I too, encountered a present day pagan a few years ago. She had grown up in the Colorado public school system, where her dad was a superintendent of schools. One day she saw me at the zoo, with my kids, say our Catholic meal prayer (complete with the Sign of the Cross).

It startled her and when she asked what we were doing, I just told her “praying meal prayer before our picnic”–never meaning to evangelize her.

She had only heard the name of Jesus Christ as a swear word and had heard of something called “a bible” but was unaware of it having even an Old and New Testament!

I was shocked, having assumed that most non-Christians had simply rejected their faith at some point in time if they weren’t one of the other 7 major world religions.

This led to many discussions and eventually she and her husband became Christian, he had his vasectomy reversed and they had 3 more children and a miscarriage (to add to their 3 already born kids)! He eventually left his well-paying job and he and his wife became pastors of a small church!

Unfortunately, that was years ago, and they have not joined the Catholic Church but now they are at least Christian!

However, I think it is a good thing when people explore other religions and viewpoints on God or life in general. St. Augustine did and he became a doctor of the church in the “post-christian era”. I am not very good at explaining this, but St. Augustine explored several different philosophies that are contrary to christianity. His capacity to search, think, reason and question different belief systems, eventually led him to accept the fullness of truth found in the Catholic church. St. Augustine then took christian thought into deeper levels of understanding than we ever dreamed possible. But, that didn’t happen overnight.

There are many people today that are genuinely searching for the truth, too. But, they need to find it for themselves in order for their beliefs to be validated. When these people eventually find the truth in the teachings of the Catholic church, they do not become mediocre christians, either. The passion of their faith inspires us all.

I think we should follow the example of St. Monica and pray for our modern day pagans, but also to respectfully challenge what they believe. Not to prove a point, but to simply encourage them to think about what they believe and why they believe it. Someday everything may “click” into place like a light bulb going off and the truth will set them free.

I’m looking forward to the next installment. Thank you for writing these.

Blessings,
Denise