Conversion Stories Archives

IP#362 Scott Weeman – The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

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The wisdom that comes from experience is a gift that is meant to be shared, especially in times of challenge and heightened anxiety. In “The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments: A Catholic Journey of Recovery,” Scott Weeman shares his recovery journey and offers a hand up to many today who find themselves in a time of darkness and struggle, especially during the circumstances arising from the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Catholic in Recovery is a nonprofit organization founded by Scott Weeman that seeks to serve those suffering from addictions and unhealthy attachments (including alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography addiction, sex and relationship addiction, compulsive overeating and food addictions, gambling addiction, codependency and the impact on family, and general fear, control, and anxiety). To learn visit: www.catholicinrecovery.com

You can find the book here

From the book description:

In The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, Weeman candidly tackles the struggle he and other addicts have with getting to know intimately the unnamed Higher Power of recovery. He shares stories of his compulsion to find a personal relationship with God and how his tentative steps back to the Catholic Church opened new doors of healing and brought him surprising joy as he came to know Christ in the sacraments.

Catholics in recovery and those moving toward it, as well as the people who love them will recognize Weeman’s story and his spiritual struggle to personally encounter God. He tells us how:
Baptism helps you admit powerlessness over an unmanageable problem, face your desperate need for God, and choose to believe in and submit to God’s mercy.
Reconciliation affirms and strengthens the hard work of examining your life, admitting wrongs, and making amends.
The Eucharist provides ongoing sustenance and draws you to the healing power of Christ.
The graces of Confirmation strengthen each person to keep moving forward and to share the good news of recovery and new life in Christ.
Weeman’s words are boldly challenging and brimming with compassion and through them you will discover inspiration, hope, sage advice, and refreshingly practical help.

IP#330 Terrence Wright – “Dorothy Day” on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

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I really love this book! This is a must-have entry point for anyone wanting to learn more about an incredible 20th-century American woman who’s life continues to speak to us today! In “Dorothy Day: An Introduction to Her Life and Thought” by Terrence Wright we are shown what conversion looks like and what fruit can be nurtured by a life steeped in mercy, prayer, and care for those in need. Servant of God Dorothy Day, please pray for us!

You can find the book here

From the book description:

In this introduction to the life and thought of Dorothy Day, one of the most important lay Catholics of the twentieth century, Terrence Wright presents her radical response to God’s mercy. After a period of darkness and sin, which included an abortion and a suicide attempt, Day had a profound awakening to God’s unlimited love and mercy through the birth of her daughter.

After her conversion, Day answered the calling to bring God’s mercy to others. With Peter Maurin, she founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933. Dedicated to both the spiritual and the corporal works of mercy, they established Houses of Hospitality, Catholic Worker Farms, and the Catholic Worker newspaper.

Drawing heavily from Day’s own writings, this book reveals her love for Scripture, the sacraments, and the magisterial teaching of the Church. The author explores her philosophy and spirituality, including her devotion to Saints Francis, Benedict, and Thérèse. He also shows how her understanding of the Mystical Body of Christ led to some of her more controversial positions such as pacifism.

Since her death in 1980, Day continues to serve as a model of Christian love and commitment. She recognized Christ in the less fortunate and understood that to be a servant of these least among us is to be a servant of God.

IP#337 Mark Joseph – Overwhelming Pursuit on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor podcast

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What a delight to talk with Mark Joseph about “Overwhelming Pursuit: Stop Chasing Your Life and Live.” He presents in this very compelling book a practical approach to transforming your life. I simply could not have put any better than Dr. Scott Hahn who said in his ringing endorsement of Mark’s work: “In these pages you’ll learn, step by step, how to do the hard stuff: forgive from the heart, apologize, open yourself to the healing power of God’s mercy. If these graces have seemed remote, theoretical, or elusive to you, seek here and find everything you need: a prescription for spiritual health and lifelong conversion.” Excellent! Get a copy for yourself and someone in your life who really needs this solid yet caring message. Mark’s website is: https://markjosephministries.com

You can by the book here

From the book description:

“Success lets me and everybody else know that I’m important – that I’m worth loving. Success is how I prove my worth in this world.”

That’s what Mark Joseph thought.

He was driven to achieve, and he did. Through his success, he felt loved and respected. He worked night and day to keep feeling important.

But success came at a price.

If you’re overwhelmed, unfulfilled, and running in circles chasing happiness, this is the book for you.

You’ll learn, as Mark did, that the overwhelming pursuit of success stems from our underlying belief that we need to earn love, and that striving for it will somehow cure our lack of self-love. He’ll show you, through his experiences and those of others, that fulfillment has nothing to do with success. It comes from knowing that – despite success or failure you were created by God for greatness, for love and to be loved.

IP#309 Sally Read – Night’s Bright Darkness on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

Poet Sally Read’s “Night’s Bright Darkness: A Modern Conversion Story” is breathtakingly beautiful! It is one of the best conversion stories I have ever read. She expresses so well what it is like to be captured by the net of mystery, and the struggle one has to understand the earthshaking, life-changing realization of your identity found through, with, and in Christ. Raised an atheist in England, Sally Read recalls compellingly her unexpected journey which led her to seek full communion with the Catholic Church (one of the last places she ever wanted to be). Her writing is exquisite! I love this book; I have no doubt it will remain one I cherish for a lifetime. Highly recommended.

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You can find the book here

From the book description:

Read confronts head on the burning question for God that every true Christian harbors:What do you want me to do? In an age of increasing secularism, and in the wake of disillusionment with the Catholic Church following disclosures of abuse, the book takes us to the core of what the Church is all about: Christ and the yearning to be near him.

Read’s book captures the ecstasy of first knowing God’s love and charts how it changes us. It is a testimony to the powerhouse of Christianity: love and the life-changing encounter with Christ.

Sally Read’s story is the best and liveliest account of a conversion for a generation. It is a story of divine grace as moving and unexpected as it is luminous and profound. There is not a wasted brush-stroke, not a blurred line. It is an absorbing story, a tale that will grip readers all the way through to the end.”
–Paul Murray, OP, Angelicum University; Author, T.S. Eliot and Mysticism

“Every story of conversion has the potential of conceiving another. Each gives witness to the work of grace. In this brilliantly written, candid, sometimes shocking unveiling by Sally Read, we see vividly the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit on a heart once impenetrably hard and shut off, but then opened and reborn by the merciful joy of our Triune God.”
–Marcus Grodi, EWTN Host, The Journey Home

IP#285 Rod Dreher – How Dante Can Save Your Life on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

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Dreher’s approach helps make Dante’s work accessible. While never claiming to be a literary scholar, he offers plenty of excellent academic commentary on the legendary 12th-century poem. But more importantly, he helps us to see how Dante can aid us in the treacherous journey from “the head to the heart.” For Dreher, The Divine Comedy is “a fantasy about a lost man who finds his way back to life after walking through the pits of hell, climbing up the mountains of purgatory, and ascending to the heights of heaven. But it’s really a story about real life and the incredible journey of our lives, yours and mine.”

After hearing our discussion with Rod Dreher and reading this wonderful book, you to may find yourself seeking out the wisdom found in the spiritual treasure chest known as Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”

You can find the book here

From the book description:

Inspiring, revelatory, and packed with penetrating spiritual, moral, and psychological insights How Dante Can Save Your Life is a book for people, both religious and secular, who find themselves searching for meaning and healing. Dante told his patron that he wrote his poem to bring readers from misery to happiness. It worked for Rod Dreher. Dante saved Rod Dreher’s life—and in this book, Dreher shows you how Dante can save yours.

Other conversations with Rod Dreher: IP#316 Rod Dreher The Benedict Option on Inside the Pages

IP#286 Marcus Grodi – “Life from Our Land” on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

What a phenomenal book! The “journey home” never looked more beautiful. I didn’t want to put down “Life from Our Land: The Search for a Simpler Life in a Complex World”. St. Benedict in the Holy Rule implores us to “listen with the ears of our hearts”. Marcus Grodi, founder of the Coming Home International ministry and EWTN show host, shows us how it can be done. So much more than just a spiritual memoir, Marcus offers us a road map we too could follow that leads from “the head to the heart.” His writing is engaging, funny, and steeped in a warm humility…what a delight. Rich spiritual fruit can be harvested from this book.

