My conversion story – Pt 1/4

(It only takes me one hour to write this conversion story but I decided to break it down into parts because of the different phases I went through where religion is concerned. If you are easily offended or love to nag, please refrain from reading, ok?)

I notice that I have not written anything about how I converted to Catholicsm on this blog. I have written parts and pieces on my personal blog but those posts were spread out. So, I am going back in time and jot down what drove me, the devoted Taoist/Buddhist follower to turn to a totally new religion.

I grew up in a traditional Chinese family and from small, I had been following my mother around when she made offerings to my ancestors. If you have watched Mulan the Disney movie, you will know how important our ancestors are to us. We believe our fate, our health, our future are in the hands of our ancestors. If we feed them well, they will bless us. If we are negligent and ignore or forget them, be prepared to face their wrath.

Sometimes, the importance of our ancestors overtook the heavenly god or the highest god in the Chinese gods hierarchy. You see, we have seen and interacted with our ancestors. But we have not seen the heaven god. So, it is natural that we have more fondness and belief in the souls of the deceased ancestors.

Fast forward to my adult life, I neglected religion and faith because it is normal. We are too busy working, dating, finding Mr. Right and then, getting married.

Fast forward again, I still didn’t bother much about religion and didn’t bother to pray much. Then, I have one kid after another one.

My second son was about 2-3 years old then. He went through this weird phase where he liked to stay in the room alone and talked. But one night, he asked very seriously, while pointing to the wall, “Who is that?”

Me, being the unbeliever of god, ghost or alien, joked with him if he has seen an alien. Is it green? What?

The next morning, I woke up and got terribly sick. None of the specialists could tell what had hit me because my body system temporarily shut down.

So, a colleague of mine took me to see a medium. The medium is an old lady, humble and very nice (God bless her soul, she passed way already). When she went into trance, Guan Yin entered her. And though we lived far apart and my colleague didn’t know where I stayed, the medium could tell the exact location of my apartment unit, right down to which direction my main door faced! (My staunch Christian peers will say this is the work of the devil, but I would say it is Guan Yin and her grace in helping me then.)

She said my house has no protection and hence, spirits passed by and sometimes, stay around. Children have the affinities to ’see things’. So, that’s my first step towards going back to faithful follower of the Chinese god. I worshipped Guan Yin. Good things happened to us, striking number, children’s health improved, job promotion and etc.

I continued being faithful and devoted worshipper of Guan Yin for many, many years. Then, my in-laws passed away and I also took their altar to my home and worship them. I had a brief but close relationship with my mother-in-law and I knew that she would have liked it. It was more of a filial piety, wanting to do what would please her.

Then, I got pregnant, had my premature son and I prayed and prayed and prayed to Guan Yin and my mother-in-law to help him. In fact, we had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital when I bled badly and while the ambulance attendants were wheeling me out of the house, in my state of helplessness and fearfulness, I even turned back and asked my mother-in-law to help me. That’s how much I have faith in her soul.

….to be continued in part 2 (part 2-4 are already in my draft but let’s see how soon should I publish all of them)