by Dante de Miura

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: March 25, 2009

I have lived more of my life without it than with it. I am referring to the Internet. And the same is true for cell phones and daily access to a computer and to e-mail. Yet, I cannot now imagine living without these things. Were I forced to do so, I would certainly feel lost and disconnected. The same holds true for my Catholic faith. And looking back, I was in fact lost and disconnected spiritually before my conversion to Catholicism in 2003.

To be certain, my trinitarian (protestant) baptism as an infant took root. I was in His family. He claimed me as His. And from my sporadic attendance at Methodist services as a toddler and early student, to my Baptist years as an elementary student, through my non-affiliation in high school and college, to my adult stint in the Lutheran church, I always thought of Him, remembered His teachings and His ways and wondered to Him (and to myself) where I should be and what I should be doing. I was lost and not feeling connected. I didn't know what He had in store for me. But He did. And He was patient with me. I remember, as a student in college, starring an advertising and marketing career dead in the face, wondering where He would lead me. Though I did not belong to any church community, I was spiritual in my own way. I was also philosophical and in search of wisdom. I was no stranger to His grace and lordship over all He created and I pondered all that might mean. What's more, I was single with no prospects of dating or marriage. In fact, at 26 years of age and still holding my virginity close, I did wonder more than once if I was meant to marry into His works and launch a monastic vocation. But there was a cloud around that - a fog. And the more I looked at the traditional Christian history, religion and religious life, the more I visualized it as a Catholic existence. And it dissuaded me.

"Those Catholics," as I learned to know them from the other side of the Christian faith, were disingenuous. They thought they were higher than the rest. They were elitists. They were snobbish and boorish and lots of other "ishs." My readings told me how wrong Catholics were (The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, 1858). Fellow protestants recounted wicked rumors and myths and unflattering personal opinions. Criticisms and dissections of the Papacy and Popes; rallies against the Saints, the icons, the statuettes; criticisms of the Inquisition (for heaven's sake!); the validity of Luther's arguments; it went on and on and on. All valid

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