Tommy Ho

I grew up in a loving and supportive family with two younger sisters and one older brother. I was baptized Catholic because my parents wanted a good education for me and my close cousins were Catholic, so my parents sent me to a Catholic school rather than a public school. When I received first communion in grade 2, I stopped going to church because I found it boring, not worth my time, and my family didn’t take me to go. I believed in God and I prayed sometimes, but I didn’t have a relationship with Him. I knew nothing about the church, faith, and who Jesus was until grade 8 came along.

In grade 8, we were going to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. As I looked at the flyer for confirmation classes it said, “If you are having trouble finding a sponsor contact David Patterson (Youth Minister).” I clearly thought to myself who is this old dude anyways? I never heard of him until this young nice looking dude (who was David and not an old man) came to my elementary school to share his story. I remember being touched by how God can just change a person’s whole life around. That curiosity led me to the church for the Chosen confirmation classes by Ascension. I signed up because I had a lot of questions about the church and wondered why it was so important to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. I attended the first class on October 14, 2015 and it felt weird because I hadn’t been to church in a while. We watched a video asking the question, “what makes you happy?” and “what are you looking for?” Then it hit me. What am I looking for in life? What does make me happy? All this thinking about life made me question my purpose and what really was the point of living. As I kept going to the Chosen confirmation classes, I found answers to my questions about the church, faith, and sacraments which made all the pieces come together. I knew heaven is the goal for all of us and my purpose of living on this earth was to bring souls to Christ. My friends from that class became my family and the Holy Spirit just worked within all of us as we journeyed through our faith and grew in it. As confirmation classes came to an end, I decided to deepen my faith more by going to EDGE and Life Teen, which nourished me spiritually and made me live out my faith more. When summer came, I attended a conference called Steubenville Toronto, which changed my life forever. It was beautiful seeing young people like me experiencing growth in their faith and God’s merciful love. We had adoration on the second night, and it was my first time experiencing it, so I did not think that much about it until we started. When the priest took the monstrance around, I was not ready to experience what was going to happen next. I kept my eyes on the monstrance the whole time and I said to God, “I’m holding on to you in the storm and I give You everything that I am”. In that moment I felt a lot of peace, joy, grace, and love in my heart. From then on, I knew that I was not coming back the same from this conference. I was set to pursue God’s heart and heaven.

The next year when I entered high school in grade 9, I decided to volunteer for youth ministry because I wanted kids to experience Christ just like I did. I dedicated my years of high school to youth ministry because I loved seeing kids grow deeper in their faith, learn more about the church, and learn to have a relationship with God. During my years of high school my faith went well due to my involvement within my school chaplaincy and youth ministry! My high school days were full of retreats, conferences, and events around the Archdiocese of Toronto, which helped me grow tremendously in faith and my relationship with God. But an experience I would never forget would be the summer of grade 11 when I went on a week retreat before the Steubenville conference called LEAD. It helped me grow deeper in my prayer life, gave me appreciation for Mass, showed me what true brotherhood is, and made me open to the priesthood and missionary work! I never thought I would be able to just go anywhere around the world for missionary work or be a priest! I took action by spending time within the seminary, looking at religious orders, and trying to find a spiritual director to guide me. Usually when I go on retreats or conferences the spiritual high dies down and I end up going back to my old self but this was no longer the case. I became more confident in my leadership skills and evangelizing others without any fear. The retreat has still impacted me to this day, which is helping me in college.

After I graduated high school, I took a step back from youth ministry. I didn’t want to rely on youth ministry to keep my faith going and wanted to be on my own. I am learning trust and have patience with God’s timing in everything as I pursue a career in policing. I am currently studying at Sheridan College for Police Foundations. Looking back on everything that has happened in my life leading up till now I’m glad I did not have to make that many mistakes or hit rock bottom to be where I am today. I am blessed to have a head start in my faith and I’m striving for sainthood every day. Thank you to all my friends, families, teachers, and everyone for EVERYTHING! You made me into the person I am today and I’m so happy for that! Anyways I hope you know that God loves you and I am praying for all of you! God bless!