When Whitney Sysol had her son, Brycen, baptized in October 2016, she didn’t know anything about the Catholic religion.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do to make my family happy,” said Sysol, whose husband, Austin, and his whole family were raised Catholic.

With her son’s Baptism, she recalled beginning to wonder what she would say to her son if, one day, he asked her why she wasn’t baptized like him.

“I decided that I was going to start the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process a few months later and have continued to attend class and learn more about the Catholic religion,” she said.

She said she was also strongly impacted by the death of her grandfather, right before she was scheduled to begin the RCIA process.

“As I sat at his funeral trying to listen and find comfort in the words that were being said, nothing really helped until the priest from his church started speaking and prayed that we would all find comfort in knowing that my grandfather was with Jesus and no longer had to suffer,” she said.

“… I knew at that moment that I wanted to be baptized and gave myself fully over to Jesus as a thank you for all he had done for me, my family, and especially my grandfather. I knew I would see him again all thanks to Jesus Christ,” she said.

Sysol was baptized at the March 31 Easter Vigil in St. Theresa Church, Little Egg Harbor.

Reflecting on the experience of receiving the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist – Sysol said, “Being baptized was one of the most beautiful, peaceful and memorable moments of my entire life. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in me. The flowers, the smells, the Holy Chrism, the words and the water, every part of each Sacrament was more beautiful than the last.”

By Mary Morrell, correspondent