August 25

2028

Fox Lake, IL

St. Gilbert, Grayslake

University of Michigan (Physics, Electrical Engineering)

I like to read, pray, and play basketball and frisbee golf

St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Thomas Aquinas

I received the sacraments as a kid, but never practiced or really understood the faith on my own. I bought into the modern mindset that religion was at best unnecessary or at worst a deceptive, therapeutic personal choice. However, during my freshman year of college at Michigan, I found two converging movements. First, I really started to question whether the life I was living and saw others living was morally good, and in parallel I was introduced to the writing of St Thomas Aquinas by a friend. Once I started seeing the Church’s teaching on faith and reason and reading the five ways, I actually consciously believed in God for the first time, and began to seek the mercy and forgiveness of that God. Then I began to start praying, learning more and more about God and the Catholic Church, and became convinced of the truth of the faith. After developing a basic prayer life, I began to fall in love with Jesus, and felt a tug in my heart and persistence in my prayer life to consider the priesthood after I graduated. I began to follow those pulls, and it led me to Mundelein!

Sharing the Gospel, pointing the way to Jesus