A Harvard Professor's Conversion to Catholicism | Roy Schoeman | Jesus, My Savior

[Music] are you searching for answers [Applause] [Music] discover your true identity stay tuned - Shalom world if God had not revealed himself to me and if the Blessed Virgin Mary had not revealed herself to me and brought me into the Catholic Church I probably would have died and I probably would have been condemned [Music] I was born and raised Jewish very Jewish family very Jewish world very Jewish education all the way until university I went to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology which is a scientific Technical University and I lost my belief in God there I lost my faith I became essentially atheist I went on to Harvard Business School and was obviously pursuing a fairly worldly career and and worldly perspective and after I got my degree from Harvard Business School I was invited back to join the faculty so I found myself as a professor of marketing at Harvard Business School at the age of 29 and although it may sound rather surprising that's actually when the bottom fell out of my world because ever since I had been a small child I knew there has to be a real meaning and purpose to life and expected to come into the real meaning and purpose of life at some point when I got older as a matter of fact as a child I thought it would come at my bar mitzva which is like the Catholic confirmation when the child is 13 and enters into a personal relationship with God I thought I would enter into a personal relationship with God when that didn't happen it was actually one of the saddest days of my life but then I got distracted with a worldly life so to speak high school and university and Harvard Business School and so forth but I always thought there was something out there that would give my life real meaning then I thought it would be when I began my career but I was already more successful in a worldly career than I had ever anticipated being a professor in Harvard but there was still no meaning or purpose to life and therefore I fell into the darkest despair of my life at that point [Music] I was walking in nature early one morning in a kind of Nature Preserve right off the ocean that was half pine trees and half sand dunes and I received the most spectacular grace in my life from one moment to the next I was walking along lost in my thoughts I had long since lost any hope and believing that God existed or anything like that when from one moment to the next the curtain between Earth and heaven disappeared and I found myself in the presence of God very knowingly in the presence of God and seeing my life as though I had died and was looking back over my life in the presence of God and I saw in an instant many if not most of the truths of the Catholic faith I saw that we live forever I saw that a reaction has a moral content that's recorded for all eternity that everything that I had ever happened to me had been the most perfect thing that could have been arranged coming from the hands of an all-knowing all-loving God not only including those things that had caused the most suffering at the time that had thought of us the greatest disasters but especially the things that had caused him was suffering at the time and I saw that my two greatest regrets after I died would be number one all of the time and energy I had wasted worrying about not being loved when every moment of my existence I was held in an ocean of love greater than I ever imagined could exist coming from this all-knowing all-loving God and the other great regret would be every hour I had wasted doing nothing of value in the eyes of heaven I saw that here I had been so worried about life having no meaning when in fact it has an infinite depth of meaning because every moment contains the possibility of doing something of value in the eyes of heaven and every time we take advantage of that opportunity we will very truly be rewarded for it for all eternity and every opportunity we let slip and don't take advantage of will be a lost opportunity for all [Music] [Applause] [Music] the most overwhelming aspect of his experience the most transformative aspect of this experience was to come into the intimate and deep and certain knowledge that God himself the God who not only created everything that exists but created existence itself not only knew me by name not only cared about me but have been watching over me controlling everything that ever happened to me but actually knowing how I felt at every moment and caring about how I felt at every moment such that in a very real way everything that made me happy made him happy and everything that made me sad made him sad and coming into the knowledge of this was really the most revolutionary transformative aspect of this experience I of course knew that the meaning and purpose of my life was to worship and serve my Lord and God and Master who is revealing himself to me but I didn't know his name and I couldn't think of this as the God of the Old Testament I couldn't think of this religion as Judaism the picture of God that emerges from the Old Testament is certainly a picture of a God far more distant and severe and removed from ordinary mankind than this God was so I knew this was my Lord and God on my master I knew I wanted nothing but to serve him and worship him properly and I didn't know what religion to follow to do so so I prayed at the time I was actually still walking at the time even though I had fallen into heaven so to speak and could see the spiritual world and was in this intimate communion with God I was still also seeing the the physical world around me the physical world had become as though transparent and I could see through it into the spiritual world anyway as I was walking I prayed to know the name of my Lord and God and Master who is revealing himself to me so I would know what religion to follow and I prayed as I was walking along let me know your name I don't mind if your Buddha and