My name is Ricky Currie and I want to testify to what the Lord has done for me.
I grew up in a divided country called Northern Ireland that was at war with each other, Catholic versus Protestant, Nationalist versus Loyalist where I learnt from a very young age through the Protestant/Loyalist community I lived in to hate and mistrust the people whom we called Roman Catholics and their religion.
I could be found as a child learning many songs that were absolutely disgusting, which exposed the hatred my community had towards their Roman Catholic neighbours faith as we cursed the Pope and the blessed Virgin Mary. This was the common way people grew up in my community and through learning these hate songs, painting our walls with Protestant triumphalism and even our public holidays in the country we expressed everything that had a deep Anti-Catholicism. I can't say that this is true for every protestant, of course not, nor did I learn this from my parents either; however it was deeply embedded in the protestant communities in which I lived and I did live in many different areas in Northern Ireland as we moved house on average every 3 years.
My religious instruction as a child was little to none as I grew up in a loving family who were basically agnostic and indifferent to religion yet who loved me very much and did their best to teach me right from wrong. Therefore I became a young adult who didn't know anything about the Lord and His glorious gospel.
At this period of my life I decided as a young 19 year old man in 1992 that I wanted to see the world and so I decided to join the British Army which was quite a risk at the time as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) were still at war with the British Army and many young soldiers were killed by this group. I deeply hated the IRA which made me hate many Roman Catholics even more because I seen the IRA at this time as a Roman Catholic terrorist group, that was the military wing of the Catholic Church, confirming in me even more that Catholics were evil people and could not be trusted.
It was in the British Army that I first became exposed to Catholics, in fact most of my closest friends in the army ended up being Catholic and it broke down many of the barriers and prejudices I had erected. One friend who was from Cork invited me to His Church one day while we were living and serving in Cyprus and I had no problem going. This I can say was officially my first time in a Catholic Mass but it meant nothing to me. Still who knows what graces God lavished on me through that one encounter. It was also around this time that I found my self strangely drawn to read the bible, light candles, and even purchase a necklace with beads and a crucifix on it that 20 years later I was to find out it was the Rosary.
It wasn't long before my illness, which would be diagnosed 15 years later as bipolar, began to play up and I went AWOL (Absent without leave) from the Army and I found myself travelling home unauthorised from Cyprus back to Northern Ireland to busk on the streets of Belfast. This began a very deep spiritual journey for me and it started with a 2 hour conversation with a Hare Krishna in the City Centre, followed by encounters weeks and months later with Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons all of whom I came very close to joining but decided not to in the end as I was to eventually meet some nice 7th Day Adventist people, become friends with them and then eventually join this denomination by being baptised in the year 1996.
I spent a restless 6 years in this group only to study myself out of it finding that some of their doctrines just simply could not be held up against the weight of scripture and so with much tears and regret I took my family out of this group and into more traditional protestant groups. We as a family found ourselves travelling around and belonging to some of the 17 protestant groups we attended as we sought for truth and a place to belong.
The last group we attended was the Eastern Orthodox Church which I lasted 6 months in due to previously being deeply involved in the British Israel movement and finding my mind was too brainwashed into their theories which hindered me staying in the Eastern Orthodox Church. I therefore left the Holy Orthodox Catholic faith to walk alone for a few years mainly believing in the British Israel theory but also studying all different types of theologies and religions, even being attracted to Eastern ones, like Hare Krishna and Buddhism.
It was during this time that I began to go into Protestant and Catholic debate groups on facebook, out of interest, and I was beginning to see that Catholics were winning not just some of the debates but every single debate that was put forward. I put forward some debates myself and I found myself completely refuted every time. I was dumbfounded; could the Catholic religion really be the Truth I had been looking for all my life? Dear God, could my enemies really have the True Faith? It took time for me to see this but eventually God broke me down and through prayer and study I asked God to lead me one day and I found an RCIA programme was starting that very night I prayed for Gods leading and thus I began the journey Home, November 2012.
I completed the RCIA programme with my wife and we entered the Church Pentecost Sunday 2013 with my daughter following a few months later. One great testimony my daughter has, is that she suffered from self harm and a few months before she entered the Church I prayed to a blessed person who is soon to become a saint in the Church one day while in Adoration and my daughter has not self harmed since then. I asked this person to intercede for me, and not only that, my daughters self harm scars seemed to all but vanish the night before she entered into the Church, 20 August 2013.
So here we all are now members of the Catholic Church and I can't say it has been easy nor has there been healing for me and my bipolar but we are finding in the Church answers for every trial and even joy in the Churches teachings on sufferings as we as a family suffer through my illness that can sometimes seem to take me out of the Church for very short periods but miraculously God has kept me in the Holy Catholic Church and upon this journey for almost 2 year now when before I was known as the unstable person who couldn't stay anywhere, God has changed this all around.
Look what the Lord has done for me!
To grow from a young person indoctrinated to hate and despise the Catholic religion to fully embrace it in what use to be a war torn country is nothing short of a miracle.
