A YOUNG GIRL'S CONVERSION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 51, 23 April 1897, Page 25

A YOUNG GIRL'S CONVERSION.

" The story of my conversion t Why. it was so simple it would not be worth telling." This was my reply when the suggestion was made to me ; but I was still asked to consider it, and, thinking, it came to me that it might be an act of gratitude for so great a grace, and so I began to write. In my youth I was far enough away from the Catholic Church. " A daughter of the Puritans " — for my ancestors crossed in the Mayflower — I only knew of the Church to feel a supreme pity for her children as ignorant, idolatrous, and superstitious. How I had acquired these ideas I cannot tell, for neither by my parents nor teachers had such things been directly said, but I suppose the whole atmosphere of my surroundings led to it and especially the books I read. When I was about fifteen the good Providence of God throw me into the society of a Catholic. She was a lady of great intelligence, refined, enthusiastic, and warm-hearted — indeed, one who could not fail to win both respect and love. I had known her for two or three months when my mother said to me one evening : " I have just henrd that Miss H is a Catholic, and I do not think well of your being so much with her." '• A Catholic !" I replied ; " why, that is impossible. She could not be a Catholic and I not know it all this time." I thought it over, and made up my mind to inquire about it. The next day I asked a mutual acquaintance, and, to my surprise, heard that it was really so. One, then, could be intelligent and be a Catholic 1 This was a new thought to me, and I made up my mind to watch her every word and act. and pee what a Catholic really was. I saw her now very often, and after a little while led up the conversation to her faith. Now, I thought, I shall see something of the superstition and idolatry of Catholics. " I wonder," I said, " that in these days one like you can give up her reason and intelligence to the guidance of priests." " What if I give myself to the guidance of a divine and infallible authority I " t-he answered. "Oh ! that is another thing. If there were a divine and infallible authority it would be wisdom indeed to 1 c guided by it." " Do you believe the words of our Lora when he speaks of establishing His Church ?" " Yes," I said ; " at least I have read them a hundred times and know them by heart." For if there was anything I felt sure of, it was my knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ; from my earliest youth I had been to Sunday-school twice every Sunday, and our principal exercise had been reading and learning by heart the New Testament and parts of the Old. "Well," she said, '-let us recall His words : 'Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ... Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. . . . And the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I have said to you, and he will teach you all truth. 1 Do you remember these words of our Lord ?" " Yes" I said, absently, '• I remember them." While in my heart I said, "Did our Lord really say all this, and, if He did, what does it mean ?" "Do you remember, too," she went on, " that when He sent His Apostles to teach and preach He said, ' He that heareth you, heareth Me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me ' 1 Does not-this look as if our Lord left us teachers who had authority, and » horn He would guide always in all truth ? If they could teach error w> uld not the gßtpp of hell hnve prevailed against the Church of Christ ?" I could not tfiy ai-yih'iig to this, for these words of our Lord wore solemn von s uiid musi nn an something, and what could they mean but a divine and mlulliLlo authority?

