On a recent flight home from vacation, I met a girl named Emily who renewed my hope and reignited my desire to share the Catholic Faith.

It’s not that I ever lost the desire, but I’ve spent so much time casting pearls before swine (cf. Matthew 7:6).

For example, I’ve tried for years to help current members of Herbert W. Armstrong’s now-obscure, quasi-Christian “Church of God” (COG) movement, but with only little success. I myself was saved from its deception, but the few who remain in those splintered churches tend not to be interested in reason.

Saint Paul, and even Jesus, endured hard hearts for only so long before moving on to others who are receptive to the true gospel. Our job is to spread the gospel message and declare its invitation, but we are not called to try to bend the stiff necks of obstinate false religionists, even if they include friends and family. For them we can only pray to the Holy Spirit to do his work. And so that’s what I do. Every day.

But Emily was not like those people. She was non-Catholic, but not viciously and scornfully anti-Catholic.

Taxiing toward the runway

When my wife and I boarded our flight headed for Chicago, my wife sat at the window seat next to me. That’s how I like it – just us – but this flight was full. I knew someone else would be invading our row.

Sure enough, Emily made her way in and plopped down, sandwiching me in our row. This three-hour flight was sure to be “elbows in” all the way.

But Emily turned out to be an amiable, 20-year-old girl, and it didn’t appear she would totally spoil our flight. There was a couple in the row ahead of us with a baby, so, to break the ice, I introduced myself to Emily: “My wife and I make a lot of noise and cry a lot, so I hope you don’t mind.”

All smiles, Emily graciously forgave my attempt at humor. She asked where we were headed and continued with all the other typical airline pleasantries. She mentioned that while she is a student here in the Midwest now, she actually lives in Greece.

“Oh wow, nice,” I said before complimenting her fluent English. “So…are you Greek Orthodox?”

The question just popped out, because of course that’s something I would ask a stranger on an airplane. And that was the question that sparked this memorable flight.

Her eyes lifted and she turned toward me. “No. Why do you ask? Are you? Are you…Christian?”

“Yes, I’m Catholic.”

Uplifting talk

Just then, both the plane and our conversation had achieved takeoff. I knew it, and my wife knew it.

My wife wasn’t feeling the best, so she didn’t talk much. But she began praying silently because she’s a good wife, and she knew exactly what was coming. Without being asked, we do that for each other at special moments like this.

It was a delightful three-hour “moment.”

It turns out Emily was a student at a well-known Bible college and the daughter of a missionary. She was an exceptional young woman with a heart of gold. She was curious, friendly, well-spoken, and respectful – even to an old Catholic guy like me.

After identifying herself as an Evangelical, her natural curiosity led her to question me about Catholicism because she didn’t know much about it. She was more familiar with Greek Orthodoxy due to where she was raised, though the Orthodox she knew back home were not especially devout; they were more like those we would call “cultural Catholics” here.

Emily asked if I had always been Catholic. When I told her I’m a convert, she asked what led me to the Catholic Church.

With a green light like that, we talked at length about

• Sola Scriptura

• the Canon of Scripture

• Church Authority

• Papal Infallibility

• Prayer

• the Communion of Saints

• Mary

• the Sacraments

• the Real Presence

• the Traditional Latin Mass

• Sacred Art

• Salvation

• and more.

When we spoke about prayer, Emily asked what the rosary is. So with my fingertips, I reached into my pocket – not easy to do while strapped to a seat with my elbows pinned to my sides – and I pulled out my black rosary pouch. I showed her what it looked like, and explained that the rosary is both a thing and a prayer. I explained how we start at the crucifix with the Apostle’s Creed, and that the big beads are for the Our Fathers (a.k.a., the Lord’s Prayer) and the little beads are for Hail Marys.

I explained that it’s not a mere empty-headed, rote recitation, but that the rosary should involve our words, our fingers, our thoughts, and our intentions. She had no idea that the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the gospel were contemplated during the rosary.

I am no sage – I merely shared simple, commonly known Catholic explanations and defenses of the Faith that she had never heard – so I was surprised that she took out a notebook to take notes!

I saw she wrote down the phrase “Mary, Ark of the New Covenant,” for example, after I shared some Old Testament types of Mary. Strangely it was all new to her – a pious student of the Bible.

But I was especially pleased that she noted where to find the classic debate I had mentioned earlier in our discussion entitled “Does the Bible Teach Sola Scriptura?” featuring Protestant scholar James White and Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid.

She referenced that debate several times, pointing to it on her notepad, ensuring me she would listen to it since the topic is so important. It was great that she truly understood why that was what first led me to Catholicism. She gently pushed back on the issue, but she understood its importance. She saw how the answer to “Does the Bible teach Sola Scriptura?” affects every other Catholic-Protestant difference in doctrine and practice.

My hope is that Emily will listen to it, and listen to it again like I did – and yet again – and consider it prayerfully.

When the question of the canon of Scripture naturally arose, she was extra curious because that was the very topic her class was about to cover when school resumed. They would be discussing what criteria were used to determine which books belonged in the Bible.

I can’t detail the whole of our conversation here, but I can say we spent three hours talking through these things, asking and answering questions of each other. It wasn’t the kind of fake ecumenism that has been in vogue over the past 60 years. It was a mutual “listening session” to be sure, but it was constructive, uncompromising, and fruitful.

Where we landed

As the flight approached touchdown, I did not sense Emily was making preparations to be received into the Church at her local Catholic parish this Easter Vigil. Our conversation naturally came to an end, and we landed right where we first took off: I was still Catholic and she was still Evangelical Protestant.

But my wife and I were inspired and encouraged by her sincere search for the truth. I’m sure we’ll never see her again, but our prayer is that this “Catholic” encounter will be just one in a series for her that will lead to somewhere good.

I will be honored and humbled if my wife and I one day learn we were even a small part of Emily’s eventual full embrace of the Christian Faith – even if she forgets about us.

This I know: If she continues her sincere search and feeds her curiosity, God will bless her.

Jesus said,

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).

Before deplaning, Emily revealed that she had prayed prior to finding her seat that she could sit by someone she could talk to about Jesus.

I thanked her for the conversation. Because she was such a good communicator and was going to school to become a missionary – and because I’m not the smoothest talker (especially with people I don’t know) – I told her I wish I had the ability to walk up to a complete stranger and talk about Christianity like she and her family do.

Emily replied, “From what I can see, you just did!”

A prayer for conversions

O blessed apostle, St. Paul, greatest of all converts, who labored unceasingly for the conversion of other souls, inspire me with the ardor of your zeal that I may pray and work for the conversion of my brethren, redeemed in the blood of Christ but not as yet blessed with the full light of his truth.

Mindful of the loving concern of the Divine Shepherd for the salvation of the “other sheep that are not of this fold,” I now beg your intercession to obtain the grace of conversion for [Emily and all our friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances].

May God, the Holy Spirit from whom alone this gift can come, hear my humble prayer and thus enable me to share with others the riches of my heritage of faith through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.