Featuring: Chris ’20 and Noelia ’22 Howard
Noelia’s Story
After spending four years at a culturally secular New England boarding school, I arrived at Princeton eager to immerse myself in an intentional Catholic community. Until that point, I had no clear image for how to practically live out my faith, so it was refreshing to meet the devout students involved in the Aquinas Institute and to learn about all the spiritual and intellectual resources on offer. From the start of my freshman year, I experienced so many great Catholic “firsts”: first Eucharistic Adoration, first full Rosary, first daily Mass. All this had less to do with my own initiative than with the inspiring example of those around me.
Frequenting the sacraments and cultivating a spiritual “plan of life” truly helped jump-start my interior life and foster a desire to bring Christ to my friends and family. By the end of my time at Princeton, I was honored to serve as President of the Ministry Team and even discovered my vocation to marriage when I met my now-husband Chris. In my current state as a full-time mom, I am aware now more than ever that the prayer habits I learned from the Aquinas Institute are indispensable to sanctifying my daily life.
Chris’ Story
I owe a debt of immense gratitude to the Aquinas Institute for my sacramental initiation into the Church and spiritual formation as a Catholic. Though I arrived on campus for my freshman fall largely convinced of the faith on intellectual grounds, it was only through the witness of the chaplains, staff, and students in Aquinas that I truly fell in love with the faith. As an ambitious young person whose aspirations for the future were largely centered on worldly accomplishments, I was humbled to see my classmates (most of whom had far busier schedules than I!) devoting their time to prayer through daily Mass, lectio divina, the Rosary, and Eucharistic Adoration. All of this left — and continues to leave — a profound impact on me.
The Aquinas Institute was also instrumental in my relationship with my wife, Noelia (whom I asked on a first date right in the vestibule of the Princeton Chapel)! From the start of our courtship to the day of our wedding (and thereafter), Fr. Zack and the whole community supported us with friendship, wise counsel, and prayer. Now, as young parents, we daily draw upon the formation we received in college and regard our involvement in Aquinas to be the crowning blessing of our time at Princeton.
As we can personally attest, the Aquinas Institute facilitates an encounter with God both for those raised in the Catholic faith and for those seeking after Truth.
We pray that, with the help of your generosity, it can continue to carry on its mission of evangelization for generations of future Princetonians.