So I was an Anglican priest at the time, and while I was home in Greenville, South Carolina my younger brother Daryl, who had already become a Catholic, invited me around for dinner with his parish priest Fr Paul. Fr Paul is a pretty hefty Franciscan who likes to eat fried chicken and drink beer.

Well I picked a fight with Fr Paul about the Immaculate Conception…”Thomas Aquinas didn’t believe it and nyah, nyah, nyah…why do you Catholics have to insist that it is a dogma and so for and so on.” He’s very patient with me and finally says, “Well, we believe the Immaculate Conception because the Pope tells us to. Pass the fried chicken.”

Hm. Foiled again. It’s the pope thing.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the whole story is tied in with St Bernadette, St Maximillian Kolbe, a weird encounter with a woman from Alabama in the Convent of St Gildard in Nevers, France and Catholics in Greenville, SC. Go here to read the whole story and connect with the other links that tell how I ended up coming into the church through Our Lady.

Would you like me to come speak at your parish or conference about my conversion story and how the rosary and the Blessed Mother helped me long the way? If so, contact me through the contact page on my website here.