As Patrick Madrid points out in the forward to this book, “The conversion of a human heart is the mighty work of God’s sovereign grace, not man’s effort.” The case of “Victory of the Battle Maiden” by Doug Reeves, subtitled “The Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to the Catholic Church (from the Perspective of the Guy She Married),” the story of one “man’s effort” makes for an uplifting and enjoyable reading experience.
The book is a first-person narrative, and Doug Reeves’s character shines through, providing a great deal of entertainment. He wrote the book “some 15 years (after) the blessed day my wife became a Catholic,” but his writing has all the personality of the young man he was 15 years prior. He highlights his work with “But, hey,” “So yeah, OK,” “Yeah, right,” “Duh,” and “Wow.” He talks about “some kool stuff” and says, “Trust me on this one.” Maybe this is because, to use his own words, “I’m just some ordinary guy who decided to write down his story.”
Doug was born into a Catholic family and served as an altar boy, but he describes his young self as a “lukewarm” Catholic. In high school, he attended religious education, but also joined his friends’ Protestant youth group. His buddies said that there were “tons of hot chicks there,” and Doug said they were right. As far as dogma was concerned, he didn’t see a big difference between the two youth groups, writing, “They loved God, I loved God.”
“Battle Maiden” continues with lively stories of friends and work and going to the gym. (Battle Maiden is the meaning of the name Heidi.) Then, he goes to “this build-your-own-burger place called Flakey Jake’s” where there was “this cute 19-year old girl who worked there named Heidi.” He asks her out, and she gave him “an answer that would change both our lives: ‘No, but I’ll go to church with you.’”
They went to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif. Doug said that he didn’t like it. When Heidi came back from working as a volunteer at a church summer camp, they “started to get serious,” but “right there in the middle of my vision of the future was a great big white elephant named Religion.”
He wasn’t worried about their different beliefs. He felt that if they actually did decide to get married, they could just “get her father together with a priest, and just hack it out. We’ll all go to lunch or something.”
He admits that at the time, he “had no idea of the depths of the differences between Catholics and non-Catholics,” but he was soon to find out. Heidi asks him questions like, “Why do you believe the Pope is never wrong?” and “Do you really believe that cracker-thing is Jesus?”
They do manage to get married after he agrees to let her raise their children as Protestants. Then, things begin to develop. Doug cannot answer a lot of Heidi’s questions, so he begins to educate himself, really educate himself, about his Catholic faith.
He gets in touch with Catholic Answers. He listens to tapes by Scott Hahn, a leading Catholic writer and speaker who himself is a former Protestant minister. Doug and Heidi begin to attend Mass at Saint Michael’s Abbey, a well-known Norbertine community in Orange County.
What happens is that as Doug is attempting to convert his fundamentalist Protestant wife, he converts himself, to use his own words again, “from a lukewarm, ignorant Catholic to someone who now treasures his faith.” One of Heidi’s relatives even cautions her to stop asking Doug so many questions: “You’re turning him into a Super Catholic.”
His understanding of the Church’s teachings grows, and Doug has to take back his agreement to raise their children as Protestants. Then, he has to explain they can no longer use artificial birth control. He keeps on reading, reading and studying his faith.
Heidi comes across as charming. She is truly sincere in her own beliefs. Nevertheless, their discussions become so heated that at about two years into their marriage, they “declared a six-month moratorium” on talking about – and arguing about – religion.
Doug is at his wit’s end. One priest even recommends that the couple get an annulment. Doug prays to know what to do, and the answer “popped into” his head: “Just love her.”
Eventually, after being married to Doug for about three years, Heidi decides to convert to Catholicism and tells Doug, “Call a priest.”
Doug erupts with, “What are you saying? What are you saying, baby?” Heidi repeats her intentions, and Doug only can cry out, “Are you sure? Are you sure? Woohooooo!” He was “jumping up and hugging her. We were both laughing.” She tells him “You’re hurting my ears,” and he comes back with, “You mean your Catholic ears? Woo hoo!”
Heidi was received into the Church at Easter, and, eventually, they are blessed “with three beautiful children who love God.” Heidi really loves being a Catholic and says she would never leave the Church, even if he “were to die mysteriously from a rare and untraceable South American poison that would enable her to collect the insurance money.”
There are many voices in our Catholic Church. Some are scholarly, some are quietly devout, some are profound and dogmatic. Doug Reeves provides a fresh, young and engaging voice to which young people can relate and in which older folks can delight.
J. E. Helm is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.