“If I’m going to join something, I want it to be the one true thing, and through Relevant Radio, I learned that the Catholic Church is the true Church, the Church of Jesus,” she says.

Although she wasn’t raised in any faith, she says she has felt drawn to religion since she was a child. She says she explored a lot of churches through the years, but always felt something was missing. Now, at age 63, she believes she has found the right fit.

“I think it has all the pieces,” she says. “I wish I had started earlier, but I am where I am supposed to be right now.”

Brewer was among 160 people who became members of the Catholic Church at Easter. One hundred twenty were baptized, confirmed, and received first Eucharist, the highest number in the Diocese of Portland in 17 years. Another 40, who had been baptized in other Christian traditions, were received into full Communion of the Catholic Church through confirmation and first Eucharist.

“I’ve always wanted to get into the Church, but I didn’t know which one, but eventually, after some life experiences, I figured out that it was the Catholic Church,” says Elizabeth Crowley, age 17, also of Winterport. “It felt very earnest to me, far more so than some of the other places I’ve been. It was a place where I felt safe and home.”

“It’s a feeling. It’s not something that I can put into words really,” says Ria Patel, who lives in Saint-François-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick, but attends St. Louis Church in Fort Kent because it is the closest English-speaking church.

Patel is originally from India, where she grew up as a non-practicing Hindu who attended a Catholic school. She says she would have described herself as spiritually agnostic but started learning about Christianity from a coworker.

“There was a girl that I worked with, and she was talking about her testimony, and some other individuals did as well, and it kind of crept on slowly, the realization that this is the route that I wanted to go,” she says.

Patel says she has faced some challenges in her life, but after having the good fortune to find her current home in Canada, she says she felt the sense of a higher power at work.

“I came to the realization that there is something greater at play here,” she says.

Knowing she wanted to pursue Christianity, Patel says she did some research to find the right Church and came to the realization that Catholicism dates to the apostles. She also was impressed with the body of available teachings about the faith.

“For me, understanding things before just kind of blindly following is very, very important,” she says. “There is a lot that went into this decision of saying yes to Catholicism.”

Laura Barnett of Bowdoinham says the breadth of information about the Catholic faith also resonated with her.

“The thing that drew me in initially and has continued to resonate with me is how open Catholics are to questions,” she says. “Every time I have a question about dogmas or different parts of the liturgy or why Catholics believe something, first of all, there are always very logical answers that make sense to me, but also, people are like, ‘That’s a great question. I’m glad you asked,’ versus, ‘We don’t ask about that.’”

Barnett, who was baptized Methodist, says she was active in her faith as a child but fell away from it after college. She says after getting married, she and her husband started looking for a church that fit them as a couple.

“We started with a lot of Protestant churches, but we really love high church. We love the tradition, the very, kind of, formal way of worship, and we were not really finding that in a lot of traditions,” she says.

Barnett says after giving birth to a daughter, they were also looking to connect with a supportive community, which they found at All Saints Parish in Brunswick.

“We wanted to meet other young families with similar values to us, and that has been great in our parish,” she says.

Barnett says she was further drawn to the faith while grieving the loss of her best friend, who died from cancer.

“After her passing in the fall of 2022, I really started listening to Catholic Masses online, reading different Catholic sources, looking into Catholic podcasts, and it just really clicked for me. This feels true. This feels right, so I started attending Mass,” she says. “It was beautiful. I really felt a connection to God in going to Mass.”

Her husband began attending with her, and this Easter, they both joined the Church, something Asia and Jacob Cole, young parents from Monmouth, also did together.

“We received the invitation later in life and had to answer the call,” says Jacob.

Jacob says something felt missing in his life, which led him to explore the writings of theologians such as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.

“It was part of, I guess, an investigation into what makes us human. There seemed to be a missing part for myself personally. That call to worship and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ became evidence of the highest form of love, and I couldn’t turn back from that once that realization fell upon me,” says Jacob. “I couldn’t let it be just an intellectual pursuit any longer.”

“The preachings of love of  Jesus Christ have felt like the best fit for us,” says Asia. “It’s been a really beautiful journey, as we have gotten to know the parish and the people in the community.”

Jona Fitzpatrick and Lora Ryan, friends from the Aroostook County town of Patton say they, too, have found a warm welcome in the Catholic Church. The two, who were baptized in other Christian faiths, both long attended Mass with their husbands before deciding to join the Church this year.

