Two years ago I wrote a post titled Mortimer Adler, Catholic.  Dr. Adler, born Jewish, became a Christian in 1983 and finally two years before his death in 1999, at the age of 97, formally entered the Catholic church. Dr. Adler has long been my model of rigorous reasoning and intellectual integrity.

Having just finished reading My Journey to the Land of More, I chose a similar title for this post on Leona Choy, who just before her 80th birthday became a Catholic.  While the conversion of Leona Choy to Catholicism in her old age may not be as newsworthy as the conversion of the “world’s best paid philosopher,” it is also because of rigorous reasoning and her book is a mighty good read.

Leona was born into Protestant Christianity, was baptized as a baby, and “can’t recall any time in my growing years when I ever deliberately rejected anything that I had heard about God and Jesus and the Bible. I always eagerly sought for more.”    From the beginning, she loved Jesus, sought to do God’s will, and says over and over again, “God had his hand on my life.”  “My desire as long as I can remember has been to listen to and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.”

She writes:

I was already in my late seventies.  As a lifetime Christian I figured that I knew most of what there was to know about the Christian faith and life.  I am not a beginner; in fact, I am an “ender.”  I am chronologically challenged, as some say, since most of my life is behind me.  I am a veteran Christian because I have had a personal relationship with Jesus since my youth.  I have lived a full and satisfying life of learning, service, relationships, family, and a long career in Christian ministry.  I had no complaint, no dissatisfaction; I was thankful to God for his lavish love and generous blessings.  I have had a wonderful life! . . . .  I was the wife of a minister for forty-six years.  We cofounded a para-church mission organization and a Chinese church in our nation’s capital.  I have written and published many books, established a publishing company, and I am president of a  Christian radio station.

When Leona published  her autobiography in her seventies,  she, with good reason, thought it was  a wrap!

It was about this time when Leona’s old friend,  Arlene,  announced that she had become a Catholic.  Amazed, bewildered, Leona sought to enlighten Arlene and set her straight.  She wrote her a 27-paragraph letter telling her what was wrong with the Catholic church.  It takes a really informed Protestant to come up with that many arguments against Catholicism!  Thinking her faith unshakeable,  she says,  “I felt that I should honestly examine Catholic doctrines firsthand, not from hearsay, so I could discredit their fallacies and delusions.” She knew God’s hand was on her life and God  would help  her with discernment.

Leona goes step by step, always seeking God’s truth and God’s help, bringing scriptures to bear on each point, and demolishing her objections to  Catholicism one by one. It was not a journey that she wanted to make, but it turns out to be not only fascinating but convincing.  I invite you to follow along with her on her Journey to the Land of More.
Leona’s Journey

(As a bonus, she writes some good poetry, too.)

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“My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. What’s the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy.” — Mortimer Adler