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You can find the book here

“If we ponder carefully the insights in this book, we can learn how to grow in detachment, simplicity, holiness, and humility.”
— Paul Thigpen, Author, Manual for Spiritual Warfare

“Read this book and you will receive the riches Mammon cannot provide and reap the harvest of hope and wisdom.”
— Joseph Pearce, Author, Catholic Literary Giants

“This book is a hymn of gratitude for the wonder that is creation, which manifests the deep purpose of things.”
— Dr. Timothy O’Donnell, President, Christendom College

IP#267 Fr. C. John McCloskey – The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

What a delight to discuss our ongoing call to conversion with Fr. C. John McCloskey III especially as demonstrated by the hundreds of lives shared in”The Mississippi Flows Into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church” . The book, which contains a foreword and afterword by Fr. McCloskey, examines the careers and writings of almost five hundred notable converts, containing touching stories of all shapes and sizes. English author John Beaumont, after the success of his initial book “Roads to Rome”, has brought to us an exhaustive, fascinating work that inspires with every page.

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“[A]n inspiring work that covers nearly five hundred eminent American converts who lived from the 17th to the 21st century. In each of these entries, which are in alphabetical order, we find a succinct biography and, when known, one or more causes of conversion, often in the person’s own words. The entries range from part of a page to several pages, with citations from the subjects’ writings. A list of sources is also provided. This book will surely prove to be an invaluable reference work, but more importantly, it is a collection of priceless testimonies, well worth pondering at leisure.”

–Anne Barbeau Gardiner, Culture Wars.

IP#258 Jennifer Fulwiler – Something Other Than God on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

“Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It” by Jennifer Fulwiler… what a phenomenal book. An engaging read, great topic, and an inspiring, joyful witness! Leave it to the editor/author of one our favorite blogs “Conversion Diary“, to pen not only a great conversion story, but one of the most moving cases for Catholic faith out there. Her honesty and humor are refreshing. You feel the struggle Jennifer experiences as she searches for answers. Her quest leads her to a peace for which most of us yearn. Hats off to Ignatius Press for the production values on this book of quality worthy of the story contained within it’s pages. This is a book you will pass on to others, so I would just suggest the purchase of multiple copies… it’s just that good!

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You can find the book here

“This heartfelt book is a lovely account of a spiritual journey and a charming memoir. The author’s epiphanies are wonderfully conveyed and will resonate with readers.” —Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

“Thought-provoking, honest, and often hilarious. It will strike a chord with anyone who ever posed –or tried unsuccessfully to avoid– the big questions of life.” —Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author,The Happiness Project

IP#199 Tom Peterson – Catholics Come Home on Inside the Pages

What a delight to talk with Tom Peterson! With a joyful enthusiasm fueled by his rich prayer life, Tom has become a compelling leader in the New Evangelization, especially in the United States. With his book ,”Catholics Come Home: God’s Extraordinary Plan for Your Life” , he expands his list of significant contributions to that effort which have encouraged countless souls to embrace the gift of the Catholic faith. Not only does he share his own powerful witness, but he offers practical catechesis to foster on-going conversion in the heart of the seeking soul and encouragement to all to share the Good News. Excellent!

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Also check out Tom’s work at virtuemedia.org and CatholicComeHome.org

“We are in the midst of a New Evangelization; and I believe this book is a signal moment in its success. It is also a sign that will lead many folks back home to the family of God, which is Catholic Church.”
—Dr. Scott W. Hahn, author of The Lamb’s Supper and Signs of Life

“Catholics Come Home is a powerful sacramental, a means of grace. It is a willing, waiting taxi to take us home, to our home away from Home, the Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.”
—Dr. Peter Kreeft, author of Handbook of Christian Apologetics

IP#106 Lorene Hanley Duquin – Recovering Faith on Inside the Pages

“Recovering Faith: Stories of Catholics Who Came Home” contains the stories of 17 Catholics who returned to the practice of their faith. Lorene Hanely Duquin gathers stories that demonstrate how, eventhough our lives take many twists and turns, God is always reaching out to the heart and waiting to bring peace and healing.

You ll be encouraged by the way Christ touched each of them to bring them home. The compelling stories include:

—Martin Sheen, actor
—Dean Koontz, best-selling novelist
—Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
—Dr. Francis Beckwith, Former President of the Evangelical Theology Society
—Barbara Curtis, Author
—Leah Darrow, America s Next Top Model Finalist
—Janet Morana, Director of Priests for Life
—Teresa Tomeo, Catholic Radio Personality

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