OCIA 2022 Catholic Convert Says the Class "Transformed My Life"

Written by: Lindsay Baxter, OCIA Class of 2022 Student

My journey with the Lord started when my parents baptized me in the Catholic Church as a baby. A few years later, though, my family started attending an evangelical Christian church. Faith was always part of our lives, and I understood that Jesus wanted to have a relationship with me. Accepting that invitation more fully as I got older, I experienced His abiding love and peace more and more.

During my time in college and early adulthood, my faith remained incredibly important to me. I tried to grow closer to Jesus and to pursue His plan for my life. However, I also became more aware of areas of brokenness within myself. Although I appeared to be doing well, I was struggling in many ways. I knew I wasn’t experiencing the fullness of life that Jesus promised. Looking back, I can see that I needed so much more of Him and His grace and mercy. 

I am so grateful that the Lord knows what we need and is always pursuing a deeper relationship with us, which brings about greater healing and freedom. In 2021, the Holy Spirit led me to Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year podcast. I listened daily with a desire to grow closer to Jesus, unaware of where He was leading me. Fr. Mike’s commentary was what really struck me. I heard scripture passages that I had heard many times before, but he interpreted and explained things in a way that was new and compelling. His commentary stayed with me throughout the day and led me to do additional research on the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

By the end of that summer, two main points convinced me that I needed to leave the church I was attending and enter RCIA (now called OCIA). First, I came to believe that one of Jesus’s greatest desires is for His followers to be united and that He founded the Catholic Church. Second, I became convinced that Jesus meant what He said and is really present—Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—in the Eucharist. I still had a lot of questions, but I knew that if those two things were true, I had to enter the Catholic Church. It wasn’t easy leaving the comfort of my faith tradition and creating division in my family, but I felt a profound peace knowing that Jesus was guiding me into the Catholic Church.


(Lindsay, left, pictured with her sponsor, James Benton, at the 2022 Easter Vigil Mass at St. Ann, when she fully entered the Church)

I returned to the Catholic Church because I believed it was true, but I didn’t understand the implications of that until I experienced the sacraments. The Lord has given me so many graces since I completed my initiation into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Ann in 2022. During my first confession, as I recounted all of the ways that I had rejected Jesus and His love throughout my entire life, I felt loved and wanted in a way that I had never experienced before. I love being able to regularly experience not only Jesus’s mercy but also His grace and love when I bring Him my sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Participating in the celebration of Mass, where I am able to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, has become foundational for each day. And I have experienced so many powerful, touching, and healing moments as I have prayed in His presence in Eucharistic Adoration. I’m extremely grateful that Jesus brought me into the Catholic Church, where He continues to draw me so much closer to Himself and to bring about healing and freedom.