num_pages: 150
description: The impressive Bernini columns that stretch from St. Peter's Basilica out towards Rome, enclosing St. Peter's Square, have been described as the arms of the Church reaching out and welcoming all people, all language groups, all cultures, and all individuals looking for truth, happiness in this life, and eternal salvation in the next. Our beloved converts have come to love the Church as their mother and home. They have prayed, argued, studied, and finally embraced the Catholic faith. But it wasn't by their works alone that they have found a home in the Church. Ultimately they--like all Catholics--are members of the Church because of God's generous gift of faith, which we neither earn nor deserve. May these converts, and all like them, persevere in their newfound faith and bear fruit a hundredfold. -Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan Archbishop, Archdiocese of Santa Fe We like to hear others talk in glowing terms about someone we love. We take delight in gaining new appreciation of that person by seeing him through the eyes of others. And if still others want to praise that person, we will not stop them by saying we have already heard all the good things we need to hear. Though volumes of convert stories have appeared in recent years, we who love the Catholic Church never tire of reading about how still others have allowed themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit into the Church. We know the next one we read will give us a fresh look at the Church through that person's eyes. Curious or even critical non-Catholics will find much food for thought in these testimonies. Each convert travels a unique road. One of our contributors reminds us of this by quoting Venerable John Henry Newman, the most distinguished of all Catholic converts since Augustine. Newman pointed out that the Catholic Church "presents herself very differently to different minds who are contemplating her from without. God deals with them differently, but, if they are faithful to their light, at last, in their own time, though it may be a different time to each, he brings them to that one and the same state of mind, very definite and not to be mistaken, which we call conviction." -Fr. Ray Ryland Professor of Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville
language: English
title: Home at Last: 11 Who Found Their Way to the Catholic Church
titlecomplete: Home at Last: 11 Who Found Their Way to the Catholic Church
genres: Catholic
ratings_count: 23
publisher: Catholic Answers