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This year we are featuring stories of personal faith journeys. We hope by sharing these stories that our visitors and parishioners may grow to have a deeper understanding of the
call we each have to live our faith daily.
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February |
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June
JULY 2010
My Journey from Seventh-Day Adventism to Roman Catholic
by Deborah Quiroz
In early 2004, I began to feel God tugging my heart to follow a new path. This feeling was so intense that I was at a loss.
For 4 years I explored various denominations on a quest. I first looked within the faith I was born into, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. From there I explored Lutheran, Methodism, Unitarian and Non-Denominational churches. All of which left me empty and lost. I stopped exploring and cried out to God, “Where shall I go? God was calling me to a more intense experience of the cross and was encouraging me to discover a fuller faith.
In early 2008, after speaking with a dear friend who encouraged me to visit the nearest Catholic Church in my area, I found St. Thomas Aquinas and began my journey into Catholicism. I began the RCIA program shortly thereafter.
My journey was not easy. I resented what I was taught about Catholics during my non-Catholic years. I never knew how much I would have to deprogram. I had false doctrines ingrained in me such as: our Pope is the Anti-Christ, the Jewish Sabbath must be kept, and Jesus’ teaching of the Eucharist was a representation only.
However, I prayed every day that if God wanted me to become Catholic, that my journey would become easier and that I would find peace with every dogma being revealed. Much of the peace I felt was due to the patience the RCIA team had for me, and my wonderful sponsor, Catherine, who stood by me every time I struggled to grasp teachings from sacred Tradition and scripture.
As I learned of Mary, the saints and sacraments, nothing touched me more then the center of Catholic worship: the Eucharist. My conversion really began the moment I understood Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 16:18 where Jesus established His church upon Peter and when, at the Last Supper, he established the Eucharist.
The Eucharist was the answer I had been searching for, for many years! This discovery that He makes himself present to me personally at every Mass led me to sob that God finally answered my prayer. I am very undeserving of this gift of God.
At the 2010 Easter Vigil I was Baptized, Confirmed and received Jesus for the first time. There are no words to describe the events of that night, ones I replay in my mind over and over.
If you see me crying next to you in the pew just before the consecration, this is not because I am sad, it is because I become very overwhelmed that Jesus has found me and has graced me with the opportunity to receive Him in the Eucharist. This is a gift I will never take for granted.
~Deborah Quiroz
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