About Me
I was first drawn to the Catholic Church while attending a Presbyterian seminary during my mid-twenties. The daughter of a United Methodist minister, I was raised in an orthodox evangelical home and naively assumed that the majority of mainline Protestant seminarians believed just as I did. I was unprepared for the onslaught of theological liberalism and cavalier abandonment of personal piety that awaited my arrival. A fierce spiritual battle ensued within me. At times it felt as though I was fighting for my very soul, and indeed I was.
During this time of darkness and immense self-doubt I took great comfort in the words of such authors as Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, G.K. Chesterton, Teresa of Avila and many of the Church Fathers. There was something within these books that seemed powerfully rational and imbued with a purer love than relativism could offer. At the time I observed with great amusement that practically every book in which I found comfort and hope was written by a Catholic. A few years passed before I could admit that this was more than sheer coincidence.
After graduating from seminary I began entertaining the idea of becoming Catholic. But I could never in good faith join the Church because I still could not embrace some definitive Catholic teachings, namely the doctrines on Mary, the Magisterium, and the exclusiveness of the Eucharist. Then one day I came across a passage in Richard John Neuhaus’s Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth: “People say they have difficulty with one teaching or another. That is not necessarily a problem. The problem arises when we assume that the problem is with the teaching and not with ourselves” (13). It was on this day that all my lofty ideas and theological conjectures crumbled like a house of cards, and I came running home to the open arms of the Catholic Church.
I’m a stay-at-home mom in Atlanta, Georgia. When I find time in between cooking, cleaning, and chasing my three chilren I like to write about that which matters most to me, my faith. And if there is still more time, I post those writings to this blog. Please feel free to comment on anything you see here. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Of course, you can post all comments to the blog, or you can send comments and any prayer requests to mattersoffaith@gmail.com.
Rebekah Durham Hart