The Church is my home. She always has been, and she always will be. There is a comfort that the Church brings me. She has always been there for the high moments in my life and difficult times. Being in the Church has allowed me to learn, lead, and discover the truth about the world around me. Being close to the Church has allowed me to explore vocations, friendships, relationships with family, and a relationship with our Heavenly Father. Throughout my life, the church building has changed but with each one I have attended, I learned more about myself and about my relationship with Christ.
Growing up, I attended Mass at St. Thomas a’ Becket Catholic Church in Canton, MI. It was here that I received my earliest stages of religious formation. However, when I was in elementary school the faith was not something that was the number one priority for my family. We would still go to Mass but if something came up, we didn’t rush to make sure we got to Mass. This changed when my mom entered the church when I was in second grade. At the time I had not noticed any change, but I now believe that watching my mom be received into full communion with the Catholic Church changed my life. After my mother joined the Church, Sunday Mass was never missed. My mom and dad made receiving the Eucharist a priority for my brothers and me. I got to see my dad be a Eucharistic Minister and Sacristan. This helped me to have a love for the Eucharist that was not always understood by my friends who attended Youth Group at my parish. My brothers and I were also altar servers. Having a small role in the Mass made me engaged in a new way and I wanted to continue to foster that feeling.
As I continued to grow up, one of my greatest formational experiences was being highly involved in my church’s youth group. This is where I found my love for service. My youth minister instilled in us that service to the less fortunate was something that we as Catholics are called to do. This was manifested in many small service projects that helped me understand what service truly was. She also helped me to develop my leadership skills by allowing me to help plan retreats for high school students and eventually convinced me to do this on a larger scale with the Catholic Youth.
Organization’s Youth Council. It was in Youth Council that I began to plan retreats for the wider diocesan community. Being able to share my faith in the retreat setting gave me the courage to do that at places like school, sports, and work. When it came time for me to choose a college, I wanted to choose a school that allowed me to share my faith with others. This desire caused me to go to Michigan State University, a place that gave me plenty of chances to meet other students who had different backgrounds and identities, share my story with them, and broaden my horizons.
At Michigan State, I studied Social Studies Education and Arts and Humanities. I was constantly surrounded by people who had identities that did not match mine. People were vocal about their opinions, which did not always line up with what the Church teaches. This was challenging at the beginning, however it taught me to fall deeper in love with prayer and the sacraments. I learned that if my faith was going to be challenged by differing opinions, I would need to be as close to Jesus as possible. This caused me to search for a new church where my faith could continue to grow. My experiences of being in youth group in middle and high school helped me to find the St. John Student Center at MSU. This simple church became the next step in deepening my relationship with Christ.
St. John’s was the place where I began to understand the power of prayer and community and how those two things fit together so beautifully. In my freshman year of college, I joined a Bible study small group. I met some of my greatest friends here because there was a deep connection to Christ that began the foundation of our friendship. I could always go to St. John’s for a chance to regain peace after a busy day of class and work. The people were always so life-giving and the access to the sacraments allowed me to stay connected to our Heavenly Father. When I started to go to daily Mass, I gained the realization that our bodies become a literal tabernacle. This helped me to go and share the joy and passion I had for my faith and relationship with Christ with others.
College helped me to experience different types of prayer. I became particularly fascinated with the Liturgy of the Hours and the daily examen at a retreat my sophomore year. Being able to engage in a prayer that was meant to be communal deepened my desire for community. After this
retreat and my sophomore year, daily prayer in adoration became important for my spiritual formation. I was now in a place where I was a small group leader, the Director of Youth Ministry and Confirmation, and a one-on-one discipleship leader. I needed to make sure that prayer and the sacraments were the things that were continually feeding me so I could help others grow closer to Christ. This caused me to begin to search for people who would help me grow in my spirituality and keep me accountable for receiving the sacraments.
As my Junior year fast approached, I was able to start a Catholic men’s house. We had community dinners and prayer every week. After a long day of work and school, the community became a place to relax and enter deeply into prayer. This sense of fraternity and accountability helped me conclude that I wanted to be a part of a fraternal community long-term. As the school year continued, my community and I went on a discernment retreat with St. John’s. This was a way for me to really think about my state in life vocation.
