Catholic Campus Ministry Newsletter

Returning “Home” to the Mountains

Catholic Hokies Then.....

Makayla and I met the first week of our freshmen year at Virginia Tech, walking from Sunday Mass to brunch at D2 dining hall. We became close by joining a study group that quickly became the perfect excuse to spend hours together. As we began dating and fell in love, we were encouraged to discern intentionally. Community members demonstrated what a Christ-centered marriage looked like, and Sunday Supper talks challenged us to explore other vocations through discernment groups and grow in different dimensions of our faith. Through an openness to other vocations, such as the priesthood or consecrated life, Makayla and I became more open to God’s calling for our lives and understanding of the meaning of vocation.

Chris and Makayla Puzio

Through involvement in Youth Apostles and Women Youth Apostles respectively, we learned a lot about commitment. Both communities

class of 2020 and 2019

encourage small but meaningful commitments that serve as stepping stones to more serious commitments. For example, Makayla and I both made commitments to attend daily Mass as often as possible, which made further commitments to prayer, to service, and to each other feel within our reach. Feeling called to marriage, we were engaged after the Easter Vigil of our junior year with plans to marry the week after graduation. Unfortunately, the pandemic disrupted our graduation and wedding plans, but we felt inspired to begin our lives together. While it wasn't the wedding we expected, we had the whole community praying for us and watching via livestream as we celebrated our wedding Mass at St. Mary’s in Blacksburg. After our wedding, we moved to northern Virginia for work and to be close to our respective Youth Apostles communities. As we faced the challenges of new jobs, a pandemic, and navigating married life, we came to rely even more on community life and the practices of prayer, Mass, and service that we developed at the campus ministry.

Two years later, I was fortunate to find a remote job that allowed us to move anywhere in the world. Through much prayer and discernment, we decided to return to the Blacksburg/Christiansburg area to build up and support the community that once supported us. Makayla now works part-time for the campus ministry, and we have weekly opportunities to invite students into our beautiful mess of family life with our children, Lucy and John Paul. Our involvement in the Catholic Campus Ministry as well as Youth Apostles and Women Youth Apostles deeply impacted our faith and shaped our understanding of commitment. Thankfully, they provided the support we needed to grow as individuals and as a couple. I feel particularly grateful for those who encouraged us to discern well in making small, meaningful steps that prepared us for the bigger commitments of life. These practices nurtured our faith, deepened our trust in God, and laid the foundation for our vocation to marriage that we hope will bear much fruit.

John Paul and Lucy Puzio

“The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ.” — Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati