This year, on the Easter Vigil, our dear friend Doreen was baptized, confirmed, and received First Communion. Doreen was born and raised in China, and in 2010, she arrived in the U.S to pursue a master’s in accounting at the University of Denver, where I teach.

My friendship with her started four years ago when a colleague of mine introduced me to her because she was interested in working on some research projects. At the time, I did not have any projects to offer, but after a few months I needed to gather a lot of data – more than what my research assistant could handle on his own. Therefore, I reconnected with Doreen and put her in contact with my research assistant, who is my friend and belongs to the Movement. A few days later, Doreen sent him a Facebook message after noticing that his Facebook profile indicated Catholic as his religious affiliation. In her message, she asked him to meet because she wanted to better understand the differences between Catholicism and other Christian denominations.

Together, my friend and I decided to invite her to the Lent Retreat, since we were aware that our method is “Come and See,” rather than an explanation. From that retreat, for me and my friends, a beautiful adventure of friendship with Doreen started, now forever marked by me becoming her godfather during this year’s Easter Vigil.

In these years of friendship with Doreen, in a very unexpected and mysterious way, looking at her has also been an experience of looking at the presence of Christ in my life – that is, looking at the method He uses to accompany the freedom and heart of a person up to the recognition of Himself, which is the destiny of life. This is beautiful because there is nothing but experience that allows us to communicate with each other. Our cultures, habits, and even the intellectual categories used to judge circumstances are often very different. Therefore, a real sharing happens only when we find something in common in our experience, and we remain faithful to looking at it.

Seeing the attractiveness of Christ for her, through all of the difficulties of life, has been a great grace full of a call to conversion – especially here and now in this world full of options, and yet, empty of meaning.

On Holy Saturday, each catechumen was asked to decorate their own baptismal candle. Doreen decorated hers with Giussani’s diagram of many arrows pointing to an “X” and a single arrow pointing from the “X “in the opposite direction. It was the image I drew for her on the whiteboard in my office the first time we talked about the faith together. On the night of the Easter Vigil, she invited everyone she knew, including friends, coworkers, and acquaintances, with an amazing simplicity. The joy on her and our faces was the sign of the Resurrection for me because nothing I can do is capable of generating a similar joy in my heart and in the heart of my friends.