Editor’s Note: The Catholic Star Herald is following some of the faith journeys of those who attended the Rite of Election in February.
There is an oft-quoted phrase from 1960s songwriter Harlan Howard, who declares that country music “ain’t nothin’ but three chords and the truth.”
For Breanna Vanaman, it was country music, indeed, that led her to certainty – more accurately, the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”
On March 30, the 21-year-old Stockton University junior will be receiving the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation, and be counted among the universal Body of Christ, entering into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.
“The journey has been amazing, wonderful and scary at times,” Vanaman admits, but “it’s my hope and purpose.”
The path to the joy of Easter began almost an hour away from her Stockton home, in Cumberland County’s Laurel Lake, where she grew up with her grandparents who did not practice any faith. She also did not have a relationship with her father, “who stopped seeing me when I was 2 or 3,” she estimates.
In 2016, he re-entered her life, and for the next two years, a bond began to form. The blossoming reunion was cut short, when in 2018, he passed away.
“It felt like I finally got to know him, and then he got taken,” Vanaman says.
At her father’s funeral service, Vanaman and other mourners were comforted by a memorial slideshow with songs, including “Drink a Beer” by country musician Luke Bryan.
Vanaman felt healing through the tune’s narrative of a man grieving the loss of a friend, and “Every year since, on the day my father died, I play that song. It stood out to me, and it’s been a good thing,” she says.
The connection hasn’t just been auditory: she had one of the lyrics tattooed on her arm: “Sometimes the greater plan is kinda hard to understand.”
Her appreciation for this line, and song, led her down a grace-filled internet rabbit hole. “I was doing research on the quote, and I accidentally realized it was connected to the Bible, related to Jeremiah 29:11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’
“I didn’t have any understanding of the Bible,” she says. “After my father’s death, I was searching for something. Now, I realize that faith, and God, was that something.”
More bread crumbs on her faith journey appeared last year at Stockton University, when Vanaman began having conversations with a schoolmate, Connor Morgan, who is Catholic.
“We talked about the faith, and these were fruitful discussions,” Vanaman says. As well, “[Connor] told me about the RCIA process, which I had no idea about.”
A deeper sense of belonging occurred during a Christmas Eve Mass in 2022 with Morgan and his family at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Galloway. “Just seeing the community, the music, the way everyone sang and was together … I felt a weight lifting off my shoulders,” Vanaman says. “I knew this Church, this faith, was something I wanted to be a part of my life for the rest of my life.”
Soon after, she was introduced to Stockton University’s Catholic Campus Ministry, and its campus minister, Britany Shields.
Admitting that she was nervous at first, Vanaman decided to test the waters by attending the group’s Tuesday night discussion of the “Catechism in a Year” podcast. She grew closer to her peers in this Catholic community and became a regular, attending the group’s service projects, Bible studies, and Sunday night Masses and dinners.
Last fall, Vanaman began taking RCIA classes, with Shields as her catechist, in preparation for what will take place at the Easter Vigil: coming fully into the Catholic Church.
“Breanna’s such a beautiful, motivated person,” Shields says of Vanaman. “Since the first time we met, she’s grown a lot and is always ready to learn more.”
At the Rite of Election in February, Vanaman, along with 149 others, publicly declared her readiness to enter the Church. On the evening of March 30, at Saint Katharine Drexel Parish in Egg Harbor Township, she will be joined by Shields; Morgan, her sponsor; family, and friends. She knows she is “coming home.”
“I feel that sense of belonging – somewhere I can be myself – and I’m surrounded by people who will support all my endeavors,” she says. “They’ll help me, and I’ll help them. There’s positive role models and relationships.”
These past few weeks, Vanaman says all she’s been able to talk about is her landmark day. “I’m really excited. It’s the happiest I’ve been in a long time.
“I don’t know where the faith will lead me yet,” she says, “but I know it will lead me to do great things.”
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
