Becoming a Catholic

I don't really know why I became a Catholic. My decision to join the Church was about 13 years ago now, though I wasn't actually baptised until 4 years after that. I was never baptised as an infant and my parents were always very open as to why: my father was a Catholic but my mother was an Anglican. They couldn't decide which church to have me baptised in so left it up to my own decision.

I was about 8 years old when I decided to become a Catholic. I attended an Anglican church every Sunday and to all intents and purposes I was considered an Anglican. I went to Sunday School and every week I'd go up to the altar with my arms crossed across my chest to receive a blessing. I did, however, attend a private Catholic school. Most of the students were Catholic, this being in an area where almost 80% of the population is Catholic. At school I went to chapel several days a week, every day when I was older.

I remember the rest of my class preparing for their First Holy Communion. As an Anglican I, along with a few other Anglicans and a Muslim classmate, was not involved. I also remember being intensely jealous of my Catholic classmates. I can't remember exactly why and there was probably something very silly about it but also something intensely providential as well. I didn't even understand really what it was, I knew nothing of the Real Presence. All I knew was that they had something I intensely wanted and looking back I think even then something drew me to the Eucharist. I could easily have been baptised Anglican and taken First Communion with my friends from Sunday School. But the desire in my heart was the the Catholic Eucharist, something I didn't really understand but have come to love so intensely.

I may only have been a child but I saw something in Catholicism that Anglicanism lacked. I don't know what that was, realistically my understanding of the differences was basically non-existent but all I knew was that I belonged in the Catholic Church.

I suppose in the end what it comes down to is that I became a Catholic because I felt God calling me there.

"Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18