My Conversion Story

Sorry for the long post.  I promise that they will not be this long in the future.  I wrote, briefly, in the “About” section regarding my background.  I was not a “cradle Catholic.”  I was confirmed Catholic in my 30s after attending Church with my wife for several years.  However, I was, at best, a marginal Catholic.  I celebrated Mass most Sundays but certainly did not honor all holy days of obligation.  I was just not serious about my faith.  In 2011, this all changed because of a baseball game.  Thus, my “conversion” story!

My middle son works in the front office of the Texas Rangers.  I had always been a baseball fan, but this made my relationship to the Rangers very personal.  In 2010, they went to the World Series for the first time in team history.  They played the Giants.  The Giants swept the Rangers in San Francisco in the first two games and then dismantled the Rangers’ pitching staff in Arlington, taking the series 4-1.  While it would have been nice to win, we had been to the “show” and it was great!  In the offseason, the Rangers made a few moves and were even better than 2010.  2011 was great!  The Rangers won again and soared through the playoffs, making the World Series for a second year in a row.  This time was different!  They won three of the first five games against the Cardinals and they headed to St. Louis having only to win one out of two games.

My wife, son, daughter-in-law, and I drove to St. Louis for games six and seven.  The Rangers went up early in game six and were winning going into the bottom of the ninth inning.  I couldn’t watch!  I prayed!  I prayed hard.  I prayed “Our Fathers” as fast and as many times as I could.  I asked the Blessed Mother for her intercession so many times that I could not count them.  We got to one strike away from winning in the ninth inning and then it happened.  The Cardinals got a hit and scored a run, tying the game which sending it into extra innings.  My heart almost stopped.  Extra innings started the process again.  We went up.  We were back.  We had another lead going into the bottom of the inning.  I prayed!  I prayed hard.  We were one strike away from winning!  AGAIN! Then it happened.  The Cardinals scored twice beating the Rangers in extra innings.  My heart felt like it was ripped from my chest.  On the train back to the hotel, I kept wondering why my requests for Mary’s intercessions and my Our Fathers had not worked.  Surely no Cardinal fan could have prayed more fervently than me, even if the city were named after a saint!

Game Seven, the Rangers never seemed in it.  It was as if their spirit was broken.  I know my spirit was broken.  We lost game seven.  The drive back to Dallas was long and silent.  But then something very disturbing happened.  From the time I returned from the road trip, I could not sleep at night.  Every time I woke up, I thought about the word “eternity,” and it literally scared the Hell out of me.  Think about it. Our lives are guided by beginnings and endings.  Baseball season, semesters, seasons, days, years, they all have a beginning and an end.  Eternity has no end!  It is a REALLY REALLY long time!!  Mary was telling me that if I am going to pray that hard, I better be praying about something much more important than a baseball game.  I needed to worry about my soul being in Hell for eternity!  I literally could not rest until I changed.  I had never really done a proper confession, but that day I did.  I cried!  I cried hard.

After this, I became a better Catholic.  Upon retirement, I went back to school and got my master’s in theology.  I will not miss Sunday Mass or any holy days of obligation.  I do not attend ritualistically. I prepare, listen and participate.  I now attend the sacrament of reconciliation regularly and I teach in adult formation at my parish.  I may have joined the Catholic Church when I was in my 30s, but I CONVERTED in December of 2011.