At the end of my time in college, it came time to choose what the next step was. I could either continue at Michigan State and participate in my student teaching in public schools or join the Alliance for Catholic Education(ACE). After much time of discernment, it was no surprise that I chose to take part in ACE. The three pillars of ACE, spirituality, community, and teaching were always present in my time in undergrad. I never attended Catholic schools, but as I was ending undergrad and thinking about teaching, I realized because my faith was such an important part of my life, it would be hard to teach students without incorporating this into my pedagogy. This unique service program provided me with a glimpse into what the promises of a religious life would be like. The program places you in an unknown city at an under-served, under-resourced Catholic school. They tell you what you are going to be teaching and place you in an intentional community. This emulates the vow of obedience. The vow of poverty is exemplified through the small stipend you receive to support you during your time in ACE. The vow of chastity is reflected in the community that is there to support you in your time throughout ACE. They are the people who walk with you
throughout your journey. These two years of service have provided me with opportunities to coach, teach, learn, minister, and serve the greater Phoenix community. These aspects of the life of an ACE teacher provided me with moments of reflection on what I love about teaching and community life and how I want to continue to grow in those things as I enter into a new stage of my life.
It was also here in Phoenix that I met SOLT for the first time. One of the sisters, Sr. Holy Hope, teaches at a school we serve in. I did not directly work with her but one of my housemates did. My housemate described her joy and passion for service and I found it to be inspiring. I would hear stories of her advocating for her students and all the fun things she would do after school in the chemistry lab with my housemate. This care for her students, and the fun she would have stood out to me because she provided me with a different perspective on religious life.
As my first year as a teacher came to a close, I began to think a lot about my Vocation. I decided to dive deeper into the discernment of religious life that I had been discerning in college. The summer after my first year in ACE, I had the opportunity to go to Rome on a discernment pilgrimage. During this pilgrimage, one of the priests on the trip gave a talk that brought everything that I desired, community, strong prayer, and intimate connection to our Heavenly Father into the forefront of my mind in a way that I had not thought of before. He said, that if you are the first one to get to school, give your all to your students, coach, and tutor, and are the last one to leave, and you are ready to do it all again the next day, then it might be time to consider what a life of service looks like. This described me perfectly during my first year as a teacher. After that moment things started to fall into place as I reflected on all the experiences in my life that had brought me to this moment.
On this pilgrimage were Sr. Kateri and Sr. Mary Elizabeth of SOLT. They spoke of SOLT as people who strive to serve the Body of Christ in ways that use the gifts and talents that God has given them. Their description of SOLT created a desire for me to learn more about the life of SOLT. I found that their practice of serving in ecclesial teams was so profoundly beautiful because it allows for all of the vocations of the church to serve together each with their unique perspective and role, fitting together like the perfect puzzle. They also talked of Our Lady with such devotion to Her and Her yes. I also have a strong connection to Our Lady. I first made my consecration to Jesus through Mary with my mom in high school. Connecting with my mom through that experience caused me to fall in love with our Blessed Mother. As a result, the Marian Trinitarian spirituality of SOLT caught my attention because the call to imitate Our Lady’s yes is something that I have strived to do my whole life.
After the pilgrimage ended I was able to get in contact with other members of SOLT. I was able to listen to their stories, ask questions, and talk things through with them about my discernment. Eventually, I decided to take the next step in discernment and participate in a come-and-see in Detroit. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had. The prayer the first night was awe-inspiring. Although prayer was a part of their everyday routine, there was such joy and passion said with every word said and every action that was done. The laughter that was shared at the dinner table was infectious and very special to me because my sense of humor has always been a big part of my personality. Everyone was so open to talk with me about their journey to SOLT and they all were mission-oriented, something that I have always sought out in others.
All of these life experiences have led me to this decision, to join religious life. The ever-present desire in me for community and service has helped me concentrate on the mission that Christ has given me. This time of discernment has been beneficial to me because it has helped me to learn more about myself and my relationship with Our Lady and Her son Jesus because I have been focusing on Mary’s yes throughout scripture. She gives a wholehearted response that I desire to imitate in all aspects of my life and She is the perfect example of how to be a disciple of Christ. It has also helped me to discover the desires of my heart, a community that is mission-oriented, focused on growing in relationship with Christ, and dedicated to a life of service. I have been able to engage more deeply with the community that I am serving at St. Vincent de Paul here in Phoenix, AZ, and all my loved ones back home in Michigan because I have allowed them to walk with me in this time of discernment. This life-changing experience of discernment has given me the opportunity for the Church to continue to be a part of my life, for the rest of my life.
2024 Grant Recipient