When Liah Ostrom arrived at Benedictine College, she told herself that she would never convert to Catholicism.

But then she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As for Mason Harris, he entered Benedictine curious about the faith, and all he needed was a little intellectual help.

This year, Benedictine College will welcome 26 students into full communion with the Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Like all converts, these students have their own unique path to discovering the faith. For some, like Ostrom, a sophomore, it required a faith-filled encounter. Others, like Harris, a freshman, just needed to encounter the beauty and truth of Church teaching.

Thanks, Mama Mary!

Growing up in Middlebury, Indiana, Ostrom’s mother, a fallen-away Catholic, and her father, a nondenominational Christian, held a critical view of Catholicism, leaving Ostrom with antipathy towards the Church.

“When my mom got engaged to my dad, she totally left her faith and developed a negative attitude towards Catholicism,” Ostrom told the Register. “With me deciding to convert, it has definitely been a bit of a challenge.”

When she arrived at Benedictine, she was there to play volleyball and nothing else.

“I had no interest in converting to Catholicism freshman year,” Ostrom said. “In my first theology class, I was a little troublemaker; I would ask all of the hard questions.”

Sophomore year presented a series of challenges. Health problems left Ostrom unable to play volleyball, and she began struggling with mental-health issues.

“Around September, I felt super lost in my faith, and I just felt very alone. I kind of was just like, ‘I’m so done with this Jesus thing,’ and I started looking into atheism.”

When she opened the door to atheism, it unleashed a new crisis.

“Once the words came out of my mouth that I don’t think Jesus Christ is real, I started seeing these dark creatures, and it was very scary. I didn’t know what was happening,” Ostrom said. “That went on for like two weeks, and I ended up going to the hospital because they started saying things to me like ‘Hurt yourself.’ It was very, very traumatizing.”

At the hospital, she described the visions, stunning the doctors. The doctors did not know what was happening to her.

Desperate for healing, Ostrom dropped down to her knees in prayer.

“The doctors believed me that I was seeing things,” she recalled, adding that she was told, “We’ve never had this before.”

“Once I was left alone in my hospital room, I just got down on my knees and started praying, saying, ‘God, I know that you’re real. I’m so sorry. I take it back.’”

“Please,” she pleaded to the Lord. “Show me some sign.”

A day later, she was discharged from the hospital. Two weeks later, she awoke at 5 a.m. with an inclination to go and study in an academic building.

“One morning, I woke up at 5 a.m., and I am not a morning person, but I had this weird urge to just go up and study, so I grabbed my things and I started walking up there,” Ostrom said. “I was walking by the campus’ grotto, and I felt like someone’s watching me.”

“Then I look up at Mary’s Grotto and I see a woman and she’s super bright and in this blue and white dress, and I stop and think, ‘I think I am seeing Mary.’ I just froze.”

Stunned, Ostrom texted her boyfriend, who suggested that she talk to Father Ryan Richardson, director of campus ministry at Benedictine College.

“When I saw Mary, I felt at peace for the first time in years. I didn’t know what was happening. I asked God to give me a sign, and he literally showed me his mother,” Ostrom said. “After that, I went to see Father Ryan. And when I told him about it, he said that these things can happen and encouraged me to go to OCIA, Order of Christian Initiation for Adults.”

OCIA introduced Ostrom to many aspects of Catholicism, including different types of prayer. Quickly, she fell in love with praying the Rosary, developing a strong devotion, and carrying one with her wherever she goes.

“I love praying the Rosary; especially after seeing Mary, how can you not?” Ostrom said. “I love carrying the rosary with me, and whenever I am stressed, I begin praying it and it brings me peace.”

In addition to teaching her about the faith, Ostrom found a robust community of fellow young adults preparing to enter into the faith at OCIA, including Harris, from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Embracing the Intellectual Tradition

Early on, Harris fell away from the Baptist faith he was raised in. By junior year of high school, he had a lot of questions about religion.

One day, he came across a Pints With Aquinas video that piqued his interest.

“At the time, I knew there was a God, but I didn’t go to any church, and I wasn’t part of any denomination or anything,” Harris said. “I was watching YouTube reels; the ‘Shroud of Turin’ Pints with Aquinas podcast came across my feed, and that got me hooked.”

As he listened to the podcast, Harris was mesmerized by the scientific studies performed on the shroud and the discoveries and conclusions made.

Interested by the scientific discoveries, Harris began researching how science works with the tenets of the Catholic faith.

“I thought that I was an edgy, rationalist, evolutionist, atheist person,” Harris said. “I thought that if I’m going to believe something, I want there to be some physical evidence for it.”

Over the next two years, Harris kept researching and reading about the intersection of faith and reason, so much so that he began defending the faith while arguing with Protestant friends.

“Until I arrived at Benedictine, I did not know how to join the Church, so in the meantime, I kept investigating the faith, watching YouTube videos, finding and researching questions,” Harris said. “I also met my girlfriend around that time, and she was a member of the Assemblies of God. So we’d talk about theology, and she’d bring up good points, and I would say, ‘Let me look up what the Catholic Church says about this.’”

“She would always ask, ‘If you want to know what the Church says, why don’t you just join?’”

When looking at colleges, Harris was drawn to Benedictine for three reasons: the wrestling team, the civil engineering program and its Catholicity.

Upon arriving, he immediately started asking how he could join the Church.

“Those three things just lined up perfectly, and it seems like where God wants me to be, and it has been very evident that I am supposed to be here,” Harris said. “Back in Oklahoma, we didn’t have a whole lot of Catholic friends down there, so I didn’t really, really know many of the Catholic culture things, so I have learned so much here.”

A Community

For both Ostrom and Harris, the OCIA program and Benedictine fellowship have helped them immensely in their journey, as part of a vibrant faith community.

“I have to give a lot of credit to the wrestling team and to the FOCUS missionaries,” Harris said. “They have been incredible in helping me grow in my faith. My wrestling team has a weekly Bible study every week with the FOCUS missionaries, and they have been able to answer questions and encourage me to grow in the faith.”

Harris has also found encouragement across the campus and said that he has been encouraged and inspired by the witness of so many fellow students.

“Back home, nobody talks about their faith; it’s kept on the down low,” Harris said. “So seeing people up here who are open and excited about their faith and are willing to tell anybody and everybody and actually live it out and show the world has been incredible and super encouraging.”

Harris is most excited about becoming a full member in the community that he has fallen in love with.

“I am so excited to actually be a part of the Church because I feel like I’ve been walking through the motions,” Harris said. “So I’m just excited to be confirmed and be a member of the Church.”

Ostrom is also grateful for the supportive school community.

“I watched a TikTok that said you can’t surround yourself in Catholicism and not want to be a part of it, and that’s exactly how I feel,” Ostrom said. “My first year I pushed the faith to the side, and then I started dating my boyfriend, who invited me to Mass, and he introduced me to people; and, slowly, over time, I became more and more immersed in it.”

Now, Ostrom loves the Mass. Since joining OCIA, she has been attending Mass weekly and is counting down the days until she can receive the Blessed Sacrament.

“I just find extreme beauty in the Catholic Mass and experience such peace during the liturgy,” Ostrom said. “I am so, so excited to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. I literally cannot wait.”