Rosalind Moss - Home At Last 11 Who Found Their Way to the Catholic Church

Home At Last

E DITED BY R OSALIND M OSS

Home At Last

C ATHOLIC A NSWERS

S AN D IEGO

2006

2006 Catholic Answers, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for quotations, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading to the Internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Catholic Answers, Inc.

Published by Catholic Answers, Inc.

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Cover photo by Brian Osborne, Charlotte, NC

Cover design by Devin Schadt, Davenport, IA

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-938983-00-9

With Thanksgiving

I will be eternally grateful to Mitch and Zhava Glaser and to John MacArthur who led me to the Lamb of God twenty-four years ago and who mentored me through my Evangelical years. And to Scott Hahn, Karl Keating, Msgr. James T. OConnor, Fr. Peter Vianney, Ronda Chervin, and, above all, to my beloved brother, David, for leading me all the way home to the Lambs Church in all its fullness.

I give special thanks also to Trask Tapperson for his gracious assistance throughout this project and to my friend and neighbor, Sharon Junion, for her keen ear and devoted heart.

And thanks upon thanks to my fellow pilgrims whose stories lie herein, who have traveled the path to Rome, not without cost, and who have found it, as have I, the pearl of great price, worth selling everything for.

May their journeys be an encouragement to all who enter in and give honor to the One to whom all glory is due.

Table of Contents

Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan

Fr. Ray Ryland

Rosalind Moss

James J. Pitts

Alex Jone s

David K. DeWolf

Jeri Westerson

Thomas Ricks

Howard Charest

Sally Box

Eric M. Johnson

Robert Ian Williams

Craig Turner

Rosalind Moss

Recently I was at a conference on Catholic evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville. While browsing in the universitys bookstore I met a man and his wife who were also attending the conference. To my surprise they told me that they were both ministers in the Assembly of God.

What are two Protestant ministers doing at a Catholic conference on evangelization? I asked. The wife said that both of them, after much study and prayer, had decided some time ago to find out more about the Catholic Church. And they told me, smiling, that they were to be received into the Church two weeks after the conference. Taking this step, they said, had required many sacrifices, because they loved their ministry and they loved the congregation that they had been serving.

I had to know: What was it that drew you to the Church? They replied, It was the Eucharistwe hunger for the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

They had found that the Catholic Church took seriously the words of Jesus about being the bread of life. They had grasped that the accounts of the Last Supper clearly indicate that our Lord was talking, not about a symbol, but about the bread and wine truly becoming his body and blood.

The couple recounted how surprised they had been to find that the Church, far from being disconnected from Scripture, has scriptural bases for the sacraments and for other major elements of Catholic life. They knew their Bible well, and they had come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church truly was the most biblical Christian church, the one must deeply rooted in the Scriptures. Furthermore, they had become convinced that to be a Christian means to be united to the successor of Peter, and they found that only the Catholic Church could offer that union.

As we conversed, they also shared with me their observation that many times cradle Catholics seem to take the Eucharist, the papacy, and many other elements of the Church for granted, whereas those who must struggle to find and to accept the Catholic faith seem to appreciate the richness of the Church in a special way.

This interesting couple is not unique. In many ways, in fact, their story is familiar. For today there are many non-Catholics, from people of no faith to people of profound faithindeed, even Protestant ministers like thesewho are being drawn to the Catholic Church.

Why?

The modern world has much to offer, but there is a hunger in the soul that it cannot nourish. In this country we have the highest standard of living weve ever known. We have forms of medical diagnosis, intervention, and repair that are well-nigh miraculous. We have sophisticated systems of communications and information distribution. And we have endless entertainment available at the push of a button.

But amid all these developments, we feel a spiritual hunger that none of these can satisfy. God has placed in each of us a desire to know and to love him. The security-seeking and pleasure-loving culture we have developed cannot answer that desire, and in fact does its best to encourage us to ignore our hunger for the living God. Our culture has complacently dubbed itself post-Christian, but neopagan, in the the minds of many Christians, might be a more apt description.

Many mainline Protestant churches have caved into the neopagan culture, watering down previously held doctrines about the divinity of Jesus and the centrality of God, and abandoning positions on abortion, marriage, and sexuality. Churches should be in tension with the prevailing culture. If a church is not, then it becomes irrelevant and meaningless.

Despite the collapse of spiritual and moral values in our nation, the Catholic Church has remained steadfast in teaching right and wrong and in reclaiming the values of Jesus. And people who feel that there must be more to life than what the surrounding culture can offer are hearing the Churchs voice.

Particularly open to hearing that voice are people who have committed themselves to seeking the truth in faithful adherence to Scripture and Tradition. The clear teaching and loving welcome of the Catholic faith draw such people in, and they are becoming Catholic because they see that the Catholic Church, and only the Catholic Church, contains the fullness of the teaching that Jesus and the apostles intended for the Church.

The spiritual hunger of which I speak cannot be satisfied with slim rations. It must be offered the full plate of Christianity. Protestant churches and some Fundamentalist sects certainly offer important nourishment through their devotion to Christ and the Scriptures. What they do not and cannot offer are certain truths of the faith that have stood unchanged for 2,000 years:

The Mass, which is what former Catholics miss most;

The great blessing of the Eucharist, mentioned in the Bible and instituted by Jesus Christ;

The Magisterium, the Churchs teaching authority, expressed through the Holy Father and the bishops who are successors to Peter and the apostles. With them there is a way to know what the teachings of the Church are;

Mary and the knowledge that Christian revelation is incomplete unless there is a place for the mother of Jesus, who is mentioned as being present at critical moments in the life of her Son;

Tradition, the distillation of the riches of the Churchs living heritage of two thousand years, and,

Great teachings on social justice, proclaiming respect for the dignity of each human person. Through them the Church speaks often, and eloquently, about the dignity of all human life, even when the bearer of that life is sick or elderly or yet unborn.

This is the full menu of Christianity. This is the wholeness and integrity which drew the converts who tell their stories in this delightful and substantial book.