(ZENIT News / Rome, 06.06.2024).- Among the neophytes who have been baptized and received the Eucharist this Easter in the United States is Kyra Lerner, a 22-year-old Jewish American college student.
This young woman from Trumbull, Connecticut, first learned about Jesus and Catholicism around Easter last year when her professor and a friend were talking about Holy Week. She asked her friend Alyssa Mancini what that was all about and her friend started talking to her about her faith.
Not long after, Alyssa invited her to Mass for the first time. They went to a Latin mass, which Kyra knew a little about from her high school classes where she had taken a course. However, she mentioned that “I didn’t know what they were saying…. It just blew me away. I felt so much power. I felt so much truth. I really enjoyed that Mass. And I thought, ‘I want to learn as much as I can about this, and even more, because I have no 5% idea what was said at this Mass, but it was amazing.»
From then on she sought to go to Mass every day. But something was complicating her situation and she needed to find a residence near campus to maintain the frequency. That’s when her friend told her to ask Mary. At first Kyra didn’t even know who Mary was or why she should help her, but with her friend’s explanation she understood a little better and began to ask Our Lady for this grace.
A couple of weeks after asking, her prayers were answered: she got an apartment on the university campus, and for free. «I couldn’t have done this if I had tried to do it alone. I was so sure of that, that Mary had interceded for me and helped me do something I never thought I could accomplish or do.»
Kyra says, “From that moment on, I never looked back. Honestly, it has been very helpful and comforting to know that I am no longer alone and to know that I have found the truth.» Looking back on her journey and how she has been so persistent in this decision she mentions: “I was very curious and wanted to know him (Jesus) and to know her (Mary) better”.
When she talked it over with her parents she learned that her mother had been raised Catholic, but had never mentioned it in the family environment, so she was proud of this step she had taken. On the other hand, her dad had been raised Jewish, so it was a little difficult for him to accept the decision she was making, as he felt she was leaving aside the traditions he had raised her with. Attending the Easter Vigil at which Kyra was baptized, her dad was surprised to hear the readings from the “Torah,” which for Catholics constitutes the Old Testament, and realized that she was not completely abandoning the traditions in which she had been raised. At the end he said to her, “If you are happy, I am happy.”
«To me, one of the most amazing things about Catholicism is, ‘This is the fulfillment of everything we’ve been told to sit around waiting for.’ What are we waiting for? Jesus is a perfect fulfillment of the Torah and the Old Testament. So it’s literally like waving your hands and saying, ‘Hello! We don’t have to wait any longer.»
And what’s next in this young woman’s life? “It’s still a journey, and I’m actually very excited about that,” she concluded.»I can tell the difference. I’ve even grown as an individual in the year that I discovered my faith and grew in my faith. It has had such a huge positive impact on my life and has given me strength. If my experience can help someone else have a similar experience, then the story is worth telling.»
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