“Do you know when you meet someone and you realize they're amazing? Like there's something so incredible about them? There is something so amazing about them. Like they're so joyful, and so kind. And more often than not, something they usually had was a really deep Faith. And that is what guides their life. They had a Faith so big that they believed the will of God would carry them no matter what...Once you meet people that incredible you kinda want to be exactly like them, you at least strive to have a little bit of what they have.”
The above quote from Katie is what I consider to be the most perfect summary of her ministry to the Earth. When I first met Katie, it was through my best friend, because they were college roommates. What makes the quote about the people Katie wants to be so ironic is that she is one of those people. You know that she cares for you and others more than herself, that she has encountered Christ, and that she wants you to experience Him too. She honored me with a bit of her life long testimony to Christ and that is what I am sharing with you today. A story about a joyful woman who continues to face adversity with a smile and an open heart. This is Katie, and I am so excited for you to meet her.
It all started when her parents were separated when she was 12. By the time she was 15, her parents were divorced. However, that trial never stopped her faith. “From a young age, I loved to tell people I was Catholic. I would tell people ‘I’m Catholic. What do you believe?’”
“From a young age, I loved to tell people I was Catholic. I would tell people ‘I’m Catholic, what do you believe?’”
She would come home from a Baptist preschool and recite passages of the Bible. “Ever since I was a little kid, my dad has always said he thinks I was given the grace to know God, to trust God, and to believe God. Faith has never been a struggle for me...There is a God, He loves me, and that is it.”
After attending Catholic grade school, Katie went to a performing arts high school to become better at singing. There were not a lot of Catholic friends there, and her two best friends at school were atheists. Then her dad stopped going to the Catholic Church, and other things keep going on. Yet, her faith never wavered. She knew she never wanted to stop being Catholic. Not when her parents divorced, not when her friends weren’t the same religion, not even when she could not go to Catholic Church every week because of switching between her parents’ houses.
"There is a God, He loves me, and that is it.”
Katie longed for the Eucharist and the quiet. I could resonant with her there from my experience not being able to attend Mass or even get into a church. An experience so many of us had encountered during this pandemic season.
Even in high school, she didn’t want to give it up. As a junior in high school, she just wanted to go to a Catholic church. Katie hates changes, and she hopes that she doesn’t give up her Faith because she hates changes. Yet, deep down she always knew Catholicism was something that she should never stop fighting for.
Then her mom took her visiting different parishes in high school, and finally Katie found a Catholic church where there was a youth group she liked. It turned out that the leader was her kindergartner music teacher and that teacher introduced Katie to the worship band. That took the group from 70 people youth group to a 6 person music ministry band. That small music ministry group became her life.
In fact, Katie said it was “the most impactful” thing in her Faith journey. She would meet with friends every day one summer just to talk about and sing about God. She would even go to church 3 times a week in the summer!
Deep down she always knew Catholicism was something that she should never stop fighting for.
After high school, Katie attended The Catholic University of America (CUA) and kept trying to find the ways she loved God and fell in love with being Catholic. For her, she chooses to be Catholic in college because of her experiences in high school with the people she encountered that resounded Christ. In college Katie’s main major was vocal performance. When I asked her why she continued with singing all the way to even choosing it as a major she said “I started singing before I started talking”. With a little laugh, she recounted how she loved Britney Spears and would go around singing her songs as a little girl. Then she said that “the feeling you get when you are done performing is the most incredible feeling you can have in your entire life and I just thought to myself I want to do it again and again.” In college, she started getting into storytelling. This is why a minor in Media Communications with an emphasis on film production is such a perfect fit for Katie and her dreams.
Katie has now graduated from CUA and has accepted a position as a House of Brigid missionary in Ireland. She explains it as a “Notre Dame run program for 1-2 laypeople (no married people), who are musicians, and they go to Ireland to evangelize to the Catholic Church. The program originated when a woman went on a trip to Ireland and saw the need for evangelization there. The Irish were so strong in their Faith, but over time many Irish lost their faith, between all the bad things that happened in Ireland and the impact that secularization had on Ireland."
Katie has now graduated from CUA and has accepted a position as a House of Bridget missionary in Ireland.
With House of Brigid, Katie will be working on podcasts(hello communications minor!), music ministry, learning more about God, making new friends, and ministering to 19 - 30-somethings. Even though she doesn’t “know exactly why God wants me here right now” she is continuing anyway. As a person who is 50% Irish, she hopes she is able to give back to the Irish Catholics who did so much for American Catholics.
You may think that the House of Brigid is Katie’s big “yes” to God, but that is not what she says is her yes. “My yes is always saying ‘yes I will believe’, if I fall down yes I will stand up, and yes it is hard, and God is always bigger than my highs and lows.” This plays out for her by “[trying] to be the best version of me I can be. I strive to use all of my gifts and talents to the best of my abilities”. Her favorite quote that keeps her in check with her priorities to live this “yes” is, “I want someone to look at me and say ‘because of you I didn’t give up’”.
“My yes is always saying ‘yes I will believe’, if I fall down yes I will stand up, and yes it is hard, and God is always bigger than my highs and lows.”
She wants to live her life in a way that gives glory to God. “People aren’t going to be attracted to the sacraments until they are attracted to something greater. They are attracted to peace, acceptance, and knowing that they are wanted. It is something I really hope I can bring to Ireland.”
And she has seen how God brings her life full circle. “I always wanted a life of greatness. I wanted a life so unique and eventful and God definitely delivered in this moment”. Her best friend Katy, who was also part of the worship band that Katie was in during high school, got accepted into the House of Brigid as well, and they will be rooming together in Ireland this year. It is a huge blessing that they are able to spend this next adventure together. For Katie to be ministering with one of those “innately amazing” people she met years earlier.
“I always wanted a life of greatness. I wanted a life so unique and eventful, and God definitely delivered in this moment”.
To you, Katie says “God chose you. Catholicism chose you.” God said yes to you and you have to say yes to Him. She made sure to have me make sure to include that she believes everything does not happen for a reason. Instead, she says “I believe that out of every situation God will make something good”.
"God chose you. Catholicism chose you.”
Katie has shown through trials that there is joy in having faith. There is a joy to living in your yes to Christ, even when bad things happen. During the interview, Katie told me “Maybe without even knowing it, I have been able to change people’s lives. Because of this gift of Faith”. I can say that it is certainly true.
So next week, next year, next however long, look at your life and ask yourself: How can I live joyfully through a deeper faith in God? I don’t know the answer, but I can’t wait to see what happens when we dive in together.
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