Growing up, my parents told us that we believed in God but didn’t identify with a religion. As a kid, I wasn’t sure what that meant. Few of my friends went to church, and I didn’t begin exploring different religions until after college and into my early 30s. I believed in a higher power and wanted to believe in heaven, but with so many religions in the world, I struggled with the idea of “picking” one as an adult.
I grew up in Danville and attended public school. I must have driven by St. Isidore thousands of times and even played CYO basketball there, but I knew little about the community until we met parishioner Jill at preschool, where our kids were best buddies. We were about to enroll at Montair for kindergarten when Jill encouraged us to visit St. Isidore. I assumed that, as a non-Catholic family, we had little chance of getting in. But I went on the tour, and what I saw changed my mind.
The students treated their teachers and visitors with respect. The front office took time to answer our questions. Kids ran up to the vice principal to give him hugs, and he knew every student’s name. I don’t remember ever hugging my teachers or principals in elementary school. I was amazed by the warmth of the community and grateful that they were considering our family for admission.
We enrolled our kids and began going to Mass with them once or twice a month. I enjoyed it but felt out of place. Then my father died in January 2018 after living with Parkinson’s disease for 20 years. Mass began to feel different. Being there and listening to the priest helped me feel closer to my dad. He had told stories about attending Catholic school, though I wasn’t certain whether he had been baptized. I felt that he was in heaven and that God was watching over him. Even today, going to Mass helps me feel close to him.
When our youngest, Bodhi, was born, Brayden was seven and Addy was five. We loved the school and parish community and decided to have our children baptized. We had also thought about being baptized ourselves, but it was during the pandemic, and we didn’t know what the process involved. Looking back, I don’t think I was ready. I worried that becoming Catholic would mean losing part of who I was, and I resisted the idea of being told what to do. Between those assumptions and our uncertainty about the process, we kept putting it off.
Then came an experience that changed my life. On a trip with friends in March 2024, the cabin where we were staying caught fire at 3 a.m. We were in a remote area and barely escaped through the back door before the cabin was engulfed in flames and collapsed. We came frighteningly close to not making it out.
As I walked around to meet the rest of our group, I felt a calmness that surprised me. In the days and weeks afterward, I began to sense that God had been with me. I didn’t yet have the words to explain it, but that night became a turning point in opening my heart to God.
For months, I had kept an email reminder to stop by the parish office and ask about baptism. One day, my wife, Gina, mentioned that she needed to stop by St. Isidore, so I asked her to get the information. As it turned out, the first RCIA session was that very evening. We signed up that night. You can’t make this stuff up. It felt like God had been patiently waiting for us to say yes.
At our RCIA retreat at San Damiano a year after the fire, we were asked to create a timeline of our lives. Looking back at both the joyful and painful moments helped me recognize my blessings: Gina, our children, our family, my work, and my health. It also helped me see how God had brought new beginnings out of difficult experiences.
I came to understand the calm I had felt after the fire as a sign of God’s presence. I believe God saved my life that night. Gina’s car accident had taught us not to take life or health for granted. Experiences I once thought of as random or “serendipitous” took on new meaning. God had been with us, even when I didn’t recognize it.
Becoming Catholic together has brought Gina and me closer and deepened our connection as a family. I’m more aware of God’s presence and grace. I had always believed in putting positive thoughts into the world; now, through prayer, I’m discovering a personal relationship with God. I’m so thankful to have found this school and parish community.
At the Easter Vigil, Gina and I were baptized and welcomed into the Catholic Church. Our family is now united in the Catholic faith. I’m forever grateful to the school for welcoming us before we were Catholic, to Father Matthew for supporting us, and to Lesli for the positivity, care, and time she gives our community.
It felt like God had been patiently waiting for us to say yes.
—Brett, St. Isidore parishioner, husband and father of three