I am a baby Catholic who was raised cradle Catholic. As long as I can remember, church and the Holy Mass have always been my home. I vaguely remember asking my parents as a young boy, “Momma/daddy, how do I know I am hearing God or just the voice inside my head?” But it wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school that I started to wrestle with God. Thankfully, he drew me to a youth group filled with joyful brothers and sisters who, while on their own journey with the Lord, saw me with eyes and a warmth that I wanted.

            Knowing that I was in a position in my spiritual life that was still very dependent on my environment, I decided to attend Franciscan University of Steubenville to encounter and form community with other people who wanted continual conversion with Jesus. I entered and I did not know the rosary, but I soon learned. I entered and I did not go to daily Mass, but very quickly the Eucharist enticed me to go. I entered and I was still living afraid of what other people thought of me, but through continual conversion, service of God and neighbor, and amazing friends, I learned that I didn’t have to prove myself anymore because my Father loves me. I grow more and more by God’s passionate desire for me and every day I am always surprised by how much more I can love Him – in the Eucharist which IS His Body and Blood, in my family and friends, and in my neighbors who some would call strangers.

            I was attracted to Source of All Hope after discerning that the Lord is calling me to spend time with Him this Summer – in the Eucharist, with my brothers and sisters in community, with our friends on the street. I am always excited to see what the Lord calls me to do and how He equips me to do it. We are all poor, and in serving the poor we are in fact served by them as well. I know this – it was only a couple months ago that I saw Jesus in a random woman who I was helping at a food bank ministry. My heart was lit on fire for love of her and God. If that is how I feel while doing something like that, how can I not be poor? Jesus says that He came not to be served but to serve, and that what we do to the least of these His brethren we do to Him. So let us meet Jesus in our neighbors and in serving them receive the love of Jesus.