Each year at the Easter vigil, new Catholics receive the sacraments of baptism, holy Communion and Confirmation. Here’s what inspired a few members of the Arlington diocese to embrace the faith.
The Machado family
“Mom, when I die, where will I go?”
As they battled the coronavirus, the Machado family began to dwell on life’s bigger questions. Stephanie, who had posed the question to her mother, knew she should be baptized, but wasn’t. Her mother, Evelyn, didn’t know how to answer.
After talking with her husband, Benjamin, the couple decided Stephanie and their three other children should attend Rite of Initiation of Adults Class at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester. At this year’s Easter vigil, all four — Kevin, 22, Jeremy, 20, Stephanie, 19, and Evelyn Dianne, 17 — will receive the sacraments of initiation.
Evelyn and Benjamin grew up in El Salvador and moved to the United States in their teens. Benjamin was raised Catholic; Evelyn’s father was Catholic and her mother was Protestant. Though they both received the sacraments in their youth, Evelyn was always a little confused about which denomination she should follow. In 1999, the couple married and started their family, but they attended church infrequently. “As (the kids) got older, something was missing: the faith,” said Benjamin.
At first, Kevin had to force himself to attend the classes. “But one day I sat there and I looked at my life, and it wasn’t looking so good. I was like, there’s got to be a better way,” he said. “(Faith) helped me with my mentality. Once you realize that everything happens for a reason, and that God puts these obstacles in your life, it helps you organize your life better and it gives you more faith in what you’re doing. It taught me to love people more, to understand where people are coming from and put myself in their shoes. Honestly, I’ve never been better.”
His siblings are excited to enter the church, too. Jeremy, who has autism, said he’s learned a lot at RCIA. While Stephanie said she always believed in God, this journey has helped her better understand the faith and allowed her to put more trust in God. She’s excited to be reborn in baptism and to have her sins forgiven. “It’s definitely brought us closer in our faith and all together,” said Evelyn Dianne. “We come home and are all excited, talking about our class. We’re even teaching our parents about the faith, too.”
Evelyn is happy for her family. She and Benjamin, who are civilly married, are looking into getting married in the church, also known as having their marriage convalidated. “I just want to say thank you to God for changing my mind,” she said. “I would always pray to God in the morning, pray to God in the evening, but I never taught them about (the faith). Now I feel so good that they know a lot. It’s changed the life of (our) family.”
Viola Woody
Viola Woody’s fellow police officer always seemed to be at church. As Viola’s church attendance growing up was limited to attending a non-denominational Christian church on Christmas and Easter, it seemed a little strange. “I would call him and he would text me saying he was at church. I thought, wow this man goes to church a lot,” she said. “Finally, we had a serious conversation and I asked, ‘Why do you go to church so much?’ He said, ‘I have to. I can’t miss Mass every week and I have to go to confession.’ ”
Viola, 26, knew nothing about Catholicism, but she was about to learn a lot. She’s now married to that co-worker, Chris, and is entering the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil. “Actually having a relationship with Christ that was absent growing up, I can definitely feel a difference in wholeness,” she said. “Finding it while simultaneously finding Chris, I think that (God is) showing me I’m on the right path.”
Viola grew up in Washington with her parents, who split when she was young, and later her stepmother and stepsisters. When she was 15, she became pregnant, and she gave birth to her daughter, Melody, at 16. After high school, she was part of the Metropolitan Police Department’s cadet program where they paid for her education at the University of the District of Columbia. She now works as a community outreach officer, helping the public positively connect with officers before a crisis situation.
Viola and Chris started dating in 2019, and as the relationship progressed, she started researching Catholicism. One day, two men offered to buy her a meal to thank her for her service as a police officer. As they talked, she learned they were both Catholic priests. “I asked them all the questions that I had, they were able to give me the answers — the bad, the good and the ugly,” she said. “It was so weird that after all this trying to figure out if I was going to convert that I got a clear sign. That was pretty cool.”
This February, the couple married at St. Timothy Church in Chantilly, where Viola is going through RCIA. Melody is in religious education at the parish and will receive her first Communion a few weeks after her mother. “When she found out I was going to class to become Catholic, she was like, ‘Well, I want to become Catholic, too,’ ” said Viola. The couple also is in the process of adopting Chris’ 5-year-old niece, who lives with them.
Viola said she’s excited to experience the beauty of the Easter vigil Mass, to receive the body of Christ and to be baptized, which will eliminate the need for her to confess a lifetime’s worth of sins at her first confession. “I brag about that all the time,” she joked.
She is a little worried about forgetting what she’s learned so far, such as what to do at Mass or when to avoid eating meat in Lent. “I can remember it in the morning and forget it by lunch,” she said. “I just got down pat standing and kneeling (at Mass). It is a learning experience.”
Maraist can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @zoeymaraistACH.
