Becoming part of a community

Whitney Winkler’s faith journey has had many twists and turns. The Corpus Christi native grew up in a household that kept its distance from the Church, leading her to a period of what can only be called spiritual desolation. She moved to Houston to pursue her degree and found that her friends were also not far along on their respective spiritual journeys. However, her longtime boyfriend, Dylan Knight, offered the only sense of spiritual stability. As their relationship became more serious, the couple’s plans for marriage accelerated the progression of Whitney’s spiritual journey.

“Dylan, who has been a lifelong parishioner at St. Phillip the Apostle, said we have to get all of our sacraments before we get married,” Whitney recalls with a smile. “But then, I had to fully commit to becoming Catholic.” Fortunately for the couple, they were in the right place at the right time.

Whitney and Dylan met with Deacon Dan Shaunessy at St. Phillip the Apostle and asked for help in reaching their goal of Catholic marriage. The opportunity presented itself sooner than they expected.

“We went in to speak with Deacon Dan, and he said that a new RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) class was beginning that evening, and I thought, well, the time is now to begin my journey to become Catholic.”

“As a couple, they started on a journey that is bringing them closer to God and to each other by putting God at the center of their relationship,” says Deacon Shaunessy. “I told them that by having Him at the center of all you do, your life will be perfectly ordered. Soon after our talk, Whitney joined RCIA.”

The inauspicious start to Whitney’s journey began to bear fruit in unexpected ways. As she progressed through the RCIA classes, she and Dylan, erroneously believing he had been baptized in the Catholic church, discovered that he had not, in fact, received that sacrament. As a result, he began attending RCIA classes with her.

As the couple continued to attend RCIA meetings, Whitney learned more about the faith and began to wholeheartedly embrace the love of Jesus in her life. She also developed a deep devotion to the Rosary, which helped her comfort a friend who was struggling with a serious spiritual crisis.

“I had a friend who was facing some serious personal issues, and I decided to give her a rosary made of her birthstones,” recalls Whitney. “It proved to be an essential part of her making peace with her past and finding forgiveness.”

From the discovery of her boyfriend’s need for the sacrament of baptism, helping her friend heal from a personal trauma, and renewing and deepening her own faith, Whitney and Dylan hope to complete their RCIA instruction next year. She looks ahead in faith with a new, unclouded vision. 

“It's an experience that I wouldn't trade for the world to watch the transformation that has happened not only in myself but in other people around me,” she reflects. “It is so beautiful to be a part of RCIA, and you feel like you're a part of a community, but you also learn that God’s love is much bigger and more powerful than you thought was possible.”