On Easter of 2017, at the age of 25 when I received my first Eucharist, I felt nothing… and yet my entire life would never be the same. I was baptized Catholic when I was four, but I essentially left the Church that same day. I grew up with little-to-no faith and Church was not on our calendar. We “believed” in God but didn’t know Him. I did not know the difference between Christmas and Easter let alone the meaning of those days, or who it was that loved me so radically.
My childhood and young adult life consisted of academics and sports. I went on to play football at Grand Valley. After two major knee surgeries, I received a medical hardship and my career was over after four years. I fell into depression. I had gone to college for the purpose of football, but now that was taken away. In the midst of that low, God was pulling me into His great love story. I began going to non-denominational churches around Grand Rapids. What I got out of each Sunday was dependent upon how good the music was and how good the preaching was. I was in and out of church, and in and out of a life of the world that does not satisfy. 
With football gone, I was now able to take accounting as my major, which then got me a job in Detroit. My sister and I began attending a megachurch, but again something was clearly missing. In the fall of 2016, my sister invited me to join the RCIA program with her as she wanted to become Catholic. At first, my answer was simple: No! I had built up anti-Catholic beliefs and thought that the Church was plainly wrong. My sister convinced me to be there to support her so I agreed. I joined the RCIA with her at St. Mary in Royal Oak. Long story short, after reading the Church Fathers, Scott Hahn, others who left everything to become Catholic, as well as many other resources, I was convinced that the Catholic Church was the Church established by Jesus. However, it was all headspace while my life remained unchanged – same bad habits; same brokenness; same lies that I believed about myself, God and others. Until the Eucharist.

After my First Holy Eucharist, I began going to Mass more frequently and over the summer of 2017. Jesus began healing the wounds of my heart and mind. Bad habits I thought I would never be able to break began losing their grip on me. Lies I believed were exchanged for truth. My happiness coming from performance was replaced with confidence in Jesus’ love for me. Anxiety, self-accusation, and fear of others’ opinions were invaded by the joy of Jesus’ presence. It was a Love I never knew. This healing from Jesus in the Eucharist transformed the way I saw others. I once looked in comparison to others out of pride, out of envy of what they had, or with objectivity of what I could get out of them for myself. Until the Eucharist. 
As Jesus continued to heal my brokenness, my heart began to be filled with compassion for others. I began desiring their good, not for my sake, but for theirs. I desired to embrace the poor, I wanted to love each person with purity and great joy, and my heart began to burn for others to know Christ’s love for them in the midst of their brokenness and His power to transform them. 
The love of Christ in the Eucharist empowered me to take risks and to be bold for Him. He filled me with such joy and love that what once felt like a risk was now simply flowing from His Presence. During adoration, I began hearing Jesus’ voice for others, and there I would rest in Him but was also filled even more with His love that would overflow to others each day. I used to find purposes for my life that were temporary and shallow. Until the Eucharist. 
By the end of 2017, Jesus so radically healed my brokenness that I had to think of a way to “pay Him back.” I fell in love with the idea of being a priest of Jesus – to be incorporated into Him in such a way that He would offer Himself to others through me. I had a love of the priesthood, but I also believed the lie that I would never be a good husband or father because of my past broken relationships, therefore marriage was no longer an option for me. Until the Eucharist.

After an encounter with Mary at Lourdes in the summer of 2018, my vocation as a husband and father was revealed to me. What Christ healed in my heart the year before was ever-deepening and taken to new heights. Through the power of the Eucharist, Christ purified and prepared my heart for the gift of my wife, Napoli. Each moment I spend with the True Bridegroom, Jesus, in adoration or receive Him at Mass, He teaches and fills me anew with His grace to follow after Him in giving of myself fully without reserve out of humility, joy, and love to my bride as He does His. 
Whether in times of consolation or in desolation, Napoli and I find grace in Jesus in the Eucharist. He continues to break off lies, fills us with His truth and love for one another, and empowers us to live life in abundance together. Shortly after our wedding, we faced a cross that threatened our fertility, and Jesus in the Eucharist consoled us. When we conceived, Jesus in the Eucharist made us leap for joy. When our daughter, Zelie, was born on Easter 2021, Jesus in the Eucharist is who we introduced her to first. The Eucharist is our greatest love and the center of our domestic Church. Whether it’s on TV or in the adoration chapel, Jesus in the Eucharist is adored and loved – and even blown kisses by Zelie. I never would have imagined this life and God’s plan for me that continues to grow. Until the Eucharist. 
This great love story that He continuously offers to us has forever changed me through the power of Jesus’ Presence in the Eucharist. When I am weak, it is there that I am strengthened. Overwhelmed with His blessings, it is there that I am united in the perfect Thanksgiving to God with Jesus in the Eucharist. His Presence is what my heart longed for. His Presence is where my heart finds rest. His Presence is where my joy and hope is found. His Presence is where I am inflamed with His love for mission. His Presence changed and changes everything. His Presence – in the Eucharist – is where the fullness of our lives flow from and flows to. I know Him.