Welcome Home to the Reverts

Last updated on: March 29, 2016 at 9:13 pm by Rebecca Frech

Welcome Home to the Reverts 2016-03-29T21:13:26-05:00 Rebecca Frech

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As I watched the new Catholics enter the Church on Saturday night, I wept during the Baptisms and choked up during the Confirmations. Nothing makes me happier than the sight of so many (64 total at our parish) accepting Jesus Christ and entering into full communion with His Church. As I looked at the standing-room-only crowd of over 1,300 people, I wondered how many of them were back at Church for the first time, and remembered the Lent and Easter of sixteen years ago that saw my own return to the Catholic faith.

As a teenager, I’d left the Church full of certainty that God did not exist. I’d traveled through agnosticism, and ended up a lukewarm atheist. Sixteen years later, I’d sat in the pews as a brand new revert, and watched the converts be welcomed with smiles, applause, and all of the pomp and tradition at which the Roman Catholic Church excels.

Reverts are a different breed of Catholic, not really Cradle and not really freshly converted. Raised in the Faith, or converted at some point, and then fallen away, those who experience a reversion to the Faith aren’t greeted with warm cries of “Welcome Home!” and public celebration. Instead, they simply decide one day to walk back through the doors of a parish church, slide quietly into a pew, and pick up the familiar rhythms of the Mass and the unending cadence of the liturgical year.

Some are lit from within with the fire of a freshly converted Catholic, drinking in the teachings of an ancient faith they somehow never really knew. Others are worn and battered, broken after a long and painful battle with themselves, they are suddenly immersed in the very beliefs and theology which they had loudly and vehemently denounced to anyone who would listen. That was me – the battered and broken former denier, sitting in a pew and softly crying and eating crow.

When we talk about the members of the Catholic Church, we tend to split them neatly into “converts” and “cradle,” and ignore that silent group of “others” in our midst. What an amazing opportunity for spiritual growth and edification we miss out on when we don’t call on the “reverts” to tell their stories of pain, rejection, and conversion. We also miss the opportunity to celebrate with them their triumphant return the One True Faith.

So this Easter Season, let’s reach out to these unsung heroes of our Faith and let them tell their stories. We need to reach out in love to the prodigals who are coming home at last, and let them know how truly happy we are that they are once again well and truly home.

Welcome home, Reverts, welcome home!

**if you’d like to share your reversion story, I’d love to help. You can email it to me and I’ll post it here on Shoved to Them, or post it on your own blog and I’d be thrilled to share the link.

photo credit: By Charlesdrakew (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 25, 2016

A Penance of Mercy

Next Post

April 3, 2016 Four-Year-Old Theology

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many chapters does the book of Judges have?

Select your answer to see how you score.

23 25 21 19