‘The Best Gift Ever’ is featured in three different ways of hope at the gala

An evening shared with family and friends results in an abundance of joy during the archdiocese’s Legacy Gala on Feb. 7 at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis. (Photo courtesy of Denis Kelly)

By John Shaughnessy

The phrase “The Best Gift Ever” often means a different reality in the lives of people.

For Meredith Austin, those words lead to a huge smile for her, knowing that from a personal nightmare came a dream that keeps touching her life.

The nightmare takes her back to her first year in college.

“I wasn’t in a very healthy relationship, and I found out I was pregnant,” Austin recalled. “I didn’t know what to do as a 19-year-old. I had lost hope.”

That feeling changed when she came to St. Eizabeth Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services, part of Catholic Charities Indianapolis. She wanted to continue her pregnancy and offer the child for adoption when it was time.

“Getting to know everybody at St. Elizabeth, they really made me just feel at ease—very accepted, very at home,” she said. “They could answer all my questions, and I knew I wanted a Catholic family. I wanted a mom and dad.”

Both those dreams were fulfilled for her child who is now 10.

“I actually get to go down and see her now and then,” Austin said, her smile growing wide again. “It felt really good knowing she was going to be raised and be able to go to a Catholic school like I did. She was going to have the full attention of whatever she needed.”

Her thoughts soon turned to a memory from one of her child’s first Christmases.

“She was real little, and [the parents who adopted her] just put a bow on her head. And her little outfit said, ‘The Best Gift Ever.’ And they always have expressed how thankful they are for the decision I made. Because I could have made any number of other decisions that we wouldn’t have the little girl that we all have.”

Austin shared her story in a video that was shown at the archdiocese’s Legacy Gala at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis on Feb. 7. The video also shared other variations of “The Best Gift Ever” when it comes to the Catholic faith.

‘It’s a real gift’

Tracy Jansen’s face beams when she talks about the joy of seeing the second-grade students at St. Mary-of-the-Knobs School in Floyd County prepare to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist for the first time.

“I think the number one thing that parents look for when they come to St. Mary-of-the-Knobs, or any of our Catholic schools, is the faith,” said Jansen, the school’s principal. “Second grade and when they start to receive their sacraments is where it really all comes together for them.

“When they receive the sacraments of first reconciliation and the sacrament of first Communion, then they’re really starting to get involved as Catholics. It’s the beginning and the early part of their faith journey. And there’s so much opportunity for them to grow in our Catholic faith and to embrace it, love it and learn more about it as they come through our Catholic schools.

“We have this wonderful opportunity to nurture that in our students. And it’s a real gift.”

‘The hearts of servants’

Father Andrew Syberg also taps into that theme of gift when he talks about the formation that young men receive at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis as they prepare for the priesthood.

“We need priests because God wants there to be priests,” said Father Syberg, the seminary’s rector. “He wants there to be men to stand up and serve his people. The guys that we have in the house right now really do possess the hearts of servants. The driving force of love of the Lord, love of his Church, the desire to serve, this is authentic.”

Antonio Harbert shares his view of that authentic gift among his fellow seminarians, saying, “The holiness and love that we have for each other is what make this place awesome.

“I really look forward to the countless number of souls I’m going to save. I look forward to the sanctity, the holiness I’m going to grow in and receive. I’m not perfect. I know that. But I know that every day is a step closer to the saint that God’s calling me to be.”

Father Syberg realizes that helping Harbert and other seminarians become priests requires “an investment of time and money and energy”—all connected to the generosity of people who support that formation.

“That people are willing to donate so freely to that is just a testament to the generosity of the people in our diocese,” Father Syberg says. “And it turns out, that can change the world.” †

 

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