Justine Callis

Hi! My name is Justine. I'm 24 years old and live in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm a baby Catholic - I came into the Church just 13 months ago! But my story begins in the Protestant Church, long before I ever knew what the word Protestant even meant.

I'm the baby of 5 kids and have two wonderful parents. I had a beautiful upbringing in a Christian home, and I remember giving my life to Jesus when I was around six years old as my older brother led me in a prayer. I went on to say that prayer a few hundred more times as a child just to make sure God heard me.

I was a gymnast for 20 years! Gymnastics really shaped who I am today. The sport taught me the value of hard work and perseverance through failure. The rigorous training schedule and high intensity pressure situations inspired me to dream big. At 15 years old God called me to move across the country from Virginia to Arizona for gymnastics, where I had the privilege of being coached by my heroes! This move was a big leap of faith for my family and I, but God truly had a plan amidst the difficulty that came with leaving home. My relationship with Christ bloomed in Arizona! I loved Jesus when I left Virginia, but I fell in love with Jesus in Arizona. I got baptized, learned more about the Holy Spirit, and was plugged into a beautiful, evangelical mega-church where I was mentored, challenged, and cared for.

I went on to do NCAA gymnastics for Arizona State University through college, where I continued attending that same church and began getting involved in some Christian ministries at ASU. My four years in college were profoundly impactful on my faith.

After graduating college, I began working in full-time ministry at that very mega-church that had so significantly impacted my walk with Christ. Then one night, my life changed forever.

I met someone who was glowing with the light of Jesus, but there was quite a shock to follow... this person was Catholic! Cue the theological debates. Never in my life had I heard the Roman Catholic Church claimed to be the original Christian Church established by Jesus Himself, or that the Church claims the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, or that there was a visible, hierarchical structure protected by the Holy Spirit. Over the next two years, I would slip into the back of Catholic Masses, devour books about the Jewish roots of Catholicism, listen to debates between Catholic and Protestants, and cry my eyes out in prayer over the division in Christianity. Throughout this heavy discernment season, the Lord gifted me many precious images in prayer and placed just the right people in my path. I eventually decided that if just two things were true, nothing else would matter. If the Eucharist was truly Jesus Christ and if the Magisterium was truly established by Jesus and protected by the Holy Spirit, where else could I go?

On April 3, 2021 I was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. I now work in full-time ministry in the Diocese of Phoenix and am obtaining my Master's degree in Catholic Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. I also, full-circle, have the privilege of coaching gymnastics in my free time for the very coaches I moved across the country for nine years ago. Perhaps, one of the best parts of my story is the life mission statement God put on my heart while I was still a Protestant; "My life mission is to be an empty vessel used to reveal that Jesus Christ is the bread of life."