I grew up in a divided country called Northern Ireland that was at war with each other, Catholic versus Protestant, Nationalist versus Loyalist where I learnt from a very young age through the Protestant/Loyalist community I lived in to hate and mistrust the people whom we called Roman Catholics and their religion.
I could be found as a child learning many songs that were absolutely disgusting, which exposed the hatred my community had towards their Roman Catholic neighbours faith as we cursed the Pope and the blessed Virgin Mary. This was the common way people grew up in my community and through learning these hate songs, painting our walls with Protestant triumphalism and even our public holidays in the country we expressed everything that had a deep Anti-Catholicism. I can't say that this is true for every protestant, of course not, nor did I learn this from my parents either; however it was deeply embedded in the protestant communities in which I lived and I did live in many different areas in Northern Ireland as we moved house on average every 3 years.
My religious instruction as a child was little to none as I grew up in a loving family who were basically agnostic and indifferent to religion yet who loved me very much and did their best to teach me right from wrong. Therefore I became a young adult who didn't know anything about the Lord and His glorious gospel.
At this period of my life I decided as a young 19 year old man in 1992 that I wanted to see the world and so I decided to join the British Army which was quite a risk at the time as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) were still at war with the British Army and many young soldiers were killed by this group. I deeply hated the IRA which made me hate many Roman Catholics even more because I seen the IRA at this time as a Roman Catholic terrorist group, that was the military wing of the Catholic Church, confirming in me even more that Catholics were evil people and could not be trusted.
It was in the British Army that I first became exposed to Catholics, in fact most of my closest friends in the army ended up being Catholic and it broke down many of the barriers and prejudices I had erected. One friend who was from Cork invited me to His Church one day while we were living and serving in Cyprus and I had no problem going. This I can say was officially my first time in a Catholic Mass but it meant nothing to me. Still who knows what graces God lavished on me through that one encounter. It was also around this time that I found my self strangely drawn to read the bible, light candles, and even purchase a necklace with beads and a crucifix on it that 20 years later I was to find out it was the Rosary.
It wasn't long before my illness, which would be diagnosed 15 years later as bipolar, began to play up and I went AWOL (Absent without leave) from the Army and I found myself travelling home unauthorised from Cyprus back to Northern Ireland to busk on the streets of Belfast. This began a very deep spiritual journey for me and it started with a 2 hour conversation with a Hare Krishna in the City Centre, followed by encounters weeks and months later with Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons all of whom I came very close to joining but decided not to in the end as I was to eventually meet some nice 7th Day Adventist people, become friends with them and then eventually join this denomination by being baptised in the year 1996.
I spent a restless 6 years in this group only to study myself out of it finding that some of their doctrines just simply could not be held up against the weight of scripture and so with much tears and regret I took my family out of this group and into more traditional protestant groups. We as a family found ourselves travelling around and belonging to some of the 17 protestant groups we attended as we sought for truth and a place to belong.
The last group we attended was the Eastern Orthodox Church which I lasted 6 months in due to previously being deeply involved in the British Israel movement and finding my mind was too brainwashed into their theories which hindered me staying in the Eastern Orthodox Church. I therefore left the Holy Orthodox Catholic faith to walk alone for a few years mainly believing in the British Israel theory but also studying all different types of theologies and religions, even being attracted to Eastern ones, like Hare Krishna and Buddhism.
It was during this time that I began to go into Protestant and Catholic debate groups on facebook, out of interest, and I was beginning to see that Catholics were winning not just some of the debates but every single debate that was put forward. I put forward some debates myself and I found myself completely refuted every time. I was dumbfounded; could the Catholic religion really be the Truth I had been looking for all my life? Dear God, could my enemies really have the True Faith? It took time for me to see this but eventually God broke me down and through prayer and study I asked God to lead me one day and I found an RCIA programme was starting that very night I prayed for Gods leading and thus I began the journey Home, November 2012.
I completed the RCIA programme with my wife and we entered the Church Pentecost Sunday 2013 with my daughter following a few months later. One great testimony my daughter has, is that she suffered from self harm and a few months before she entered the Church I prayed to a blessed person who is soon to become a saint in the Church one day while in Adoration and my daughter has not self harmed since then. I asked this person to intercede for me, and not only that, my daughters self harm scars seemed to all but vanish the night before she entered into the Church, 20 August 2013.
So here we all are now members of the Catholic Church and I can't say it has been easy nor has there been healing for me and my bipolar but we are finding in the Church answers for every trial and even joy in the Churches teachings on sufferings as we as a family suffer through my illness that can sometimes seem to take me out of the Church for very short periods but miraculously God has kept me in the Holy Catholic Church and upon this journey for almost 2 year now when before I was known as the unstable person who couldn't stay anywhere, God has changed this all around.
Look what the Lord has done for me!
To grow from a young person indoctrinated to hate and despise the Catholic religion to fully embrace it in what use to be a war torn country is nothing short of a miracle.
