One of the things that this National Eucharistic Congress has taught me is that Jesus can use even the most mundane things to make himself known — even a phone battery.
In this case, I had been taking pictures and videos during the Eucharistic procession through Indianapolis when my phone died. On the way back, I stopped in a Subway restaurant to recharge my phone. In addition to meeting three Dominican nuns, I had a very interesting encounter with a man who sat down next to me, also needing to charge his phone.
His name is Patrice Mimche, and he is originally from Cameroon. Though his family were serious Protestants, religion never much interested Patrice. That is until 10 years ago.
By then Patrice had moved to the US, first to Georgia, then to Utah. A scientist doing research in molecular medicine, Patrice told me that before his conversion, science was the only thing that interested him.
His wife was Catholic, and watched EWTN regularly. At first Patrice was completely indifferent to the programming, but bit by bit he was drawn in by Mother Angelica — and he became curious enough to agree to go on an overnight men’s retreat. That’s where the miracle happened that forever changed Patrice’s life.
I’ll let him tell you the story from here:
So what happened to me is that I was invited to a retreat in the church, to spend the night at the church — there was a retreat for the men of the parishes. So they invited me to the retreat, and I was kind of like, “Oh, yeah, let me do something not science-related for the first time in my life, right?” I went to the retreat with the men and during the night, I heard, really, a calling from Christ. I heard a voice calling me to go to the adoration chapel.
I knew nothing about the adoration chapel or the Church, but I heard a voice, and during that encounter, my heart was on fire. I thought that my heart would just kind of be removed from my chest. It was on fire! I was feeling like, “What is going on? Why am I on fire?”
And I heard the voice three times, calling me to that relationship.
Aleteia: What did the voice sound like?
The voice was an interior voice, something that I’ve never experienced before. An interior voice calling me, “Patrice. Go to the adoration chapel. Patrice.” Three times, right?
I knew absolutely — I wasn’t a practicing Catholic — I knew absolutely nothing about the Church. So the voice spoke to me three times, “Come to the adoration chapel.” Three times, and my heart was on fire. Yes, I could feel my heart on fire. Now I understand the baptism of fire. I clearly experienced that baptism of fire.
I stood up and I went to the adoration chapel, and the Lord spoke to me. The highlight was that he told me, “If you want to continue to have my blessing and all my graces, you have to become a Catholic, because this is my real Church. This is me. This is my Church.” From that day I became a Catholic.
Aleteia: Has that had any impact on your work, the way you do your work?
A lot! For some reason, I became a much more successful scientist.
Aleteia: Really?
Yeah, since that encounter — although, yes, I went on to struggle through difficulties, I kind of embrace them. And I know that at the end of the day, the solution will be found.
Basically I put all my faith in the Lord, and he told me, when he spoke to me, that all the good things that happened in my life were because of him, because he is behind me, and I should continue to have faith in him, no matter what is happening.
And the most important thing [was] to become a Catholic, that it is his real Church, his only Church, the Catholic Church. That I should become a Catholic. If I want to continue to have all these graces, I must become a Catholic. The voice clearly told me that.
The Lord also told me many things concerning people from my family, from those surrounding me, which I knew nothing about. When I asked them [about these things], they told me, “How do you know that?”
So that’s when I knew that, oh, yeah, that was a real encounter with Jesus Christ through the Eucharist.
Aleteia: What are you going to take away from the Eucharistic Congress? How do you think it’s going to change how you live your faith?
I will be much more proactive. I think I will serve much more the Church, the parish, and [also] through the way I live my own Catholic faith.
Aleteia: If you had to tell people one thing about Jesus that you’ve discovered in these, how many years? 10 years? What has it been that you’ve discovered about Jesus in the past 10 years?
The Church is real, but Jesus is real. And Jesus is, you know, really present in the Catholic Church. Really present in the Catholic Church.
Aleteia: This is a great story.
It changed my life.
Aleteia: Yeah, Jesus brought us both to the Subway.
Oh, yeah. [laughing]
Aleteia: He took our phones, he drained our phones and brought us both here!
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And today we celebrate...