“When I would attend Mass with my husband, I would leave there feeling happy and lighthearted, and it’s just where I felt I belonged,” says Ryan “I felt always very welcomed there, even though I wasn’t Catholic, and everybody knew I wasn’t Catholic.”

Both women say they have long thought about becoming members of the Church and finally decided the time was right.

“I just felt led in my heart that now is the time to do it. I really want to have a closer relationship with Jesus,” says Ryan.

“I wish I hadn’t taken so long, but I’m happy to be here now,” says Fitzpatrick. “It’s been a lot of years in the making and really due to my husband and my friend Trish, my sponsor. Also, one of my college friends was Catholic.”

Fitzpatrick says in addition to the example of her husband and Trish, she also did a lot of reading and praying, and after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she began attending Mass with her husband more frequently.

“I felt, for myself, that if I have faith, I’m not going to be worrying about that,” she says. “I thought, yeah, this is where I’m supposed to be.”

She says she felt particularly drawn by Christ’s message of mercy.

“Divine mercy really speaks to me. I’m thinking of St. Faustina being my saint because I really appreciate that when you get up in the morning, you feel like, even though you’ve fallen the day before, you can come back to God because He is always merciful.”

Amanda and Jonathan Stone of Bowdoinham say what drew them to the Catholic Church was its rich tradition and the Eucharist.

“I haven’t really experienced anything quite like this, especially when it comes to the Eucharist. I think that is something so uniquely wonderful about the Catholic Church,” Amanda says. “That you can physically receive Christ, I think that is something that is just so special and really spoke to me.”

Amanda grew up Baptist, and Jonathan was christened in the Church of England. The couple had been attending an Anglican church in Texas but weren’t able to find one after moving to Maine, so they decided to explore the Catholic faith.

“There is a lot of overlap with Anglicanism, of course, and we wanted to continue that, but also some of the more traditional views that the Roman Church has held on to. We like the liturgy. We like the apostolic structure of the clergy,” said Jonathan. “The beauty and the majesty and a lot of the metaphysical aspects are very similar, even more so in the Catholic Church.”

Jonathan and Amanda say they have found participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults a valuable learning experience, something others entering the Church expressed as well.

“It’s terrific,” says Jonathan, who participated through All Saints Parish in Brunswick. “One of the great things is just sharing a lot of resources for learning.”

“I was able to talk to people, and I was able to just feel like I was home. I was able to let God into my heart and overcome fears,” says Joey Jandreau, age 15, from St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent. “It’s been awesome. If I could do it again, I would do it over and over again.”

“It’s been a very, very positive experience,” says Drake Hacker, now a member of St. Michael Parish in Augusta. “I wanted to take the next step, but it’s an overwhelming thing, especially coming from a very secular upbringing, but I remember the first time I talked to Sister Carol (Martin), it was like, ‘This is not going to be as intimidating as I thought it would be.’ It’s been wonderful.”

Hacker, who says he thought of himself as an atheist at one time, started exploring the Catholic faith after he began dating Anna Kiminski, to whom he is now engaged.

“I just kind of gave him the idea and said whatever you want to do with it,” she says.

Hacker says when he started attending Mass, he realized that he didn’t really believe in nothing and decided to act on that.

“It’s hard to describe, but I kind of knew after a while that this was where I was supposed to be and that this fit my belief system and what I felt was out there. I feel like now, looking back, that was God speaking to me.”

He says he liked the Mass and the structure of it and then started reading the Bible and started praying on his own using an app.

“It was really helpful because it gave me structured prayers. I really found a lot of peace in that,” he says.

Also significant in his faith journey was his experience studying abroad in Germany.

“I went to a couple Masses there. It was a strange sensation, not knowing the language at all but still feeling a connection. That was a big turning point for me, being overseas, being isolated, and still having God there really solidified for me that this was something that I wanted to pursue, and I wanted to become Christian,” he says.

He says having God in his life will serve as a guide to ensure he is heading in the right direction.

“It keeps me anchored,” he says. “I am looking forward to having that the rest of my life.”

The newly initiated Catholics are now continuing their formation in a period known as mystagogy. It is a time to continue to learn about the faith and to become engaged in their church communities.