Hi from the new intern

As the newest intern here at ChristLife, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Brittany and I just graduated (three days ago!) from Ohio University with a degree in journalism and a second major in Russian, which, naturally, have prepared me very well for work in the new evangelization.

I kid. Unless, of course, any Russians show up to Discovering Christ tomorrow night. Which would be awesome.

But actually, I think journalism is a great basis for evangelization, because journalism is all about asking questions and being tenacious enough to find answers. I kind of researched myself into a deeper faith.

Like many people of my generation, I had a general Catholic upbringing. I did 8 years of CCD, made my First Holy Communion and Confirmation. My family celebrated St. Nick’s feast day every December 6 and ate mac ‘n’ cheese or pierogis on Lenten Fridays. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. But my faith was pretty basic. In high school, I could name the seven sacraments, but I’d have struggled to explain what a sacrament is.

Then I went to college. While I had grown up in a kind of Catholic enclave—the Diocese of Youngstown boasts over a hundred parishes—OU was different. For the first time in my life, I was being challenged by evangelicals (I love their passion for the Lord!) for what I believed and why.

God meets us where we are and knows exactly what buttons to push. For me, He knew the best way to get me interested was to make me mad. So He sent me a guy who was firmly convinced that Catholics needed evangelizing, which irritated me enough that I decided I was going to prove him wrong.

And so I read the Bible on my own for the first time in my life. I scoured the Internet for information on why Catholics honor Mary and what exactly transubstantiation is and why we have a pope. I read Scott Hahn and Christopher West. Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body rocked my world.

I learned a lot—most importantly, the depths of my ignorance. And within a few months, I was no longer reading and researching in order to prove someone wrong—I was doing it for me, for my own spiritual growth.

Because I’ve come down this path, I’m really excited about being involved in the new evangelization. There are so many more people like me out there—they’ve grown up with some basic knowledge of the faith, been baptized and confirmed, but their faith hasn’t really been nurtured beyond that.

So I’m blessed to be here this summer at ChristLife and very much looking forward to doing my part.

God bless you all.