CV NEWS FEED // A young woman who is preparing to enter the Catholic Church on Easter recently shared that her and her husband’s encounter with Catholicism “was the only thing that was comfortable and made sense” after years of exploring various religions.
Adam and Brianna Ebersole have been preparing to enter the Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) at Saint Rose of Lima Parish in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Brianna was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Adam was raised in a Christian denomination called the Church of the Nazarene.
“I remember all through my life I had a strong attachment to the stories of the Bible,” Adam told diocesan news outlet Intermountain Catholic (IC). “[But] then came the falling away. And then came this search which involved almost every currently practiced religion. I studied them all.”
For four years, Adam searched intensively for the true Faith, exploring Islam, Zoroastrianism, and various Christian denominations. Learning about the Catholic Church’s tradition of apostolic succession was a key turning point for Adam, who was on a “quest for the root of the authority given to priests,” IC reported.
“The one thing that I was really looking for was the root: Where did this all come from, where is the core of it, where’s the truth, where’s the authority? That’s really what I was looking for,” Adam said.
Adam and his wife Brianna began praying the rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours together, and began attending Mass.
Brianna told IC, “It seemed as though, once we started really looking into it, this was the only thing that was comfortable and made sense.”
Adam started going to RCIA, and Brianna eventually joined him. Adam said that attending RCIA classes as a couple “has pulled us way closer together. Those little arguments that couples get into? Those are gone.”
Brianna shared that initially, praying the rosary was especially challenging for her “because devotion to Mary is contrary to the faith in which she was raised,” IC reported.
Brianna said, “It took a lot of people explaining it, and listening, and praying,” and added that in attending RCIA she has also grown in her desire to receive the Eucharist. Brianna celebrated the Rite of Election on February 16 in preparation for entering the Church.
Adam shared that he initially struggled with being dismissed with the other catechumens halfway through Mass to attend RCIA.
To combat this “weight” that hung over him, as he described it, Adam prayed: “I submit myself to the authority of the Church. I’m not going to question anymore because that’s what you asked me to do. And if that’s really what you meant when you asked that, take this feeling from me. I don’t want it anymore.”
Then, Adam said, it felt “just like a weight came off me.”
Adam was received into the Church in February, and Brianna will receive the sacraments of initiation on March 30 at the Easter Vigil. IC reported that after the Vigil, “the Ebersoles plan to have their marriage convalidated and then baptize their daughter, Zoey, into the Church.”
The post After Years ‘Exploring Various Religions,’ Converts Said Only Catholicism ‘Made Sense’ appeared first on CatholicVote org.