“What made you decide to convert to Catholicism?”

This is one of the main questions I’m asked when people find out I’m a convert, especially friends in Catholic circles. There are a lot of factors I can point to in response. I married a cradle Catholic who had a reversion to the faith. When I became pregnant with our first child, my husband and I agreed that we wanted to raise our kids with a united faith front. I had been going to Mass for years and felt connected to the Liturgy. I loved the Catholic faith’s beauty and traditions.

Even though those are all true and strongly influenced my conversion, it would not have happened without understanding the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

I grew up in a Methodist family. My mom took us to church, and I loved Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. We had Communion once a month, which I grew to understand was a representation of the Last Supper. And while I had a lot of questions about God as a child—most notably about the dinosaurs’ role in Christian history—it all, mostly, made sense.

However, when I began attending Catholic Mass as an adult, I was struck by the Eucharist being offered every single time. And not only that, it is the penultimate part of the Liturgy, with the most reverence and the most formal prayer. It is the great moment to which everything else builds. Why? Because Jesus’ body is made real within the host and wine; because Jesus is with us, and then His Body becomes part of us. How amazing is that? It totally changed my perspective on the importance and necessity of church.

Right now, our archdiocese is participating in Bishop Barron’s “The Mass” study series, introduced each week by Archbishop Schnurr. In the very first episode, Archbishop Schnurr’s words reverberated loudly within my heart: “What does it mean to be Christian? It means to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And there is no encounter where that relationship becomes more fully alive than at the Mass.”

Through the Eucharist, we are able to unite our very bodies, weak as they are, to that of Christ’s. In this issue of the magazine, you’ll read stories of how the Eucharist transformed lives and how the faithful go above and beyond to bring Him in the Eucharist to those in need. May you find greater inspiration to receive the Body of Christ.