“What if Nobody Shows Up?”
Luke Braden ‘27 had sent the text. All he could do now was wait.
He had invited several fellow student-athletes to join him for a Bible study. Most of them seemed open to the idea, but sending the invitation still felt like a risk.
“What if nobody shows up?” he remembers thinking.
They showed up.
Most were Luke’s teammates on the Texas A&M football team, but swimmers and basketball players began joining them, too. They came from different teams and carried different schedules, but for a little while each week, they had a place set aside to open Scripture and talk honestly about their faith.
Leading that Bible study was new for Luke. Being part of one was not.
Luke talks about inviting other athletes and wondering whether anyone would come.
A faith given room to grow
Luke grew up in Stratford, a small town north of Amarillo, and graduated in a class of about 35 students. His parents had attended Texas A&M, as had four of his uncles, so College Station was familiar territory. He also knew something about St. Mary’s before he arrived; his uncles had attended Mass here during their own years at A&M.
During New Student Conference, Luke and his mother came to Mass at St. Mary’s. His first impression was simple: “This place is pretty sweet.”
He came to college with a solid Catholic foundation. His family had raised him in the faith, and Sunday Mass was already part of his life. What he had not experienced in Stratford was a church filled with other young adults who wanted their faith to shape the way they lived.
At St. Mary’s, he saw that for the first time.
“There’s not a whole lot going on in Stratford,” Luke said. “You go to church, and it’s mostly older people. But coming to St. Mary’s and getting to see college kids on fire with their faith—that kind of opens doors for you to dig deeper.”
At St. Mary’s, Luke found new ways to build upon the faith he had received at home. Daily Mass, regular Confession, Eucharistic Adoration and an invitation to join a Bible study gave him opportunities to continue growing in his relationship with Jesus.
Luke describes arriving with a foundation of faith and how St. Mary’s helped that faith blossom.
The change was gradual. Luke met people who took an interest in him, and over time those relationships helped him take his own faith more seriously.
Before becoming a student-athlete, he joined a Bible study led by another student named Blake. Later, he participated in Bible studies with missionaries serving the athletic community. Tyler, a FOCUS missionary at St. Mary’s, became a friend and continued investing in him.
Luke does not describe any one of those relationships as the turning point. Instead, he talks about how they built upon one another. One leader made the first invitation. Another helped him go further. Along the way, Luke was learning how to pray, how to read Scripture and how to speak about the Lord with his friends.
Eventually, Tyler handed the Bible study over to him.
Someone has to begin the conversation
Faith does not naturally come up in every locker room conversation or over every meal in the dining hall. Someone has to be willing to bring it up.
“God is something that usually isn’t just going to come up,” Luke said. “You have to be intentional whenever you’re talking about our Lord.”
For student-athletes, that intentionality often requires someone who understands their lives. Practices, workouts, meetings, classes and travel leave little unclaimed time during the week. Because Luke lives within that same rhythm, he can meet his teammates and other athletes where they already are.
He keeps the Bible study conversational. There may be a passage or topic planned for the evening, but the discussion is free to move toward the questions and circumstances the students bring with them. Those unplanned turns sometimes lead to the conversations they most need to have.
The result is more than another commitment on the calendar. It is time intentionally set apart to speak about the Lord with people who understand one another’s lives.
Luke explains why athletes need an intentional place to talk about God and grow together through Scripture.
There was a time when Luke needed someone else to create that place for him. Now he is creating it for others.
What growth looks like up close
Luke’s experience is one part of the growth taking place throughout St. Mary’s.
Last year, more than 1,000 students participated in at least one St. Mary’s Bible study, and Mass attendance exceeded 250,000. This fall, more than 650 people are participating in OCIA as they learn about the Catholic faith and discern where the Lord may be leading them.
These numbers tell us something important about the scale of the mission. Yet most students encounter that mission personally: through a friend who saves them a seat at Mass, a priest waiting in the confessional or a Bible study leader willing to send the first text.
St. Mary’s Bible studies are part of that shared mission. Through St. Mary’s partnership with FOCUS, missionaries help form and support student leaders who can reach the people already around them. They know their roommates, classmates and teammates. They understand the pressures those students face because they face many of the same ones.
Luke is one of those leaders now.
Luke reflects on the leaders who invested in him and on finding daily Mass, Adoration and Confession at St. Mary’s.
Your generosity makes this formation possible.
Your support provides more than a schedule of programs. It gives St. Mary’s the people, spaces and resources needed to be present when a student is ready to take another step. Often, the fruit appears slowly. A student joins a Bible study, begins going to Mass more often and discovers a deeper life of prayer. A few years later, he sends a text to his teammates.
From October 2–4, every gift to St. Mary’s will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $125,000. That gives us the opportunity to raise $250,000 to continue serving students at Texas A&M, Blinn and RELLIS.
Luke took a risk when he invited other athletes to join him.
They showed up.
With your help, St. Mary’s will be here when the next student does, too.
Double your impact at aggiecatholic.org/donate.
