Although I initially thought I was called to religious life, I met a wonderful Catholic woman in 2020. While dating and discerning with each other, I realized we not only loved God and each other, but we also shared a desire to evangelize and serve.

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the Dying live every Friday at 3 p.m. EDT on DivineMercyPlus.org or on Instagram: @thedivinemercy and Facebook: Divine Mercy (official).

Growing up, I was raised by a youth minister & a worship leader for a Dad, so you can probably imagine how my story unfolded. I had the cradle Catholic background - went to Catholic school from K-12 & attended Mass with my family every week.

Being a cradle Catholic, I had an added benefit of being raised by a Catholic father and a convert mother (from Baptist) guided to conversion by a canon lawyer priest, two years prior to my birth.

Meet Bobby and Katie Fredericksen, The Catholic Couple, on a mission to spread the love of Jesus by normalizing Catholicism.  Married 13 years with two beautiful children, Bobby and Katie have a passion for sharing the Catholic faith.

These questions led me to dig into the origins of the Bible itself. How did the church decide which books belonged? What did the church doing that deciding look like? And where did its authority come from?

Following my time in Italy, I began painting full time and evangelizing through the Arts in ways I never imagined. The Lord has even led my husband to join me full-time in this mission.

My first encounter with God as Abba, my Father, was in adoration at a Gethsemane Youth Retreat. I was in a defeated place in my life as a teenager. As the reflection was led, I began to cry profusely. I experienced this love I had never felt before that melted me.

It was at that moment that I felt Jesus’ calm, yet extremely proud, presence around me. He wrapped me in a big bear hug, so happy to have me with Him.

It was in the quiet of the adoration chapel that I encountered Jesus as a person for the first time and I realized just how much Jesus truly loved me.

Matthew Leonard is an international speaker, author, podcaster, and founder of the Science of Sainthood, a powerful online teaching platform focused on spiritual formation for individuals and group study materials.

It was his example of hope, compassion, accompaniment, that moved me so deeply and that began to soften my heart and paved the way for reengaging with a new faith.

Jamie Baxter is the Founder & CEO of Exodus (Makers of Exodus 90). Our mission is to share the uncommon freedom of Jesus Christ with men so that they may love more fully.

If you’re reading this and perhaps you too feel like half of your life is in the world and half of your life is in for Jesus, I want to gently invite you, give it all to Him! Dare. Take the risk. Go all in for Jesus! He will take care of you.

The mission to see food as a gift from God to nourish your family and to strengthen relationships is making this world a better place one meal at a time.

Jesus is the best and most interesting thing about me. My relationship with Him in prayer is everything to me and receiving Him daily in the Eucharist is the source of my life.

We are living in a time and age where God is raising up new saints to preach the gospel in ways that the saints before us have never seen. That sounds like an adventure to me!

He would respond, “Live for me and my Church.” My response led me to four years in the seminary, which I will always remain incredibly grateful for.