Sales is a favourite saint of mine. In the 16th century, as the Reformation split apart the Christian Church in Europe he wrote, preached, and worked tirelessly to explain the Catholic faith, and bring Protestants back into the fold.

He was incredibly successful and something in his mission of cordially explaining his faith resonates deeply with me.

To paraphrase St. Francis de Sales to the early Protestants: If you’d known what the Catholic Church really taught you’d never have left.

In my case, if I’d known what the Catholic Church really taught I’d have become Catholic a long, long time ago.

Catholics Don’t Worship Mary

The Catholic Church doesn’t teach the worship of Mary. Worship (and adoration) are for God alone.

As an Evangelical I thought that Catholics worshipped Mary alongside her son, Jesus. There are plenty of churches named in her honour, Catholics seemed obsessed with statues of the Virgin, and the Rosary, of all things, seemed to be nothing more than vain repetition and worship directed towards Jesus’s mother.

The reality, I’ve learned, is much different.

Catholics don’t worship Mary but, because of her special role in salvation history, she is venerated. How is that different? In Catholic theology, which, remember, was the theology of the whole Christian Church for 1,500 years, we ask Mary to pray for us.

Like Mary’s request to Jesus at the wedding at Cana, Catholics believe that Mary has the ear of Jesus in a special way. This is also reflected in biblical typology—the same kind of exegesis that Jesus used to explain His role in salvation to the apostles on the road to Emmaus. In the same way I can ask my best friend—a living, breathing Christian—to pray for my intentions, the Catholic Church teaches that Mary can be asked for prayer in the same way.

When Catholics say they pray, “to Mary,” they don’t mean that Mary will answer our prayers. This understanding of “pray” is more a difficulty of the English language.

When we “pray to” Mary, we ask for her to pray for us, to Christ.

Jesus answers all prayers. We ask Mary to pray on our behalf.

Catholics Don’t Worship the Saints

In the same way, the Catholic Church believes that holy men and women (more women than men, for the record) are, presently, in the presence of God.

We call these people saints and, like the Virgin Mary, we can ask for their prayers.

As pictured in Revelation, the prayers of the saints gathered around the altar float up like incense before God. That’s why, since the very beginning of the Christian Church, there has been a strong belief in ability of the dead to pray for us—and the practice of us asking them for their prayers.

This is why the earliest Christian Churches were built on sites where holy men and women were martyred like the churches honouring Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome.

The beautiful theology of the Catholic Church says that the Church, as a body of believers, is made up of all past, present, and future Christians. We’re all one and the same and just because I pass away doesn’t mean I cease to be a part of that active body. Jesus conquered death as so does His Church.

The saints, as Christians, continue their role in the body, only now in the presence of God.

Jesus is Present in the Eucharist

For all the different branches and denominations of Protestantism I’ve learned that no one takes Jesus’s words more seriously than the Catholic Church.

When Jesus said, “This is my body; this is my blood,” the Catholic Church—and the whole of Christianity for 1,500 years—takes Him at His word.

Incredibly, the Catholic theology of transubstantiation says that when the priest consecrates the elements (the bread and the wine) they become the actual body and blood of Jesus through a mysterious, miraculous process. The fact that we can’t see, touch, or taste these elements are real flesh and blood is part of the miracle.

This bold claim is backed up not only by a thousand and a half years of Church history but by solid exegesis of the gospels.

Jesus, from Bethlehem (which means “the house of bread”), who was laid into a manger (which is a feeding trough) when He was born is the actual manna from Heaven.

If I had known that I can actually receive Jesus in the Eucharist I would’ve stormed the doors of my local Catholic Church a decade ago.

There’s Only One Mass

What strikes me as even more incredible is the Catholic theology of the act of the Eucharist itself: There’s only one.

Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was once and for all, final, and this is something that all Protestants can get behind. The brilliant, beauty of the Mass and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharistic elements, however, is that it links us up with all of Christian history—past, present, and future.

Jesus only died once.

When the priest prayers the Eucharistic Prayers and says, “This is my body; this is my blood,” we are, as a church community, reliving the Last Supper and Jesus’s death on the cross.

We are linking up, together, with all of the other Christians who have ever, and will ever, celebrate the Eucharist.

And we’re linking up with the saints, angels, the Virgin Mary, and God Himself in Heaven as we see this same celebration taking place in Revelation.

As a Catholic, then, when I go to Mass I am experiencing something universal: Jesus’s death re-presented before my eyes.

A genuine tearing of the veil which allows us modern Catholics to reach back into the very time of the very Last Supper itself.

