Finding the Light: Students Prepare to Enter the Church This Easter

Updated with photo gallery from the Easter Vigil

This Easter Vigil, nine Catholic University of America students, one professor, and two community members (including an alumnus) will enter full communion with the Catholic Church at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, the parish nearest campus. They have been journeying together for the past year through Catholic University’s Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program. 

The group is led by campus chaplain Fr. Bernard Knapke, O.P., a few student catechists, and a Capuchin friar who conduct weekly meetings to educate those interested in becoming Catholic (known as catechumens) about the faith. 

Each catechumen fell in love with Catholicism in a unique way. Here are two students’ stories – two different paths to conversion, but the same excitement to receive the sacraments this Easter.  

Austin Morse: Drawn by the Eucharist and His Roommate

Walking past a particular room in the Ryan Hall, you hear two young men engrossed in conversation. It sounds important. You discover they are not discussing the latest news, campus gossip, or even politics. They are plumbing the depths of the Catholic Church’s doctrine. 

Austin Morse, a freshman mathematical finance and international economics and finance double major, asks questions about the teachings, wanting to understand. His roommate, Kevin, provides the Church’s answers. This goes on for hours until Morse finds himself with no rebuttal to Kevin’s answers. He knows he has found the truth.

Fast forward to this year’s Easter Vigil and Kevin will be Morse’s sponsor, as he receives the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation.

“Whenever there has been a Catholic teaching I didn’t agree with, we were able to stay up for hours just hashing it out,” Morse said. “There would reach a certain point during each debate where he would say something and I would be like ‘I got nothing!’”

It was conversations like these, fueled by a lifelong interior questioning of his faith, that helped lead Morse to enroll in OCIA at Catholic University. He was raised in a Methodist church but always felt convicted to learn more about his faith. When he saw a flyer for OCIA on campus that promised education about Christianity, he knew he had to join.

Morse most looks forward to receiving his First Communion.

“One of the things that really made me first interested in Catholicism and really pushed me past the point of no return was when I learned about the Eucharist and Eucharistic miracles,” Morse said. “I stumbled upon these miracles and I was like ‘this is crazy, there’s no way,’ but there wasn’t really much evidence against them… and there was real, tangible, scientific proof.” 

He also looks forward to the communal nature of participating in the Mass and receiving Communion. 

“[In the reception of Communion] there is that kind of bond that you can’t really find anywhere else,” Morse said.

After the Easter Vigil, Austin will be sure to attend as many weekday masses as he can, especially his favorite: the 10 p.m. Friday mass in St. Vincent de Paul Chapel. Perhaps after becoming Catholic, he will have much more to talk about with his roommate. Only this time they won’t be debating; rather they will be celebrating the Catholic faith they now share. 

Amy Gastright: Faith and the Field

Amy Gastright almost didn’t have time to become Catholic this year. An English and French double major, ROTC student, and member of the Catholic University softball team, her time is not her own. 

When she joined OCIA to fulfill a lifelong desire to be baptized, she was not able to participate in the group’s Sunday sessions for part of the year because of her demanding schedule. That’s when Fr. Bernard thought of a solution. 

For a few weeks, Gastright met one-on-one each Monday with a friar at Capuchin College to discuss the topic the rest of the OCIA group had discussed the previous day. They ensured she was caught up on each week’s lessons with the bonus of allowing personalized conversation about each of the topics.

“We would use the chalkboard and Scripture and the catechism, and we would talk through the different topics in tandem with the class but because it was just me, it got to be really personal and it was a really special, special experience,” Gastright said. “When I knew something already, we could dive even deeper than the regular class would.”

While these individual sessions have been valuable to learning about the faith, it’s the communal aspect of Catholicism and the unity with Christ that she most looks forward to.

“The value of being one with so many people and being one with Christ I hope will make me feel not so alone in faith,” she said. “Baptism is birth into Christ and as much as I can love Christ from my current position, I want to be born in him and you can’t do that without baptism.”

Gastright’s growth in faith has largely been facilitated by the softball team. For her, faith and the field are interconnected. Apart from praying with her team before each game, Gastright often attends Mass and Campus Ministry events with her teammates. Plus, the captain of the softball team is her sponsor for the sacraments. 

“There’s always been that supportive but not pressuring role from [my sponsor] and everyone on the team,” Gastright said. “They always invite me like ‘hey, we’re all going to Mass at this time’ or ‘we’re going to adoration at this time’ and feeling like I was welcome was part of the reason I felt emboldened to do OCIA.” 

Gastright feels beyond ready to enter the Church on the Easter Vigil, when she will finally join the community of faith and be able to fully participate in sacramental life with not only her teammates but the universal Church.