from renewamerica.com
Below is the Introduction to Father Donald Calloway's 2010 book No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy — a book Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., calls "an amazing, captivating story, because The Divine Mercy is an amazing and captivating reality."
Prior to his conversion, Father Donald "was a high school dropout who had been kicked out of a foreign country, institutionalized twice and thrown in jail multiple times."
When I was a teenager, if someone had told me I would one day be a Roman Catholic priest writing a book about my life and telling the remarkable story of my conversion to people around the world — I would have said, "You're crazy ... ! I'm going to smoke a joint. Now get out of my face." Even today, it still amazes me that I'm a priest.
What you are about to read is the story of my conversion — what Jesus and Mary have done to my life, bringing me out of darkness and atheism to the fullness of truth in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. And the conversion story is ongoing. Even today, I find myself in the midst of this mystery that God has called me into. In so many ways, I am not worthy. But by the grace of God — by His mercy — I continue to experience conversion every day.
Some may find the following story — my life story — to be almost unbelievable. After I give my conversion witness at conferences, it's not unheard of for someone to approach me and say, "I can't believe it. I think this is unbelievable." That's why whenever I do a speaking engagement, I always bring along a photograph of myself — a picture of what I looked like when I was in my late teens. Rest assured, I don't carry around an old photo because I'm an egomaniac. I do it so people can visualize what an animal I was before my conversion. I don't necessarily blame people for being skeptical. If I were in someone else's shoes, I would probably have doubts myself. How is this possible? Is this story true? Because these kinds of events only happen in the Bible.
But when these same skeptics see my picture, they usually find it to be pretty powerful. My eyes are vacant and hollow, my skin is ashen, my malnourished body is gaunt and frail — all physical manifestations of severe drug and alcohol abuse. It's a portrait of a haggard, out-of-shape, high school dropout with waist-length hair, an earring, and a Grateful Dead tattoo, not to mention the posture of the Shaggy character from ScoobyDoo. In the photo, I look like the personification of death. In truth, I am lucky to be alive.
When I was a teenager, my becoming a priest was the last thing anyone would have expected — especially my parents and closest friends. Besides the obvious problem that I was an angry misfit, I had no understanding of God. I had no respect for anyone or anything associated with religion. I was so ignorant of Christianity that I had never even heard of the Virgin Mary. Worse, I disdained Catholicism and laughed at those who practiced it — just as one might snicker about the practices and rituals of a bizarre cult.
In fact, I remember one Christmas when I used the Nativity scene in the neighbors' yard for target practice, plinking them with pellets from my bb gun. And then there was the time when a man called my parents' home and referred to himself as "Father." I didn't know what this meant, so when I answered the phone I said, "Father?" He said, "I'm a Catholic priest. Can I speak with your mother, please?"
Read more...
Below is the Introduction to Father Donald Calloway's 2010 book No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy — a book Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., calls "an amazing, captivating story, because The Divine Mercy is an amazing and captivating reality."
Prior to his conversion, Father Donald "was a high school dropout who had been kicked out of a foreign country, institutionalized twice and thrown in jail multiple times."
When I was a teenager, if someone had told me I would one day be a Roman Catholic priest writing a book about my life and telling the remarkable story of my conversion to people around the world — I would have said, "You're crazy ... ! I'm going to smoke a joint. Now get out of my face." Even today, it still amazes me that I'm a priest.What you are about to read is the story of my conversion — what Jesus and Mary have done to my life, bringing me out of darkness and atheism to the fullness of truth in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. And the conversion story is ongoing. Even today, I find myself in the midst of this mystery that God has called me into. In so many ways, I am not worthy. But by the grace of God — by His mercy — I continue to experience conversion every day.
Some may find the following story — my life story — to be almost unbelievable. After I give my conversion witness at conferences, it's not unheard of for someone to approach me and say, "I can't believe it. I think this is unbelievable." That's why whenever I do a speaking engagement, I always bring along a photograph of myself — a picture of what I looked like when I was in my late teens. Rest assured, I don't carry around an old photo because I'm an egomaniac. I do it so people can visualize what an animal I was before my conversion. I don't necessarily blame people for being skeptical. If I were in someone else's shoes, I would probably have doubts myself. How is this possible? Is this story true? Because these kinds of events only happen in the Bible.
But when these same skeptics see my picture, they usually find it to be pretty powerful. My eyes are vacant and hollow, my skin is ashen, my malnourished body is gaunt and frail — all physical manifestations of severe drug and alcohol abuse. It's a portrait of a haggard, out-of-shape, high school dropout with waist-length hair, an earring, and a Grateful Dead tattoo, not to mention the posture of the Shaggy character from ScoobyDoo. In the photo, I look like the personification of death. In truth, I am lucky to be alive.When I was a teenager, my becoming a priest was the last thing anyone would have expected — especially my parents and closest friends. Besides the obvious problem that I was an angry misfit, I had no understanding of God. I had no respect for anyone or anything associated with religion. I was so ignorant of Christianity that I had never even heard of the Virgin Mary. Worse, I disdained Catholicism and laughed at those who practiced it — just as one might snicker about the practices and rituals of a bizarre cult.
In fact, I remember one Christmas when I used the Nativity scene in the neighbors' yard for target practice, plinking them with pellets from my bb gun. And then there was the time when a man called my parents' home and referred to himself as "Father." I didn't know what this meant, so when I answered the phone I said, "Father?" He said, "I'm a Catholic priest. Can I speak with your mother, please?"
Read more...
No comments:
Post a Comment