I have met people with a few bizarre experiences like I have been blessed to witness or experience, but I have never come across another who has the volume and magnitude of the mysterious that I have. I can often tell when God has put people in my path who are also having increasing encounters with the Divine. People were pretty shy last year. People aren’t shy this year. Many are deeply shaken by the world around them

I don’t know why He chose me. While the secular explanation exists through my ancestral lines, the more I proceed toward the completion of the Rites of Catholic Initiation for Adults on the Easter Vigil mass in Apr 2023, the more God reveals just how much of an ongoing mess I am. While I can say that I have had plenty of evidence provided by God about what that calling is and how that looks, I for my life cannot figure out how He did not move onto someone else.

One of the most terrifying experiences that God has blessed me with was when an angel let me in the side door of a Catholic Church.

I heard the prompting while on the phone at lunch with a friend, Go to Church. I’m not ready to share the parish yet. I hung up and went to the Church. The parking lot was empty, the front door was locked. The office was locked as well. I began to walk around the building. The last time I heard to go to a Catholic Church a week or two prior while driving home, the front door was wide open.

I met a woman, having no idea why I was told to go there, It was 4:55. She asked if I was Catholic, I replied not really, my parents were, but Vietnam. This was also after I had learned of my Catholic ancestry. She responded, ahh, well they’re doing adoration in the chapel. I asked her “What’s adoration?” She replied, “Quiet time with Christ.” Oh. I can do that!

As I was walked out of the narthex (lobby) and headed around to the chapel, I was prompted to text my wife, “I think we are supposed to join the Catholic Church.” I cringed, braced for impact and hit “Send.”

She responded, “I’d be ok with that”… I had no words… WTH just happened in my life is a common theme. I shrugged, walked around to the chapel, walked in, and before I had time to even look around, I looked up at Christ on the Cross and heard, the clearest words in my head of my life, up to that point, “Come home.” Then purse silence. There were a couple people in the chapel praying. I knew I had received the message intended for me.

Back to the locked church, I walked down the pathway, hung a left around the side of the Church, and out of nowhere asked God if he wanted to send His angels behind me to guide me here, that would be great, because I don’t know why you’d send me to a church that was locked.”

I progressed around the side past the dumpster area, and found a side door. I fully expected it to be opened, and I figured it was the chapel or something I didn’t even know what a Chapel was up to that point.

I reached for the door and it was locked. I was really perplexed now, turned to my right and a guy gets out of a truck in blue digital camo pants and a boonie cap with his keys already in his hands while asking me, if I was ready to worship””

The only response I found was a fumbling “sure…” I didn’t even know Catholics used that word. He opens the door for me, doesn’t even pause, and let me in. I opened the second door of the small vestibule, and walked through into the naive/sanctuary. I rendered me dead silent in the quietest places I had ever entered. I took it in for a moment, turned around to see if the man was following me, and he was gone. Gone. His truck was there, but he vanished. And then the sense of Godly terrified set in while in a state of peace I could not begin to describe.

I took a breath in, and took in what God had just sent an angel to show me. I texted my office staff and wife and they chuckled a bit on text, one asked, what’s the catch. I said no catch, factually this just happened. She responded, whoa. It gave my wife pause as well.

I’ve seen and been a part of some indescribable spiritual encounters with Christ and His angels over the previous year and going back nearly a decade. I seen things that leave people speechless, and I’m not boasting. They way more often than not have left me weaping during and through them while on my face in prayer and singing His praises.

I don’t think I have ever had one that freaked me out. They’re exhausting, and mysterious, and witnessed and confirmed by others. but they don’t do much in the make me want to turn around and run away. The door was closed anyway, so I couldn’t, and the angel had vanished.

Besides, He revealed the fullness that I could handle at that time with a glimpse of his beauty and glory. He showed me the naive and sanctuary of the Church to the left. When I meandered the top of the pews and came up to the view here, the mountain seen made me weap for a dozen reasons. It was also part of how I knew that what had just occured was from the divine hand of God and his heavenly angels. I slowly walked down the river path there and took a seat in the divine quiet of the moment,

I sat down and then Christ spoke to me in the clearest words I have ever heard in my life, “Welcome Home.” I exhaled and responded with the most sincere, “I know” I have ever felt. I definitely wept a bit. I know of no other response. I didn’t have time to plan it either, the tears just flowed.

“Thank you for showing me.” I cannot express the peace of that time at the foot of the Cross.

I stood up to leave, came to the door behind that pick and it was locked. Umm, really God, you’re going to make me ask for angels to let me out of the Church? I know the 26 Saints in the windows of this sanctuary were giggling with me. I moved to the left and the door was open. After I left the naive, I found the office door open and came across the angel in the blue digital camo pants and the boonie cap. This Church has such a loving heart and a beautiful sense of humor. The Patroness is appropriate.

The guy’s name is Ed, he Ed holds the keys to the Church. He’s the custodian, head of maintenance, and keeper of keys.

I don’t have the anything to boast in my roll in any of the divine experiences God bestows around me. I can only pray I didn’t screw it up too much. I say that to help you understand me when I say, this one freaked me out.

The rest of the story is coming. This was January 2022. It’s been 15 months since that beautiful day.