We're deeply grateful to the Brothers…

Kathleen's Story: 

I almost became a statistic. I was a cradle Catholic who went to Mass every Sunday growing up. But when I went off to college at Florida State, that first week I wondered, "What would happen if I didn't go to Mass any more? Maybe I should just blaze my own path and live my own life. What if?"

Yet by the grace of God, I encountered the Brotherhood of Hope through their "Jam for the Lamb" event that first Wednesday. They drew me into a loving Catholic community, which became like a family to me, my home away from home. Thanks to the Brothers and their campus ministry, not only did I leave college not as a statistic—not as one of the many young adults who abandon the Faith—but I graduated as a much stronger Catholic than when I came in. 

They were instrumental in helping me understand and love my faith, and making it my own.


Brandon's story: 

I was not raised Catholic. Although in college I became a strong Christian, thanks to a Methodist ministry, Catholicism was not on my radar. None of my family and few of my friends were Catholic. However, after a few years in college, through Providence I connected with Br. Jason Zink, part of the Brotherhood of Hope. We began meeting regularly, as I fired off an endless list of questions, objections, and thoughts. Over a about a year and a half, he began to help me see the beauty and truth of Catholicism. 

Br. Jason invited me to Catholic Student Union events. He encouraged me to attend talks, and even to some of the retreats, where I encountered Eucharistic adoration for the first time—an extraordinary turn of events. Here was the Christ I had so longed for in prayer and study, present in this very room! 

All of that opened my heart and my mind to the fullness of the Catholic faith. I eventually entered RCIA and was welcomed into the Church on Easter of my senior year, with Br. Jason serving as my sponsor.

That was sixteen years ago, but those seeds planted back in 2008 have now grown and bloomed in magnificent ways. For example, in 2013 I began working with then-Father Robert Barron (now Bishop Barron) at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Much of the work we've done at Word on Fire since then, which I've helped to lead, never would have happened without Br. Jason's commitment to helping me find Christ fully in the Church.

Kathleen and I now have eight children, with a ninth due in January 2025. We almost certainly would never have had that many kids if I had not become Catholic, and if Kathleen had not deepened her faith, and if we both had not developed our strong pro-life convictions, all of which happened through the work of the Brothers at FSU.

In 2022, we also helped found a new classical high school here in central Florida, Chesterton Academy of Orlando, a school rooted in the Catholic tradition. That, too, never would have happened if Br. Jason hadn't mentored and evangelized me. Little seeds planted long ago continue to blossom.

We're deeply grateful to the Brothers, and I say it all the time: the work the Brothers are doing on college campuses is among the most important work in the Church. I don't say that hyperbolically. The Church's biggest challenge right now is attrition. We're hemorrhaging people from the Church, especially young people during their college years. And the Brothers are on the front lines of that challenge, doing the most important work with the people we most desperately need to reach, in the right place—on college campuses. It's critical work for which we're grateful, and which we joyously support.