Conversion Tip Redux - Dear Lagniappe

Happy Almost Birthday to my blog!
(16 days to go)

And in the spirit of birthdays, I thought I would comment a little more on my last post. In the combox, my friend Lagniappe wrote:

"Discern(ing) - what doth it meaneth?  The post pronounces the random (chance) of flipping open a phone book and, voila!!!, this is God's direction (I get your point just a bit of hyperbole on my part) (#1).  Now, the quote:
"He is also capable of helping you discern the claims of the Catholic Church.  Ask Him to help you make the decision. Beg him to "show you the truth". You are not testing God, you are asking God for help."  Discerning requires more than a mental ascent to whatever, or a mystical epiphany, or a divine revelation of truth.  Mi Amigo, the very word, discern (as a verb), requires an examination or a judgment.  Thus, more than blind luck is required. Are you positing that one truly seeking the Roman Catholic way will find it apart from the obvious search of and through actual materials (#2)?  Will the sheer magnitude of a seeker's resolve to find this truth apart from serious inquiry result in a magic moment (#3)?

1. The phone book analogy was meant to draw out the magnitude of the task of finding a Protestant Church amongst the thousands of competing options in comparison to the magnitude of discerning the Catholic claim of being the Church Jesus personally founded. You see, many times people make the Catholic Church the "impossible find", so buried in history and Latin theology that the unlearned will never have a chance. "Sorry simple charlie," they say. Catholicism is only for the man of letters. The yeoman -- you're just out of luck.

But that isn't the case. I find something extraordinary in the Catholic Church. I find EVERYONE here. Supreme Court Justices -- who know how to blow holes in every kind of argument, farmworkers, learned theologians, and third grade educated grandmothers, all dipping their hand in the water font, genuflecting and silently kneeling in reflection after they receive the Body and Blood of our Lord.

2. No. But, I would be careful to imply that prayer is some kind of "blind luck". The intellectual duty of "loving God with your mind" certainly entails looking through actual materials. As a sage once said in another post:

"Pray more than you read blogs"

I'm the first critic of blogs. They can become like McDonald's hamburgers -- easy to eat but with little nutritive value. I did not convert to Catholicism through online blogs. I converted through the careful reading of tens of thousands of pages of books. However, not everyone will have the luxury of reading tens of thousands of pages of books. I happen to have at the time (a) a job that gave me the financial resources to buy those books, (b) time in the evening to read non-stop and (c) eventually the resources to not work for 7 months and do nothing but read (and debate non-Catholics and Catholics). So, far from "blind luck", as one who understood both the implications of becoming Catholic and the absolute necessity of examining various arguments against Catholicism, I agree that I had no "short-cut" option. However...

3. I believe in prayer. The Lord said we should, "Ask, seek and knock."Christ also said:

"But of whom of you that is a father shall a son ask bread, and the father shall give him a stone? or also a fish, and instead of a fish shall give him a serpent?" - Luke 11:11

I understand that neither of these versus have Roman Catholicism, per se, in their cross-hairs. But, what both establish is a principle. It is a principle I learned as a Pentecostal. The principle is this: we do not need to be afraid of asking God for help and believing he will give it to us. He will not give us a serpent if we ask for a fish. He will not give us a harlot church if we ask Him for his. Does this mean that we can abdicate our duty to study, discern or judge? Of course not. Though the journey I described in #2 would have been futile had it not included hours on my knees begging God:

"Please don't lead me to Catholicism! If this is not of you, throw me off the path! Please, Lord, anything but the Catholic Church!"

Anyone interested in Catholicism, please pray this prayer.

Now, you may immediately object to where my journey terminated, you might even say I was duped, deceived, etc. That's your prerogative. However, notice that my advice leads me open to the very real possibility that God won't lead someone reading this blog to the Catholic Church. So be it. I would rather someone prayerfully discern Catholicism, then lose spiritual oxygenation on their journey.

Peace to you on yours