Hometown: Hershey, PA
Year in Formation: Postulant
College: King’s College
College Degree: BA Political Science & Theology
Graduate School: University of Notre Dame
Graduate Degree: M.Ed.
Career Before Formation: Undergraduate admissions
Patron Saint: St. Oliver Plunkett
Favorite Movie: The Way, Calvary, Waking Ned Devine, The Quiet Man
Favorite Books: Fahrenheit 451, Dubliners, The Sound and the Fury, The Grapes of Wrath, The Horse and His Boy
Favorite Music: Nickel Creek, Brandi Carlile, Michael John Trotta, Henry Loosemore, Orlando Gibbons, Vampire Weekend, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen
Hobbies: Baking, Hiking, Genealogy, Crocheting
Most Memorable Prayer/Liturgy you have Attended: My most memorable liturgy is the one when I came into the Church during my freshman year at King’s College. So much has changed in the past decade, yet I can still remember every bit of the Mass and thank God for His drawing me ever closer to Him.
Place of Pilgrimage you Most Want to Visit and Why: As a Pennsylvanian and Catholic, I have long wanted to do a pilgrimage through western PA tracing the footsteps of Servant of God Prince Demetrius Gallitzin. A Russian prince, convert to Catholicism, and priest, he served the people of Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century, and is known now as the Apostle of the Alleghenies.
Favorite Way to Pray: I find much fruit in praying the Liturgy of the Hours and keeping myself in the space of prayer they provide. While the Hours are certainly good on their own, I find that they give me a solid platform from on top of which I can build further prayer.
What drew you to Holy Cross? Holy Cross has been ministering to my family for almost one hundred years. My grandfather’s great-aunt was a Sister of Mercy who received her MA from Notre Dame in 1935. She helped bring my great-uncle to Notre Dame for his undergraduate and my grandfather to King’s College for his. My father, aunts, uncles, cousins, and I all attended King’s. As I began thinking of discerning religious life and the priesthood it was always Holy Cross, through their ten decades of ministry, that was on the forefront of my mind.
Favorite Verse: The Widow’s Offering – “And he sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” -Mark 12:41-44
Favorite Quote: “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” -Flannery O’Connor
How can visitors to this page pray for you? I always ask people to pray for me to the saints, that the Holy Men and Women of God may make intercession for me. In a particular way, I ask that people pray for me to St Anthony of Padua, that I may find the virtues and grace I need, and to St Katharine Drexel, that my ears may be opened to hearing the Word of God and cries of His people.