Instrumental in Lizzie Reezay’s decision to enter into full communion with the Church was becoming historically conscious of the early Church and her members: the Christians of the first few centuries. She discovered that the first Christians were indeed Catholic.
By Deacon Frederick Bartels
21 February 2018
It’s not the first time it has happened. It won’t be the last.
Meet Lizzie Estella Reezay, a popular YouTube video producer who’s decided to become Catholic and enter into full communion with the Church. She was raised in the Church of Christ, a Protestant community, had intentions to go to Thailand and do missionary work, and, in her own words, “hated Catholicism growing up.”
But now all of that has changed. Why?
It’s the ole “facts of history” thing. As Cardinal Newman, himself a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism in the 19th century, once said, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” An unprejudiced study of the early Church and primary source documents from the first Christians, known as the Church Fathers, leads one to the indisputable conclusion that the Church Christ founded upon the rock of St. Peter (see Mt 16:17-19) is the Catholic Church. In other words, the first Christians, including all the authors of the New Testament, were Catholic. Their beliefs, teachings and liturgical worship was itself Catholicism through and through.
Lizzie discovered the same truths. Instrumental in her decision to enter into full communion with the Church was becoming historically conscious of the early Church and her members, the Christians of the first few centuries. Her study of the Church Fathers and early Christianity led her to conclude that the first Christians were Catholic—something which, as much as she may have wanted to dismiss, couldn’t be ignored. She discovered the one Church historically founded by Jesus Christ is indeed the Catholic Church.
In her video describing her journey to the Church and the study it involved, she notes that she’s becoming Catholic because the Catholic Church “is true” and “goes by the Bible more than any other Church in Christianity.” She discovered the beliefs of the Church today line up perfectly with the beliefs of the first members of the Chruch who, under divine inspiration, wrote the New Testament during the 1st century of Christianity. She says that she was “shocked” to discover that the “early Church looked Catholic” and that the “original Church was the Catholic Church.”
Adding to her motivation, was the dogma of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In her video discussing her decision to become Catholic, she quotes from John chapter 6 and speaks about how the Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Christ and how the doctrine of transubstantiation (a philosophical term the Church uses to help articulate that the bread and wine at consecration are converted into the true and substantial presence of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ) is true.
You can watch her video here.
Welcome home, Lizzie! You’ll make a great Catholic!
Deacon Frederick Bartels is a member of the Catholic clergy who serves the Church in the diocese of Pueblo. He holds an MA in Theology and Educational Ministry, is a member of the theology faculty at Catholic International University, and is a Catholic educator, public speaker, and evangelist who strives to infuse culture with the saving principles of the gospel. For more, visit YouTube, iTunes and Twitter.
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