Marcus Chen will be the first to admit he didn't walk into a Catholic church looking for God.
The 23-year-old mechanical engineer senior grew up in a household where religion simply never came up. His parents immigrated from China and, as he puts it, had other things on their mind.
"They were just trying to figure out life here," he said. "It wasn't like they were anti-religion or whatever. It just wasn't a thing."
Chen never thought much about it either — until his junior year, when a long-term relationship ended badly.
The hardest part, he said, wasn't the breakup itself.
"We had all the same friends, so it got weird fast. I'd show up somewhere and just feel like I shouldn't be there." He paused. "I don't know, I just kind of stopped going places for a while."
One afternoon, he noticed a classmate wearing a shirt for a Catholic campus ministry. He didn't know much about it, but decided it was worth a shot to go.
"At the time, I just thought it was something to do,” he said. “But looking back on it now I can see how God was using that shirt and that moment as his instrument.”
Chen says the friendships came first. He wasn't looking for anything more than a place to connect after the breakup left him feeling isolated. But as he grew more comfortable in the community, questions he'd never thought to ask began coming up naturally.
A senior at the time, who spent his academic life solving problems methodically, Chen found himself drawn into late-night conversations about things his engineering coursework had never touched.
"I was asking stuff like, ‘OK, but why does anything matter — like actually, why?’ And they didn't just brush me off."
When the questions turned specifically to Catholicism, a friend suggested he try Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA – the Church's formal initiation process for adults) and offered to come with him. Chen shrugged and agreed to go.
Deep down, Chen “already knew” he wanted to be Catholic. More than any particular conversation, it was watching his peers live the faith that drew him in. But it was OCIA that gave him the language and the road map to get there.
"I couldn't have articulated any of it on my own," he said. "I didn't have a prayer life, I didn't have any of that. I couldn't have figured it out without OCIA. And honestly, I'm still figuring it out. I am still very new. But I know I’m in the right place and God is directing me in everything.”
“I try to have patience with myself,” he said.
Chen was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil this spring.
Now working as an engineer in Silicon Valley, Chen says the faith has quietly reordered his sense of self. For most of his life, he measured his worth by grades, internships, and performance.
"I think I just assumed that was it," he said. "Like, get the job, do well, and that's what you are. Your life is up to you only.”
He doesn't see it that way anymore.
"There's so much more to my life than that," he said. "God actually has a plan for me. That still kind of blows my mind."
While the culture around him rewards relentless striving, Chen says he's found something steadier. The fear that used to drive him has quieted. Each day he tries to sanctify the ordinary and offer it up for God.
"Everything is different now,” he said. “Because God is real, and He actually loves me.”
Catholic dioceses across the U.S. reported a surge in OCIA enrollments this past Easter. Among more than 80% of dioceses, the average increase in adults entering the Church was 38%. A Harvard study found that the share of Gen Z Americans identifying as Catholic rose from 15% in 2022 to 21% in 2023 — surpassing millennials. For a generation that grew up largely without faith, something appears to be stirring.
Asked about the broader revival, Chen laughed, saying he “had no idea that was a thing.” He has no social media and doesn’t keep up with the news much.
"But I mean, God can use anything, right?” he remarked. “He has a plan for all those people, just like He has one for me."