Luceat!

Divine Mercy Sunday 2005 I came home to the Catholic Church. Just 24 hours before that Pope John Paul II left this world for his eternal reward. Each year during this celebration I reflect on how the Lord called me home to Mother Church. At the same time I am able to reflect on the life of Pope John Paul II and consider all that he did to serve Jesus. It is a very special occasion each Divine Mercy Sunday because as I reflect it is so clear that without John Paul the Great I would not be Catholic today, and his life stands as a testament that one life lived greatly for God can change the course of history and send shockwaves through time. I submit my journey to the Catholic Church as evidence…

In 1993 Pope John Paul II came to Denver, Colorado (Denver, really? Yea, really!) for World Youth Day. John Paul was host to almost a million people who came from all over the world. One of the men impacted by Him went on to become Fr. Brendan Rolling at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison, Kansas. In the meantime…

Curtis Martin a revert to the Catholic Church and a passionate communicator of the Faith decides to launch FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. He is inspired by the call from John Paul the Great for a “New Evangelization” and he sets out to change the hearts and minds of future leaders on college campuses. In 1998 FOCUS stepped onto its first campus, Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas. A school that was struggling to regain its Catholic identity and stay in business. A school that was owned by St. Benedict’s Abbey where Fr. Brendan Rolling was a monk…

As time goes by over the next 6 years abundant grace is poured onto the campus of Benedictine College. With the help of great priests like Fr. Brendan, Fr. Meinrad, Fr. Bruce, Prior James, and many others, professors like Dr. Ted Sri, Dr. White, Dr. Rioux and many others and the FOCUS missionaries that came to serve that campus, Benedictine was brought back to its mission as a Catholic college.

Fall 2002 I step onto the campus of Benedictine College with little knowledge of Christianity, and no knowledge of the Catholic church. I didn’t even know who Pope John Paul II was! And it is at this point that the two tales really come together…

I had been on campus for maybe a month and half when a friend invited me to go to mass with her. We had just left from a large event hosted by FOCUS and she was on her way to the 9:00pm Wednesday night Mass. She asked me to go to Mass with her. I responded, “No, that’s alright, I’m not Catholic and I just don’t think so.” Without hesitation she responded, “Come on, Fr. Brendan is says the Wednesday night Mass, he is really cool, you’ll like it, come on…” And so I went…and I did like it! It was like Fr. Brendan was speaking right to me in his homily. My friend was right, I kept going back on Wednesdays to hear Fr. Brendan’s homilies and the rest was history really…

So to bring this all home, John Paul II inspires two men, in different places at different times to give everything they have, take up their cross and follow our Lord. One becomes a priest the other starts a missionary movement. By God’s grace they come together in Atchison, Kansas (Atchison, really? Yea, really!) and a few years later they come together in my life! That night at a FOCUS event, which wouldn’t have happened if not for JPII, I was invited to Mass by a student who wouldn’t have been there if not for FOCUS and therefore if not for JPII. At Mass I was introduced to Fr. Brendan Rolling who would not have been there if it were not for JPII, and I was set on the path home, to our Holy Mother the Church.

Without him I wouldn’t be where I am or who I am today. It is a great gift the Lord has given me that each year on Divine Mercy Sunday when I celebrate my coming home to the Family of God, the Church, I have the opportunity to remember the life of John Paul the Great, a man of whom the world was not worthy.