CV NEWS FEED // A high school Spanish teacher recently shared that he looks forward to being a role model for his students and deepening his relationship with God after entering the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.
Ricky Mills will enter the Catholic Church on March 30 in the Archdiocese of Washington with approximately 1,350 other people, according to the newspaper Catholic Standard.
He was raised Methodist, and had been baptized, but “did not enjoy going to church because it didn’t feel fulfilling,” Mills shared in an interview with the Standard. When he was Methodist, he said that he was “not very religious,” but remained “incredibly spiritual.”
“I always communicated with God about my day -to-day life and thanked God for the people and events that were placed (or) occurred in my life,” Mills said.
When he was in high school, Mills said that he attended Mass occasionally and learned about Catholicism through theology courses. These encounters made him interested in converting, but he said that it would be several more years until he decided to.
Mills graduated with a concentration in Spanish and a bachelor of arts in secondary education from University of Maryland at College Park in 2021.
He made a friend at the University who occasionally invited him to attend Mass post-graduation.
“I enjoyed the time I spent with her and the time I spent reconnecting with God on a religious level versus my usual only spiritual (level),” Mills said.
“Because of this influence, I asked about the process for conversion,” Mills continued. His friend and a Howard University chaplain helped him to attend classes for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). The ongoing support of his friend, his sponsors, and his chaplain all helped him throughout his time in RCIA, he said.
Post-graduation, Mill returned to teach several advanced Honors Spanish courses at his alma mater, Bishop McNamara High School, in Maryland.
“I am excited to become Catholic and grow closer to God by receiving the sacraments,” Mills said. “I hope to continue furthering my relationship with God, participating in community service, receiving the sacraments, and lastly, acting as a role model for the students that I teach and will teach in the future.”
The post Teacher entering the Catholic Church in DC on Easter aims to be ‘role model’ for his students appeared first on CatholicVote org.