Ana Gadoury ’19 M.Div.

I was converted by truth, goodness, and beauty.

Before my sacramental entrance into the Church four years ago, Providence had carried me to the places where this encounter with God spoke gently and softly in my heart.

I had been baptized in a Congregationalist church, but stopped attending when I was about 8 years old. My parents taught me about God by laying down their lives each day for me, and not letting a day go by without telling me, “I love you.”

By God’s Providence, they sent me to Catholic high school where I first met a new kind of goodness. I became friends with young Catholics who took their faith seriously and showed me how their faith had repercussions for the way they lived. These became the first people to speak to me about God. Their goodness and pursuit of the good confused me because they called it grace, and they attributed it to God and not to themselves. I met Jesus in the goodness of these people and their willingness to share the Gospel. It was then that I first had the outrageous thought that I could be Catholic, too.

Despite my own plans, God brought me to Providence College, a Catholic school run by the Dominican Friars. My roommate, who was randomly assigned to me, began to invite me to Mass with her. Since the Mass was not completely foreign to me after attending Catholic high school, I decided to start accepting her gentle invitations. It was there, in the preaching of the Friars, that I was converted by truth.

It took only a few weeks until I had enrolled myself in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). I was intellectually hungry to know the faith and to have my questions answered. The Dominican who led RCIA began nourishing a part of me that always yearned for the truth. Even more was his witness to the truth. He was one of the most brilliant people I had ever met, and his intelligence made me confront all of the caricatures I had created for religious people.

Suddenly I began to see that religion wasn’t blind, or comfortable, or foolish. It was something so true that it brought brilliant people to lay down their lives, their possessions, and control for the service of this truth. It was their witness that kept me up at night thinking about the implications of saying “yes” to the God of truth. When it came time, my roommate stood by me as my Confirmation sponsor, and my parents supported me from the pews, as I entered the Church and took the name Dominic.

For years after I would say that I had an intellectual conversion. To some extent it was ultimately meeting Jesus in the truth that brought me to the Sacraments. However, it is beauty that has sustained me in my love for Jesus and his Church. It is the beauty I see in churches, the vestments, the congregation, and the liturgy. It is the beauty I hear in hymns, the Word, the consecration, absolution, and in our prayers. It is the beauty I smell in the incense, the burning candles, and in the blood of Christ. It is the beauty I feel when I hold Jesus in my palm, when I hold the hand of my neighbor and offer them peace, and when I am brought to my knees in adoration of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.

Beauty has taken hold of me. It is in the beauty of Christ crucified that goodness and truth moved from thoughts in my head to love in my heart. I was converted by truth and goodness, and I am converting still more deeply as I am willing to encounter the beauty of Christ.