Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion celebrated by Bishop James Ruggieri

The first time he stepped into a Catholic Church, Josh Morris of Wiscasset says it just felt right.

“We walked in and, I don’t know, it was a sensation that this is how it should be,” he says. “It was like you’re directly in the presence of God.”

Alina Dau, a student at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, says she had a similar sensation when she attended the funeral Mass of a friend.

“It was just an indescribable feeling. I think that is where I had my first out-of- body like encounter with the Spirit,” she says.

Dau and Morris are among 184 people who participated in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion celebrated the first weekend of Lent by Bishop James Ruggieri. Held at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Presque Isle, St. John the Baptist Church in Winslow, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, the rite is a milestone for those preparing to become members of the Catholic Church.

“It really is a beautiful day for them, but also for the Church,” the bishop said.

During the rite, catechumens (those not previously baptized in any faith tradition) stand with their godparents, who affirm for the bishop the catechumens' readiness to become members of God’s elect and to be baptized and fully initiated into the Church at the Easter Vigil. Similarly, sponsors of candidates (those baptized in other Christian traditions) affirm they are prepared to be welcomed into full Communion of the Catholic Church through reception of the sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist.

“If you reflect on what has brought you to today, this moment, I would presume that there are key moments and key people along the way [through whom] God spoke to you very profoundly,” the bishop said. “A few years back, or maybe not that long ago, would you have seen yourselves here in this church today, proclaiming, professing that you want to be Catholic? You want to be members of the Church? Maybe some of you, yes.  Many of you would say, 'No, I could not have foreseen this happening.' So, it's a good time in this Mass, which is really a wonderful, sacrificial thanksgiving to the Father through Jesus, to simply offer God thanks. Thank you, God, for bringing me to this point in my life.”

Thankful describes how Dau says she feels.

“I just feel a lot of gratitude, I think, and eagerness,” she says. “Being able to be in communion with Jesus is going to be something very special.”

Dau, who grew up in Louisiana, says both her parents are Buddhists, but although she visited the temple at times, she never embraced any religion.

She says once she started attending Bowdoin and began forging her own identity, she became curious about faith. She says attending her friend’s funeral led her to Catholicism.

“I credit a lot of my faith formation to that experience. And with the passing, I experienced a lot of grief,” she says.

Trying to cope with the loss of her childhood friend, she says she tried therapy and different approaches but says it was in the Church where she found what she was seeking.

“When I started inquiring more about the faith and when I met Marcy [Brenner of All Saints Parish], that’s when it really clicked for me that I need God. I need this religion. I needed the faith to really find peace in my life and peace in myself,” she says.

Josh Morris, who came from a Protestant background but wasn’t practicing, describes a similar sense of contentment. He says the Catholic Church has given him some of the missing pieces of the puzzle.

“I know this is right. I know this is his Church,” he says. “When I go to Mass, I know this is what the Lord had set up for us, established for us.”

Morris credits his oldest son for helping him and his wife discover Catholicism and for helping them to again make Christ a priority in their lives. He says when his son was 15 or 16, he started doing some research into God and came across Catholicism, which led to some family discussions.

“My wife was questioning him, and he had answers, just historical answers,” Morris says.

His son asked to go to St. Joseph Maronite Church in Waterville, where he met with the priest and attended Mass, something Morris and his wife then also decided to do. Morris says that experience and online research led him to believe that the Catholic Church was the true Church.

“It was overwhelming emotionally, like ‘this is home,’” he says.

When the family moved to the Mid Coast region, they contacted All Saints Parish about participating in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).

“Compared to a regular service that I used to go to, when I sit through Mass, the focus is not on the priest. The focus is not on the band that is playing. The focus is on the presence of God in the Eucharist. The focus is on the Lord, and that’s how it should be. It’s like it clicked. This is how it should be,” he says.

Nicholas Babaya from St. John Paul II Parish in Scarborough says being able to receive Christ in the Eucharist is what he is most looking forward to when he receives the sacraments at Easter.

“When I came to an understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it has made me long for it very much,” he says.

Babaya, who is originally from South Africa, attended a Baptist church as a child but describes his family as “pretty non-religious.” He says he had never attended a Catholic Mass until moving to Maine and accompanying a family he had met here.

“I was really taken in by the beauty and reverence of the liturgy. I had never really experienced a liturgical Christian tradition before,” he says.

Babaya began doing online research, calling himself “a nerd for Christian apologetics and theology and philosophy.” That research, along with conversations with a close friend from South Africa, led him to Catholicism.

“I had all these questions for him, you know the Marian dogmas and the authority of the Church, the papacy, all sorts of things that I wasn’t really used to believing as somebody who came from very much a Baptist, Protestant, Christian background. He explained them to me in a way that made a lot of sense, and I think really prompted me to go and research these further. And upon reading into them, I became relatively convinced. I think a combination of that – that there really was a good intellectual foundation for Catholic belief – coupled with the real, I would say evangelical power of the beauty of the liturgy and the Catholic Church, something I think Catholics themselves maybe don’t appreciate, I think those two things really drew me and made me really want to pursue this.”

For Brenna Lane, an 18-year-old from Sherman, her decision to pursue Catholicism came from a positive experience at St. Benedict Parish's Vacation Bible School, where she had volunteered during high school, and the influence of her boyfriend who is Catholic. He further introduced to the faith, which led her to start singing in St. Benedict’s Youth Choir.

“I just felt so welcomed, and I just felt a sense of community,” she says. “I started going to Mass, and everything kind of just fell into place from there.”

She says when she began participating in OCIA, she experienced that same sense of welcome.

“It’s been really good. We have a great support system and group, and it’s just been really welcoming. It’s been very helpful in understanding more about the Catholic faith and just answering any questions,” she says. “I’ve learned so much about myself, too, just, like, when you’re going through hard times, knowing that God is always there for you.”

Clemi Bushiri from Good Shepherd Parish in Saco says she, too, has found OCIA to be enlightening.

“It’s been amazing. I’ve learned so much already,” she says. “They just go deeper and deeper in explaining things.”

Bushiri, the daughter of a Muslim father and Catholic mother, says she has felt drawn to Catholicism since attending a Catholic school in her home country of Angola from which her family emigrated 13 years ago. She says she has attended Mass for years, but she never received the sacraments.

“I was just going to church without really understanding that you needed to be baptized, that you need to have all these things, but now, I understand that those things are important, like the Eucharist,” she says. “I am looking to get to a higher spiritual level."

Bushiri and the other members of the Elect, along with the candidates, will now spend the season of Lent in final preparation to receive the sacraments during Easter Vigil Masses at their local parishes.