Peter Kreeft has posted his conversion story at The Integrated Catholic Life. While the entire essay is well worth your time, the last paragraph should be required reading for anyone involved in evangelism, catechesis and/or RCIA (my emphasis):
I have been happy as a Catholic for many years now. The honeymoon faded, of course, but the marriage has deepened. Like all converts I ever have heard of, I was hauled aboard not by those Catholics who try to “sell” the church by conforming it to the spirit of the times by saying Catholics are just like everyone else, but by those who joyfully held out the ancient and orthodox faith in all its fullness and prophetic challenge to the world. The minimalists, who reduce miracles to myths, dogmas to opinions, laws to values, and the Body of Christ to a psycho-social club, have always elicited wrath, pity, or boredom from me. So has political partisanship masquerading as religion. I am happy as a child to follow Christ’s vicar on earth everywhere he leads. What he loves, I love; what he leaves, I leave; where he leads, I follow. For the Lord we both adore said to Peter his predecessor, “Who hears you, hears Me.” That is why I am a Catholic: because I am a Christian.
Full essay here.
Tags: Orthodoxy at Work
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Thank you so very much, Mike! Peter Kreeft is one of my favorite teachers… I always gain so much from reading him. I guess I never knew his story of conversion! I’m so happy to know it now. +JMJ
Thank you, Mike! Dr. Kreeft has summarized the problem of our age in one sentence, and I second his reaction to it!
“The minimalists, who reduce miracles to myths, dogmas to opinions, laws to values, and the Body of Christ to a psycho-social club, have always elicited wrath, pity, or boredom from me. So has political partisanship masquerading as religion.”
It reminds me of the warning from St. Paul, I think, not to empty the faith of it’s content. God bless you, and may Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
I second what Kreeft said… and here’s another I saw recently:
“Not only are we missing something when fear is absent from religion, but (far worse) we are sinning grievously. For the absence of the fear of God is arrogance and pride. How dare sinners sashay up to God as a chum without first falling down in repentance and fear and calling on the Blood of Christ to save us?”
~Peter Kreeft
Mike – thanks for posting! Excellent quote of Peter Kreeft.
A strong, vibrant and courageous faith, one that adheres to the teachings of our God-given leaders, one that is DIFFERENT from the world – that faith is the hallmark of a true new Evangelism!