The Priest Acts as Jesus

In a similar way, I never understood the importance of the priest in Catholic theology. As a young Evangelical the priest, like Mary and the saints, seemed to stand in the way of my personal relationship with Jesus.

But I had it all wrong.

The priest, as understood by Catholic theology, acts as Christ. The priest is a stand-in, if you will.

In the Mass, the priests acts in the place of Jesus, as he consecrates the bread and the wine. In the blessing of people, in Baptism, in prayer, and in the healing of the sick the priest, based on the authority that Jesus gives His apostles in the New Testament, is acting in His place.

Where Jesus is not tangibly, physically with us, the priest is here in His place.

In confession, the priest, based on the direct charge from Jesus, “whoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven,” represents Christ in forgiving our sins for us.

We don’t have to imagine God among us: there He is.

And His presence is an incredible blessing and grace.

God Gave Us a Real, Tangible Church

Perhaps the greatest, most incredible thing I’ve learned, and wish that I knew a long, long time ago, is that Jesus left us with a real, tangible Church.

As an Evangelical, I thought of the Church as a non-physical, spiritual union of Christians all over the world. But this isn’t how Jesus meant it, I’m convinced.

Because this isn’t the Church as conceived by the apostles, the fathers of the Church (who were taught by the apostles), and all Christians for more than fifteen hundred years.

As I become Catholic perhaps the greatest gift I’m to receive is union with a real, tangible Church founded by Christ.

A Church with bishops and priests who can trace their authority, historically, all the way back to the apostles. Authority that we see manifest in the New Testament as the ability to forgive sins, drive out demons, and define an understanding of doctrine. These authoritative charges, according to the Catholic Church, remain with today’s bishops and priests through Apostolic Succession.

That’s why when the priest says, “You’re forgiven,” he means it. Because Christ said he’d have that power.

Rather than having to “feel” or “know” it on our own, God gave us the beauty and the blessing of a physical, tangible Church to be His hands and feet on earth.

I don’t need to pray and ask for God to give me a sense of His grace, although I certainly could, and do. But in the Eucharist, in confession, and in the knowledge that God gave us the Church, we can be certain of His grace. This, in my experience, has been the most powerful aspect of the Catholic Church—and something I wish I knew years ago.

The most beautiful gift that Jesus gave us, beyond His sacrificial offering, was the establishment of a Church to proclaim, celebrate, and safeguard truth.

There’s a lot—a lot!—I wish I’d known about the Catholic Church a long time ago.

And one that fateful day which set the course of my faith life in an entirely new direction I could’ve never anticipated that a question about the Bible and tradition would’ve led me here.

But here we are, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

In the Catholic Church I’ve found an incredible, unimaginable home. It’s miles from anything I’d ever known before and, once I learned about what Catholics really believed there’s nothing I could’ve done to avoid becoming one myself!

This article was originally published on my personal blog before the Easter Vigil, 2015.

CHNI: "I needed to get my faith life in order for the sake of my family." - Jenna Wilber

After she had her second child, Jenna felt like she and her family should make finding a church home a priority. Another young mother in her life encouraged her to seek out spiritual direction, and that was a major factor in her decision to become Catholic.

Aleteia: How a radical atheist became a Catholic priest

Mula sa: Aleteia  Sinulat ni Philip Kosloski | Aug 14, 2017

He hated the Church until one event changed his life forever ... and his story would later impress Maximilian Kolbe.

Born into a wealthy Jewish family in France in 1814, Alphonse Ratisbonne was set to become part of his uncle’s large banking firm. At first Ratisbonne was a nominal Jew, but when his older brother converted to the Catholic faith and became a priest, a hidden rage woke within him.

Ratisbonne wrote, “When my brother became a Catholic, and a priest, I persecuted him with a more unrelenting fury than any other member of my family. We were completely sundered; I hated him with a virulent hatred, though he had fully pardoned me.”

Furthermore this hatred for his brother was broadened to include all Catholics, and Ratisbonne explained how it “made me believe all I heard of the fanaticism of the Catholics, and I held them accordingly in great horror.”

This also affected his personal beliefs and he came to no longer believe in God. Ratisbonne was too busy following worldly pursuits to worry about his Jewish faith and his deep hatred for Catholicism only pushed him further away from any type of religion.

He eventually began to feel the void in his heart, but at first sought to cure it through marriage. Ratisbonne was betrothed to his niece, but because of her young age the wedding was postponed. During this time of waiting Ratisbonne decided to travel without any singular purpose.

