HOMER GLEN, Ill. — Nandini Kumar looked forward to accompanying her school friend, Karly Krown, to Annunciation Byzantine Catholic church every Easter since grade 7. She would enjoy the celebration, but the thought of becoming Christian never crossed her mind until last year, when she attended her first Good Friday service.

In the midst of the prayers, hymns, candlelight, and veneration of the burial shroud of Christ, “I had an epiphany,” she said.

The Good Friday service triggered something new in her.

“I felt like I had a connection. It was different from the Sunday liturgies. That Friday, it was different with Jesus... I knew this was real,” she said.

Her strong experience of God in Jesus Christ, combined with her friendship with Krown and with the other teens of the parish, inspired her to request baptism.

“I just knew in that moment I wanted to come to church every Sunday, and I told Karly, ‘I’m all in,’” said Kumar.

The 18-year-old high school senior from Orland Park, Illinois, said she never faltered on her decision from that moment onward. She joined the parish youth group and attended the teen classes, as well as faith formation with the pastor, Father Thomas J. Loya, and with the youth minister, Catherine Baranko.

“We’re a really close-knit group,” she said of the teens. “The teenagers here all go to church every Sunday, and that has definitely had a huge impact on me. The people around me are so passionate about it and you can just tell by being with them at church, by the way they sing.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met such kind people before and it’s because they have such a close relationship with God,” she continued. “We all know that Jesus is the Messiah and we don’t have a doubt in our minds.”

Father Loya baptized her at Annunciation church on Holy Saturday, March 31, in front of the parish community, the teen group and her mom. Her baptism by full immersion was streamed live on the parish Facebook page and, at press time, had more than 1,500 views.

“Father Tom totally submersed me in water,” she said, recalling the initial shock of the waters of baptism being poured over her. “But that’s the way to go, you know. All in!”

Father Loya said he was moved to see the teens of the parish “looking with joyful expectation” as he walked Kumar down the aisle during the baptismal liturgy.

He told Horizons that Kumar “came to the faith precisely because of the faith of our ByzanTEENS (youth group). They were the community that birthed her conversion.”

“The baptism of Nandini Anna and all of the witness of our youth… are a sign of the Resurrection of the Byzantine Catholic community in Illinois that first went through the cross of their transition from their previous church families and neighborhoods,” he said. 

Kumar took Anna as her baptismal name because one of her favorite feast days is the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and the two Biblical characters associated with that feast, Simeon and the prophetess Anna, inspire her in faith.

Kumar was raised in a non-practicing Hindu home. Her family went to temple on occasion, but mostly for the annual festival of Diwali.

Her first encounter with the Catholic Church was through her uncle, a practicing Roman Catholic, who lives in St. Louis. But her desire for the faith was nourished by her steady friendship with Krown, which began in grade 2.

“I actually accomplished something really important in my life,” said Krown, 18, whose baptism was the first at Annunciation in 2000. “I have lots of accomplishments but this one (of bringing a friend to Christ) is eternal.”

Krown said she would openly speak about her faith at school. “It’s too big of a faith not to share and keep to myself,” she said.

While some kids teased her, Kumar showed interest.

“I would share with her whatever I knew,” said Krown, who gave her friend a kids Bible and lent her some religion books, before eventually inviting her to church.

Kumar chose Krown to be her godmother and another parish teen, Eric Kenes, to be her godfather.

Krown and Kenes, both first-time godparents, said they take very seriously their responsibility to guide Kumar in the faith. They both recalled occasions when, throughout the year, they urged Kumar to keep her church commitments, even when things got busy with school and her part-time job.

“It’s my responsibility to make sure Nan stays active in the faith and lives as Christ wants,” said Kenes, 17, who is already thinking ahead about how he will accompany Kumar once she starts college in September. The Byzantine Catholic parish closest to her will be 90-minute drive away in St. Louis.

“It’s hard being in college now with the secular culture, and I want to remind her that it’s okay to be active in the faith while in college,” he said, adding that he intends to send Kumar weekly prayer messages and faith-based care packages while she is away at school.

Aware of the challenges of keeping the faith while in college, Kumar said she already got clearance from her college running coach to attend church on Sunday mornings.

Less than a week after her baptism, Kumar said she was already actively living according to the Christian maxim, “What would Jesus do?”

“As a teenager, I’m around things that shouldn’t be done. You know it’s wrong, but everybody is doing it,” she said. While she said she has done “a pretty decent job” of navigating these matters, “now I know this is not the Christian way. This is not what Jesus would want me to do. It’s something that’s tricky to surpass.”

Kumar said she is moved by the love of God in the Incarnation and is inspired by the boldness of St. John the Baptist and St. Paul. She said the martyrs’ sacrifice makes her aware that she is “unworthy to receive Eucharist,” which she said she can approach only “by the grace of God.”

“When you go to Communion, you are really with (Jesus) in that moment. I hope people don’t forget that when they receive Communion,” she said. “No matter what happens in your personal life, he’s your compass.”

Kumar said becoming Christian has changed her perspective on the small sufferings of daily life as well.

“If there’s something little going on, this is not so bad. Jesus died on the cross. I know I’m lucky to have faith,” she said.

Kumar intends to do more Bible reading on her own and receive additional faith formation with Father Loya this summer.

“He gave me the opportunity to be baptized,” she said, expressing her gratitude for Father Loya. “He didn’t have to do that. He could’ve said, ‘I don’t think you could be a Catholic,’ but he didn’t. He brought me into the church, he brought me into Light, and that was really great.”
 
Caption: Nandini Kumar (center), who took the Christian name Anna at baptism, poses with her godparents, Karly Krown and Eric Kenes, at Annunciation Parish. (Photo: Catherine Baranko)
 
As published in Horizons, April 15, 2018.
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