The Benedictine College Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) team initiated 26 students into the Catholic Church this past Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday. This is the largest group Benedictine College has brought into the church. How did they all get here?
At the beginning of each school year, Fr. Ryan Richardson, sends out a survey primarily to the student athletes, as that is where most of the non-Catholic population at BC is found.
When students initially show interest in the Faith and the desire to learn more about the Catholic Church, they are invited by the team to begin attending the OCIA classes, which are offered twice a week.
Priests and full-time ministry staff members lead these classes initially, and then hand the responsibility over to the student workers. This year, Rebecca Rice, Connor Waymire, and Zachary Wilcox led the classes.
“Come once, see what it’s like, and be open to what we have to say,” Rice said. “The class is just keeping a door open. Don’t worry about commitment.”
The classes give a basic structure of the Apostles’ Creed and then go into more specifics, which cover the uniqueness of the Catholic Church with topics such as the sacraments, Mary, morality, and more.
If an attendee begins their journey later in the academic year, they are invited to attend one-on-one meetings with the student leaders to catch up and to check in to see how they are doing spiritually.
The class also provides instruction on how to form a prayer life and where to begin, especially if the attendee is not yet accustomed to daily prayer.
There are also student mentors and student prayer warriors assigned to students. The student mentors meet with these students and walk with them one-on-one throughout their time of formation through OCIA. The student prayer warriors take up a student’s name and pray for them secretly until the day they receive their sacraments of initiation.
As the year progresses and the student feels ready, shows that they are knowledgeable in the teachings of the Catholic Church, and desires to enter the Church, they then officially prepare for the sacraments they will be receiving and enter the Church during the OCIA Mass, which takes place every year on Divine Mercy Sunday.
After students are received into the Church, they are invited to continue getting involved with more faith-related groups and ministry led programs and teams on campus to further their formation and to invite others to formation as well.
Fr. Christian Schwenka, L.C., is one of the chaplains at BC and is the staff coordinator for the OCIA team. His advice to those who entered the Church is twofold.
“The first is never let your curiosity about the faith cease,” he said. “Curiosity about the Faith is what got you there in the first place. The second part, just fall in love with him who fell in love with us.”
Hannah Phillips, a 2025 candidate, said that her time in OCIA was “such a gift.”
She added, “It has deepended my relationship with God, surrounded me with a supportive community, and taught me how … beautiful and rich the Catholic faith truly is.”
