Hometown: Atchison, KS
Year in Formation: Temporarily Professed – 3rd Year in Vows
High School: Maur Hill-Mount Academy (Atchison, KS), 2015
College: University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), 2019
College Major: Electrical Engineering
Previous Jobs: Product Design Intern, Ford Motors; Power Systems Engineering Intern, MGP Ingredients
Patron Saint: St. Maximilian Kolbe
Favorite Movie: The Prince of Egypt
Favorite Books: Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Favorite Music: Young the Giant, Jackson Browne, John Rutter
Hobbies: Guitar, disc golf
Most Memorable Prayer/Liturgy you have Attended: Getting to serve the wedding of two RCIA candidates at St. Adalbert’s parish
Place of Pilgrimage you Most Want to Visit and why: St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. It is a powerful locus of God’s grace and an important part of the spiritual legacy of Holy Cross.
Favorite Way to Pray: In silence
Favorite Devotion: The Sacred Heart of Jesus
What drew you to Holy Cross: It is the vows that drew me to Holy Cross. There is a particular way of loving God found in religious life, and that is what has led me to discern with Holy Cross. I came into college at Notre Dame with an appreciation for religious priesthood. The critical moment for me was when, during my junior year, I realized that my love for religious life was not just an appreciation but an invitation to actively discern my own call to commit myself in this way. Holy Cross was right there, so I decided to make a visit to Moreau. Since then, I have been affirmed by God in every step I take: deciding to apply and entering as a Postulant, and eventually taking my first vows. I have fallen in love with our community from the inside, finding my home in our community, our devotions, and our way of serving the Church.
Your Vocation Story: I grew up with an appreciation for religious life, having gone to Catholic schools founded by religious priests and brothers. As I grew into myself in college and pursued a deeper relationship with God, I realized that this appreciation had become an invitation, as our constitutions say, welling up from within. I decided to make a visit to Moreau Seminary and found that familiar sense of coming home which often accompanies the voice of God in my life. Since the beginning of my formation, I have grown in charity and zeal for souls, which are good signs that this is still where I’m called to be! To anyone discerning, I would say: do what makes you love more.
Ways that you resonate with the Holy Cross charism, “Educators in the Faith”: As a Notre Dame grad, I benefitted from Holy Cross education, and saw how the charism of Holy Cross is so engrained in the culture of our schools. Holy Cross education is attentive to the whole person, and the whole community becomes a family modeled after the Holy Family. I loved living in community in my residence hall and found God in my brothers time and again. I am discovering a desire for myself to bring Jesus to young people in our educational communities, and to seek him in those I serve.
One aspect of Holy Cross spirituality that speaks to you the most and why: I love the phrase “Men with hope to bring.” The role of a religious is founded in Christ’s mission of salvation for all people. We have found hope in the cross. This phrase speaks to both the hope we give to others and that which we carry ourselves. We tell a story that has already ended in victory and never tire of retelling it to everyone we meet.
Favorite Verse: “Now is the time for mercy.” (or, in Spanish, “Ya es tiempo y hora de Misericordia.”) – Psalm 102:14
Favorite Quote: “My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.” – Dorothy Day
Favorite Bl. Basil or St. André Quote: “When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door, and I remained 40 years” -St. André Bessette
How can visitors to this page pray for you? Please pray for my continued openness to God revealing himself in ever new ways.