Marcus Grodi - Thoughts for the Journey Home

Marcus C. Grodi

CHResources
PO Box 8290
Zanesville, Ohio 43702
740-450-1175
CHResources is a registered trademark of
The Coming Home Network, International

Copyright (C) 2010 by Marcus Grodi
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 9780980006698

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grodi, Marcus.
Thoughts for the journey home / Marcus Grodi.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-9800066-9-8 (alk. paper)
1. Catholic converts.
2. Conversion -- Catholic Church. I. Title.

BX4668.A1G76 2010
248.2'42-- dc22

2010035026

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced inany form without prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible,copyright 1965, 1966, 2006 by the Division of Christian Educationof the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the UnitedStates of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design and page layout of print edition by Jennifer Bitler : www.doxologydesign.com

EBook by Marpex Inc. Steubenville Ohio

The mere effort to pen a dedicatory page ensures that I will leavesomeone out -- someone who, by God's grace, has made all the differencein my life. So let me thank all of you now for your friendshipand grace. Even so, there are two whom I particularly want tomention.

First, I dedicate this book to my wife, Marilyn. She'sthe love of my life and has walked beside me, step by step, througheverything that I mention in this book, for by God's grace, weare walking this journey together. I love you, Marilyn.

Second, I want to acknowledge Paul Thigpen, the new Director ofCHResources here at the Coming Home Network International. Ifthese articles are readable, if there is any overall sense totheir arrangement, it is all because of Paul's unique editingand writing gifts. He truly can make a silk purse out of thisold sow's ear. Thanks, Paul.

The celebrated English convert G. K. Chesterton once observedthat "the Church is a house with a hundred gates; and no two menenter at exactly the same angle." As the founding president ofthe Coming Home Network International, Marcus Grodi can readilyaffirm the truth of that observation. A convert himself, he haswalked alongside hundreds of seekers on their way home to theCatholic Church, each with a unique starting point, each witha distinctive "angle" of entry.

Yet despite the variety of the roads to Rome, they also demonstratecertain parallels. Marcus realizes, as Chesterton did, that it'suseful to identify these common patterns in conversion, becauserecognition of them can help potential converts find their way.It can also assist those who have already arrived home to makesense of their journey, while revealing more clearly to thoseraised in the Church the treasures that have been theirs all along.

Thoughts for the Journey Home provides insight in all these ways,and much more as well. He brings together here a number of hisessays, published over the years, that examine the common joysand satisfactions, burdens and barriers, questions and doubtsand fears, that lie along the way. His reflections, both practicaland profound, illumine the path for converts, potential converts,and cradle Catholics alike.

The ministry of the Coming Home Network International is focusedprimarily on a particular kind of convert: non-Catholic clergyon their way to the Catholic Church. In addition to the typicaldislocations resulting from conversion, these men and women facespecial challenges.

They must give up their ordination, their livelihood, and theirestablished self-identity as pastors or other professional ministers. Only a few are able to become Catholic priests. Therest, then, must launch out into unfamiliar vocational territory,many with no training to prepare them. Meanwhile, they usuallyhave families to support -- spouses and children who, in the midstof anxiety and confusion about the convert's decision, may stronglyoppose it.

Those who find themselves in this difficult, demanding situationwill find special sympathy and encouragement in this book. Marcus,himself a former Protestant pastor, has been there, done that,and lived to tell the story. It's a story full of hope, told withhumility, honesty, and grace.

My prayer is that this book will find its way, not only to theseseekers, but also to all sorts of other readers who are connected,in various ways, to this journey of faith. The wisdom here isfor those who are thinking about starting out, and those who arebeckoning them; those who are already on the way, and those whowalk beside them; those who have arrived, and those who shouldbe welcoming them home.

I was on a flight to Birmingham, Alabama, to host The JourneyHome, my live program on EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network.Seated next to me was a dressed-to-the-hilt businessman. Afterhis second Scotch on the rocks, he turned to me and asked, "So,what do you do for a living?"

"I help Protestant ministers become Catholic."

After a blank stare, he pressed the button for the flight attendant.I wondered if he would ask to be moved to another seat, but insteadhe merely asked for another drink, a double, and our conversationceased.

To many people, the conversion of anyone to the Catholic Church,much less a clergyman, is an unfathomable absurdity. Yet duringthe past fifty-plus years a growing wave of Protestant ministersand laity have been "coming home" to the Catholic Church.

So why would anyone want to do that?

This was my question before I began my own "journey home." Forthe first forty years of my life, I had never heard of a Protestant minister becoming Catholic. But they are indeed cominghome.

In 1993 we founded the Coming Home Network International (CHNetworkfor short), an organization whose mission is to help non-Catholicclergy enter the Catholic Church. Since that time, more than eighteenhundred ministers, missionaries, educators, and seminarians frommore than a hundred various non-Catholic traditions have contactedus. All these expressed interest in becoming Catholic, and sofar more than nine hundred of them have "come home." More thaneight hundred are still somewhere along the journey, strugglingwith a variety of obstacles and pondering the implications forthemselves and their families if they convert.

Why, you might ask, are these men and women turning from the familiartraditions, not to mention their ordained ministries and livelihoods,to become Catholic? The following collection of essays addressesthis and related questions, arranged into what might be calledthe stages of the journey: the beginning; the difficulties alongthe way; and the journey onward. A final section describes specificallythe work of the CHNetwork, dedicated to standing beside thoseon the journey.

Regardless of where you might be on the journey -- whether a non-Catholicjust beginning your exploration of the Catholic Church's validity,or somewhere along the way encountering new questions or secondthoughts, or already home and in need of encouragement, or evena life-long Catholic with friends you'd like to help "come home" -- I pray that this collection of essays will serve as an encouragementon your journey of faith.

-- Marcus Grodi