I have to become Buddhist I don't mind if your chrétien and I have to become Hindu I don't mind if your Paolo and I have to become a Roman pagan as long as you're not Christ and a happening I'm Christian that desire for not to be Christ because I didn't want to become Christian came from my being Jewish and I didn't want to kind of go over to the other side of the what I saw is the enemy side and he respected that and he did not reveal his name to me so I returned home happier than I had ever been in my life I knew there was never any reason to be worried or anxious about anything that absolutely everything that had ever happened to me have been the most perfect thing that could be arranged coming from in all-knowing all-loving God and I knew that what a weight of us if we play our cards right after we died which was an eternity of of a happiness and bliss and perfection greater than we could ever imagine and all I want to do is know the name of my Lord and God and master who had revealed himself to me and what religion to follow to to please him and I had no idea so since this had been a mystical experience I turned in that direction to find out more about it which was a very imprudent thing to do and I looked into some rather foolish new-agey kinds of directions but I also did something which for great fruit which is every night before I went to sleep I would say a short prayer that I had made up to know the name of my Lord and God and master who had revealed himself to me in that experience [Music] the year to the day after that first experience I went to sleep after having said that prior and also after having said a pray or Thanksgiving for what had happened exactly a year earlier which is how I know that it was exactly a year I went to sleep and I thought I was awoken by hand gently on my shoulder and alleged to a room and left alone with the most beautiful young woman I could ever imagine and I knew without being told that it was the Blessed Virgin Mary and when I found myself in her presence all I want to do was was honor her appropriately in fact the first thought that crossed my mind was oh my goodness I wish I at least knew the Hail Mary but I didn't the first thing she said to me was she offered to answer any questions I might have for her well my first thought was that I kind of wanted to ask her to teach me the Hail Mary so I could honor her appropriately but I was too proud to admit that I didn't know it so I was a kind of indirect way of getting her to teach me the hell Mary asked her what her favorite prayer to her was she was a bit coy her first response was I love all prayers to you but I was a bit pushy and I said but you must love some prayers more than others and she recited a prayer now she recited in Portuguese and I didn't know any Portuguese so all I could do was try to remember the first few syllables phonetically and the next morning as soon as I woke up I wrote them down phonetically and later after speaking to a Portuguese Catholic woman and asking her to recite all of the prayers to Mary in Portuguese I identified the prayer as Oh Mary conceived without sin pray for us have recourse to thee [Music] when I went to sleep at night I knew virtually nothing about the Blessed Virgin Mary all I knew was from Christmas carols mostly from silent night and from having seen Christmas crashes sometimes in public places I had never touched much less open a New Testament I knew none of what she revealed to me in this experience the other thing that I want to say is although she was perfectly beautiful to look at indescribably beautiful even more profoundly affecting was the beauty of her voice which was composed the only way I can describe it is this composed of that which makes music music and when she spoke and when the beauty of her voice flowed through me carrying with it her love it lifted me up into a state of ecstasy greater than I ever imagined could exist so most of my questions actually flowed out of my being absolutely overwhelmed by who she was and by her grandeur I'll mention a couple of the questions they were actually often more exclamations than they were actually questions for instance at one point I kind of stammered out how can it be how is it possible how can it be that you're so glorious that you're so magnificent that you're so exalted how can it be and her response was just to look down at me almost with pity and shake her head gently and saying oh no you don't understand I'm nothing I'm a creature I'm a created thing he's everything and then again out of this desire to somehow honor her appropriately I asked what title she liked best for herself and her response was I am the beloved daughter of the father mother of the son and spouse of the Spirit I asked her several other questions of somewhat less significance and she spoke to me for another 10 or 15 minutes she said she had something she want tell me and after that the audience was over and I went back to sleep and the next morning when I woke up I was hopelessly in love with the Blessed Virgin Mary and I wanted nothing other than to be as fully and completely Christian as possible I obviously knew from this experience that the God who revealed himself to me a year earlier had been Christ [Music] the first experience I was still walking I was completely you know completely away completely conscious the second experience Society the experience of the Blessed Virgin Mary I thought I was awake at the time and my memory represents us so I had been awake and I remembered with an absolute word-for-word clarity I actually even remember thinking about other questions asked that I had decided not to ask and so forth however I now understand although I didn't at the time that if there had been a camera in the room it would have shown me asleep in bed throughout that experience when I woke up I I knew I wanted to be as fully and completely a Christian as possible I literally did not know the difference between Protestantism