What’s your favorite religion-related story? It could be from your life, from Saints, from the Bible, just anything related to religion.
Oh easy: My mom's conversion story.
My mom was basically raised atheist, and she had no interest in becoming Catholic, even though my dad was Catholic.
A few years after they got married, they experienced two sudden, devastating personal losses in a short period of time. My mom was in an extremely dark place for a long time. My dad found solace in his faith, and he tried to help my mom find the same by bringing her to mass and other religious events.
Eventually, my mom declared she wouldn't attend any more. She felt uncomfortable, out of place, and she wasn't getting anything out of attending. My dad begged her to come to just one more event: a charismatic healing mass. If she just went to that one thing, he would never bring it up again. She agreed.
For those who don't know, a charismatic healing mass is a mass followed by a special prayer service where the priest calls on God to heal people with different problems, asking the Holy Spirit to guide him to the right intentions to say.
My mom sat against the back wall of the church, just relieved that this would be the last time she had to come to this kind of thing.
And then the priest said, "Grant healing to all those with broken hearts."
My mom says that time stopped. Suddenly, the crowded church was empty except for her in the back and the priest at the altar. The priest looked up, directly at her, and she knew, even though his physical appearance didn't change, that it was Jesus standing there.
I don't think He said anything. He just looked at her with an intense love, and for the first time in months upon months of unending darkness and pain, she felt at peace.
After a while, time restarted. The rest of the congregation reappeared. But the peace remained. That's when my mom knew she had to become Catholic. And she's never looked back.