Deacon Richard Ballard on a Nun’s Religious Habit Leading to His Conversion

“I grew up in Western North Carolina, an area dominated by Protestants and not known for having plentiful numbers of Catholics. For the first several years of my life I had never met a Catholic and didn’t even know what one was. My first brush with the Catholic Church occurred late in 1965, when I was seven years old. This encounter is stamped indelibly on my memory because it was the most unusual sight that I had ever witnessed to that point in my life.  It happened in the lobby of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.  I had gone to the hospital with relatives to visit my grandfather who was recuperating from surgery.

“At that time, children were not allowed to visit the rooms of patients, so I was relegated to the lobby with strict instructions to behave myself and not get into trouble.  It was a different age then, when parental worries centered much more around what mischief one’s child might perpetrate, rather than what mischief some perpetrator might make with one’s child.  So, with a variety of comic books in hand, I was ensconced in the corner of the lobby to idle away the time awaiting the return of my family.  It was then that I saw her: Sister Mary Regina Harriss, RSM. She was a religious, a Sister of Mercy, and I was astonished.”

In a recent commentary, Deacon Richard Ballard (Pastoral Associate at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Greenville, SC) reflected on  how the habit worn by this Sister of Mercy helped lead to his conversion.

To access Deacon Ballard’s complete post, please visit:

Standing on My Head: A Habit, A Nun and a Conversion (25 JUN 13)