Catholic Arena will be publishing a regular series of testimonies from Catholics who have found their way to the faith despite challenges of the modern world.
We hope that by sharing these we can offer encouragement and solidarity for those who have made or are making a similar journey.
Our first submission is from a young Irish man who found Catholicism to be all of the things that the culture said that it is not.
Believers in God are deluded, unquestioning, and not very smart. Atheists are critical, skeptical, and tend to be smarter than believers. That's because they use science and reason to make sense of the world and don't need a set of oppressive and punitive dogmas created by a made up and vengeful God to navigate life.
Not the opening paragraph of an article on a Catholic website you expected to see, is it?
Those are the beliefs of an obnoxious and arrogant individual 2 years ago who, with God's grace, was blessed to have a conversion back to the faith of his youth. Beliefs that once belonged to the author of this article that you are reading today.
Of course, I no longer believe what I did at that time, and have been pleasantly surprised to discover that being a Catholic is as intellectually challenging as this devotee wishes it to be. Similarly, it is not as opposed to science and reason as liberal orthodoxy frequently asserts in the media, as demonstrated throughout History by the ground breaking discoveries of scientists such as Georges Lemaître, Blaise Pascal, and Gregor Mendel. These men were devout Catholics whose deep faith did not conflict with the huge advances in science and mathematics which their works enabled, in fact their thirst for truth led them to these discoveries.
Even the most famous of contemporary atheist critics of religion, Richard Dawkins, has not successfully rebutted the greatest of Catholic philosophers, Thomas Aquinas.
What I formerly viewed as "oppressive and punitive dogmas" I now know are a set of loving blueprints for how to avoid falling into traps of temptation and evil, which never lead to happiness, and on how to live a fulfilling life. It isn't easy to adhere to God's teaching, but our faith sustains us, as does the promise of heaven, to conduct our lives in a way that will lead us to be in the very presence of God someday.
“I know that God loves me infinitely
”
It felt strange after over a decade in the wilderness of atheism to go into mass as a renewed believer in God. However, the friends I made on my spiritual journey since then gave me the support and encouragement to not just go to weekly mass, but to truly engage with God and the faith. Confession, daily prayer, bible studies, reading books on faith, exploring the incredible and enlightening array of talks, catechesis, spiritual guidance, and other aspects of Catholicism on YouTube (channels like Ascension Presents, Sensus Fidelium, and Bishop Robert Barron) are all regular aspects of my life today.
With spiritual direction I have changed my prayer from wish lists to trying to form a communion with God and thanking Him for all that I have and all that I have achieved.
I thank God for calling me back to faith, and while I can't yet quite grasp this enormity of this concept, I know that God loves me infinitely; so much in fact that he died an agonising death to save my very soul.
I'm not quite there in understanding just how awesome this love is but with God's grace I will someday.
If you wish to submit your story of return or conversion (or persistence!) to the faith , email it to editor@catholicarena.com