and the Catholic Church and there wasn't much I could do other than open local phonebook and start going to a local Protestant Church but as soon as I got to know the pastor a little bit I shyly asked him about the Blessed Virgin Mary and when he answered without the respect that I knew that she deserved I knew this is no place for me in fact during that experience of her I actually saw this is just difficult to describe but I saw how all of the grace all of their gifts that flow from divinity into humanity flow through the Blessed Virgin Mary I saw her as a kind of pipeline or conduit connecting divinity to humanity through which all of all of God's graces and gifts flowed in fact going back to that experience it was very difficult for me to understand that the Blessed Virgin Mary was entirely and completely human and no more than human because of how because of her unique connection let's say to the divinity [Music] that was the motivation so to speak behind her saying I'm nothing I'm a creature I'm a creative thing she wasn't about to allow me to have any confusion about her status which is completely as a creature and being nothing more or less than what God made nonetheless I as I said I saw the extraordinary her extraordinary and unique role in the distribution of Graces back to the next morning and the following weeks I knew that I didn't belong in that Protestant church where the pastor had not much respect for the Blessed Virgin Mary and I used to spend all my free time visiting Marian shrines there was a shrine to Our Lady of La Salette about 45 minutes from where I lived I used to go there three or four times a week to walk the grounds and to feel the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to commune with her and that shrine was held by the Catholic Church and sometimes when I was there there would be a mass going on and whenever I was in the presence of a mass going on I was filled with a tremendous desire I could almost say a loss agreed to receive the communion to receive the Eucharist even though I literally do not know what it was [Music] those two things led me without much of a detour into the Catholic Church essentially knowing who the Blessed Virgin Mary is and having a tremendous love and devotion to her and also wanting to receive Communion daily if possible by entering the Catholic Church I not only didn't stop being Jewish but the only way I can understand it is that I became more Jewish than ever because I became a Jew who was following the Jewish Messiah rather than a Jew who refused essentially to follow the Jewish Messiah and was stuck in pre Messianic Judaism in fact my understanding of the relationship is that the Catholic Church is post Messianic Judaism and that Judaism is pre messianic Catholicism that they're one and the same plan for salvation [Music] I must admit I did not accept all of Catholic dogma I held on to a lot of beliefs that I had had prior to these experiences and I'm a bit ashamed to say that it was actually only probably about a year a year and a half after I had entered the Catholic Church and been baptized that I finally realized that everything the Catholic Church taught is certainly true in other words everything in Catholic dogma was in fact true [Music] and perhaps I'll mention that the last teaching that I was willing to accept was the Eternity of Hell I almost you know refused to accept the fact that it was possible to be condemned to hell for all eternity it just didn't make any sense to me it didn't seem to be consistent with God's love and mercy and so forth and what happened was I this to a priest who was directing me and he looked a little bit surprised and he said but his Dogma you have to believe it and that's when the scales fell from my eyes that is not up to me to judge what God could do or what might be true if it's taught as certainly true by the Catholic Church then I know it to be true not because it makes sense to me but because it is revealed by God through the authority of the Catholic Church and of course over time I I came to understand from inside why it might be true but I had to let go of that presumption of that incredible human pride to say that I'm able to understand everything that God might do I'm able to understand why and what God might do and I somehow put myself it's almost if I can say so it's almost like a loose affair position putting oneself in the position of judging God and what's possible and reasonable for God [Music] and I am infinitely grateful that I received these experiences and was brought into the fullness of the truth into a personal relationship with God into knowing everything I wish to know as there was a child growing up and of without being presumptuous a reasonable hope of an eternity of bliss and love in the presence of God [Music] if you have good news we expect you to want to share salvation in Jesus Christ the Son of God who for naught of us and for salvation came down from every salvation in his name and he is the only Savior is what we are on earth for therefore all those who spread the good news of salvation and Jesus Christ we should encourage them I can speak but how many people can I reach are known but the media the television people the radio the newspapers and all those who use the computer and its derivatives in various ways to spread the gospel we must thank them we must encourage them we must walk with them so that they can continue to spread the good news there are so much news that it's not wonderful in the world but there is also news that is wonderful and the gospel of Jesus Christ we encourage them and beg God to bless them especially the shallow world TV god bless you

Channel: Shalom World

Views: 546,346

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Keywords: Coversion, Catholicism, Roy Schoeman, Jesus My Savior, harvard, professor, judaism, jews converting

Id: EWDevlijGUI

Length: 22min 59sec (1379 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2019