Dr. Kenneth J. Howell, PhD, Howell, a former Presbyterian minister and seminary professor, entered the Catholic Church in 1996.
As I knelt in St. Peter’s Cathedral at daily Mass, my heart struggled to know what God wanted me to do. The past year had opened my eyes to the beauties of the Mass and to the truths of the Catholic faith, but I just could not become a Catholic. How could I give up what I had worked so hard to achieve? Now that I was successful in what I had always wanted to do, wouldn’t it be foolish to walk away from it all? And what if my wife would not or could not follow me in my spiritual journey, should I jeopardize my marriage or put our children in confusion? I simply didn’t know what to do or where I was going in my life.
That day the Mass was the same as I had come to know it over the past year. What had seemed foreign and strange was now precious and inviting. So inviting was it that I felt as if a gigantic magnet was drawing me into something greater than myself. When we came to the Communion Rite, the priest held up the host for all to see and said these words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper!”
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