His trip started out by traveling to Naples, where he stayed for about a month. After that Ratisbonne wanted to go to Malta, but took the wrong boat and arrived in Rome. He stayed there, making the best of it, and ran into an old friend.

One day when visiting his friend Ratisbonne encountered a Catholic convert, Theodore de Bussieres, who knew Ratisbonne’s priest-brother. While this made Ratisbonne hate the man, he enjoyed conversing with him because of his knowledge.

Later Ratisbonne visited de Bussieres again. They had a heated discussion about Catholicism and de Bussieres made a wager with Ratisbonne.

Have you the courage to submit yourself to a very simple and innocent test? Only to wear a little something I will give you; look, it is a medal of the Blessed Virgin. It seems very ridiculous, does it not? But, I assure you, I attach great value and efficacy to this little medal. [Also] you must say every night and morning the Memorare, a very short and very efficacious prayer which St. Bernard addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

While at first Ratisbonne protested at wearing the medal (which was the Miraculous Medal), he decided to put it around his neck and say the prayer each day. He figured that it couldn’t do any harm and would prove to all the ridiculous nature of Catholicism.

Ratisbonne lived up to his side of the bargain, finding it easy to recite the Memorare. Then one day he was traveling in the city with de Bussieres and they stopped at the church Saint Andrea delle Fratte. When Ratisbonne entered the church it appeared to be engulfed in a marvelous light. He looked to an altar from where the light was coming and saw the Virgin Mary, appearing as she did on the Miraculous Medal.

He left the church in tears, clutching his Miraculous Medal. Several days later he was received into the Catholic Church. After returning to Paris his betrothed was shocked and rejected him and his new religion. Ratisbonne then entered the Jesuits and was ordained a priest.

This amazing story of conversion would later influence Saint Maximilian Kolbe to found the Militia Immaculatae and convinced him of the power of the Miraculous Medal. He firmly believed in Mary’s role in bringing the world to Christ.

Allen Hunt: A Methodist Mega-Church Pastor Turned Catholic

Published by Win One for God at March 7, 2017

Allen is a former Methodist mega-church pastor and currently hosts a daily talk radio show (the Allen Hunt Show) which is heard on 150 mainstream stations around the country each week with a half million listeners. Allen is also a husband and father of two daughters.

I never saw it coming.

For fifteen years, my ministry as a Methodist pastor blossomed from one ministry to another, culminating in my dream job. I became the senior pastor of a mega-church, the most well-attended Methodist congregation in the South, and one of the largest in the country. Somewhere between four and five thousand people worshiped there each Sunday. Eight thousand gathered there for Christmas and Easter services. The church sponsored one of just two K-12 Methodist schools in the nation, had a full pregnancy resource center, a counseling center, a child care ministry, and maintained partnerships with vital missions on every continent around the globe.

How did my transition occur? Not in a single moment of great revelation, but slowly, through a series of experiences. More like a mosaic of God-encounters. Or better yet, like a journey on a boat that begins in the Atlantic Ocean, without a real plan or destination. One day you wake up, look around and realize that you’re somewhere in the Pacific. You’re not sure when you crossed from one ocean to the other, but you know you’re there, and there’s no going back.

Often, I was leading that wonderful mega-church, and deep inside I began to feel a longing to be a part of what I was convinced was God’s One Church. Over time that longing grew until I could deny it no more.

My journey culminated on Sunday, January 6, 2008, the feast of the Epiphany. On that day, I, the former pastor of a mega-church just twenty miles away, stood before the congregation at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta’s oldest Catholic church.

I was no longer the very public and well-respected Methodist minister. I would not welcome the congregation, deliver the homily, or stand outside and greet members as they left, but instead would be just like any other lay person there.

But then, finally, the moment came.

I walked to the front, and the priest gently placed the Body of Christ in the palm of my hand for the very first time.

And I began to weep.

Tears slowly streamed down my face as the years of journey climaxed in the enveloping presence of the Holy Spirit.

God’s Instrument

God used my friendship with a priest whom I met in graduate school to introduce me to the treasures of the Catholic Church. Through Father Steven, a Dominican friar, I came to see the six hidden treasures of the Catholic Church, treasures so powerful that they changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. I call them hidden treasures because they are so often over-looked or misunderstood or taken for granted.

At times, God uses friendships in remarkable ways. We listen to real friends. To strangers, we often turn a deaf ear or a cold shoulder. But to real friends, we will listen, even when listening stretches us in new ways. I do not think Fr. Steven intended to lead me home. Rather, he loved me and my family with abundance in a time when we desperately needed it. That friendship and love led to conversations about things of faith. Those conversations percolated and bounced around in my soul for years. I am constantly amazed at how God uses genuine friendships to shape our lives.

