St. Anthony of Padua Parish<\/a> in the Bronx, Monday, Aug. 17. His mother\u2019s continued strong faith, stronger faith, was what largely led to his decision to attend the retreat.\u00a0<\/p>\nEncountering the spirit\u00a0<\/p>\n
The church is adjacent to the New York Archdiocese Centro Cat\u00f3lico Carism\u00e1tico on East 166th Street in the Bronx. It was at the center where Mujica attended the December 2023 retreat, leading to a faith that grew much stronger than the level of faith he had before Desiree died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a Saturday night when I participated in that retreat at the Charismatic Center. I started experiencing Jesus, experiencing the Holy Spirit. It was beautiful. I broke down. I felt the presence throughout me,\u201d Mujica said. \u201cIt made me realize this is why my parents have dedicated their entire lives to Jesus Christ. This is what I want to do. I want to grow in my faith with Him. I want to help spread His word and His joy. I want to help others grow in their spiritual journey\u2026Now, the way that I forgive, and the way that I process emotions, I feel that everything is completely different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since that Holy Spirit-filled December night, he has been a proactive volunteer at the center, engaging in various leadership tasks, especially during youth retreats. His family parish is Our Lady of Lourdes in Manhattan\u2019s Washington Heights, but he and his family volunteer at the Charismatic Center. He grew up the oldest of three; his brother, Andrew, is 16. Their parents\u2019 strong faith played a key role in overcoming the family\u2019s grief. His parents are Jasmin and Carlos, who is a faith-based rap singer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A role model for others\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mujica will soon enter his sophomore year at Brooklyn College, majoring in psychology. He plans to pursue a master\u2019s degree and become a mental health therapist. He gave a testimonial about the fall and rise of his faith during the December 2023 retreat\u00a0and during a Pentecost Vigil gathering at the center this year. \u201cBeing able to walk in Christ has definitely made that path easier,\u201d he told The Good Newsroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madre Jesusnicolle Caraballo, SCR (Siervas de Cristo Resucitado), who is assigned to St. Anthony of Padua and the Charismatic Center, said, \u201cJohnny has had an incredible conversion and spiritual growth, he has developed a love for service, a self-giving love, a love for ministry. He is a role model here (for other teens).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madre Jesusnicolle said she attended the Pentecost Vigil gathering this year in which Mujica gave his testimonial, noting she and many others were moved to tears. About 350 people attended. Mujica spoke from the heart, with no written remarks. \u201cHe (Johnny) is going to be a powerful instrument for the Lord,\u201d the nun said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Mujica, 18, grieved the death of his younger sister for more than two and a half years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5555,128,6300,4840,75,84,83,9,24,63,122514],"class_list":["post-325326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-bronx","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-church","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-st-anthony-of-padua-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}