What intellectual converts often experience

David Mills, deputy editor of First Things, writing in "The Anatomy of Conversion" (New Oxford Review, April, 2010), offers an interesting account of how the convert's concerns often shift from debating apologetic questions to discovering a deeper dimension of spiritual understanding. The most exemplary sentence in his entire essay is the following:

As I read them [Catholic authors, including the Holy Father], I found that the Catholic answers were always deeper than the questions I was asking.

Lest cradle Catholics rest on their laurels, this phenomenon of discovery is something that might be coveted for many of them as well, who may not have begun yet to dig deeply into the treasure troves of resources offered by their Church and her Sacred Tradition. This calls to mind that magnificent work by Christopher Derrick, That Strange Divine Sea : Reflections on Being a Catholic(Ignatius Press, 1983); for it really is like wading into the ocean and realizing, as you get about chest deep and could soon be well over your head, that you've been spending your whole life so far splashing about in the shallows.