Such conversations came often now in our intercourse. The s lbject of the Church as a divine teacher took precedence of all others with me ; that admitted, everything else came as a matter of course. Still, I was iruch interested in seeing what the Scriptures paid of other Catholic dogmas, and my surprise was great to read in them all that the Church teaches in regard to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I saw that they said she was full of grace, bltsseH among women, that the Lord was with her, and that the Holy, which should be born of her, should be called the Son of God. I saw, too, that Mary herself had said that all generations should call her blessed. When I read these things I felt as if I had read before with my eyes only, and not with my intelligence. But what wonderful revelations of love opened up to me when I read, in this new light, the promises of our Lord when He instituted the sacrament of His Body and Blood I I wondered how I could ever have thought that such strong, simple and plain words, such solemn and wonderful words, could mean nothing, or the very •opposite of what they said. I had not as yet spoken of these thoughts and conversations to my parents, for it all seemed so strange and unexpected to me that I scarcely knew where I stood. I still watched my friend to see what were the fruits of Catholic faith. I found her life most edifying, and step by step I was led on, until I felt that I must ask my father for that privilege of liberty of conscience that, as a Protestant, he could not reasonably refuse. I knew that I should pain him to the heart's core, and he was a most loving father : but God's claims were first, and it had to be done. How well I remember that evening when I first opened my heart to him I With the blood of the Puritans in his veins, and the faith of the Puritans in his heart, he walked before God, according to his light, pure, upright, and devout. He had, outside of his lif-long prejudices, a very logical mind, and he was true now to his principles. With a sad heart he gave me the liberty I asked, only begging that I would wait awhile and read more, and talk with those whom he would bring to me. My father thought that I was influenced by the power which Catholic worship has over the senses ; but though I felt deeply the great beauty of the Catholic liturgy, and was impressed by the music and paintings and architecture, still I was too much my father's daughter to be led by these things ; it would have to be the head and not the heart or imagination that would take me into the Church. The annual conference of ministers was now about meeting, and we always entertained some at our house. When they came and heard of my state of mind, each one made an effort to enlighten me in regard to the truth. The minister of the church which we attended, too, had many talks with me. My father was not always well pleased with these conversations, for one of them admitted in one of them that he had always believed that purgatory was a very reasonable, and almost necessary doctrine, and another would not admit that the words, "the Church is the pillar and ground of truth," could be found in the New Testament, and was very uncomfortably silent when they were found. Those were painful days, full of discussions and controversies, in which, though my arguments prevailed, none the less did my heart suffer. I think the last point was reached when my mother, who followed more her impulses and emotions, said that she would rather see me dead than to t-ee me a Catholic. I had before this been presented to a Catholic priest, dear Father Starr — so gentle, so kind-hearted ! I remember well my feeling of surprise, mixed with a little bit of humiliation, when he pave me a small catechism to read and study. Dear little catechism ! How I learned to love it 1 In simplest words, that a child could understand, was the whole Christian faith given by Christ to his apostles to teach and to preach. On every paire was text after text of Holy Scripture, the two going together— the written word of God and the living voice of the Church. Time passed on. and I ft It that the final step must be taken. God had given me the gift of faith, and I must now profess it before God and man ; so at the altar ot God, one Sunday after Vespers, I was made by baptism a child of the Holy Catholic Church. I was at this time about seventeen years old. What can I say of the new life into which I now entered ? It almost seemed as if our Lord were living in the world again, and that I heard his voice day by day, receiving f iom his very hand the wonderous gif t of his own Body and blood. The world with a b-ivine and infallible teacher, and our Lord truly present in the sacrament of his love, was indeed a very different world ; it seemed almost heaven on earth. Many years have passed since then, and every day I have thanked God more and more for this gitt above all price — the irif t of faith. And here the story of my conversion should properly end, but there are one or two incidents that happened later that I would like to speak of. About two years after my conversion my mother said to me one Sunday evening : " I have had a very strange interview this afternoon. A lady met me as I came down the steps of the church, and asked me if I had not a daughter who had become a Catholic When I replied in the affirmative she said she had two sons who had become Catholics, and one of them was studying for the priesthood. She said it might be a consolation, under the circumstances, for us to see each other and talk together. She walked with me some distance, and told me that although she felt this change of faith in her sons very much, still she would not, by a word even, bring them back, if she could. They were happy and full of peace, and she thought they could serve God where they were." I listened with interest, and was glad of the interview, hoping it might be some comfort and help to my mother. I had almost forgotten the whole incident, when one evening, at the house of my first Catholic friend, who was now married, and while we were celebrating, by a little festivity, the baptism of a son for whom I had been godmother, a gentleman called and was presented to me.

I found that he was a oonvert, and waß Boon convinced that he was the son of the lady who had had that interview with my mother. Had he, I wondered, heared my name or of my conversion / He spoke of his brother, to whom he was deeply attached. He was studying abroad, and was soon to be ordained a priest. I was very much interested, for converts in those days were not so frequently met with as now, and it was a pleasure to me to hear how they had come into the Church.

Our acquaintance ripened, and ended in our receiving together another sacrament of the Holy Catholic Church — the sacrament of Matrimony. The dear brother is now an influential priest, whose writings are well known both here and abroad.

I think I should beg pardon for introducing these last incidents ; but since I write as an act of thanksgiving I could not pass over the temporal blessings that followed my coming into the Church : for our Lord's promise was fulfilled to me, that " every one that hath left parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, or lands, for the kingdom of God's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold in this present time "—may He grant me the grace so to be faithful as to obtain the rest of the promise !—"! — " and in the world to come, life everlasting." — From the Catholic World.