Atheist Harvard professor reveals how he was led him to Catholicism

Shalom World interviewed former Harvard professor Roy Schoeman regarding his Catholic conversion story. The business professor revealed how a series of mystical encounters led him to Catholicism, including an intimate experience with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Schoeman explains that he became an atheist in college after leaving the Jewish faith. He explained however, that atheism’s emptiness led his heart to desire more.

“I went to sleep and I thought I was awoken by a hand gently on my shoulder, and led to a room and left alone with the most beautiful young woman I could ever imagine,” Schoeman begins. “I knew without being told that it was the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

“When I found myself in her presence, all I wanted to do was honor her overtly. In fact, the first thought that crossed my mind was ‘Oh my gosh. I wish I at least knew the Hail Mary.’ But I didn’t.”

Schoeman said Mary then offered to answer his questions.

He said, “My first thought was to ask her to teach me the Hail Mary…but I was too proud to admit that I didn’t know it. So as a kind of indirect way of teaching me the Hail Mary, I asked her her favorite prayer. She was a bit coy, but her first response was, ‘I love all prayers.’

“But I was a bit pushy and said, ‘There must be prayers you love more than others.'”

Schoeman said Mary told him her favorite prayer is ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’ (Our Lady originally presented this prayer to St. Catherine Labouré.)

When I went to sleep that night,” Schoeman continued, “I knew virtually nothing about the Blessed Virgin Mary…I knew none of what she revealed to me in this experience.”

“Although she was perfectly beautiful to look at–indescribably beautiful–even more perfecting was the beauty of her voice. It was composed of that which makes music music.

“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.”

Schoeman added that as soon as he woke up, he was completely in love with the Blessed Virgin Mary and he “wanted to be as fully and completely as Christian as possible,” which eventually led him to Catholicism.

“During that experience of her, I saw how all of the graces that flow from divinity into humanity flow through the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Source: ChurchPop editor, December 2, 2019