Meeting the Nuns

In our second year together, Fr. Steven arranged for the two of us to give Lenten lectures to a group of cloistered Dominican nuns in North Guilford, Connecticut. Of course, first, he had to explain what a cloistered monastery was. Talk about naive! I had no idea such places even existed.

A gathering of 50 nuns, located in a monastery whose grounds they vowed never to leave. A place of regular prayer, Mass, and simple, humble service. A group of nuns who supported their mutual life of prayer by making fudge (and it was great fudge!) and operating a book store. It was in their monastery that God planted the first seeds for my conversion, seeds which took sixteen years to come to fruition, and seeds which I did not even realize were being planted at the time.

Fr. Steven and I spent four wonderful afternoons giving talks to the nuns at the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace. I discovered later that I had been the first male who was not an ordained Catholic priest ever to instruct the sisters within their walls. It was a rare privilege and blessing, which I could not have fully appreciated at the moment. God had opened a door of grace into which I had stumbled.

Best of all, the experience proved eye-opening for me in more ways than one. This invitation into a cloistered monastery rocked my world.

A Graced Encounter

The holiness of these sisters stunned me. Keep in mind that these women would be the first to disagree at any suggestion that they are holy. They would be wrong.

Never before had I encountered persons so completely given over to God. Their faces shone with a grace and a light that unnerved me. The love of God revealed itself physically in their eyes, cheeks, and smiles. These were women whose entire lives were dedicated to the glory of God.

Remember this was totally new to me. I had no context or background to understand this place or these women. No such group exists in any Protestant tradition. Very simply, I was bumfuddled. It is not often that we have an experience that is so out of the ordinary and so out of place that we have no real way to process it at first.

This was all new territory to me. In some ways, it was scary because I was accustomed to teaching, speaking and being in charge of my setting. That control and leadership clearly did not apply here.

Fr. Steven and I shared lectures focused on the great Dominican doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, and on John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. We discussed sanctification and holiness, and the places where our beliefs intersected far more than we had anticipated. The common ground between us surprised the nuns, Fr. Steven, and me. We enjoyed great interaction and conversation together. After our last lecture, we reserved time for questions and answers. For many of the sisters, I was the first Methodist they had ever met.

A Probing Question

One sister, whom I call “Sr. Rose,” raised her hand and, as I bremember, said, “Allen, thank you for having come these past few weeks. We’ve enjoyed your teaching.” She paused and continued, “You sound so Catholic. After hearing you, I can’t help but wonder, ‘Why aren’t you a part of the Church?’”

The nuns giggled. The question startled me. “A part of the Church?” What did she mean?

As a Protestant I was taken aback by that. I thought to myself, “Well, I am a part of the Church. Don’t you understand that? I’m a Methodist pastor.” Then all of a sudden it dawned on me: she meant the Catholic Church is the one and only Church.

I laughed and gave a quick answer. I said something like, “Why am I Methodist as opposed to being Catholic? Well, you are some of the first Catholics I have ever met. The main reason revolves around communion. It seems very obvious to me that Jesus is using a metaphor when He talks about the cup and the loaf. The wine doesn’t literally become His blood; that seems kind of obvious to me as a Methodist. It’s still wine, or in the Methodist tradition, it’s grape juice. The loaf, He is saying, ‘It’s my body,’ just as He also says He is the door, He is the light, and He is the shepherd. It’s just bread and juice. I really do not understand why you all take it so literally. It’s a symbol.”

Believe it or not, I had never had that conversation in my brain before. As a Methodist and in my training in seminary, it was just something we assumed. I took it for granted.

Sr. Rose then came right back at me. Very kindly but very directly, she said, “Well, you are a New Testament scholar, right? So why does Jesus say…”

With that introduction, she then began to walk me through chapter 6 of the Gospel of John and Jesus’ teaching there on the Bread of Life. I thought I knew this passage, but Sr. Rose carefully paused on eight separate occasions to make the point: Jesus is serious about His body and His blood.

A Lifelong Journey

My transition into the Church stunned my family. I come from a long line of Methodist pastors, 8 generations I think my mother and in-laws are still processing my decision. My wife and children have been very supportive. One of my daughters (21 years old) has also entered the Church now. My decision cost me a number of friendships, primarily with some former colleagues. Of course, it put an end to all I had worked for in my career as a pastor. But it was impossible to avoid. It has been a wonderful journey, a hard journey, and a life-giving journey