Conversion Story
of
Carolyn Baber
 
      I was born 44 years ago to Lutheran parents (Missouri Synod), the fourth of six children; one boy (the eldest) and five girls.  My father was the chairman of the Lutheran church we attended, and I am grateful for the foundation of my Christian faith.
  Sometimes I am asked if there is much difference between Lutherans and Catholics.  From the Lutheran perspective, the differences involve these issues:  authority, salvation, two sacraments vs. seven, rejection of Marian dogmas and veneration of the Saints, as well as the concept of mortal/venial sin and the need for reparation,including Purgatory, the Lord's Supper (Consubstantiation vs. Transubstantiation) and the concept of worship itself as Word centered vs. Eucharist centered.
     My husband Daniel and I met while we were in our college years.  Dan's religious background was diverse.  An only child, Dan's father was Catholic, his mother was Jewish.  Daniel was raised Jewish until the age of 9, when his mother converted to Christianity.  The family tried various churches, including Lutheran and Pentecostal, before becoming Catholic shortly before we met.  Dan's mother led a charismatic prayer group where I entered a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" including daily prayer and Bible study.  Dan and I attended his (Catholic) church, but were married a year later by a Baptist pastor Dan knew from the (Baptist) college where he later graduated, and I left college early to begin our family.
     We moved to Texas along with Dan's parents, where we lived for 9 years.  We agreed to baptize our two daughters Catholic and to attend his parent's parish, with only one stipulation:  that privately, prayer to Mary and the Saints not be encouraged.  We wanted the focus on Jesus!  But one day we discovered Dan's mother secretly teaching our children the rosary.  It was a breach of trust which caused me to seriously reexamine our religious differences.  When my father offered Dan a position with his auto dealership, we moved back to Illinois and began attending the Lutheran church, where Daniel and our girls were later confirmed Lutheran.
     Under pressure from Dan to work, I took a job with an insurance firm.  Later I pursued a job in sales where I quickly achieved success, earning the firm's "rookie of the year" award.  Dan was happy with the new "ambitious" me, and after brief marriage counseling, married life improved as we began to communicate more effectively, and accentuated family time.  Dan was offered a partnership in a new auto dealership venture.  A national investment firm recruited me.  I was top in my national class, and soon earning a six figure income.  Most evenings I taught investment seminars or had client meetings for retirement and financial planning, but I made time for family when possible.  Dan and I worked hard, and we played hard, vacationing in places like Jamaica and Hawaii.  We ate in fine restaurants, and when we could break away from work, we boated, jet-skied, or snow-skied at places like Tahoe, Aspen, or British Columbia!  I indulged our daughters in frequent shopping trips.  It was at this time I received a call to do an interview for the Wall Street Journal's Work and Family column, and then a TV interview for NBC Nightly News on "How Successful Women Balance Work and Family".
     At the height of my career, it took personal challenges in my life for me to discover what true "success" was.  Unexpectedly, my youngest daughter wrote me a letter, saying she felt left out of my life.  Then, my husband's Aunt Linda died, and my own Aunt Lorraine died suddenly the same year.  I began to evaluate the quality of life from an eternal perspective, and knew I was not investing the majority of my time, talents, and energy in the areas that mattered most to me, God and family.  Our daughters were 17 and 19, and I realized how much of their lives I had missed!  I changed my "sales prayer" regarding my future, which gave God the acceptable options (Dear God, "A or B"), to a prayer of total openness (Dear God, "A to Z").  I prayed for God's Will in my life.
     Dan's mother advised me to go to a Catholic adoration chapel near my office and pray.  I felt a deep peace the moment I entered, and over the next several months, I frequently visited that chapel to pray and read my Bible.  Passages like Matt. 6: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God...Don't worry...Isn't life more than these things?", Matt. 10:38,39 "Deny yourself...take up your cross...Follow me", and Luke 9:25: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his life?", impacted me deeply.  I decided God must become the source of my identity and my security.  I was convinced that God was calling me to leave my career, and finally I resigned, in spite of enormous opposition, and lucrative offers to stay.  After one week at home, my oldest daughter was crying in my arms, saying she'd "been raising herself for so long she didn't know she needed a mother", and my youngest daughter was happy that she and I could spend days together at her art shows and speech competitions!  I had a "magnetic pull" on my heart toward the Catholic Church, but it took prayer and study for me to consider actually becoming Catholic.
     I began to read my Bible in a search for the truth, and found deeper insights than I had ever realized.  Beginning with the Old Testament, I discovered a "blueprint" of worship built around the concept of sacrifice which was realized in Jesus Christ.  I found new discoveries in old familiar passages, like Exodus 12.  While I had recalled Moses' instructions to the Israelites to paint the blood of the sacrificial lamb over their doorposts, I had missed his further instructions for them to consume the flesh of the lamb!  Malachi's 1:11 prophecy about a perfect, perpetual sacrifice and New Testament verses such as John 2, John 6, and Matthew 23 helped me to understand the full meaning of the Lord's Supper and the Eucharist.  Insights into the Genesis account of Eve helped me to see Mary's role in God's plan.  I began to read the Catholic catechism.  I was amazed to find that the Bible verses which had so impacted me, supported the explanations of Catholic teaching.  I discovered the Catholic belief of the Eucharist in the writings of the early Church fathers, which I read next.  These early Christian writings also confirmed a church hierarchy and a Catholic concept of authority!  The fact that the historical origin of the protestant church existed only 500 years ago as compared to 2000 years of Catholic history, also testified to the authenticity of the Catholic Church.  My passion for the Church came from the realization that it bears Christ Himself by its infallible teachings and in the grace of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist!
     There have been many sacrifices and joys these past 4 years, but no regrets!  One of the greatest joys that our family received through our many trials was the birth of our grandson.  Dan and I were remarried the Church in June 2001 and I was confirmed Catholic in October 2001 along with my oldest daughter, who is now a passionate Catholic too!  I have taught at a women's prayer group in our diocese for 4 years, and I now work for St. Joseph's Communications, speaking and teaching the good news of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church in women's groups, parishes, and family conferences nationwide.