I've been a spiritual seeker all my life. Raised atheist by ex-Mormons, I journeyed through Quakerism and Buddhism, and Centering Prayer acquainted me with Catholic monasticism, which I explored but abandoned. Last year, grace led me into a new close friendship with someone who embodies loving Catholicism. Our rich conversations about spiritual matters and my discovery of St. Augustine's writings helped me see the Church and a life of faith in an entirely new way. She guided me to St. Ignatius and as I sat near the back that first Sunday, though I had yet to understand the mysteries of the Trinity and Eucharist, the relevance of objects all around me -- our amazing RCIA program would later fill those in -- the moment the plainchant began, I knew I was no longer a seeker. St. Augustine describes his conversion as returning home, and that's what it feels like for me. Also like him, I feel called. I'm long past my "formative years" and didn't convert for a spouse or child, yet I have found myself drawn to this sea change, this awakening, like it was inevitable. As the beautiful Jeremiah passage says, 'You have seduced me, O God, and I have let myself be seduced.'

The Gospel reading, which corresponded to baptism and the beginning of the forty days of Lent, is about Jesus' forty days in the desert and the temptations that were put before him. Cardinal Egan welcomes us and talks about the Church's delight at our decision. Then he gets to the reading and devotes the end of his homily to telling the story of how, as a young seminarian when the book The Last Temptation of Christ was published, while conservative Catholic groups were yelling and screaming about its evilness, he rushed out and got it, and reading that portrayal of a thoroughly human Jesus who struggled with temptation brought him back from the brink of a secret crisis of faith that had almost led him away from the Church.

Sitting there in the pew, surrounded by my fellow catechumens, I realized I was crying -- not because of any poignancy in his words, but from the profound connection I had with them. My own encounter with The Last Temptation of Christ came years before I even considered Catholicism -- many more years before this day -- and I have always seen it as a turning point in my personal spiritual journey, the first time I experienced thinking of God in an accessible personal way. But until this moment it had never occurred to me that it had any connection to Catholicism. And here I was, sitting in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, preparing to affirm my intention to become Catholic with the highly powerful symbolism of signing my name in a book, and the Archbishop of my Diocese, a Cardinal of the Church, is talking about the importance of The Last Temptation of Christ in his personal spiritual journey. I was struck by how personal is each of our journeys. I wondered if any of the other catechumens around me had been moved the first time they read or saw The Last Temptation of Christ, if they even knew what it was. Were any of them moved as I was by Cardinal Egan's experience with it? Then I noticed one of my classmates discretely wiping the tear from her cheek.

Which Rocky Horror Picture Show character are you? Janet Weiss A Heroine

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Proof that you can make a business of anything. The bigger question: What were they doing on St. Marks, a few miles from anything corporate? My guess is a paranoid consipracy theorist on my block decided mass shredding had to happen immediately.