“That happiness comes from God and I wouldn’t be able to express any of it without the never-ending support of Father Greg.”

When I came to college, being a good Christian became a dream deferred; I was raised Catholic and led a prayer group all though high school but in the pandemonium that is the beginning of freshman year, I stopped praying and reflecting at night, couldn’t find the cross that I used to always have in my bedside drawer and treated huge parties with more reverence than I did a quiet Sunday mass. It wasn’t until October of my freshman year that the most simple yet important moment of my college career came to pass: two of my rugby teammates dragged me to Church with them, introduced me to Father Greg and, though no one realized it then, began a friendship that would change my life forever.

Upon hearing that I had started to stray from my faith, Father Greg opened his arms to me in a way that no religious leader ever had before. He shook my hand and made me feel welcome at the Newman Center after every Tuesday night Mass, even though I was that weirdly shy freshman who sat quietly in the back row of the chapel.

He started meeting with me regularly to talk about our faith and has never failed to pick up his phone and talk to me, even when it’s the middle of the night and I’m breaking down without a clue of where to turn. Most importantly, he invited me on the spring break mission trip and showed me just how beautiful and rewarding a life of Christian service can be, demonstrating first-hand Christ’s teachings on denying personal glory and working selflessly for your neighbor. Now that I’m a more confident and outgoing junior, I’ve become student leader on campus and I get a lot of props from people for the joy and love I exude daily but what everyone should know is that all of that happiness comes from God and I wouldn’t be able to express any of it without the never-ending support of Father Greg.

God blessed me with an amazing family who introduced me to this faith and incredible friends who show me His love every single day but one of His greatest blessings to me was allowing me to develop a true friendship with Father Greg; he helps bring me closer to God with all that he does and I could never thank him enough for the beauty and joy that he’s brought to my life.