COVENTRY — The Catholic Church, since the time of the Apostles, has seen conversion and initiation into the Church as that whereby the individual is filled with the Holy Spirit and radically transformed, Nonetheless, the Church has also taught that conversion experiences do not happen in a vacuum: that, even though we freely chose to turn to Christ and devote our lives to Him, God is at work, often in subtle ways, bringing about the conditions that would lead to this choice.
Leiah Michael was one of those newest members of the Church as she received the Sacraments of Initiation at Saints John and Paul Church during Holy Saturday’s Easter Vigil.
Leiah, age 43, noted that, in spite of the fact that religion played only a marginal influence in her upbringing, she felt drawn to religion from an early age.
“It’s a very emotional experience, and a very long time coming,” Leiah noted.
Born in Iowa, Leiah’s mother was Catholic, but she and her family converted to Lutheranism when she was still a young child. Leiah’s mother spent most of her youth in Lutheranism, though by adulthood was not a practicing member of any religion. Leiah’s father was very private about his personal religious views, and even to this day, several years after her father passed, she is still uncertain as to her father’s religious affiliation.
She was baptized in the Lutheran ecclesial community, but most of her connection with organized religion ended there. This was further solidified by the fact that Leiah and her family frequently moved from state to state, which prevented them from developing any deep roots in any specific religious community. In spite of this, none of these factors detracted from Leiah’s interest in religion from an early age.
“I’ve been told stories that, as early as 5 years old, I just always wanted to go to church,” Leiah said.
As a young child, she asked to attend Midnight Mass with one of her Catholic neighbors.
“When I came home, I guess I was very upset, because I came home, I threw my shoes, and she [Leiah’s mother] said, ‘Leiah, what’s wrong?’, and I said, ‘I went to church, and the tall people wouldn’t sit down so I never got to see God.’ I thought the priest was God,” Leiah said, calling to mind her reaction to her first Catholic Mass with a somewhat joking tone.
“But I’ve always been drawn to it. And I always felt that I wanted to go, and I felt left out that the other kids got to go to CCD.”
Leiah notes that her desire to be more involved with religion did not fade as she grew older. She recalls how, at 16, she was invited to attend a church service with some coworkers, yet misinterpreted their directions and accidentally attended a Catholic Mass.
Not quite understanding the meaning of the prayers and ritual gestures, she simply followed the lead of all the others present.
“I didn’t understand what was going on, so I just followed suit with everyone else, to the point that I received the Eucharist, not knowing that I wasn’t supposed to…but just kinda copied everyone else, because I wanted to be there, not knowing anything about anything.”
Throughout her teen and young adult years, Leiah continued to attend church services on and off, and continued to do so with even greater frequency after having her children. She remembers how, during this time, she primarily attended non-denominational churches, but these communities could never capture the beauty of what she had felt in a Catholic Mass.
“Those didn’t feel the same as in a Catholic church. It didn’t feel the same way, but I didn’t understand what was going on in a Catholic Church, with the kneeling, the standing, the prayers.”
In spite of the relative infrequency of church attendance during this time, she never saw her desire for a deepening of her spiritual life decrease. “I always just felt drawn. I felt connected to God and Jesus. I would talk to them. I didn’t know how to pray. I’m still trying to learn how to pray,” she said.
Things changed for Leiah about a year ago, when she met Christopher, her boyfriend. Christopher, a regular churchgoer, grew up in a Catholic family and is the son of a deacon.
“Once we started dating and became serious enough, I asked him, ‘Could we start going to church together,’ so that he could show me what was going on and explain things to me, because I wanted to be there, I want to be at church every weekend.”
Leiah began to attend Saints John and Paul Parish in Coventry, the closest parish to where she lived, in June 2023. As Leiah’s knowledge of the Catholic faith began to deepen, she felt comfortable attending Mass even on her own, and began to feel an ever-deeper connection with the Church.
She was eventually introduced to Father Dennis Kieton, the priest-in-residence there, and through his help was eventually enrolled into the OCIA program in September 2023.
Offering her thoughts for others considering conversion, Leiah shared, “You have to slow down and listen,” suggesting that one should always be open to God, especially in the context of prayer.
“If you’re thinking of being Catholic, you need to be Catholic,” Leiah said, “because that is your calling. If you’re thinking of it, He’s bringing you into it. And don’t be scared, because I got scared, I didn’t know what was going on [at first], and I didn’t go back, but if I had stuck with it long enough then, I would have understood, because you can learn [about the faith], and everyone there wants you there. You’re not being judged, you’re being welcomed. So don’t look at it as you’re being judged, and you can’t go because you don’t know what’s going on. Just ask.”
