I studied many areas of concern before I made the decision to come back to the Catholicism, especially in areas having to do with the most common objections to Catholicism.
But surprisingly enough, all of the arguments in the world have NOTHING on the #1 reason why I became Catholic.
In fact, if all I had to go on was this one thing, I would still become Catholic.
And don't get me wrong, the philosophical and theological reasons for becoming Catholic were and are incredibly important to me, but just as St. Thomas Aquinas observed after getting a glimpse of heaven, they were all "like straw" compared to this single aspect of Catholicism that I hungered for.
And don't get me wrong, the philosophical and theological reasons for becoming Catholic were and are incredibly important to me, but just as St. Thomas Aquinas observed after getting a glimpse of heaven, they were all "like straw" compared to this single aspect of Catholicism that I hungered for.
I found it ironic that the most common reason an ex-Catholic gives for no longer being Catholic and remaining a Protestant is that they were "not fed." They don't figure this out until after they become immersed in Protestant church services, but they suggest that they were not being fed the word of God like they are at their current Protestant church.
Interestingly enough that is MY reason for becoming Catholic and leaving Protestantism behind. When I reflect back upon the journey working up to my reversion to the Catholic faith I realize that it was I who was not being fed.
"The reason I left Protestantism behind was because I wasn't being fed..."
Little by little the Lord was calling me back to His church in ways that I couldn't quite understand until after my conversion. There were little things that bothered me about my own Protestant community that began to eat away at my conscience and slowly turned into a larger skepticism about Protestantism as a whole.
But all of the doctrinal issues that I began to have with my own Protestant community were trivial compared to something that I desperately wanted in my life and wasn't getting.
IT WAS THE EUCHARIST. The Lords supper. Holy Communion.
Our protestant church "celebrated" the Lords supper once a month! This was absolutely appalling to me that a church would put so little emphasis on communion. I would tell my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, that I really wanted to celebrate communion more. She agreed with me as well. Both of us wanted the Eucharist and we weren't getting it.
Even when we did take communion, it wasn't the same. Somehow we knew that it wasn't the Lords body and blood. We knew what that church was celebrating was a farce. I'll never forget the little crackers and grape juice passed around in tiny plastic cups like we were taking cough medicine. It was almost blasphemous.
I was hungry for the Eucharist and I wasn't being fed!
THIS is the reason I became Catholic. Yes, there are theological and philosophical reasons as well. But this is the single most important reason for me being Catholic.
