When I first picked up a newspaper and saw the headline “Finding God on Gannon’s campus,” I began to ponder the ways in which I have experienced God here at Gannon.
The first things to come to mind are the obvious answers, like during Mass at Mary, Seat of Wisdom Chapel or when listening to captivating speakers at Ichthi, Gannon’s Catholic faith-sharing group.
And while these are both very true answers, I can honestly say that the first place I ever really experienced God on Gannon’s campus was in Wehrle Hall’s lobby.
While the lobby of a freshman dorm building might sound like an unlikely place to “find God,” this is the very location that I first began to genuinely foster my faith.
At the time, I didn’t have much of a relationship with God.
I was raised as a Christian, but as I got older, I grew away from the faith.
By the time I came to college, I had decided that it didn’t really matter to me all that much. It didn’t take long for this to drastically change.
As a new student here on campus, excited to meet new people and make new friends, I sat down next to one of the Wehrle RAs, Cody Feikles, who happened to be working the front desk in the lobby when I was passing through.
I introduced myself and we began to talk about anything and everything.
We eventually got to the subject of religion and I confessed that I didn’t really know where I stood with my faith.
After many questions about my beliefs and why I held them, to which I had almost no answers, Cody asked me to come to Mass here on campus.
Because it felt like my entire world was turned upside down and I didn’t really know what to believe anymore, I decided it couldn’t hurt to try it.
This decision became my very first step to joining the Catholic Church and developing my now strong faith in God.
When I attended Mass that Sunday, I fell in love.
Though I barely understood most of the liturgy, I felt drawn to the church, which is something I hadn’t ever experienced prior to this.
After this life-changing experience, I continued to have long conversations in the Wehrle lobby with Cody and my other friends who shared in the faith. I began to regularly attend Mass and Ichthi, and I decided to join the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or RCIA program.
Upon completing the program, I received the rite of initiation that April, and I officially joined the Catholic Church.
From this amazing, difficult, long, wonderful journey, I learned so much more about myself and my faith than ever before.
I learned everything I could about the Catholic Church, but I also learned some other very important lessons, perhaps one of the most important being that you can find God anywhere, even in the lobby of a freshman dorm building, as long as you’re willing to open your eyes.
GRACE DENNIS
