40 Reasons for Coming Home: Reason # 8

Reason # 8: Personal Transformation – One of the most profound things I have noticed about my life is the way that the Lord, through the Liturgy, the Sacraments, and the Scriptures has transformed my life. I am now 47 years old, but I have only been serious about my spiritual life for the last 25 of those years. I spent the first 22 years as only a nominal Catholic. But I’ve noticed that my life is really changing for the better since I decided to follow Jesus more earnestly in the Catholic Church. Through daily prayer, Mass, frequent confession, and the daily reading of Scripture my life is changing! I am less angry and less resentful. I am more serene and less anxious. My priorities are in better order. My attitudes are more biblical and more Christian. I am more forgiving and less harsh. I love truth, goodness, chastity, and God himself so much more!

I do not say this to boast. I didn’t do it so I can’t boast. Jesus did this for me. An old Gospel songs says it well: “I’m not what I want to be but I’m not what I used to be!” I have a long way to go but I know that the Lord will bring to completion the good work he has begun in me. And Jesus has done all this for me in the context of my life in the Catholic Church. I have had the Word of God preached to me; I’ve been taught the faith; I’ve been nourished with Holy Communion and forgiven in Confession. The lives of the saints have inspired me and the noble Catholic intellectual tradition has helped me, by God’s grace, to have a new mind and heart.

So here’s a good reason to come home: transformation through the life of faith in the long and noble Catholic Tradition. I’m a witness!

Here’s an old classic Catholic hymn that speaks of how the Eucharist transforms us to be more like Christ, whom we receive and adore:  O Lord I am Not Worthy

If you like Gospel music, here’s a song by Tramaine Hawkins about the personal transformation we can and should expect from our relationship with the Lord. It contains the quote from Gospel music I mentioned above. The name of the piece is “A Wonderful Change Has Come Over Me.”